On March 3rd, citizen space activists will be putting on the first hearing ever in Congress to discuss the views of pro-space citizens on the direction of our nation's space program. This congressional event is being jointly sponsored by the California Space Development Council, the National Space Society, the Space Frontier Foundation, Spacecause, the Space Transportation Association, and (possibly) the Citizen's Advisory Committee on National Space Policy.
Bob Walker, chairman of the House Committee on Science will be inviting Members of Congress to attend. He will also be inviting Speaker Newt Gingrich to speak at the event, which will be held in a Science Committee hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the hearing Members, their staff, the Washington D.C. press, White House officials, aerospace executives, NASA officials and other federal bureaucrats will get to hear the undistilled views of citizens on what should be the direction of our space program.
Citizen after citizen will testify on the theme that the purpose of the government space program should be to break open the space frontier for the American people, and to do this by developing and demonstrating critical technologies, providing real and substantial incentives to America's private industry, and then getting out of the way.
Speakers from the previously mentioned organizations will focus on the direction our nation should take in space (from a citizen's perspective), the Cheap Access To Space program, and the appropriate role for NASA. And there will be a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who will speak on what should be in Chairman Walker's Omnibus Space Commercialization bill.
During the following week, these same grassroots organizations will be orchestrating an effort by citizens like you, to educate the most important 150 congressional leaders of Congress. We will be meeting with Members, and their staff, in the office of the Member, where we will discuss things like SSTO, the Omnibus Space Commercialization bill, and the fact that 100 million U.S. citizens want to go to space.
I personally believe that this is a breakthrough of revolutionary proportions. Citizens are taking control of the agenda in Washington, D.C. Never again will the government be able to come at citizens and tell us what our space program should look like. Never again will we let the aerospace companies and the NASA bureaucrats tell our leaders what the purpose of the space program should be. This is a true revolution. And following is how you can be part of it.
If you need more information, email me at ChazEugene@aol.com or call the office or the leadership of the National Space Society (202/543-1900), Space Frontier Foundation (212/387-7887), SpaceCause, the California Space Development Council (916/421-2621), or the Space Transportation Association.
NASA's Ames Research Center in California could lose all space-related research currently based there is a drastic NASA restructuring plan is approved, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on February 18.
A confidential "white paper" currently circulating through the highest levels of NASA would propose to cut Ames' $650 million a year budget by 40%. An estimated 1,400 jobs would also be cut, according to the report.
The funding cuts would eliminate all scientific research, spacecraft support, and airborne astronomy programs currently based at Ames, leaving behind only aeronautical research programs at the facility located near San Jose. The eliminated programs would be transferred to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, according to the report.
Ames currently continues to support the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, which are returning data from the edges of the solar system. Ames is also the home to the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an aircraft with a 36-inch telescope built into it for high-altitude astronomical observations.
A Hong Kong-based newspaper reported that Chinese investigators had placed the blame for the January 26 explosion of a Long March booster on its payload, an American satellite.
According to the Chinese-controlled Ta Kung Pao newspaper, photographs of the booster clearly show an explosion near the top of the booster, where its payload, the Hughes-built Apstar 2 communications satellite, was located.
Hughes officials declined to comment on report, stating that an investigation was currently underway. The director of Hughes' Asia branch, though, strongly denied an earlier allegation by the same newspaper that the spacecraft was sabotaged by nations envious of the Chinese launch program.
In a related development, it was revealed earlier this month that the explosion of the Long March booster killed six people, including an entire family living near the launch center. No one at the space center was injured.
A new international professional organization, the Interstellar Propulsion Society, dedicated to accelerating advancements in propulsion technology that will permit travel to other star systems, is undergoing formation in San Diego, California, USA. Its goals include exploration of propulsion technologies ranging from travel at a fraction of the speed of light to relativistic velocities and beyond, into superluminal velocities (exceeding the speed of light). Since power plants and propulsion systems have historically preceded their applications, the founders of the Society believe that with the achievement of a practical space drive, robotic probes to nearby star systems, and eventual manned flight, are sure to follow.
