Greetings all:-
Here we are again, another action-packed issue of the RPSR. While there
still exist a number of apparently shy and retiring chapter contacts,
I'm pleased to see that a good number of contacts and TF leaders have
gotten into the groove of the RPSR. There's a lot of interesting things
going on in spots far and wide. Check it out and pass it along.
Again, apologies on the schedule slip. I'd like to try the three-week
hiatus once again, so expect a call for news bits on Thursday 10/11 with
items in by Monday 10/15. The next RPSR will fly Thursday 10/18, though
I expect many will be bleary-eyed from trying to catch a glimpse of the
Leonids.
Final note: I've gotten indications that some e-mail to me has bounced,
allowing that the campr2@javanet.com address was dead, did not exist,
etc. If this happened to you, let me know about (something of a Catch-22
I realize, but just keep re-sending). Thanks.
Later -- Richard Wagner
{mars rocks}
=====================================================
Red Planet Satellite Report -- v1, n3 -- October28, 1999
** U. S. Chapters
+ Alabama
No report.
+ Alaska
Marilyn Dudley-Rowley, mailto:MD-R@msn.com
On travel. No report.
+ Arizona
Bill Gjestvang, mailto:DataWolf@IBM.net
No report.
+ Arkansas
Wayne Bowen, mailto:bowenw@alpha.obu.edu
Ryan Goins, , has agreed to begin on a web page for
the Arkansas Mars Society. Please send him any suggestions you might
have for snazzy graphics or interesting links
+ California, CALTECH-JPL
Chris Hirata, mailto:chirata@alice.caltech.edu
No report.
+ California, Central Valley
Domenique van der Goore, mailto:traveler@cyberlynk.com
Not much new to report. Still plugging away on the provisional members
council, and we are getting quite a it accomplished. Some volunteers are
receiving feed back, but I would like more interested members to get in
touch and tell us their ideas on how to make communication within the
Mars Society better. Not much to report chapter-wise, but when my term
on the provisional council expires I am planing on actively contacting
the members in my area and trying to get this chapter up and active.
+ California, North
Kelly Snook, mailto:ksnook@mail.arc.nasa.gov
No report.
+ California, South
Dave Jedynak, mailto:jedynak@sileas.com
No report.
+ Colorado
Rocky Mountain Mars Society (RMMS)
Brad Jarvis, bjarvis@ezlink.com
The RMMS Board of Directors met this month to discuss short, medium, and
long range goals for the chapter.
At the October general meeting, Tom Meyer gave an introduction to the
resources and technologies available for living off the land on Mars.
Kurt Micheels also briefed us on the status of the Mars Arctic Research
Station project.
Note that at 7:30 p.m. on November 4, Robert Zubrin will be speaking to
the Northern Colorado Astronomical Society at the Discovery Center
science museum in Fort Collins.
+ Florida
Richard Brodeur, mailto: rbrodeur@yahoo.com
The Florida Chapter is having its first meeting on November 6th at KSC.
The Chapter has 60 members who are scattered from the Florida Keys in
the south to Florida State University in the north.
The Chapter is currently forming a task force to support the
M.A.R.S.-Haughton project. Kurt Micheels is evaluating the available
talent in order to determine the specific focus of the Florida team.
Members who have not been active to date and non-members who would like
to join the Florida Chapter should contact Dick Brodeur at
rebrodeur@yahoo.com
+ Red Dirt (the Georgia chapter of the Mars Society)
Mike Kretsch, mkretsch@compassusa.com
Meeting Saturdays, Oct 23, Nov 6, Nov 20
Rocky Mountain Pizza, 10th and Hemphill, Atlanta Ga
Project 1 RadioLuminescent Photovoltaics
Project 2 Tethers and created magnetic fields for ship power
Volunteer help essential. :)
+ Hawaii
Matt Rohrer, mailto:matt@prognostikos.com
No report.
+ Idaho
Chris Struble, mailto: clstruble@earthlink.net
No report.
+ Ilinois Chapter, Chicago
Matthew Lowry, mailto: mplowry@ibm.net
October has been quite an interesting month for the Mars Society in
Chicago! On the evening of the 22nd, Dr. Robert Zubrin came to the Adler
Planetarium to present his Mars Direct plan to send humans to Mars
within the next decade. There were hundreds present, including groups
from two local North Shore high schools. Our Chicago chapter assisted
with Zubrin's book sales and signing after the event, and the news of
the Mars Society and its mission was spread wide that evening.
In addition, Dr. Zubrin attended a special meeting of the Chicago
chapter the next morning on the 23rd. This was by far the largest
meeting we've had yet, with a whopping 30 people in attendance! Zubrin
gave everyone a real shot in the arm, and a lively and fruitful
discussion followed some of his comments. Some highlights of the
discussion included:
==> making arrangements to meet with local politicians and
Congress-critters, wherein Zubrin stated that almost 90% of the contacts
made thus far with politcos have been positive; there are plans within
the Chicago chapter to attempt a visit to Representative John Porter.
==> Zubrin encouraged those present to involve themselves more at the
local level, delivering talks about the Mars Society to anyone who would
listen - rotary clubs, school & church groups, etc.
