Greetings all:-
Yikes! This is a huge report, so I'll keep chatter to the minimum. I
will, though, honor a request by the ThinkMars folks to plug their
petition:
++Sign the Mars Petition++
Show your support for Mars exploration! Make sure to pass it on the all
members of your chapter as well as friends. The petition can also be
printed so anyone can print it and take it into work, to presentations,
etc. to be signed. Then mail it to
Think Mars
PO Box 2275
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Our goal is to have over 1,000,000 signature by Nov. 2000 - help make it
happen!!!!!!
http://thinkmars.net/petition.html
Meanwhile, a few pointed questions regarding the Mars Polar Lander have
been asked during White House press briefings/conferences. If I may,
I'll send those along to the RPSR list separately because a) this
report's already pretty beefy and b) you might be interested in the Q&A.
Usual caveats vis screw-ups on my part apply.
Thanks to all and congratulations for all the good works reported
herein.
Later -- Richard Wagner
{mars rocks}
** =====================================================
** Red Planet Satellite Report -- v1, n5 -- 12.9.99
** U. S. Chapters **
** Alabama
Thomas Hancock, mailto:Thomas.Hancock@HSV.Boeing.com
Daniel Slosberg, mailto: salinay@teleport.com,
(from TH) Organizing chapter and officers, Developing plan for a MARS
2000 technical conference to be held in Huntsville Alabama in April-May
2000. Working with NASA/MSFC advanced propulsion people, "The Marshall
Martins". Conference will work to address new Mars propulsion
technologies, student ideas, method and mission to get to Mars. Should
be free we will publish proceeding. Call for papers in Jan 2000. Not
much else going on, kind a slow.
** Alaska
Marilyn Dudley-Rowley, mailto:MD-R@msn.com
No report.
** Arizona
Bill Gjestvang, mailto:DataWolf@IBM.net
No report.
** Arkansas
Wayne Bowen, mailto:bowenw@alpha.obu.edu
Nothing new to report.
** California, CALTECH-JPL
Derek Shannon, mailto: mars@its.caltech.edu
(1) Planetfest: Despite the apparent loss of the MPL/DS2, this event
still went wonderfully. We signed up around 300 attendees for the
mailing list, got 10 full Mars Society memberships, and sold around 80
books to actually make a profit despite the $800 cost of the table. And
we learned something that should really help us out in our future
fundraising efforts: HOW TO TAKE CREDIT CARDS!!
We found that taking credit cards really loosens up people's willingness
to buy a book (and in many cases, two), but we wouldn't have known that
we could accept them if Dr. Zubrin hadn't let us know that credit card
payments could be processed by mailing them to the national Mars
Society, which could then send out a check to the chapter. All you need
is the individual's name, credit card type (ie. MasterCard, Visa),
credit card number, expiration date, and signature.
This really allowed us to sell lots of copies (and the author's presence
helped of course, too)--the majority used credit cards instead of cash.
(*) CHEAP BOOKS! While I'm on the subject of books, www.hamiltonbook.com
is selling the HARDCOVER VERSION OF _CASE FOR MARS_ FOR ONLY $3.95!!! I
haven't ordered from them as of yet because they don't accept online
ordering--you must mail them a check. But shipping is only $3 no matter
how many you order. Also, they don't list a phone number, and they don't
respond to e-mail inquiries except through snail mail, or I would have
found out precisely how many copies they have available. Our chapter
will definitely be mailing in a bulk order in the next day or two. The
PAPERBACK IS $4.95, presumably because it is more up-to-date with the
ALH84001 findings, etc, also a steal even compared to the Simon &
Schuster 50% discount rate (now $7/book--orders for which should now
take place through David at 212-698-2346). The reason for the cheap
price is probably that these are residuals, so supplies will definitely
be limited--I almost didn't want to tell all the other chapters! Thanks
to my bargain-hunting mom for pointing the deal out to me.
(*) General public outreach this Friday! As soon as finals at Caltech
end (which reminds me--I really should be taking one right now) we are
going to Moby Disc in Old Pas to take advantage of some sidewalk space
they are giving us for a Mars Society booth--it won't be as exciting as
it would have been had MPL/DS2 succeeded, but with a few telescopes
pointed at Jupiter and Saturn (Mars won't in the sky, our Chief
Astronomer Nathan Brown assures me) and other attention getters we are
sure to draw a crowd. This is an experiment and we're not sure how
successful it will be, but we'll see.