The Society's main aim is to foster worldwide collaborative research among scientists and engineers by providing a medium through which joint participation can be simplified and accelerated. With the emergence of low-cost, high performance workstations, high bandwidth communication links such as the Internet, distributed hypermedia such as the World Wide Web, advanced information retrieval technologies and powerful collaborative work tools, it is now feasible to create such a medium.
The Society will support worldwide collaborative research through a number of support mechanisms, initially layered on top of the Internet, and evolving into next generation "bitways" as they emerge. A principal Society function will be to operate an advanced Digital Library, accessible through World Wide Web browser interfaces (as well as specialized email access methods), that will consolidate worldwide knowledge in interstellar propulsion. This "Library of the Future" will be capable of indexing a large number of documents in many formats, and will offer advanced search techniques for exploration of content. The Society will provide collaborative research tools and support services to facilitate on-line collective data visualization and whiteboard activities.
Other functions of the Society will include publication of a professional peer-review research journal, a quarterly newsletter distributed to all members, and eventual award of research grants and teaching/research chairs for building a stronger participating scientific and engineering base than presently exists.
Membership in the Society structured at three levels. The Professional class is open to qualified scientists and engineers actively engaged in research in interstellar propulsion and related technologies. The Patron class is open to the general public - a large constituency, worldwide, that is enthusiastic regarding prospects of interstellar travel. The Corporate level of membership is open to companies and institutions that stand to benefit from the long term scientific and technology advancements the Society is expected to produce.
The Society will operate as a non-profit corporation in the State of California, USA. Temporary headquarters are located in the offices of Perigee West Company in San Diego, California. Perigee West is a high technology company engaged in the development of advanced Digital Library technologies. The company will provide the initial computing infrastructure and information retrieval software to launch the Society operation. The Society was founded by Edward J. Hujsak and Jonathan T. Hujsak. Jonathan Hujsak, president of the Society, is currently Vice President of Research and Engineering at Perigee West Company. Edward Hujsak is a career launch vehicle designer and author of "The Future of U.S. Rocketry." The Society can be contacted by writing to P.O. Box 1292, La Jolla, California, 92038-1292, Email to ips@www.digimark.net, or through the Society Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.digimark.net/ips/
Calling the proposed NASA budget released on Monday, "a better-faster-cheaper program that goes nowhere", the California Space Development Council (CSDC) urged the new Republican Congress to drastically reshape the space agency to meet the needs of the American people. CSDC, a non-profit, educational coalition of California pro-space organizations, approves of recent reforms led by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, but believes that a lack of vision and excess bureaucracy prevents the space agency from delivering the full benefits required for the use of $14 billion of the taxpayers money. CSDC maintains that NASA's prime goal should be opening the space frontier for the American people; and the top priority should be development of affordable access to space - currently a tiny portion of the Clinton Administration's budget request.
According to CSDC Vice-President of External Affairs, Charles E. Miller, "The Space Program is no longer working, we know it, and the rest of the American taxpayers know it. It's time to conduct a review of NASA that throws out all of the old assumptions."
Among the areas of CSDC concern are:
Reliance on the Space Shuttle beyond the year 2000: CSDC asserts that private companies could be ready by then to orbit all NASA payloads, including astronauts, and thus the Space Shuttle should be readied for retirement at the close of this decade. "We should be reducing the $5 Billion budget of the Space Shuttle and investing it into the Cheap Access To Space program" says Mr. Miller.
Cheap Access To Space: the crucial segment of the NASA budget, according to CSDC. Unfortunately, NASA is delaying a decision on when the prototype Single Stage To Orbit spacecraft will fly until the end of next year. "The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which used to run this program, went from a cold start to first flight in just 22 months and spent only $59 million", says Mr. Miller, "NASA will likely take 22 months just to decide what company will get to build the next flight vehicle. This is an unacceptable delay for taxpayers. We get stuck with a $5 Billion bill every year, and a few dozen government employees get a joyride into space."
Exploration of the Moon: NASA has not sent a lunar probe to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. CSDC asserts that NASA should give up trying to sell Congress on appropriating money for an expensive Lunar mission, and instead simply buy Lunar science data from private companies at a fraction of the cost of a NASA program. "We need results, not paperwork, and nothing will generate more paperwork than a NASA Lunar mission", says Mr. Miller.
