 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Should you encounter any problems
with this Web
Page please email: On June 30 1984 I was the opening
speaker, on "Man and the Planets", at the symposium 'A View
from Earth, 1984', organised by the Venture Sciences
association at Big Bear Lake, California. The other speakers
included six former astronauts, scientists from JPL and the
Planetary Society, and Gene Roddenberry of 'Star Trek', with
a NASA exhibition and tours of local observatories including
the big solar one. The VSA already had the use of one of
those observatories and was negotiating to purchase another
in the desert. The Association was the personal dream of
Victor Hirt, a retired mining engineer resembling ASTRA's
founder, Oscar Schwiglhofer, in many ways, and he was very
keen to establish links with ASTRA, especially on the
technical side. Unfortunately he had tried to do
it all in six months, leading up to an event on the scale of
our 'High Frontier' with no experience except for a film
show on March 1st, followed by a bus run to a Shuttle
landing at Edwards Air Force Base. His organisation still
had only six members, and he had to ask other local
societies for help, which proved disastrous. He was cheated
by many local businesses, but in any case he had his sums
wrong by a factor of ten. In three days he made a loss of
$48,500, leaving me stranded in California until I made my
way home by selling copies of "Man and the Planets", which
took 15 weeks. Nevertheless, his achievement was
lasting, at least for ASTRA. I was invited to lecture at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on July 17, and NASA
Ames Research Centre on Aug. 23, both on the Waverider, with
major results for the re-launch of the concept - this was my
first meeting with Dr. Jim Randolph, now an Honorary Member
of ASTRA, followed by further meetings in Largs, Pasadena,
Glasgow and London in 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1993. The
other contacts I made at JPL were also very valuable in the
rest of the 1980's. The trip let me open new contacts with
the L5 Society, forming an affiliation with the Golden Gate
Chapter and an unofficial one with the main body, leading to
the invitations to speak on Waverider and ASTRA at the 1985
and '86 Space Development Conferences respectively, and
later to affiliation with the National Space Society; and to
open discussions with Big Bear Solar Observatory about the
possibility of white light work at Airdrie as an outstation.
Although we were unable to raise funding for this, it
remains a real possibility. Victor Hirt died tragically in
1985, overcome by exhaust fumes while trying to dig his car
out of a flash flood in particularly painful circumstances.
My tribute to him appeared in Spacereport, June 87, and he
is remembered in an award given annually at the Scottish
Rocket Weekend in Largs, for the best flight of the Weekend.
The first award was presented in Victor's name by
Pat
Jones. PAT
JONES
MELVILLE/JUNE
ADAM
ASTRA Home Page | Members Home Page | Members obituaries
Website Author: Nick Portwin (portwin@easynet.co.uk)
© 1998 - The material contained within this Web page is copyrighted by ASTRA on behalf of a number of individuals who have contributed to this website.
The material within this website may be reproduced for educational none-profit making purposes. The only condition imposed for reproducing this material is that you acknowledge the source of the material. This acknowledgement should include ASTRA's website address (www.astra.org.uk) as well as ASTRA's email address (info@astra.org.uk).
Date Last Modified: 31 07 1999