(*) We are moving to our own server (our old account had 20 MB total of
space!) with a much easier web address. It's not fully functional yet
but soon will be: http://mars.caltech.edu. Isn't that easy?
(*) I will be back in North Dakota from Dec. 12 through the 29th--Since
our all-powerful congressional delegation will be in the state, I will
try to visit them, and I might try to give a talk at the local
university if there aren't too many blizzards.
** California, Central Valley
Domenique van der Goore, mailto:traveler@cyberlynk.com
I am finishing up with the Provisional Members Council duties. We are
hoping to have the bylaws passed soon, and are working toward that end.
Not much to report chapter-wise.
** 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
No report.
** Florida
Richard Brodeur, mailto: rbrodeur@yahoo.com
No report.
** Red Dirt (the Georgia chapter of the Mars Society)
Mike Kretsch, mkretsch@compassusa.com
No more meetings until I get firm commitments from interested people who
A) want to work on projects and B) will come to meetings.
** Hawaii
Matt Rohrer, mailto:matt@prognostikos.com
No report.
** Idaho
Chris Struble, mailto: clstruble@earthlink.net
No report.
** Chicago-Illinois Chapter
Matt Lowry, lowryclan@geocities.com
This month in Chicago, on November 21st Jim Plaxco of our chapter
visited a
presentation at the Adler Planetarium on the topic of nuclear propulsion
and
space exploration. Representatives from other space-interest societies
(such as the National Space Society) were present, giving the Mars
Society a
chance to meet with like minded groups. In addition, we had a presence
at
the Chicago Adler Planetarium's event for the arrival of Mars Polar
Lander
at Mars. Jim Plaxco, Brian Williams, and Tim Cerka manned a table at
the
festivities Friday night. They shared everyone's disappointment at the
failure to contact Mars Polar Lander, and in the process they hopefully
got
some word out about all of our hopes for future manned missions to Mars.
Addendum -- North Shore Chapter Forms!
The Chicago chapter has a daughter chapter in its northern suburbs, the
North Shore chapter. We had our first meeting last Thursday evening on
the
eve of MPL's arrival on Mars, and there were 13 people in attendance!
Most
present were students from Lake Forest High School, while there was one
student from New Trier High School, and representatives from nearby
Libertyville & Highland Park as well. At this meeting an adapted
version of
the Mars Society talk was given by Matt Lowry, which was followed up by
a
presentation on Mars Polar Lander by Richard Price.
As of this writing, there are plans within the North Shore chapter to
get
more involved in public Mars presentations, and our members are actively
gathering signatures for the Mars Petition. For more information,
please
see our website at http:www.astrodigital.org/nsms
** 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
Joanna Dupont of Marrero, Louisiana has graciously donated her time to
review Ron Jackson's book 'The Mars Transmission" which uses a fictional
Mars direct mission as a backdrop for the story. I just wanted to
mention her name and thank her for her participation. If anyone else is
interested in reviewing this book, Mr. Jackson will send a complimentary
copy to you. Contact Ron Jackson at contact@keepernsol.com.
** MD, DC, VA
Theresa Klein, mailto: tjk2@ix.netcom.com
As the first report, this report covers the entire history of the
Washington DC chapter, from its inception.
The first meeting was held in late November 1998 at the Fairfax County
Regional Library. There were 13 people in attendance. We discussed our
reasons for being interested in Mars, and what we thought the major
obstacles were. Attendees included myself (Theresa Klein) as well as
Derrick Davis, Morris Levine, and Lorraine Smith of the Arts Taskforce.
Morris Levine stated his regret that he did not have the time to
organize the chapter but was still willing to serve as a contact person,
and that our first order of business should be finding a new leader.
The second meeting was held in late March 1999 and was joined by a
representative from ProSpace, a Washington space lobbying group that was
organizing an annual "March Storm" event. We liked ProSpace's
position's, and decided to encourage chapter members to attend their
event. Unfortunately, it turned out that the most active members were
all either government employees or foreign nationals, who are prohibited
from lobbying efforts. The meeting was held at the old post office
pavilion. Derrick Davis, Theresa Klein and George Whitesides were in
attendance.
