HAL5 is the Huntsville Alabama chapter of the National Space Society (NSS). HAL5 was formed in 1983 and incorporated in 1984. Both HAL5 and the NSS are non-profit 501(c)(3), grassroots, space educational/advocacy organizations. The NSS was formed in 1987 from the merger of the L5 Society (from which HAL5 acquired its name) and the National Space Institute. The NSS currently has over 16,000 members and 60 local chapters worldwide.
Members of HAL5 and NSS share the enthusiasm that space development can stimulate our world with immeasurable benefits in the areas of education, energy, environment, industry, resources, and ultimately room to grow for our society. Most members personally want to travel in space, and proudly display such items as the NSS “I Want to Go!” T-shirt (now a collectable). HAL5 and NSS believe that by educating and working with the public, the government, and private industry, we can speed up the date when routine, safe, and affordable space travel is available to anyone who “wants to go.”
Over the past 20 years, HAL5 has sponsored numerous educational projects and activities in Huntsville. It has hosted a continuing series of public lectures, forums, and events on space-related topics, at both the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and the Huntsville Public Library. Hot topics have included the International Space Station, possible life on Mars and elsewhere, the comet impact on Jupiter, and space art; as well as both public and private attempts to provide cheap-access-to-space, including NASA’s Space Launch Initiative and HAL5’s Project HALO. In May of 1998, HAL5 was presented an NSS Chapter Excellence Award for the outstanding public lecture series it held in 1997. For many years, HAL5 has coordinated or provided programs for the Science Track for the Con†Stellation science fiction convention of the North Alabama Science Fiction Association (NASFA). HAL5 members believe that what is often considered science fiction today can become science fact tomorrow. HAL5 is devoted to speeding its transition!
Eleven years ago, HAL5 hosted the 1993 International Space Development Conference (ISDC), the 12th annual conference of the NSS, and of one of its most successful. Over 700 space enthusiasts from Huntsville and around the nation and the world gathered at the Huntsville Hilton to hear over 120 speakers lecture and debate on the benefits of space and on what it will take to get there. The City of Huntsville honored HAL5 for making the 1993 ISDC one of its top ten conferences. In 1999, HAL5 hosted a “Southeast Space Summit” to gather together officers from nearby NSS chapters. The purpose of the Summits are to share information and coordinate on planning for future regional space development conferences.. HAL5 is considering hosting a similar summit or regional space development conference in late 2004.
In 1987, HAL5 supplied a team of adult advisors to support and guide high school students in the development of experiments to fly in space as part of NASA’s “Get-Away-Special Canister (GAS CAN)” Program. In 1993, HAL5 hosted a highly successful 3-day “Junior Cadet Program” as part of the 1993 ISDC. In 1995, HAL5 purchased and donated a reusable tethered balloon to the Huntsville elementary school system to support its Teaching Observation of Planet Earth (TOPE) Program. HAL5 has also sponsored “Space Week” activities on numerous occasions, including March of 1996, when members sent a balloon to 100,000 feet carrying a student experiment; and also in October of 1996 when members demonstrated the principles of remote video to elementary school students using HAL5’s own tethered-balloon, purchased to promote Project HALO.
HAL5 has also designed a pilot program called HALO Achievement to take space and science education into the grade-school classroom in the same manner as the Junior Achievement does for business. We are currently seeking volunteers to help prepare the materials for testing the HALO Achievement program at several city and county elementary schools in Madison County, Alabama.
As a space advocacy group, HAL5 has hosted many activities to build non-partisan political support for space. Many HAL5 members participate in the NSS Political Action Network and letter writing campaigns to alert our governmental representatives of our interest in space. HAL5 hosts lectures designed to call the public attention to space-related issues and to urge them to write, call, fax, or E-Mail their elected officials. HAL5 members have also visited members of Congress in Washington, D.C. in order to garner support for the new Vision for Space Exploration.
In 1987, HAL5 participated in a Space Habitat Design Competition, which yielded a conceptual design for an orbiting space habitat constructed from space shuttle external tanks. The Space Habitat design comfortably accommodated over 100 people living in an artificially-created one-sixth (moon) gravity environment. The Space Habitat was envisioned as a stepping stone beyond the International Space Station on the road to even larger, permanent space communities.
In 1993, HAL5 began researching starting up a 24-hour television network devoted to space. The goal is to create a common media outlet that all the various space-related societies and industries can use when necessary or desired. At the 1995 ISDC, HAL5 member Ronnie Lajoie received approval from the NSS Chapters’ Assembly to form the “Space Network Working Group”. At the 1996 ISDC in New York, Ronnie met with Jules Ross, who is attempting to start a “Space Television Network”, and gave him a copy of his presentation. They agreed to stay in contact. At the 1996 Von Braun Exploration Forum in Huntsville, Ronnie met with John Hendricks, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, and gave him a copy of his presentation as well.
In 1994, HAL5 began its biggest project ever, Project HALO (for “High-Altitude Lift-Off”). The goals of the project are no less than to provide cheap access to space for small clubs and student groups. Over the past eight years, the project has involved dozens of people, including many high school and college students. The project has thus far yielded one ground-launch mission, two "sky-launch" missions, numerous subsystem test days, dozens of rocket motor test firings, and countless numbers of "work parties".
During 1995, HAL5 sent three balloons to 100,000 feet to test subsystems, and designed and test-fired (over 30 times) the rocket’s hybrid motor -- fueled by only asphalt and laughing gas! On April 13, 1996, HAL5 successfully ground-launched its Phase 1 rocket, sending it well over 20,000 feet. (This same rocket launched from 100,000 feet, above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere, would have been able to reach the desired altitude of 50 nautical miles.) On September 22, 1996, HAL5 launched its first large weather balloon, with a capacity of 19,000 cu.ft. For more information on past HALO activities see Project HALO Status Reports.
On May 11, 1997, HAL5 made amateur rocketry history when it successfully launched its “proof-of-concept” hybrid rockoon Space Launch 1 mission. The rocket was launched from a high altitude balloon from 60,000 feet and went to about 30 nautical miles. See the HALO Sky Launch 1 section of the HAL5 Web Page for more details. On June 20, 1998, HAL5 made its first attempt with its larger Sky Launch 2 rockoon. See the HALO Sky Launch 2 section of the HAL5 Web Page for more details. HAL5 still hopes to make amateur spaceflight history in the near future, with a Tube Launch 1 mission to send the first amateur cannon-launched rocket from the ground to over 50 nautical miles.
Above all, HAL5 has pledged to keep Huntsville and its neighbors informed of the positive benefits of space research and development, whether by NASA, other governments, or private industry. HAL5 has also pledged to alert Huntsville and vicinity during the times for action, whenever letters, calls, and petitions can improve our chances for becoming a spacefaring civilization. And lastly, via Project HALO, HAL5 has pledged to lead the way in showing the public, the government, and private industry that cheap-access-to-space can indeed be made a reality!
As the NSS motto states: Ad Astra per Ardua! (Latin for “To the Stars by Our Own Hands!”)
Send queries and suggestions via E-Mail to: HAL5 @ nsschapters.org
This file was last modified on Saturday, 05-Nov-2005 02:26:02 EST