==> The slogan "Shop for Mars!" was adopted in the hopes that more
Society members would realize the importance of buying items online
through the Mars Society website as a method of subsidizing the
Society's economic base.
==> Brian Williams (talon57@well.com) plans to help make arrangements to
meet with local politicians to express the interests of the Mars
Society.
==> Jim Plaxco (jplaxco@planets.org) was nominated to arrange Chicago
chapter outreach talks to local community groups.
It was also suggested that the Chicago chapter have a presence at the
upcoming World Con science fiction convention. Hopefully, we can make
ourselves more visible through this event. Lastly, our next meeting is
to follow a presentation of nuclear propulsion systems at the Adler
Planetarium on November 21st. A specified time has not yet been set.
To Mars!
+ Indiana
Steve Resler, mailto:sresler@eyeworld.net
No report.
+ Iowa
Katharine Osborne, mailto:kosborne@eai.com
No report.
+ Kansas
Holly Kellogg, mailto:HKellogg@feist.com
No report.
+ Louisiana
Shelly Hynes, mailto:cshynes@cp-tel.net
The president of the National Society of Physics Students is my advisor,
Dr. Gary White. My school, Northwestern State Univ of Louisiana is
hosting a Zone 10 SPS meeting in March. This would be a great
opportunity to spread the word about Mars to students in Louisiana,
Alabama, Mississippi, and part of Tennessee. Please let me know if your
Mars Society group wants to set up an exhibit.
We still have not finalized the talk with John Connolly. I will keep you
updated.
+ Maine
Mary Ellen Symanski, mailto:mesphd@aol.com
No report.
+ New England Chapter
Troy Lee Hudson, mailto: thudson@MIT.EDU
The New England chapter has two projects currently in the works. In the
early part of next year we will, by virtue of our location, be in a
prime spot to get our message out to presidential hopefuls at the New
Hampshire primary. We fully intend to take advantage of this and
incorporate as many members of the New England chapter as possible.
More immediately, the New England chapter is acting on the mandate from
the steering committee to sponsor an event surrounding the Mars Polar
Lander Arrival. Known as MarsLIVE!, we are currently seeking cooperation
from the Boston Museum of Science to help host and sponsor this event,
which will focus on the landing at 3pm Eastern Time. With our contacts
through Think Mars, Mars Society, and other ties in New England, we plan
to have several high-profile speakers, displays from numerous companies
and other space societies, as well as merchandising and information
sessions espousing the activities of the Mars Society. Any assistance
other chapters wish to render as far as presentation materials or items
to sell would be welcome.
+ MD, DC, VA
Theresa Klein, mailto: tjk2@ix.netcom.com
New contact, no report.
+ Michigan
Julie Edwards, mailto:jedwards@umich.edu
The Michigan Mars Society is planning "Space Night" on the evening of 18
November 1999 at the North Campus of University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor. Plans are still tentative, but we expect to have several speakers
including an astronaut, an engineering professor, and possibly a
politician, as well as our chapter president (presenting Mars Direct).
Other current projects include building a large portable model of a Mars
Hab which is coming along nicely, thanks mainly to the efforts of one of
our members. Future projects may include the concept of mobility on Mars
since we live in the automotive state.
+ Minnesota
Ben Huset, mailto:BenHuset@skypoint.com
No report.
+ Minnesota Youth Chapter
Kevin Kelly, mailto:pkelly@pop.isd.net
No report.
+ Mississippi
Garry Speer, mailto:VMSmith1@aol.com
No report.
+ Missouri -- Kansas City
George Howard, mailto:Ghoward683@aol.com
Meetings...The KCMO Mars Society Chapter had its October meeting last
Tuesday, Oct 19. The meeting is jointly held with the Heart of America
Chapter NSS and the Delta Vee Network space interest group. Due to
school schedules and other events turn out was light, but there still
were two new members. One new member for the National Space Society and
one new member for the Delta Vee Network. No new members for the Mars
Society this time. The topic of discussion was the vote on the NASA
budget and a showing of the Mars Society slide show. Beverages and
snacks were served.
Lobby Efforts... The KCMO Chapter of the Mars Society participated in
the lobby effort to restore NASA funding back to the requested level, by
contacting as many Mars Society members available to fax or mail letters
to the correct Senators. The Heart of America Chapter NSS conducted a
mailing to National Space Society members in Missouri and the Delta Vee
Network conducted an e-mailing to unaffiliated Space interested people
in Missouri. This was done in coordination with Tim Kyger of Universal
Spacelines. About 800 people total were contacted from this combined
group effort on this end. This is a comparatively small number in
relation to the national effort, however that is what was accomplished
on a local level. Although I do not work in aerospace and would not be
directly affected one way or the other on the out come of the funding
vote, it was just something positive to do.
Website renovation...The Delta Vee Network website will soon be updated
to include a few new features. The Mars Society chapter page has not
been updated since last year so it really needs it. The new features
will add a little more interest to the website. The URL for my site is
http://hometown.aol.com/Ghoward683/Space.html. Hope you find it
interesting.
Marketing... Product development is a major focus of mine in order to
generate revenue to support chapter operations. Currently the expense is
largely mine, so I am very driven to build a business plan. There have
been some pitfalls in the past with now former group members attempting
to claim inventive rights to products I was trying to develop to cover
my costs with. These people have been horrifically counter productive.