Mission To Planet Earth: this expensive program, supported by Vice-President Al Gore, would orbit a constellation of large satellites that would continuously monitor the Earth's environment. CSDC would like to see Mission To Planet Earth removed from the purview of NASA, and transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the nation's weather service, which already operates two similar satellite systems. CSDC's rationale for this transition: "NOAA cares more about the Earth's environment than NASA. NASA looks at Mission To Planet Earth as a technology development program. What the taxpayer needs is a results-oriented program which can produce useful knowledge about our planet, instead of the gold- plated, Billion-dollar, hangar-queens that NASA seems to prefer".
The Space Station: although the International Space Station Alpha program is not going to be canceled by this Congress, CSDC feels the station is primarily a foreign aid program for the Russians, not a serious space development effort. CSDC perceives the Space Station as largely duplicating experiments performed in space by the Russians over the last twenty years. But CSDC recommends that by purchasing launches for logistics flights (and all transportation to and from the station once it is complete) under the terms of the Launch Services Purchase Act, the Space Station could provide a market for the expanding commercial launch field. "Its too bad we can't have a 'better-faster-cheaper' space station. But if we can't, we should at least insure that it helps and does not hinder commercial development of space" says Mr. Miller.
This course will be offered at the International Space Development Conference May 1995. This course was invented to help people interested in space solar power get up to speed on the relevant technology and economics of solar energy systems. Things have happened since the NASA/DOE study on solar power satellites in the late 70s. Thin film solar cells have been perfected; the cost of solar cells has dropped by orders of magnitude since the 70s; wireless power transmission is well understood.
Unlike a talk during the main conference, this course is intended to teach you some of the finer details about solar energy technology today. In order to be effective in working toward space solar power, we all must know some basic information.
You will learn about what is going on in terrestrial solar energy, for two main reasons. First, terrestrial solar is a good first step to space solar. Much of the happenings in terrestrial solar have applications to space. It is also a good way to see what technology is well developed and what still needs a lot of work. Second, you can make a buck in terrestrial solar now. And having some funds, you could invest some of them in space solar development.
Instructor: Dr. Gay E. Canough, ETM Solar Works, Inc.
B. The Need for Energy On Earth
E. How does the solar electric system work?
Details about photovoltaics, storage systems, wiring, etc.
F. Stepping up to Space Solar Power
Things that need to happen
G. How does a solar power satellite work? What's the latest technology?
See some of the parts right there in class!
L. Why is space solar power more interesting than fusion?
M. Practical knowledge! We will build a solar powered fans. Everyone will make one to take home.
This course will have a registration fee separate from the main conference of $180. Students: call for special rate. Along with the solar fan, also included in the registration will be:
Since textbooks increase the cost of the course significantly, we decided to sell the book separately for those who want it. The textbook is "Solar Power Satellites" ed. Glaser, Davidson & Csigi. The book is normally around $100. However, if I hear from over 10 people that they want a copy, I can get a discount from the publisher.
reply to Gay at the address CANOUGH@BINGVAXA.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU for more information
Dr. Gay E. Canough ETM,Inc. and BU-SUNY, dept.of physics e-mail(Internet): CANOUGH@BINGVAXA.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU phone/fax= 607 785 6499 radio call sign: KB2OXA
Snail Mail:
ETM Solar Works, Inc.
PO Box 67
Endicott, NY 13761
to register:
--------------------------clip and mail to ETM Solar Works ----- name:___________________________________________ Address:________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ phone: ____________________________ fax:________________________ e-mail: ________________________________________ registration enclosed: __________ considering registering, send me a reminder later _____________ [make checks payable to G.E. Canough]
The utterance of his name evokes a response that few people in the sciences can match. Certainly no one else is the subject of such diametrically opposed opinions. Regardless of whether you love him or hate him, Carl Sagan is back with a new book, Pale Blue Dot. In the book Sagan covers familiar ground: a look at the solar system and our place within it. Also, as the subtitle of the book suggests, he looks at the hows and whys of human space exploration.