Around May Pat Mulligan joined up. The third meeting was held at her
place in June. Bob Kopp, the Washington intern showed up, along with
approx. 10 others. There was much chatting and discussion of the future
of space exploration, Mars Society, as well as the Transhab issue, which
was currently an issue of controversy. At that time, we had the feeling
that it would be better to remain more social in order to give the
chapter a chance to grow and gell.
In August, several members of the chapter attended the Mars Society
convention, including Pat, Theresa, Dave Blersh, and Ron Hess (who was
not at the time in contact with the DC chapter). We all had a great
time, and came back with renewed enthusiasm.
A book signing in Sept. by Zubrin at the Barne's and Noble in Alexandria
afforded growth possibilities. Arms were twisted and volunteers were
obtained to attend the book signing and take names. The next day, the
Fourth meeting was held at Theresa's place. Eight people were in
attendance. The possibility of choosing elected representatives was
discussed. Also the success of the book signing was discussed, and
Derrick gave his own rendition of Zubrin's talk (sans slides). We went
out and ate Indian food at a local restaurant. Discussion continued late
into the night until everyone got tired and went home. We said farewell
to Derrick, who was reassigned to Iowa.
In October, Ron Hess organized a meeting at La Porta's restaurant in
Alexandria. There was much jovial discussion and some heated debate at
times, especially on the public vs. private issue. Several of the
chapter members (myself included) favor a more private approach to Mars
Exploration. The possibility of having an event to celebrate the polar
lander was discussed. Ruthanne made her first appearance, after being an
email presence for some time. Matt Stork of the Provisional Members
Council also made his appearance Volunteers were obtained for the
purpose of contacting the Air and Space Museum of Goddard regarding any
Mars Polar Lander events already being organized. I showed off my copy
of "The Book of Mars" by Samuel Glasstone, which I had discovered in a
used & rare bookstore the day before.
** Michigan
Julie Edwards, mailto:jedwards@umich.edu
"Space Night"
An evening of speakers will discuss the past, present, and future
exploration of space, including the planet Mars. Speakers include Jack
Lousma, former Skylab astronaut and Shuttle Commander; and Dr. Terry
Kammash, a UofM professor researching advanced propulsion technologies.
Jim Beyer, our chapter president, will discuss Mars Direct.
8pm-10pm (Dec. 14) 1109 FXB (Boeing Auditorium). The Francis-Xavier
Bagnoud (FXB) Building is located at Beal and Murfin on University of
Michigan's North Campus. The event is Free. 665-8744.
http://hpcc.engin.umich.edu/MMS/
Other projects:
Our portable Mars Hab model is a continuing project.
** Minnesota
Ben Huset, mailto:BenHuset@skypoint.com
No report.
** Mississippi
Garry Speer, mailto:VMSmith1@aol.com
Nothing to report.
** Missouri -- Kansas City
George Howard, mailto:Ghoward683@aol.com
No report.
** Nebraska
Harry Jordan, mailto:hajordan@esu3.esu3.k12.ne.us
No report.
** Nevada
Shawn Plunket, mailto:SPlunket@aol.com
No report.
** New England Chapter
Troy Lee Hudson, mailto: thudson@MIT.EDU
No report.
** New Jersey
Paul Rockman, mailto:prockman@turbo.kean.edu
No report.
** New York
Paul Contursi, mailto: pcon@pipeline.com
Seven members of the New York Chapter participated in Janet Osimo's
focus group dealing with our perceptions of space exploration in general
and Mars exploration in particular. Chapter President Paul Contursi was
interviewed (with photo) in the November 30 edition of a Westchester
county newspaper (we will be forwarding a copy to HQ as soon as we get
reprints). We are making an effort to meet with the local staff of US
Senator Charles Schumer. The chapter has just received a verbal
agreement from officials at the Riverdale Country School to do a
presentation in mid-January. In addition, we have designed our own
chapter business cards which should prove useful in our outreach
activities. Richard Ryan has just registered the domain name of the New
York Chapter web site (www.nymarssociety.org), which we hope to have up
and running in near future.
** New Mexico
Eric Orrill, mailto:eorrill@jntsw.com
No report.