The major focus is on products that are unpatentable and have some
degree of labor intensiveness involved in production. This discourages
the under handed. Unfortunately it also discourages some honest people
as well. Nevertheless, progress is being made.
+ Nebraska
Harry Jordan, mailto:hajordan@esu3.esu3.k12.ne.us
No report.
+ Nevada
Shawn Plunket, mailto:SPlunket@aol.com
Being one of the newest chapters in the Mars society, we are trying to
obtain a solid foundation with our members. We are actually in the
process of establishing a new contact in Las Vegas so that the distance
barrier isn't so large in our state. Other than that- still trying to
recruit new members and working hard to create some noise in Nevada.
+ New Jersey
Paul Rockman, mailto:prockman@turbo.kean.edu
No report.
+ New York
Paul Contursi, mailto: pcon@pipeline.com
No report -- my mistake.
+ New Mexico
Eric Orrill, mailto:eorrill@jntsw.com
No report.
+ Northern New Mexico Chapter (or Los Alamos Chapter)
Lisa Ice, ice@cs.unm.edu
No meetings in October due to the hectic schedule of the chapter
contact, but two accomplishments to report. First, we've received
"sanctioning" by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This means that
we'll be able to use Laboratory resources such as e-mail and the
Laboratory bulletin for publicizing events. Second, a future member was
born to our chapter-in-formation on Sept. 16. His name is Donald Mars
Poston and was 9 lbs even at birth. His parents call him "Baby Mars"
about 50% of the time.
+ North Dakota Chapter
John Cable, jrjohn@martin.ndak.net
No report.
+ North Dakota, Eastern
Jonathan Hovland, mailto:fenix@thequest.net
No report.
+ Ohio
Tam Czarnik, mailto:patttam@erinet.com
October was a good month for presentations. Member Janis Janbergs gave
the 'Mars Direct' presentation to a classroomful of schoolkids in Latvia
last month. Member Monica Simmons presented 'Mars Direct' to the
assembled Oakwood HS Science Staff. Member Tom Lucero presented 'Mars
Direct' at CONTEXT 9 Oct 99. Member Tam Czarnik presented the 'Mars
Direct' mission profile to his Rotation head and residents and fellows
in Dayton, OH on 6 Oct 99. Public Outreach Coordinator Monica Simmons
and Ohio Chair Tam Czarnik will give the 'Mars Direct' presentation to
Curriculum Coordinators at Trotwood HS on 26 Oct 99.
Sadly, presentations at MSDC (Cleveland) and EARTHGATE 2 (Cincinnati)
did not take place, due to cancellation of the events.
On the Education front, Member Tam Czarnik spoke on 'Aerospace Medicine'
at CONTEXT in Columbus, OH 10 Oct 99. Tam Czarnik has also completed
part 5 of his 6-part 'Aerospace Medicine 101' series, "Medical
Emergencies in Space". It is available on-line at
http://www.drfast.net/mars/
In other news, Ohio Chapter ran a table at CONTEXT 9-10 Oct 99,
collecting signatures, selling buttons, and discussing the 'Mars Direct'
plan with Con-goers. Pictures can be seen on-line at
http://www.drfast.net/mars/. We will have information (pamphlets,
hand-outs, Newsletters and a sign-up sheet) at Ohio Valley Filk Fest in
October, though no presentation is planned. Our website now sports a
'register to receive the free biweekly Newsletter' icon - for Ohio
residents only; sorry, folks. And member Craig Jarrett is crafting a
number of entries for the "Rouget de Lisle" Song Contest, including the
first Martian Drinking Song, "Mooning the Earth from Mars"!
+ Oklahoma
John Ohlheiser, mailto:JPO10708@aol.com
No report.
+Oregon
Gus Frederick, mailto: gus@norwebster.com
On October 16, the Oregon Chapter of the Mars Society held its first
official meeting, in Corvallis, Oregon. Outcomes of the meeting,
including minutes, will be posted on the chapter Web site at:
http://chapters.marssociety.org/or/ Some of the highlights of the
meeting include the Chapter sponsoring a Mars Millenium project, (making
use of Martian Lava Tube Caves as habitat locations), in partnership
with the Oregon Public Education Network and initiating an outreach
program focused on holding the Chapter meetings every there months in a
different location around the state.
Also posted on the Oregon Chapter site are full text versions of the two
papers presented by Oregon members at the 2nd Annual MS Convention in
Boulder last August: "Society and Government: How can we Avoid the Same
Mistakes on Mars?" by Erik Carlstrom, Chapter President; and "Martian
Lava Tubes Revisisted" by Gus Frederick, Chapter Secretary & Webster
Aside from the meeting, other Chapter activities include the creation of
a scale lava tube cave model, in partnership with the Oregon Chapter of
the National Space Society, the "Oregon L5 Society." For updates on this
check out: http://www.norwebster.com/model/ When completed, this model
will serve as a great "prop" for our various outreach activities,
especially in regards to the Mars Millennium project.