The first part of the book looks our place in the Universe. Sagan steps us though the thought processes that "demoted" humans from a privileged position in the Universe down to a more "ordinary" position in the Universe. Earth is not the center of the Universe, nor is our sun or our galaxy; there is nothing extraordinary about our sun, nor is there anything unusual about having planets. To further drive this point home, Sagan shows the "family portrait" of the solar system taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990. In this image the Earth appears as only a faint pixel-sized object: a pale blue dot.
Sagan spends the second part of book looking in detail at the solar system. This part of the book can be considered Cosmos redux: a chance to take a second look at the solar system, fifteen years after Cosmos. We are again treated to the discoveries of the Voyager spacecraft, Magellan, even Apollo, as well as a eulogy for Mars Observer (not to mention some stinging criticism of NASA for the failure of the mission).
The final part of the book looks at the reasons for and methods of space exploration. In one section, Sagan examines and rejects most of the common reasons presented for space exploration: spinoffs (if you want stickless frying pans, spend money on frying pan research, not space), economics (the multiplier effect for government spending in space is a myth), education (spend money on libraries and computers, not Mars missions), and more. None of these justifies spending the hundreds of billions of dollars for a human mission to Mars, he believes, but they may be enough to justify continued research and human presence in Earth orbit to study the problems of sending humans to Mars.
One of the biggest justifications for Sagan for a human presence in space is to prevent a disaster from wiping out the species. The biggest threat for that may be an asteroid or comet impact, which is discussed in detail. However, Sagan does not advocate setting up any planetary defense systems: he believes that those systems, capable of nudging an incoming object away from the Earth, could, in the wrong hands, knock an otherwise-innocent asteroid or comet towards Earth.
Pale Blue Dot is a typical Sagan book, written in the same manner as his previous books with the same "big picture" viewpoint. This book will probably not change your opinions of Sagan. However, it may broaden your horizons somewhat and give you a little different view of our place in the universe.
Endeavour is now on complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center awaiting its March 2 launch on the Astro 2 flight (STS-67). Astro 2 is a Spacelab mission, using two Spacelab Pallets with the Spacelab Igloo avionics container and the IPS instrument pointing system.
Mounted on the IPS are three ultraviolet telescopes. The 0.9-m Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) takes spectra in the 900 to 1900 Angstrom short wavelength UV range and the 500 to 900 A extreme ultraviolet range. The 0.5m Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) telescope studies spectra in the longer wavelength 1400-3200A ultraviolet range. The 0.38m Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) is a wide-field (0.6 degree) imaging telescope which uses ultraviolet-sensitive film.
Also in the cargo bay are the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) pallet and two Getaway Special (GAS) cans (G-387/G-388) which constitute the Endeavour Telescope, a project of the Australian Space Office. The 0.1m telescope takes a narrow-band, 2-degree wide-field ultraviolet image. Unlike UIT, it uses CCDs rather than film. The Australian Endeavour telescope first flew (as G-609/G-610) aboard Discovery in Jan 1992, but failed to work correctly. On that mission it was attached to a cross-bay GAS Bridge Assembly (GBA) with other GAS cans; this time the cans are mounted on a GAS Beam Adapter (GABA) on the side of the payload bay wall. (Note that the name of the telescope is nothing to do with the name of the Shuttle except that both are named after Cook's ship.)
The Mir station raised its orbit on Feb 10; on Feb 10 its orbit was 390 x 391 km x 51.6 deg, 92.38 min; on Feb 20 it was in a 391 x 397 km x 51.6 deg, 92.45 min orbit. Progress vehicle no. 226 was launched on Feb 15, and given the name Progress M-26 once reaching orbit. Progress M-25 undocked on Feb 16 (due at 1303 UT) and was deorbited. Progress M-26 then docked at the vacant Kvant docking port on Feb 17 (due at 1821 UT). It carries experiments for the visit of US astronaut Norman Thagard to Mir, due next month.
