The Mars Movie Night for this month on Friday, May 20th was the classic, "Robinson Crusoe on Mars", attended by 12 people.

Saturday, May 21st was The San Diego Aerospace Museum's annual "Space Day" event, including TMS-SD members and the San Diego Mars Rover from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Dave Rankin, Jesse Clark and I crewed the booth throughout the day, along with our newest/youngest member, Troy (who became Chief Rover Driver).

TMS-SD member Patrick Purcell attended his last meeting -- he has taken a job in New York state and was moving the last week of May. Patrick was the chief architect of our San Diego Mars Rover. He will be greatly missed.

Wednesday evening, May 4 had the San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) hosting their "STARS IN THE PARK" public telescope viewing event outside the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. TMS-SD members Gerry and Jesse were there for public outreach activities, as was our Rover Drive Master, Troy. We were quite busy, especially since the evening was heavily overcast and the poor scope-jockeys didn't get a hole in the clouds all evening.

The post-season work party to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) had to be postponed at least until probably October, just prior to the start of the 2005-2006 season in November.

The San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) will host a "Special Program Meeting" lecture event at the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor and Interpretative Center beginning at 7:00pm on Wednesday, June 15th. After making announcements and conducting a small amount of business, the audience will be treated to a talk or presentation by Dr. Gary Peterson on "The Great Martian Climate Change", plus a NASA-JPL Solar System Update by Jerry Hilburn, JPL Solar System Ambassador. TMS-SD members will be there from 6:30pm, with the San Diego Mars Rover operating during daylight hours.

Friday, June 17th will have TMS-SD MARS MOVIE NIGHT featuring 7 "Martian episodes" from the 1985-1992 TV series, "Ray Bradbury Theater", along with another episode from the 1954 serial, "The Purple Monster Strikes" and our usual "Duck Dodgers" cartoon.

TMS-SD members will get together from 2pm to 6pm at Studio 106 for an informal Lego Mars Exploration Rover building party. We've worked on the Lego Rover for an hour after four or five previous regular monthly meetings and we've decided to schedule this block of time to finish this project.

TMS-SD has been invited to give two Mars Exploration lectures to two classes at the Elementary Institute of Science from 1:00pm to 3:30pm on Wednesday, June 22nd, along with our San Diego Mars Rover.

On Tuesday
June 28, TMS-SD members will bring our San Diego Mars Rover to the "San Diego Aerospace Museum" from 10:00am to 4:00pm as part of their 25th Anniversary at the Ford Building in Balboa Park. Admission to the SDAM will be FREE all day.

Wednesday, July 6th will see the San Diego Astronomy Association (SDAA) hosting their "STARS IN THE PARK" public telescope viewing event outside the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. The setup is at 6:30pm, and the event runs from 7:00pm past 9:00pm (weather permitting). It coincides with "THE SKY TONIGHT" Planetarium show in the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center at 7:00pm. TMS-SD members will be there for public outreach activities from 6:30pm to 9:30pm, with the San Diego Mars Rover operating during daylight hours.

The next REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING of TMS-SD will be held on Friday, July 8th at 7:00pm to 10:00pm at Studio 106.

The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) will begin its 6th Season from July 6th through August 9th in the high-arctic on Canada's Devon Island. No San Diego-based crew is expected this year.

TMS-SD members, along with the San Diego Mars Rover, will be providing a Mars Exploration lecture and outreach at the Santa Sophia Academy in Spring Valley at 9:00am on Tuesday, July 12th.

Wednesday-Sunday, July 13th-17th has TMS-SD participating (for our fifth year in a row) at the Comic-Con International 2005 popular art convention. We will be operating our Display Booth in the Exhibitors Hall, as well as providing one programming event during the convention. More details follow below.

Sadly, there will be no Mars Analog Research Station - Australia (MARS-OZ) mission at Arkaroola in the Australian Outback this year.

August 6-7, 2005 - The 2nd Mars Expedition Planning Symposium and Workshop (MEP 2005) is planned for August 6th and 7th in Vancouver BC. The Association of Mars Explorers is sponsoring a workshop to define a 500-day Design Reference Surface Expedition Campaign for a Human Base constructed in the vicinity of Meridiani Planum in the year 2019.

The 8th International Mars Society convention, which will be held at the University of Colorado, Boulder, August 11-14, 2005 is fast approaching. Among the TMS-SD members who have expressed interest in attending are Jesse Clark, Shannon Rupert Robles and Gerry Williams. We're thinking of giving a presentation on how to be a truly "kick ass" Mars Society chapter. Gerry will also submit his entertaining multimedia show, "Mars in the Movies".

Gerry has made contact with a producer for Adelphia, the the fifth-largest cable television company in the country, who is interested in doing an episode for "Inside Southern California" on TMS-SD members some time in late August.

The plans for the TMS-SD August meeting on the 19th are taking the shape of a summer evening barbecue.

TMS-SD plans on scheduling a 3-day weekend Maintenance Mission from San Diego to Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah prior to its activation in November for the 2005/2006 season.

ConJecture 4 Sci-Fi Convention is shaping up for the October 7th-9th weekend, with TMS-SD participation.

COMIC-CON:

The Comic-Con International 2005 popular art convention will have several venues available to TMS-SD.

We will have our Interactive Display Table set up in either the Exhibitor's Hall or in the Mezzanine area between the Exhibitors Hall and the main Programs floor (the floor plans are tough to decipher and we've asked for clarification) for all five days of the convention. We will be working on a schedule for all attending members to crew this booth.

Providing all the hardware is ready, we plan to enter our two crewed Mars Suits, along with our San Diego Mars Rover and a "Mission Support" staffer (in a lab coat) into the Saturday evening Masquerade.