+ Central PA /Penn State University Mars Society Chapter
Wojciech Klimkiewicz, Ph.D., mailto: wxk10@psu.edu
We completed the organizational task and the proposal preparation for
Penn State students to participate in NASA Human Exploration and
Development of Space (HEDS-UP) Student Design Competition in the area of
Adaptive Robotics for Mars Exploration. Proposal sent on October 15,
1999.
+ Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Independence Chapter
Gary Fisher, mailto:GCFisheris@aol.com
We had a chapter meeting October 2. At that meeting we picked the winner
of our "First Words On Mars" contest that we ran at the Mars Society
Convention. The winner is Bruce Miller for "Mankind is now learning to
walk. This is but the second step on our stairway to the stars." A 12"
Sky and Telescope Mars Globe was the prize.
On October 6 chapter members Rudy Behrens, Richard Mallon-Day, Michelle
Baker and myself gave a 1 hour presentation at the Ambler, PA campus of
Temple University titled "Living on Mars - Sci Fi or Reality." The
audience consisted of about 35 students from the Landscape Architecture
and Horticultural departments. The talk was well received. The sponsor,
professor Baldev Lambda, arranged for a number of red colored snacks,
including doughnuts with red icing! Something to keep in mind if anyone
is planning a party around the Polar Lander landing.
On October 16, I gave the Mars Society slide show presentation at the
City Institute Library on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Chapter
member Michelle Baker, a JPL ambassador to the Solar System, gave a talk
about the Galileo flyby of IO immediately following my talk. We had an
audience of about 25. Both talks were well received and generated a
number of good questions.
Next up will be presentations at the Philadelphia Science Fiction
Convention November 12-14 (Philcon). I'll participate in a debate on
robotic versus human (my position) space exploration, and also give the
slide show. Other chapter members are involved in other panel
discussions. We will be jointly staffing a table with members of PASA
(the Philadelphia Area Space Alliance) during most of the convention
hours. No formal chapter meeting is planned as yet, though a lunch
meeting somewhere near the convention site (Adams Mark hotel) will be
scheduled soon.
+ Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Dan Hussain, mailto:DanHussain@aol.com
The Mars Society of Pittsburgh is off to an interesting beginning. Since
the last report, we have organized a mailing list which now includes
over 20 subscribers, and have had some Internet communications between
the chapter members.
I have been able to organize the first meeting of the chapter for
Sunday, November 14th. I have received about a dozen confirmations for
attendance. With our first meeting, we hope to launch the political
presence of the Mars Society of Pittsburgh. I feel we can have a
considerable impact on local politics, for next year's election in
November 2000 which will be a major national and local election.
I look forward to the upcoming year, and to inspiring interest in Mars
exploration in the Pittsburgh area.
+ Puerto Rico
Jose Lopez Reyes, mailto:skyloop@caribe.net
No report.
+ Rhode Island
Steve Connors, mailto:connors@ici.net
No report.
+ South Carolina
Richard Allen Brown, mailto:Charlestonideas@hotmail.com
No report.
+ St. Louis
Erv Baumann, mailto:erv.baumann@boeing.com
No report.
+ Tennessee - Kentucky
Trae Winter, mailto:hwinter@latte.memphis.edu
No report.
+ Texas, Austin
Tim Crain, mailto:crain@csr.utexas.edu
No report.
+ Texas, Dallas
Scott Bell, mailto:SBell@JPI.com
No report.
+ Texas, Houston
Chris Barnes, mailto:USAMarsMan@aol.com
No report.
+ Utah
Tom Allred, mailto:AllredTj@ubtanet.com
No report.
+ Washington, Grays Harbor/Olympic Peninsula
Johannes Helgeson, mailto:noachis@hotmail.com
No report.
+ Mars Society Puget Sound (Seattle, WA chapter)
Jim Burk, mailto:jburk@jburk.com
Our chapter is planning Seattle MarsFest to coincide with the Mars Polar
Lander landing on December 3rd. Our leading contender for the venue is
the Boeing Museum of Flight, but we are exploring other options such as
renting a downtown movie theatre. We are building a website at
http://marsfest.org which will showcase our event, the New England
event, PlanetFest, and any other events.
The latest in our series of public outreach talks about Mars happened at
the Seattle American Society of Mechanical Engineers monthly meeting. My
talk on Mars exploration to about 30 engineers was a great success. Our
October meeting had four new members that had recently joined the Mars
Society and heard about our chapter from the main website. One of the
new members was an executive for local company SpaceLabs, which
specializes in health monitoring and is interested in supporting the
Mars Society.
+ West Virginia
Robert Strong, mailto:strongro@WLSVAX.WVNET.EDU
No report.
+ Wisconsin
Scott Davis, mailto: scud1@execpc.com
This month, October, has been really busy for the Wisconsin chapter. We
set up a tent at the Tripoli Wisconsin Association's amateur rocket
launch in Kenosha, WI earlier this month. Pegasus Graphics generously
donated a large banner and some posters to our chapter that we displayed
at the event. We set up a display table at the First Contact convention
in Milwaukee as well. This weekend we will be attending the Chicago
chapter's meeting in which Robert Zubrin is also planning on attending.
The last weekend this month we are planning on setting up a table along
with the Lunar Reclamation Society at JVL-Con in Janesville, WI. I don't
know if next month will be as packed as this one, but I hope the level
of activity will remain high.
