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Should you wish to contact the
society or require general information please contact ASTRA
using the following Email address: Should you encounter any problems
with this Web
Page please
email: We had now been squeezed out of GUU
room 4 by the War Games club, and began a long series of
moves from place to place, starting with the Queen Margaret
Union, then the Port St. Resource Centre, from which we were
then excluded because space research is not politically
correct. Apr.12. AGM hosted by
Chris
Boyce. Joyce Craig became
Treasurer. Ian
Downie proposed the offer of
Honorary Membership to Prof.
Roy and Prof.
Nonweiler. May. Duncan
Lunan speaking on
Waverider
at Space Development Conference (Washington) and on Project
Starseed at Space Manufacturing Conference
(Princeton). Article on Waverider
simultaneously in Space World, USA, and Space Voyager, UK,
first public recognition of the concept's
revival. May 25-27. ASTRA participates
in Paisley Rocket Weekend, organised by Paisley Rocketeers.
ASTRA wins Oscar
Schwiglhofer trophy in
aquajet contest. June 8. Open Day at
Airdrie
Public Observatory in
Monklands Festival, with demonstration of Space Shuttle
onboard Grid computer. June 22. First of three
Glasgow meetings at Central Hotel in preparation for Albacon
85. June 27. ASTRA hosts Scottish
Astronomers Group constitutional meeting at Airdrie, but
decides not to join the new organisation
meantime. July 19-22. Albacon 85 science
fiction convention; ASTRA mounts exhibition and spaceflight
programme including lectures on Giotto/Ariane; brains trusts
on planetary exploration and space militarisation;
Waverider
presentation; and ET encounter simulation. Aug.3. Death of
Victor
Hirt announced (see
above). Aug.9. Duncan
Lunan at planning meeting in
Devon for the Argo Venture, founded by Lord Young of
Dartington, to run a social simulation of a pioneering Mars
colony. The Argo Venture had been stimulated by publication
of "The Greening of Mars", by Prof. James Lovelock and
Michael Allaby. I had previously met James Lovelock at an
IBM Heathrow Conference and I was commissioned to design the
habitat; a Napoleonic fort in the Solent was one possible
site, and I went to see one while visiting David
Proffitt in Portsmouth, also
the pressurised structure enclosing the recently raised
'Mary Rose'. There was major international interest at this
stage, with participants including John Percival, producer
of the BBC's 'Living in the Past' neolithic village
experiment. However the project was to be eclipsed by the
Biosphere 2 life sciences simulation in Arizona, and
eventually was abandoned. Aug.24. Ayrshire Branch hosts
Scottish Astronomers Group meeting 'Meteors
Galore'. Aug.31-Sept.8. Viking Space
Exhibition at Largs Library. Speakers include Dr. David
Punter of the Argo Venture above. Material donated by JPL
includes 'Voyager' movie, which has been of great use since.
Mars base model unveiled by Ayrshire Branch. Sept.14. Waverider
conference at 20 Aitken St., Largs, with Jim
Randolph, Manager of JPL
Starprobe study (see July 88 Spacereport). Followed by first
free flight of rocket-launched Waverider,
in Brisbane Glen. Oct. Instrumented tests of
pylon-mounted Waverider
shapes on Kenny Bradshaw's Ford Cortina, on the approach
road to Hunterston Ore Terminal. Oct.14, 17 Nov. First
newspaper accounts of Waverider
project in Glasgow Herald and Sunday Times. Nov.9-16. National Astronomy
Week. ASTRA exhibitions at Irvine Library ('Vikings and
Mars'), Glasgow Film Theatre (with speakers after SF films)
and Theatre Royal, accompanying Brecht's 'Galileo' and a
telescope with flexible mirror by Dr. Peter Waddell's
research team at Strathclyde, including John
Braithwaite, and Largs
('Halley's Comet Revisits'). The two Glasgow exhibitions
were then combined and went to Bishopbriggs Library, then
Bridge of Allan library in Stirlingshire, then St. Ninian's
Library (these two for Gary Gale - see 1979). For us,
National Astronomy Week lasted about five months! An
exhibition committee had been formed of Richard McKelvie,
Chris
O'Kane and myself, and over
the next four years we systematically replaced the
chipboard-mounted High Frontier panels with card ones
bearing newer photos, especially after we received a large
donations of photos from NASA Johnson Space Centre in 1987.
This was all financed by science fiction conventions,
especially the 1987 Worldcon (see below). Oscar resumes production of
Spacereport with issues on Electrophoresis Operations in
Space and Halley's Comet. Dec.22. Duncan
Lunan stands down from ASTRA
Presidency, Gordon
Dick (now
known as Gordon Ross) elected.
Peter Dawson, Chris
O'Kane and Kenny Bradshaw
co-opted. 1986
1984
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Date Last Modified: 31 07 1999