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THE MARS SOCIETY - SAN DIEGO
(TMS-SD) CHAPTER

"The Earth is the Cradle of Mankind,
but one does not live in the cradle forever."

-- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1895

TMS-SD MEETING NOTES FOR 12 NOVEMBER 2004

This meeting was attended by Jesse Clark, Patrick Purcell, Dave Rankin, James Roth, John Stone and Gerry Williams.


MONTHLY RECAP

Our Mars Movie Night on Friday, October 10th featured the usual "Flash Gordon and the Deadly Ray From Mars" serial (Chapter 14 of 15), and a "Duck Dodgers" cartoon prior to the featured 1953 film "The War of the Worlds" with Gene Barry and Anne Robinson -- it is an amazing film on the big screen!

Monday, October 25th had TMS-SD members back down at the Mission Valley Branch Library for a PowerPoint presentation on the "Privatization of Spaceflight". Dave and Gerry ran the presentation with John, Carol Nye and Jesse providing support.

The San Diego Astronomy Association's monthly "STARS IN THE PARK" telescope night in Balboa Park included TMS-SD members crewing our Display Table -- a successful outreach, as usual.

Our first official "Three-Ring Circus" was held at the Sage Canyon Elementary's Family Night program on Friday, November 5th. Jesse Clark, John Stone, Tim Sommer and Gerry Williams set up our Display Table (ring one), operated our Mars Rover (ring two) and demonstrated our Mars Spacesuit (ring three). Gerry also gave a PowerPoint presentation on the side of the building featuring the Mars Exploration Rovers video. TMS-SD was awarded a plaque for the presentation. The 60+ family members in attendance really enjoyed the event, and many followed us out to the parking lot as we were packing up to ask questions. We donated one of our William K. Hartmann's "Traveler's Guide to Mars" books to the Family Night raffle.

Wednesday, November 10th had Gerry and John attending the San Diego Yacht Club's luncheon as guest speakers. Gerry ran a PowerPoint presentation on Mars Exploration. The audience said it was the best luncheon talk they ever had, and several hung around afterward for an hour-long discussion.

And Friday, November 12th was our Regular Monthly Meeting (generating these notes).


UPCOMING EVENTS

November 13th has our Mars Rover running around the San Diego Aerospace Museum as part of their Family Days events.

The Mars Movie Night for November 19th features the bloody/sexy 1998 sequel, "Species II".

TMS-SD is scheduled to perform another "Three-Ring Circus" outreach at the Sally Ride Science Festival on the UC Irvine Campus on Saturday, November 20th.

"Mars 2004 Update" is the title of our PowerPoint presentation for Monday the 22nd at the Mission Valley Branch Library, wrapping up six months of events at this venue. Mission Valley Library has asked us to come back next year (there will be no December lecture there).

December 1st has us participating in the monthly San Diego Astronomy Association's "STARS IN THE PARK" telescope night.


OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center will be having a Weekend Talks lecture called "Space Exploration News" on Saturday, February 12, 2005 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. in their Community Forum: "This is an exciting time for NASA/JPL and space exploration.ÊLearn about the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft and its incredible findings at Saturn,Êthe search for other Earthlike planets,Êthe ongoing discoveries of the Mars Exploration Rovers, andÊother innovativeÊJPL missions. JoinÊJPL Solar System Ambassador Jay Lavine as he explains the latest amazing discoveries from these incredible missions, including viewing stunning new images." TMS-SD will be there with our Mars Rover and Display Table to support this lecture.

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center has also asked us to put together a PowerPoint presentation following the Rovers journey on Mars, kind of a Martian Road Trip for the Weekend Talks lecture on April 16th. Gerry thinks this would be a good way to get some more use out of our 3-D Glasses, too.


PROJECT STATUS REPORT

MARS ROVER: Our RC model rover is under reconstruction -- the drive has failed in the old chassis. Gerry found a neighbor who donated a brand new Radio Shack RC Truck to us. Patrick has undertaken the rebuild and modification duties.

MARS SUIT TASKFORCE: We have one suit 90% finished, and we have been using it at outreach events. A second suit is about 75% complete, but the hardware for it (helmet, backpack) are less than 25% complete. Tim is a bit swamped with other commitments and won't be able to get back to it until after the first of the year. We're discussing the option of some others (Jesse, John, Gerry) taking on some of the manufacturing aspects.

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Our PR Coordinator, Jeff Berkwits, will be leaving us at the end of the year. He and his family (Loretta and Buddy the Mars Dog) will be moving up the Seattle area where Jeff will be taking over the reigns of "Amazing Stories"magazine as their new Editor-in-Chief. Congratulations, Jeff -- we'll really miss you!

Plans are to have a going-away party for Jeff, depending on his schedule. We wish him the best!

NEW DISPLAY BOARD: Gerry reports no change on the board status -- the backboard is built, some images are printed, but more images need to print before the backboard is populated. Plus some thought will be given to securing the board in windy situations.

WEBSITE UPDATES: Gerry has been keeping the TMS-SD board up to date. His plans to completely revamp the site will have to wait until after the first of the year due to his time constraints.


OTHER ACTIVITIES AND ITEMS

TMS-SD SHIRTS: We decided to go ahead with the plan to get embroidered shirts for TMS-SD members for outreach events. The shirts will be a light blue denim with a red and orange logo on the pocket designed by Gerry. Tim has a connection with a person who can do the embroidery, so we'll be coordinating with him.

TREASURY: The TMS-SD Treasury currently has $239.65 in the bank after dues were collected.

DOMAIN NAME: Patrick has renewed the MarsSanDiego.org domain name for us for two more years. We'd like to thank him for this donation.

WEB STORE: Gerry is talking about updating our Mars San Diego Web Store merchandise during the holidays.

BOOK SALES: We've sold over half of the signed William K. Hartmann "A Traveler's Guide to Mars" books, leaving only 19 in stock. Let's try to push these books as we get closer to the holidays -- they make great stocking stuffers (hint!)!

OTHER OUTREACH VENUES: The Mission Valley Library has asked us to come back for more lectures in 2005. We decided we can do this, but we'll pick a different night (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) next year, as Monday had very light turnout for us.

Another venue being discussed is the Martin Luther King Library in Southeast San Diego -- Gerry will look into it as he's working down in that area frequently.

And we're going to start looking north of I-8 for venues, too. Shannon has connections on several college campuses that we'll try to exploit.


OPEN DISCUSSIONS

John has an idea for some funding acquisition relating to the SpaceShipOne flight simulator that were discussed -- we'll be talking about this more at future meetings.

Patrick is concerned that our Mars Rover is running on limited time, and we should have a backup model available as a display unit. The Lego Rover was discussed, as well as the 1/10th scale Mars Rover from Code-3 Collectibles (at $150.00). Gerry found new Lego Rovers going for around $50.00 on eBay (normally they are around $90.00 new). He'll look into acquiring one.


SHOW & TELL

Gerry brought in the closest photos ever taken of the Martian moon Phobos taken recently by the ESA Mars Express orbiter.


On to Mars!

-gmw



HISTORY & NEWS ARCHIVES: 2003
HISTORY & NEWS ARCHIVES: 2002
HISTORY & NEWS ARCHIVES: 2001


CALENDAR / UPCOMING EVENTS: 2004




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THE MARS SOCIETY - SAN DIEGO
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