+ Wyoming
Wyoming Chapter
Patrick Banks, PAT@uwyo.edu
No report.
+ Mars Society Youth Group
Margarita Marinova, mailto: mmm@mit.edu
The Youth Group formed at the Second Convention when youth expressed the
need for us to provide a voice of what we want our future to be. We came
to the conclusion that youth often have a somewhat different perspective
on a variety of topics and that it is important to make these
perspectives heard. So far the group has 87 members. We are in the
process of becoming involved with projects. Any ideas for easy, low
cost, low time requirement projects would be VERY appreciated! As well a
number of high school chapters have started! Our membership is growing
pretty fast. A person of any age is very welcome to help out, suggest
ideas, etc. However, only persons under 30 may act as a point of contact
or vote on important issues. If you would like to join the youth group
and our mailing list, please e-mail me.
** International Chapters **
+ Argentina, Latin America
Jorge Mermoz, mailto:JMermoz@bds.esc.edu.ar
Though a very small chapter (for the moment!), we have been very busy
the last few months getting ready for the first (ever) Teacher
Conference on Space Sciences in Education here in Argentina. Here goes
our brief report:
The Mars Society Argentina and Belgrano Day School organized the First
Teacher Conference on Space Sciences in Education last Saturday, October
9th. It was attended by 45 teachers belonging to 18 schools from Buenos
Aires city and surroundings.
The initial idea was to offer a framework in which schools could present
their work, but it soon became clear that few had the necessary tools
and resources to achieve our objectives. We, therefore, started right
from the beginning. Through intense and varied activities teachers
attended lectures, had access to displayed materials, meteorite samples,
computer simulations and videos. Workshops on remote sensors, orbital
mechanics and extreme environments were also offered. Lectures covered
topics dealing with child incentivation, meteorites and astrobiology.
The conference was a success and we all agreed to join again in 2001 to
give teachers time enough to put all these ideas into practice according
to their particular circumstances. In the meantime close contact will be
maintained through Internet and a quarterly newsletter.
+ Australia
Andrew Hamilton, mailto:ahamilto@nsw.bigpond.net.au
Held a combined NSSA Mars Society meeting to plan Robert Zubrin's Aussie
tour in March 2000. Meeting was very successful with lots of ideas to
raise the money required and willingness of people to take on
responsibility.
+ Belgium
Antoon Van Boxstael, mailto:Antoon@hotmail.com
No report.
+ Canada
Marc Boucher, mailto: webmaster@marssociety.org
On travel, no report.
+ Chile
Cristian Puebla-Menne, mailto:cpuebla@cmet.net
No report.
+ Cyprus, Mediterranean
George Lordos, mailto:Lordos@mit.edu
No report.
+ France
Richard Heidmann, mailto:Rheidmann@aol.com
The French chapter has registered as an association, in agreement with
the French law, in March 1999, under the name "Planete Mars". We have
now more than 50 members, including people from the French space agency
CNES and the space industry, as well as science book writers and
journalists. Our first goal was to create a website which is now well
developed and updated at least once a week. Since creation, several
meetings have been hold in Paris and Toulouse. The last highlights were
Robert Zubrin's meetings in Paris and Toulouse during his western Europe
tour. In Paris Olivier de Goursac, the French representative of JPL's
outreach program has enhanced the meeting with a scale model of the Mars
Polar Lander. A lot of pictures of Robert Zubrin and this model have
been taken by the French well-known astronomy magazine "Ciel et Espace"
("Sky and Space"). In Toulouse it's the "City of space"
www.cite-espace.com museum that has hosted the meeting. About 120 people
attended the "Mars Direct" presentation. The "City of space" is also
very interested in the Mars Arctic research station. Next year a
temporary exhibition about Mars exploration will be started. A scale
model of the habitat could then be presented. We have also started an
educational program with a high school in Toulouse.
October 16th, the president of the association, Richard Heidmann, gave a
talk attended by about one hundred people entitled : "Mars : approaching
a new world" at "Palais de la decouverte", the popular Science Exhibit
in Paris.
November 20th , "Planete Mars" will organize a mini symposium in Paris.
Three lectures are scheduled :
=The question of life on Mars by Charles Frankel, writer of the latest
French Mars book "Life on Mars".
=The Mars Sample Return program by Michel Rougeron, head of the
astronomy and solar system department at CNES.
=The Mars Polar Lander by Olivier de Goursac, French representative of
JPL's Mars outreach program.
December 3rd , special evening at the City of space in Toulouse for the
Mars Polar landing. We are planning to have the same event in Paris.
Meanwhile we are ready to publish the first issue of our internal
bulletin.
+ Germany
Michael Bosch, mailto:Michael.Bosch@wiwi.uni-regensburg.de
No report.
+ Iceland
Olafur Patrick Olafsson, mailto:opo@rhi.hi.is
No report.
+ Israel
Alin Moss, mailto:alinm@hotmail.com
No report.
+ Italy
Fabrizio Pirondini, mailto:pirro@tin.it
No report.