** Northern New Mexico Chapter (or Los Alamos Chapter)
Lisa Ice, ice@cs.unm.edu
We had a small turnout for our MarsFest on Saturday, but considering the
lack of communication from the Lander and the fact that we received the
first REAL snow of the year on Friday, I was not disappointed. We ended
up with time to really convince the attendees that humans-to-Mars is
worth supporting. I also saw all the other members of the chapter at
one event for the first time (although they didn't show up at the same
time, so we did not have a meeting). Most importantly, I have now made
contacts with the local media, with the local science museum (run by the
Laboratory), with Laboratory Public Affairs, with the Laboratory's
Center for Space Science and Exploration, with the local University of
New Mexico campus, and with the members of the local Astronomy Club. I
am now prepared to organize and publicize events very well. In addition,
the Mars Society's name and purpose both appeared in Los Alamos and
Santa Fe newspapers.
The Bradbury Science Museum has expressed interest in obtaining Bob
Zubrin as a speaker and plans to work with local bookstores and/or the
Laboratory Colloquium organizers to bring him down from Colorado. This
would be a real boon for the chapter!
We are also seriously looking into the creation of Mars Society travel
cups. I will probably soon be requesting input from the other chapters
regarding how many to order. (We could use the mugs to get some nearly
free TV exposure. One of the Albuquerque morning news crews will drink
some coffee from mugs that they receive. The camera also focuses on the
mugs for a few seconds.)
** North Dakota Chapter
John Cable, jrjohn@martin.ndak.net
I am going to see if anybody from the University of North Dakota in the
space studies department is interested going to the convention.
** North Dakota, Eastern
Jonathan Hovland, mailto:fenix@thequest.net
No report.
** Ohio
Tam Czarnik, mailto:patttam@erinet.com
As the temperature drops, Ohio Chapter Mars Society activity heats up!
Here's a list of what's been going on in Ohio...
- 'Mars Direct' presentation to Miami Valley Astronomical Society on 12
Nov 99.
- 'Mars Direct' presentation to Stillwater Stargazers on 16 Nov 99.
- John and Annie Glenn greeted by Ohio Chapter at booksigning on 19 Nov
99.
- 'Mars Direct' presentation to Madden Hills Branch Library on 27 Nov
99. (Thanks to Monica Simmons)
- Ohio Chair Tam Czarnik attended 2nd meeting of North Texas Mars
Society on 3 Dec 99: a talented, motivated group, they should go far!
In addition, we've received inquiries for 'Mars Direct' presentations
from multiple groups, ranging from Cub Scouts to Astronomy groups to
Engineering Societies. Here's a list of what's upcoming in Ohio...
05 Jan 00 7 pm 'Mars Direct' presentation at New Lebanon Branch Library.
08 Jan 00 1 pm 'Mars Direct' presentation at Huber Heights Branch
Library.
22 Jan 00 1 pm 'Mars Direct' presentation at Kettering-Moraine Branch
Library.
Finally, we're scheduled to meet with Michelle Gilcrist, a staffer for
Senator Mike DeWine, on 23 Dec 99, with another visit to Kucinich's
staffer soon after.
** Oklahoma
John Ohlheiser, mailto:JPO10708@aol.com
No report.
++ Oregon
Gus Frederick, mailto: gus@norwebster.com
Mars Polar Lander Party:
Following up on last month's request, MSOR Secretary Gus Frederick met
with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry's Planetarium Director
Jim Todd, and volunteered MSOR personnel to act as "Martian Docents"; to
be on hand to answer questions about Mars. Full details of the OMSI
event are available from the MSOR Events page.
Jim mentioned that a table for information will be available, but no
solicitation may take place in the Museum. Gus contacted Maggie Zubrin
at MS National for more broshures. The huge pile brought back from
Boulder are nearing depletion. Gus prepared a special flier for the
event, and Erik brought along a number of them for distribution at
OryCon. These will used with our media release for the event, and is
available via the chapter Web site for download as an Adobe Acrobat
file.
Mars Millenium Project:
Oregon Chapter of the Mars Society, Oregon Public Education Network,
(OPEN) and possibly Oregon L5 Society's Mars Instrument Support Team,
(MIST), are putting together a comprehensive, state-wide Mars Millenium
Project proposal focusing on a Lava Tube Colony. Work progresses, with
more details soon!