Foton No. 10 was launched from Plesetk on Feb 16 into a 219 x 368 km x 62.8 deg, 90.39 min orbit. The Foton recoverable materials processing satellite, built by the Central Specialized Design Bureau in Samara, is based on the Vostok/Zenit spy satellite bus. This mission carries materials processing experiments from Germany and France.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Jan 10 0618 Intelsat 704 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36 Comsat 01A
Jan 15 1345 EXPRESS Mu-3S-II Kagoshima Materials -
Jan 24 0354 Tsikada ) Kosmos-3M Plesetsk LC132 Navsat 02A
ASTRID ) Science 02B
FAISAT ) Comsat 02C
Jan 25 1926? Apstar 2 Chang Zheng 2E Xichang Comsat FTO
Jan 29 0125 UHF F/O F4 Atlas II Canaveral LC36 Comsat 03A
Feb 3 0522 Discovery ) Space Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 04A
Spacehab SH03)
Feb 4 0457 ODERACS II A ) Discovery, LEO Calibration 04C
ODERACS II B ) Calibration 04D
ODERACS II C ) Calibration 04E
ODERACS II D ) Calibration 04F
ODERACS II E ) Calibration 04G
ODERACS II F ) Calibration 04H
Feb 7 1226 Spartan 204 Discovery, LEO Astronomy 04B
Feb 15 1648 Progress M-26 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 05A
Feb 16 1615? Foton No. 10 Soyuz-U Plesetsk Materials 06A
Jan 15 EXPRESS Reentered Feb 11 Discovery Landed at KSC Feb 12 BREMSAT Reentered Feb 16 Progress M-25 Deorbited
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia Palmdale OMDP -
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-70 Jun 22
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 3 STS-71 Jun
OV-105 Endeavour LC39A STS-67 Mar 2
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/ STS-70
ML2/RSRM-43/ET-69/OV-105 LC39A STS-67
ML3/RSRM-45 VAB Bay 1 STS-71
An updated version of the calendar is available from JPL.
* indicates changes from last month's calendar
Larry Klaes and Drew LePage will examine the history of the former Soviet Union's 35-year exploration of Mars with unmanned space probes to show how our Space Age evolved and why space exploration is vital to our understanding of the Universe. This slide-based presentation will also feature a 30-minute video about the Phobos missions to Mars. Drew LePage was the featured speaker at the July 1994 meeting on the origins of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which crashed into Jupiter later that month.
The key to inexpensive space settlement is using Lunar or asteroid material to bootstrap manufacturing and transportation systems. The cheapest initial systems may be:
Miniature Lunar Mining Base - use miniature tele-operated rovers to load lunar regolith into spacecraft. Each rover might be 10 Kg, plus a few 100 Kg of stationary equipment for power, communication, shelter, and materials handling.
Regolith Rockets - use raw Lunar soil for reaction mass to lift off the surface. Each might be 100 Kg, not including their dirt-cheap "fuel".
Rotating Tethers - like a bucket-brigade, several tethers throw mining equipment from Earth orbit to the Lunar surface, and catch raw materials coming back. Each tether with associated equipment would be about 1000 Kg, but they are fully reusable, and do not use propellant!
Refining and Manufacturing - Since the equipment may be heavy and temperamental, regolith is refined and manufacture into finished goods in LEO where launch costs are lower and it is "relatively" cheap to support people. Later, automated plants built from Lunar material would be in high orbit.
The system grows by producing: fiberglass for more tethers; aluminum, steel, and glass for spacecraft and habitats; solar panels, slag for shielding, and oxygen. We can sell: transportation, power, fuel, and service for communications satellites and SPS. All without the expense of sending people to the Lunar surface.
Here are things YOU may enjoy doing, which, incidentally, help others who attend our NSS meetings:
Read some GOOD BOOKS. Keep the chapter library of books and videos at your home to view any time you wish. Just bring a few to meetings to let others borrow them.
Learn to NAVIGATE INTERNET and the WEB. Get your name known by sending announcements or helping maintain our e-mail lists. Possible future projects reading and cross referencing professional papers being installed on the World Wide Web by organizations like the Space Studies Institute and NSS.