+ Japan
Onizuka,Michitaka, mailto: onizuka@colorado.edu
Kiosuke Murakawa, mailto: murakawa@csp.co.jp
Domain name registration for marssociet.co.jp has been submitted
+ Mexico
Rich Robins, mailto: Mars@SpaceProjects.com
No report.
+ Netherlands
Arno Wielders, mailto:arnoux@strw.leidenuniv.nl
No report.
+ New Zealand
David Maclenna, apparently corrupt e-mail address
No report.
+ Peru
Johan Veerman, mailto:jveerman@yahoo.com
No report.
+ Philippines
Kin Enriquez, mailto:kin_toy@hotmail.com
Well, the group is not formally organized yet, but I plan to build the
group through the University of the Philippines Astronomical Society
(which I am a member). I already talked to them and they are open to the
idea. We're supposed to link with another astronomical society at
another school and I plan to introduce Mars Society to them too.
I am giving away to everybody I know all the brochures the Society sent
me. I was also been able to present the video (the one presented at
Discovery) to a party.
The last time we had an exhibit, me and some members made a sojourner
rover-replica the centerpiece of the basically Mars-themed display. In
this light, if there are new brochures and mars-related materials I
would like to request them. Other plans: I am currently developing a web
page to promote mars society in the Philippines.
Well that's basically what's going on right now.
On to Mars!
+ Mars Society Polska (Polish Chapter)
Piotr Moskal, mailto:piotr.moskal@lupus.pl
This time we have three important news. First - between 22 and 23 of
September, in the Space Research Center in Warsaw, took place an
Astronautical Convention devoted to the theme of space propulsions. We
participated in the event with a speech titled "In situ propellant
production as a solution in flights Earth-Mars-Earth" (by Andrzej
Kotarski). The second thing - we finished to write our statute and are
almost ready to accomplish the registration process. Prof. Z. Klos, the
director of the Space Research Center agreed to provide us with a
conference room in SRC, where our first chapter meeting will take place
soon. During that meeting we hope to gather all documents and signatures
needed to register. And finally, I'm done with our new web site project.
It will be available on the Net within a few days.
+ Russia
Gennady Gusev, mailto:gusev@ana.spb.ru
No report.
+ South Africa
Evan James Dembskey, mailto:evan@telemessage.co.za
No report.
+ Spain, Canary Islands
Cayetano Santana Gil, mailto: csangi@idecnet.com
Like New England and Seattle's chapters, I am organizing an event for
MPL's arrive Mars. I also organize an expo about Mars for 2000. I'll
like contact with Mars Society members in Canary Islands.
+ Spain, Pennisular
Alexander Hristov, mailto:ahristov@psd.es
No report.
+ Sweden/Scandinavia
Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, mailto:c_g_nordquist@yahoo.com
Nothing new to report, yet. C.-G. N.
+ Switzerland
Claude-Alain Roten, mailto:claude-alain.roten@igbm.unil.ch
No report.
+ Switzerland
Gabriel Borruat, mailto:gabriel.borruat@igbm.unil.ch
No report.
+ Ukraine
Vladymy Shevernytskyy, mailto:charity@akcecc.kiev.ua
No report.
+ United Kingdom
Bo Maxwell, mailto:sagan@dircon.co.uk
Robert Zubrin and Bo Maxwell completed a whirlwind tour of England and
Scotland, with Dr. Zubrin speaking at the Surrey Space Centre,
University College London, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers,
London, Cranfield University, Leicester University and St. Andrew's
University in Scotland. The tour also included interviews with the BBC
World Service, Scottish radio and a number of newspapers. The tour was
well received by all the audiences, and enabled the Mars Society to
establish stronger relationships with organisations and space societies
across the country.
Two highlights of the tour came in Leicester, where Dr. Zubrin and Bo
Maxwell were given a tour of the newly-opened British Challenger Centre,
and discussed longer-term co-operation and joint project opportunities
between the Challenger Centre and the Society. Following this, they were
able to meet with, and share a presentation with, Dr. Mark Sims of the
Beagle 2 project, who gave the audience at the presentation an update on
the latest status of the mission.
A full report on the tour is in preparation and will be available on the
Mars Society UK website at http://www.marssociety.org.uk in the near
future.
The re-organisation of the Society continued in October, moving it
closer to Limited Company status. New roles were defined, with Philip
Dembo undertaking the role of UK Executive Director, and Bo Maxwell
moving into the role of UK President. The Society also gained a new
Membership Secretary, Peter Loftus.
Planning for the 1999 / 2000 season of outreach continues, with the
Society invited to field a team of speakers at the forthcoming UK-SEDS
conference in November as well as continuing our talks to universities
and other organizations.
The Mars Society UK trade stand is now firmly established, and was on
the road with Dr. Zubrin. The flexible display, measuring some 6 feet by
6 feet, gives up to 12 2 ft by 3ft panels on which the Society is able
to mount an impressive display for fact sheets, images and diagrams
produced using a photo-quality 1440x1440dpi printer donated for our use.
The unit can also be split into two table-top units for easier display.
** Task Forces/Special Interests **
+ Executive Director
Maggie Zubrin, mailto:mzubrin@aol.com
All-please welcome Ellen Schattner who is working as the new Office
Manager for the Mars Society. Ellen is processing registrations,
maintaining the data base, sending out email confirmations and ID cards.