Other Business:
Helen Umberger of OryCon requested MSOR assist them on next year's
OryCon's "Kid's Track," a series of events and happenings designed for
the children of the attending SF fans. Likewise she pointed out that in
2001, Oregon will once again host the regional "WesterCon" Science
Fiction convention, and suggested that MSOR might want to be involved in
that as well.
** Central PA /Penn State University Mars Society Chapter
Wojciech Klimkiewicz, Ph.D., mailto:wxk10@psu.edu
** Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Independence Chapter
Gary Fisher, mailto:GCFisheris@aol.com
No report.
** Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Mars Society of Pittsburgh
Daniar Hussain, mailto:danhussain@aol.com
We hope to have our second meeting on Sunday, December 19, 1999 at the
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the Oakland Barnch if all goes well as
planned. Please email me if you have any further questions or concerns.
** 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
Nothing much happening in the Palmetto state with regards to Mars. We
are all sad about the last two botched NASA missions. We do have high
hopes that Europe, Japan, and China will pick up the slack so that the
species can become multiplanetted.
Please have patience with our tardiness! Charlestonians are considered
the most polite and one of the best liquored citizenry in the good old
US of A. Important political issues in the state are the "flag" and how
to scrap off the bottom of national rankings in both major football
teams and school test score ratings. Therefore, the local chapter has
focused efforts on setting up "I Have a Dream" projects in local schools
so that someday the state can produce a few good "rocket scientists."
Come down to Charleston some time and enjoy our neighborliness. We are
having a huge "5th Friday" block party on December 31 at the corner
Ashley and Bee Streets in Historic Charleston--that is across the street
from the Medical University of South Carolina from 4:00pm EST until the
wine runs out. All terrestrial Mars Society members are welcome. We
expect the weather to be in the sixties (F).
** 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: ntms@usa.net
** Texas, Houston
Chris Barnes, mailto:USAMarsMan@aol.com
The Mars Society of Houston held MarsFest on December 3rd, coinciding
with the supposed touchdown time of the MPL. The Houston media was
present, including the Houston Chronicle, Channel 2 (NBC), 11, (CBS), 13
(ABC) and 26 (FOX). 740 AM radio was present as well. Unfortunately, no
word was heard from the MPL. Many speakers were outlined for the event,
such as Alan Treiman from the Lunar and Planetary Institute, David
Kaplan from JSC, and others. Also, students from a local elementary
school were present to talk about their project of building a Space
Station mockup and using it to conduct research that may be done on
Mars. Mars Punch, Mars bars, and Milky Way bars were served at the
event.
The Mars Society of Houston received 16 new sign-ins at the event and
sold 4 "Case for Mars" books. Several "Mars or Bust" buttons were given
out.
The next meeting of the Mars Society of Houston will take place on
Sunday, Dec. 12th at the Freeman Library branch in Clear Lake.
** 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
http://chapters.marssociety.org/pugetsound/
marspuget@egroups.com
Jim Burk (jburk@jburk.com) -- Chapter President
While it sure didn't feel like it because of the apparent lander
failure, our MarsFest event in Seattle can only be described as a
success. We had support from the Boeing Museum of Flight, The Planetary
Society (who at their own expense sent out a few thousand(!) fliers to
their Seattle-area members), and NSS Seattle. During the landing time,
the 400 seat auditorium we had NASA select running in was PACKED -- all
seats taken, people standing in the back, and about 50-70 schoolkids
sitting under the screen in front of the first row of seats. We don't
yet have attendance figures but the museum definately had above-average
attendance for that day.
We also had help from Professor Jim Tillman from U.Washington, who lent
us some actual Viking lander hardware for display! We had the backup
radio antenna (a big satellite-dish monstrosity) as well as a piece of
the robot arm and an actual black box from Viking. All hardware was from
the actual Viking program and was used for testing. Also included were
the original archival packing crates with NASA Flight Hardware stamped
all over them. It was a very cool site to see, and every visitor to the
Museum of Flight that day got to see them.
We also had several tables full of information from the Planetary
Society and local space groups. Chris Vancil did a superb job of making
and organizing the many displays we had. And a special thanks go to
Chris for doing 95% of the work of setting up the event, including
negotiating with the museum, enlisting the Planetary Society, contacting
local media, and too much more to mention. Great job Chris!!