Find JOB leads, by calling managers at local businesses working on space related projects, use the excuse that you are asking them to be the featured speaker at an NSS meeting. Can also be done by STUDENTS to check out selected professors for possible thesis or project work. When they are ready to schedule a specific date to speak, contact Larry Klaes, (617)643-4927.
Make MONEY in the stock market, or, at least have fun trying. Join a Space Investment Club.
Help by re-typing or scanning the chapter by-laws. (Not too rewarding, but needs to be done by anyone with e-mail.)
Learn ANIMATION for fun and profit. Help with CAD and animation of space projects (like my Robotic Lunar Mine or Tethers). Send the results to companies with hints that you are available to animate their projects for a nominal fee.
Contact any chapter officer, or me: Bruce Mackenzie, bam@draper.com, (617)258-2828
After 6 years of arranging speakers for the Boston NSS meetings, I am passing that responsibility off to our chapter's new acting president, Larry Klaes, whom you may know as the editor of SETI Quest. I enjoyed it, especially talking with many potential speakers who are active in space research. But, I was looking forward to not spending as much time finding speakers, until I realized who Larry scheduled for the April meeting (me).
Seriously, I encourage everyone to keep an eye out for potential speakers and meeting activities. It gives you an excuse to call up someone active in the field or talk to them after they give some other lecture. I am now on a first name basis with nationally known experts whom I first met asking if they would give a lecture. You can be, too. Please extend a tentative invitation to anyone you would like to hear, and then check with Larry before confirming an exact date.
Our February presentation brought us back to our roots, our common dream to create a space-faring civilization, with the topic of "Space Colonies". It was an evening of fanciful and far-sighted slides and informal discussion of what space colonies might be like, hosted by Bruce Mackenzie, our current NSS regional representative, past chapter president, and former Space Studies Institute staffer.
Bruce began with visionary Gerald K. O'Neill and his 1978 space colony design "Island 3". Designed to seem most Earth-like, the 20 km long cylinders had 3 glass-like panels that stretched the length of the station, with mirrored, hinged panels that would open and close to simulate the rising and setting of the sun.
Bruce showed several slides of the Vernal Sphere design - an elaborate structure with one spinning sphere within another counter-spinning sphere to create gravity. It also had an interesting scheme for reflecting sunlight where it was needed, to the residents and to individual greenhouses according harvest dates and differing plant needs.
These colonies will require cheap and readily available resource in order to grow and reproduce. They must also be profitable, no matter what are the form(s) of their product. In the early years, the Asteroid Belt may serve both purposes. Melting down only a portion of the asteroids could provide enough metal to build space colonies with 3,000 times Earth's land surface. With the right manufacturing in space, these materials could be an invaluable resource with product leftover for export to Earth. In the meantime, space colonies will have to learn how to manage eco-systems - something that the Earth could profit from, too.
Life in space will be different for colonists as "long distance" takes on its old meaning. The farther out the colonies go, the longer the communication time (phone, fax, or modem, TV, radio, or e-mail). The jaunt to grandma's house could take months. People of like mind could truly isolate/insulate themselves in blankets of metal and empty space. Undesirable members (open to local definition) would have other places to go, like "some other colony, please - we insist." As Earth continues to merge its cultures, space colonies could start the divergence of culture all over again.
[Bruce's optimistic note on this vision was that at least disgruntled colonies could be moved away from each other - an option not readily available on Earth].
Critics like to point out the vulnerability of a space station, but the stakes are high for the planet-bound too. On Earth, (as in space colonies), people are at risk from pollution, nuclear attack, large meteors, overpopulation, and disease - to name a few. If a space colony were to experience a catastrophe, we lose a space colony; a terrible thought, but luckily there would be more. If Earth experiences a catastrophe, we lose a planet - end of game, pay up. Even if just to save a few of the Earth species that become extinct every day (humans are eligible), space colonies seem like a reasonable hedge to the bet that our existence on this planet is guaranteed for life.
Does this sound like fun or what?! Bring your thoughts, votes, and ideas to our next meeting, and/or send e-mail to Mike Tabaczynski at mjt@shore.net, or send regular mail to Roxanne at the newsletter address. Here's our chance to be grad students without the student loans! Let us hear from you, too.