Soon she will tackle the formidable pile of back-logged filing. Ellen
has done a super job of getting things up to date and has freed up my
time to work on our Mars Store and other fund-raising issues. You will
be seeing her email address on new member greetings.
We have added many new affiliates at the Mars Store. Paul Wooster, a
super sharp Internet designer and dedicated college student, and I are
working on design issues. This is an easy way to shop and a great way to
make money for TMS. Please encourage chapter members to try it. We will
have a special Mars merchandise section that chapters can utilize to
sell or purchase bulk items.
Kurt Micheels has been working on a fundraising letter with some input
from me. We have each done some cold calling, but discovered that we
don't get more than a name from that approach. The key is to send a
strong follow up letter with brochure. If anyone knows of individuals
they would like us to contact, please forward the names to both of us.
In general, Kurt will be working on tech firms for money and in-kind
contributions and I will be approaching more general businesses, such as
Mars Candy.
+ E-Commerce
Tony Santana, mailto: TSMarsCo@aol.com
ORGANIZATION:
The Electronic Commerce Task Force was formed spontaneously at the Mars
Society convention with Tony Santana as organizer /titular head, who
works on Wall Street. The Ecommerce task or mission is to raise capital
utilizing electronic commerce to fund Mars Society projects. It
currently reports to the Internet team under Marc Boucher and to
Marketing under Maggie Zubrin, and liaises with staff from the Steering
committee; Ecommerce operates via member suggestions and online
discussion and voting, leading to proposals to Marc/Maggie.
PROPOSALS TO DATE:
Ecommerce has generated various proposals to date, many of which were
already being developed by Maggie and Marc prior to its formation,
others which are on hold, vetoed or being researched. These include:
A. CONVENTION PROPOSALS.
=Proposal a1. Viral Marketing (OPEN)
Discounts to members for signing up new members. No volunteers to
develop!
=Proposal a2. Trademark (NIXED)
Licensing the Mars Society logo to vendors. On hold for now.
=Proposal a3. Mars Store (GO)
Preapproved before Ecomm. Need a volunteer to work with Marc on stocking
store. Now being worked on.
=Proposal a4. Affiliate Programs/Advertising (GO)
A "Cold Call Letter" I proposed was approved for determining any
interested vendors. Note: Only HQ can negotiate contracts, just send
them the interested replies.
=Proposal a5. Celebrity auctions and Greatergood.com (OPEN)
Revenues from auctioning celebrity member products or pctg of items sold
on charitable site. Needs research.
(#) POST CONVENTION PROPOSALS
=Proposal 1. Voting on Proposals (GO)
Voted in/Approved. We vote on Proposals then pass them to HQ for
approval (or not).
=Proposal 2. Low Cost Sale Items: Mars Cup. (NIXED)
Develop a low cost cup for sale. Nixed by HQ. Possibly do it as a
private/ chapter sale item left open, as Rocky Mt was allowed to do
Tshirts.
=Proposal 2a. Virtual Chapter (NIXED)
Idea to collect our own dues and start developing Ecomm ideas as a
virtual chapter. Nixed by HQ.
=Proposal 3. Celebrity Fundraising. (MODIFIED)
Developing corporate fundraising contacts: send any corporate/other
contacts you have to Maggie Zubrin, Robert Zubrin, or Kurt Micheels
directly. They handle all fundraising.
=Proposal 4. Banner Links (NIXED)
Developing links to banners from advertisers: Nixed for now as dollars
too small. Possible to devise banners at the chapter level got mixed
feedback.
NEW PROPOSALS
=Proposal 5. Mousepads (OPEN)
Developing Mousepads as saleable store items. Some info developed by
Katya. Thanks Katya!
=Proposal 6: Member Discounts (OPEN)
Seeking Vendors who offer Member Discounts (OPEN)
Many companies like Avis will give member discounts in return for just
letting the members know about them. How to pursue this? Comments/votes?
=Proposal 7: Developing Links to the MS, e.g. AOLNews (OPEN)
AOL has been contacted to determine if they would host a link to the
Mars Society. Though approved, they have not replied to the follow up
letter yet!
+ Education
Tom Becker, mailto:tombecker@primary.net
No report.
+ Fundraising
Kristin Boekhoff, mailto:kristin.k.boekhoff@us.pwcglobal.com
Greetings all! I am still hoping that more people will contact me about
distributing pledge cards in your area. I realize that for some people
this may be a challenging task--many folks tend to liken fundraising to
begging--but this is not the case! You are merely showing your support
for an organization that you believe in and providing others with the
opportunity to support the organization as well. If you still don't feel
that this is the right task for you, please check with your chapters to
see if there is anyone else on the team who would be willing to
volunteer. All you need to do is send me an e-mail!
FUNDRAISING TIP OF THE WEEK: As many of you know, we now have several
items for sale through our Mars store located on our website. The store
contains links to some of our affiliates, including Amazon.com, The
Sharper Image, Hickory Farms, and many others. The Mars Society gets
about 5% of everything that is purchased from these sites if you enter
in through the Mars Society home page. The holidays are coming up, so
when you start to do your shopping, please remember to buy online
through our store! Also, when sending out gift lists, you might want to
include a note at the bottom telling people to buy your gifts online.