Our website at www.marsfest.org received a ton of traffic in the weeks
leading up to Dec 3rd. We are still compiling all the hits into a report
that we'll present. We had contact information for over 20 other
MarsFest events around the world. What should we do with the site now?
Suggestions have been to showcase the Dec 3rd events (we'll have
pictures up there from our event), use it for other events (event
calendar site) or to just wait until there's another Mars landing and we
have another similar event (2002?) Send us your suggestions:
marspuget@egroups.com or marsfest@marsnews.com
The chapter is now focusing on upcoming conventions here in the
Northwest including RustyCon, NorWesCon, and others, as well as working
on the MarsNews.com and Ares CDROM projects.
** West Virginia
Robert Strong, mailto:strongro@WLSVAX.WVNET.EDU
On December 3rd, 1999, I was a guest speaker at the Nutter Fort
Intermediate School in Clarksburg West Virginia. The Mars Rally was to
excite 220 5th graders just before the expected landing of the Mars
Polar Lander packages on the Red Planet that afternoon. I mentioned Mars
Society and handed out Mars Society brochures to all interested and MARS
OR BUST buttons to all that had good questions or good answers.
On December 6th, 1999, I spoke to a 7th grade class of 25 at the
Triadelphia Middle School about all things Mars (lots of Mars Polar
Lander questions) and the Mars Society. I passed out Mars Society
brochures to all interested.
On December 14th, 1999, I am scheduled to give a presentation about
Humans to Mars (I will be using the Mars Society Slide Show with some
other space slides as intro and trailers) to the Triadelphia Middle
School Math and Science Club and other interested students, teachers,
and parents.
** Wisconsin
Scott Davis, mailto: scud1@execpc.com
No report.
** Wyoming
Wyoming Chapter
Patrick Banks, PAT@uwyo.edu
Nothing new to report at this time.
** Mars Society Youth Group http://chapters.marssociety.org/youth/
Margarita Marinova, mailto: mmm@mit.edu
The Youth Group held a Mars Youth Forum on Dec. 3 during which a number
of youth had a chance to discuss their views on Mars and Mars
exploration. We were supposed to hold a trivia contest on Dec. 2,
however, despite the many registrants, nobody showed up. Perhaps
chapters could help to get more youth involved!
http://chapters.marssociety.org/youth/
** International Chapters **
** Argentina, Latin America
Jorge Mermoz, mailto:JMermoz@bds.esc.edu.ar
Mars Society BA chapter organized a full day meeting at St. Mark School,
BA. With a group of some 30 students and 10 teachers from several
schools we followed Mars Polar Lander approach to and landing on the
red planet. Chats on-line and lecturing by Gabriel Rshaid and some of
his students also took place that day. A week before, J,. Mermoz met
Dick Brodeur, from the Mars Society`s Florida chapter and interesting
ideas were exchanged for a couple of hours.
** Australia
Andrew Hamilton, mailto:ahamilto@nsw.bigpond.net.au
Nothing new - mourning loss of polar lander!!
** Belgium
Antoon Van Boxstael, mailto:Antoon@hotmail.com
No report.
** Canada
Marc Boucher, mailto: webmaster@marssociety.org
On Friday, December 3rd when MPL was scheduled to land the Mars Society
was front and center in the Canadian media. We had people doing coast to
coast radio interviews and one of our members was on CTV Newsnet for 4
fours helping to do commentary. CTV Newsnet is the equivelant of CNN or
CNBC in the U.S. for our American cousins or the BBC for the British.
The Canadian chapter is close to be being a legal non-profit
organization in Canada. Once this is accomplished we plan on bidding for
some money available from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the Mars
Arctic Research Station. As well the CSA has expressed great interest in
participating in next year's conference.
Ottawa Chapter
Jean Lagarde, mailto: jlagarde@bigfoot.com
No report.
Toronto Chapter
Rocky Persaud, mailto:rocky.persaud@utoronto.ca
The Toronto Chapter has been continually active since its formation in
March, 1999. Since the 2nd Annual Mars Society Conference in Boulder,
we've been hard at work on the logistics for hosting the 3rd Annual
Conference in Toronto. We are now pleased to announce that the
facilities for the conference have now been officially reserved and the
contract signed for August 10th to 13th, 2000 at Ryerson Polytechnic
University in the heart of downtown Toronto.