TMS-SD will be coordinating a multimedia panel discussion on Sunday, July 17th at 2:30pm to 4:30pm in Program Room #3. Mars: The Future Isn't what it Used to Be -- a multimedia and panel discussion of how the plans for sending humans to Mars have changed from the past to the present and on into the future. Featuring Dr. Michael Caplinger from Malin Space Science Systems (senior scientist for the Mars Orbital Camera / Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft currently at Mars); Kage Baker, author of The Empress of Mars; Rick Sternbach, senior illustrator for Star Treks TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Nemesis; astronomer Rica Sirbaugh French; editor Jeff Berkwits of Amazing Stories; and Gerry Williams, publisher of the MarsMovieGuide.com. The panel will be moderated by Dave Rankin, co-founder of The Mars Society - San Diego.

MARS LANDER SIMULATOR:

TMS-SD fell into an unusual opportunity recently of acquiring a partially built Mars Lander Simulator project that is being abandoned by the Planetary Society. The Lander was being supervised by Star Trek illustrator Rick Sternbach and is currently in his possession. Gerry and Tim went to Los Angeles yesterday to survey this simulator, documenting it with digital photographs, which were shown to our members at the meeting tonight.

The discussion revolved around several key points: 1) It will be a LOT of work for our chapter to finish this project, either as it was designed, or modified to fit the Mars Direct concept; 2) It is large, about 9-feet in diameter and 8-9 feet tall, so it'll need a large work and storage space; 3) it will require a trailer or something to move it to events with; 4) we've recently lost two of our five chapter's "technogeeks"; 5) it is impressive enough that it will be a draw for our chapter; and 6) it will probably attract more diverse members to our chapter (especially those who want to pursue a project other than Public Outreach.

After the discussion, we took a vote (with more discussion) and decided unanimously to accept this project.

Jesse volunteered the use of his high-bay garage for storage and build-out. Tim has a trailer that we can use to bring the Simulator down to San Diego. It was decided that we'd go up and get it after the Independence Day weekend (to give Jesse time to make some space available. Rick Sternbach has expressed an interest in helping us complete the simulator, and may even bring some film industry friends down to help us on occasion. Shannon suggested that we let the local engineering colleges (specifically UCSD and SDSU) know that we'll need some help with building the project, as well as programming a simulation to run it with.

Best guess is that it will take us approximately 1-2 years to make this operational.

The San Diego Mars Rover: is showing its age, but, like the Energizer Bunny, keeps on rolling along. Since Patrick's departure, Gerry has taken over the Rover maintenance duties. Currently the gold foil on the warm box needs replacing, and the left front wheel's axel has snapped again. Gerry expects to have the Rover up and operating by the "The Great Martian Climate Change" lecture at Mission Trails Regional Park on the 15th.

Mars Suit Taskforce: Gerry has acquired a seamstress to finish the modifications to Suit #1 and to resize and finish building Suit #2 in time for the Comic-Con next month (the really good news is that she'll work a trade-out for some photography by Gerry). Gerry, Tim and Jesse plan to get together on the 19th to survey the hardware portion of the suits and determine what needs to be done to finish Suit #1 and start building Suit #2's helmet and backpack -- most of the materials are on hand.

Public Relations: Nothing to report, but the acquisition of the Mars Lander Simulator project will undoubtedly start the ball rolling again. Additionally, the Mars Opposition in early November will provide additional PR opportunities.

New TMS-SD Shirts: Tim reports that the new shirts (embroidered with our new TMS-SD logo) should arrive any day now.

New Display: Jesse reported on the new framework for our TMS-SD display booth, being constructed out of 3" ABS tubing. Gerry has been printing new images for the collapsible backboard, but has not started installing them. Both projects have a target date of completion in time for Comic-Con.

Website Updates: Gerry is keeping our chapter's website up to date on a monthly basis (and as needed for new items). He's also learning DreamWeaver and plotting a website makeover for some time in the future.

Treasury & Finance: Our current treasury is healthy. Other upcoming costs will include materials our Mars Suits, printing flyers for Comic-Con, and taking our Comic-Con panelists out to lunch at the San Diego Yacht Club prior to the panel. We also usually purchase a gift for the guest panelists from our Mars San Diego Web Store.

Hartmann Book Sales: One sale was made this month. We have 16 books available (just 4 more books to reach our break-even point). We discussed some other selling options, especially nearing the Mars Opposition in early November.

TMS-SD Podcasting: Nothing to report, but at the next meeting we'll plan for a brainstorming meeting to get this rolling.

TMS-SD Membership: We're averaging 8-10 regularly active members, with another 6 occasionally active. Our Yahoo Group News & Message board currently has 124 members signed up across the globe, and our "This Week in San Diego" weekly newsletter (from outreach sign-ups) is up to 282 members locally.

New TMS-SD Events & Activities: The group seemed to be quite satisfied with the amount of outreach (and its quality) we are currently performing. However it is evident that we'll need to increase our active membership base if we plan to do more of our "3-Ring Circus" events with our Display Table, Mars Rover and Mars Suits. Diversifying some of our projects (such as the Mars Lander Simulator) should allow us to attract those with other interests into our group.

ALL-SPACE: is the new name for the combined Space Advocacy Group in San Diego. But Dave Rankin was missing from the meeting, so discussion was put off to the next month's meeting. Jeff Berkwits was also absent, and he was to give us a report on his encounter with the Orange County Space Society (OCSS).

- Gerry ran some videos on the big screen during this time. Most notably was movies of the Martian Dust Devils active near the MER Spirit Rover, and a movie of the MER Opportunity Rover pulling itself free of the sand dune it had been stuck in for the past six weeks.

-gmw