Here is an example of a note I recently sent to my family:
"As promised here is a list of birthday book suggestions. I would also
like to suggest that if you purchase the books online, that you go to
www.marssociety.org and click on the amazon.com logo to get in to the
bookstore. This way, not only do I get great presents, but my favorite
charity also gets 5% of the purchase!"
On to Mars!
+ Graphics & Production
Gary Hollingshead, mailto:garyah@imagineering-usa.com
No report.
+ Internet Task Force
Marc Boucher - webmaster@marssociety.org
Harold Miller - peabody@wayback.net
No report.
+ Martian Civilization and Culture Group
(late Law and Governance Task Force)
Ruth Waterton, mailto:ruth@h2oton.freeserve.co.uk>
Nothing new..
+ Marketing
Maggie Zubrin, mailto:mzubrin@aol.com
See Executive Director's report
+ Mars Arctic Task Force
Kurt Micheels, mailto: kmicheels@aol.com
We have initiated production of a 3D virtual model for the web site.
Work to be accomplished by the "Sun Dance" lab of the CU Boulder
Architecture School, under the direction of Sonja Holmes. A second 3D
model of the exterior is being drawn by Wayne Cassalls. Both Cassalls
and Holmes are members of the Rocky Mountain Mars Society. I and Ned
Dodds attended an "independent review" and jury by space architecture
professionals hosted by Lockheed Martin at their Facilities at JSC
Houston, 10/22/99. Prime recommendations were to re-evaluate the design
from a "systems" view point, and enhance its appearance (make it
sexier). I will go to Calgary tomorrow to attend a CSA conference, meet
with our prospective prime and logistics contractor
+ Political & Public Outreach
Brian Frankie, mailto:brianf5070@aol.com, Chris Carberry
(ccarberry@masshist.org)
No report.
+ MarsNews.com (www.marsnews.com)
Jim Burk (jburk@jburk.com) -- Managing Editor / Webmaster
Due to my recent career change, the site wasn't being maintained for
about a week. To prevent this from recurring, I have given my chapter
Vice President and longtime site volunteer Dustin Green
(tourdemars@aol.com) the "virtual keys" to the server. Dustin will
assist me in entering news stories in the database.
In the next couple of months, we hope to relocate the site on the
Cyberteams server, move the news backend to a commerical database
solution, and engineer a visual redesign of the site. Stay tuned and
email us at developers@marsnews.com if you'd like to help out. We will
be setting up several mailing lists soon to foster communication between
site volunteers.
+ Ares: The Mars Society's CDROM (home.marssociety.org/ares)
Jim Burk (jburk@jburk.com) -- Project leader / Content Director
Issue #2 of the Ares CD is in production. Several members of the Mars
Society are helping out and Imagineering is doing their usual first-rate
job. This issue of the Ares CD will contain a comprehensive set of Mars
curriculum for teachers and educators. It will also contain many great
Mars images, research papers, a clickable Mars atlas, and much more. For
more details on the CD, watch the project website at
http://home.marssociety.org/ares
(I'll be making some updates this week as I have time)
If you'd like to join the project mailing list, send a message to
majordomo@chapters.marssociety.org and include the following in the body
of the message: subscribe ares-cdrom
While Issue #2 of the CD will be dated Autumn 1999 and was originally
due November 1st, we reserve the right to delay shipment until it's
ready. This CD will be quality-driven, not date-driven as the last one
was, and we hope to avoid silly mistakes like Mac incompatibility. Yes,
you can expect it before Christmas or Y2K :)
+ Provisional Members' Council
Chris Vancil, CVANCIL@aol.com
Recent activities:
1) Voted to eliminate 1 week waiting period for conceptual agenda
feedback since our deadline is near and response has been low.
2) Voted to consider motions on internal motions passed and in effect as
soon as 5 votes in favor are recorded.
3) Action plan for completion of our mandate was approved.
a) Formalize minimum requirements.
b) Complete minimum requirements.
c) Submit proposal to board of directors and chapter contacts for
review. (11/1/99 target)
e) Work on setting up approval process.
f) Continue further deliberations if requested by board of directors
and/or members or council wishes simply to make detailed recommendations
for permanent council.
4) Approved a list of minimum requirements to complete our mandate.
a) Rules of order for live meetings.
b) Rules of order for conducting council business via E-mail.
c) Decision on representative versus direct democracy.
d) Method of implementing decision in item 3.
e) Method of recalling officers and/or representatives.
f) Method of modifying council rules.
g) Methods of selecting officers if any.
+ New Mars
Richard Wagner, mailto:campr2@javanet.com
Nothing new.
+ Mars Polar Lander Mirror Site
Richard Wagner, mailto:campr2@javanet.com
Hardware for the mirror is in and set up. Expect mirror site to be up
and operational by next RPSR.
=====================================
Richard Wagner, editor/writer
25 Main Street, Suite 214
Northampton, MA 01060
campr2@javanet.com
voice 413/584-9941 fax 413/584-8170
If you haven't joined the Mars Society yet ...
what on Earth are you waiting for?
http://www.marssociety.org
New Mars - a journal of the Martian frontier
http://www.newmars.com/