The conference and the MARS base has attracted a lot of interest in the
community, not only gaining enough new members to double our size, but
also attention from media organizations such as Toronto's City-TV, CTV,
Discovery Canada, CBC and various magazines and freelancers. Chapter
members are receiving requests for interviews, and one of us, Darlene
Lim, has appeared on national broadcasts speaking about the Mars
Society, the conference, and the MARS base.
On October 30th, the chapter hosted a talk at the University of Toronto
by Dr. Pascal Lee, entitled "The Mars Arctic Research Station --
Exploring Mars in Canada". The talk was very well received by the
audience of over 90 people. Profits from ticket sales were donated to
the Mars Society and the MARS base.
The chapter has produced 150 very popular T-shirts with the slogan
"Mars: Object Is Closer Than It Appears". These are being sold very
quickly, with nearly 100 purchased or ordered already. We have run out
of MEDIUM sized T-shirts in both white and black cotton! Other available
sizes are L, XL, and XXL. It is anticipated we'll do a second production
run some time in the spring, and a third shortly before the conference
in August. If the Canadian MARS scholarship idea is a go (another
Toronto initiative), once the Canadian chapter is incorporated the
Toronto Chapter will make a large donation of profits from our T-shirt
sales to the scholarship fund--otherwise those funds will go directly to
the MARS base. View the shirt and order for your chapter from:
http://chapters.marssociety.org/toronto/ShirtOrders.html
Currently Toronto Chapter is helping with the design of the Marsville
curriculum. Marsville is a project conducted among school children in
grades 5 to 8 to imagine and design mock-ups for a colony of 200
settlers on Mars. This year the project will specifically be refocused
on the Mars Arctic Research Station, with help from the Toronto Chapter
to inject more geology, biology and engineering into the program.
Chapter members will serve as mentors to various classrooms
participating in Marsville, and will be actively recruiting members from
the community, and across Canada. There will be a "link-up" day, where
classrooms from all across Canada will gather in central locations in
each major Canadian city, and via teleconferencing will link up their
habitation modules and rovers. Contact Sheila Rhodes for more
information (mailto:sheirhod@enoreo.on.ca) or to become an online
mentor.
In the coming months, we may be having at least one more public lecture
by a senior Mars Society member. Our local outreach activities will
continue, with chapter members giving talks in the new year before the
North York Astronomy Association, the North Shore Erie Astronomy
Association, and other groups. We will likely make an appearance at
local conferences and events as they arise.
** Chile
Cristian Puebla-Menne, mailto:cpuebla@cmet.net
No report.
** Cyprus, Mediterranean
George Lordos, mailto:Lordos@mit.edu
Nothing new.
** France
Richard Heidmann, mailto:Rheidmann@aol.com
No report.
** Germany
Michael Bosch, mailto:Michael.Bosch@wiwi.uni-regensburg.de
No report.
** Iceland
Olafur Patrick Olafsson, mailto:opo@rhi.hi.is
My apologies for the late reply, a result of my having been up to my
neck (and even over my head) in work for the past few months.
Unfortunately there is nothing to report from Iceland. As a result of
my being listed on the Mars Society's website as contact for the Mars
Society in Iceland, a few people have expressed interest, but to date
this has not come to anything, despite my having followed up these
enquiries. Icelanders are notoriously passive, a common problem for
Icelandic societies and clubs of all kinds, but let's give it a little
more time.
P.S. Things may be looking upI heard on the news just now that NASA
plans to hold a conference on Mars in Iceland next year, so It should be
possible to generate some interest in the Mars Society around that.
** 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
No report.
** Mexico
Rich Robins, mailto: Mars@SpaceProjects.com
The Mexico Chapter's founder, Rich Robins, Esq., continues to fight for
the cause up in Washington D.C. where there's a lot more space action.
