A small core group attended April's meeting: Patrick, Jonathan, John,
Gerry, and Dave. A guest and potential new member also attended: Marc Silver. He's been aware
of the Mars Society for 5-6 years or so since college. He said he'd be back again, so perhaps
we've got another member.
PAST EVENTS
We quickly ran through recent events: March's Mars Movie Night, the Sally Ride science festival,
and April's Stars in the Park.
Jonathan showed slides from his stay at MDRS.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Our chapter will celebrate Yuri's Night at Killer Pizza From Mars in Escondido. We'll have a
table for 12 reserved at 4 pm.
This month's Mars Movie Night is April 18th and will feature "Invaders from Mars," the 1986
remake.
We discussed the April 30th Eyes on the Universe talk on sending humans to Mars. A program
subcommittee meeting to continue putting the talk together will be held at 6 pm on Wednesday,
April 16th at Gerry's Studio.
We briefly discussed our upcoming talks in May: The May 17th, "Living on Mars" talk about MDRS
at the Reuben Fleet, and our talk on May 27 before the Shelter Island Rotary. No real planning
was done for either one yet. The May 17th speakers so far are Shannon, Gerry, and Dave. Dave
to moderate and introduce; Shannon to discuss her experiences at MDRS; Gerry to discuss Mission
Support. More speakers are invited to volunteer, especially those who participated in Mission
Support. Volunteers are also needed to help staff the display table. John Stone so far is the
sole volunteer.
The San Diego Astronomy Association will be on hand on May 17th with solar telescopes, and an
educational display outside.
We briefly discussed Comic-Con. We intend to have a fan table again and do at least two talks:
one on the Mars Society and MDRS again; the other with guest speakers. We agreed that John
McKnight should be on the guest speakers panel. We will need volunteers to staff the fan table
during the day. We also need additional speakers for the guest panel.
Dave will be interviewed on radio on April 26th and June 1st. Neither program is aired locally.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Gerry is attempting to arrange another tour of Malin Space Science Systems (operators of the Mars
Orbital Camera onboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft).
Gerry and Patrick are building a model Mars rover. They brought the chassis to the meeting.
The completed rover will be a working model.
Gerry intends to update the display table. The chapter flyers need updating as well.
Suggestions for changes and additions to the flyer are welcome.
PENDING ITEMS
There are still some black t-shirts for sale in large and double extra large sizes, at $15.00
each. On the front pocket area (sorry, no pocket) it says "The Mars Society" witgh the web
address; and on the back is a large picture of Mars (Valle Marineris hemisphere), that says
"MARS - Object is Closer than it Appears".
Business cards are coming.
A volunteer is needed to take over contact duties by monitoring the chapter's yahoo email
address. Jonathan is leaving San Diego for medical school and can no longer do it.
We decided that it would be a good idea to use Shannon's phone number as a chapter message
phone, if she is still willing to let us do that. The phone would primarily be used as an
outgoing message machine. The phone's message would have information about upcoming events
that people could call and listen to. People could, if they wanted to, leave a message.
We have decided to register one or two easier domain names: marsandiego.com and/or
marssocietysandiego.com. We need to find a reasonably priced host that doesn't subject us to
lots of pop-ups.
We discussed producing a public access video program. We will be getting a program from the
DC chapter. We could edit our prior comic-con talks to create a couple of videos. We also
could produce an entirely new program. Suggestions are welcome.
We discussed whether we could function as a kind of speaker's bureau by featuring guest
speakers. We have contacts with people whom we could feature as speakers, but we need to think
about a venue.
There has been no real progress on obtaining a Mars Analog space suit. The Northern California
chapter is trying to obtain or build one also.
We have contacted Kelly about getting the Mars library books back. With luck, we should have
the library back by next month.
We need more ideas for hands-on props like the gravity bricks.
NEXT MEETING
Thursday, May 8th, 7 pm, at the usual location. The day after Stars in the Park on May
7th.
-Dave Rankin
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