On Wednesday evening (Dec. 1st), he was broadcast live on C-SPAN
throughout the nation asking Texas Governor George W. Bush if he shared
his father's enthusiasm for getting us to Mars sooner rather than later
(as George Sr. said in a presidential address during the Summer of
1990). Although Governor Bush made it clear during a one-on-one
discussion after the candidates forum that he doesn't yet know as much
as he would like about the potential missions by humans to Mars, he said
he shares his father's enthusiasm and made a sincere expression of a
desire to learn more. He agreed that tax incentives and possibly even
loan guarantees seem like worthy approaches to jumpstarting the
corporate space race, too. Bush added that he isn't surprised to hear
that China apparently seeks military advantage by expanding their
budding space program to the Moon & the Red Planet (as
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_480000/480710.stm
suggests).
** Netherlands
Arno Wielders, mailto:arnoux@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Nothing new.
** 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
Nothing new.
** Mar Society Polska
Piotr Moskal, mailto:piotr.moskal@lupus.pl
Last saturday we organized our first real chapter meeting, during which
we signed all papers needed to register in court. The meeting took place
in Space Research Center in Warsaw. There was 15 persons, including the
actual president of Polish Astronautical Society, dr Marek
Banaszkiewicz, Mr Marian Gola - the editor of the periodic
"Astronautics" and Mr Zenon Kulpa - the leader of "Uranos", an Internet
organization supporting space exploration. I hope in 3 months we will
have the court decision and we'll be able to start some serious
projects.
Yesterday, (2.12.99) Andrzej Kotarski visited Nordcon, an annual
convention of s-f and fantasy fans, where he had a speech about Mars
Direct project, along with TMS slide show. It's our third public
presentation. That would be all for now.
** 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
No report.
** Spain, Peninsular
Alexander Hristov, mailto:ahristov@psd.es
No report.
** Sweden/Scandinavia
Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, mailto:c_g_nordquist@yahoo.com
Nothing new, 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
The Society's Northern England Branch has been formed, with Izaro
Lopez-Garcia (izaro@startrek.com) co-ordinating activities. The group
will hold its first formal meeting on Saturday December 11.
Co-operation with the National Space Science Centre and the Challenger
Learning Centre continues. A series of joint ventures are being planned,
including joint trade stands at exhibitions, joint outreach operations,
joint merchandising options, etc. The NSSC is also very keen on possible
involvement with the MARS project, and has offered the Society the use
of its Media Department to help promote the project to the UK media.
The Society was represented at the official opening of the Challenger
Learning Centre, which was attended by the Minister for Education, David
Blunkett MP, where the Society's display stand, complete with the latest
information on the MARS Project drew significant interest. The Society
will be holding a special "Afternoon on Mars" at the Centre in January
2000, which will feature talks and presentations about Mars, the CLC and
the Society, and present attendees with the opportunity to "fly" a
simulated mission to Mars using the facilities of the CLC. Full media
coverage is expected at the event.
The Society was also featured on BBC Radio 4's award-winning "Today"
programme, when Philip Dembo was able to discuss the loss of the MPL.
In November, Bo Maxwell and Philip Dembo presented two highly successful
talks at the UK-SEDS conference, which lead to a lot of interest from
students (60 new additions to the UK mailing list) and dates for more
talks in 2000.
On December 7th, follow-up talks from Robert' Zubrin's successful
presentation at Leicester University are being held at the University's
Dept of Physics.
In order to increase members' involvement with the Society, we are
planning a wide range of social events in the new year, details of which
will be available through the UK website.
Planning continues on a Euro conference in 2000, with a professional
conference organiser volunteering to join the planning team. We hope to
have firm details on the venue and dates early in January.
** Task Forces/Special Interests **
** Executive Director
Maggie Zubrin, mailto:mzubrin@aol.com
We just sent a mailing to all members including a form for conference
registration. We have already had several registrations at the website,
so be sure to get your registration in early to ensure a spot.
** E-Commerce
Tony Santana, mailto: TSMarsCo@aol.com
No report.
** Education
Tom Becker, mailto:tombecker@primary.net
No report.
** Fundraising
Kristin Boekhoff, mailto:kristin.k.boekhoff@us.pwcglobal.com
No report.
** Graphics and Production
Gary Hollingshead, mailto:garyah@imagineering-usa.com
We have met with Jim Burke to finalize the next CD Rom. The interface
will be completed after a final beta version has been approved.
** Internet Task Force
Marc Boucher - webmaster@marssociety.org
Harold Miller - peabody@wayback.net
Mailing Lists: Unfortunately we have had some problems with our mailing
lists lately. We hope that these problems are now behind us.
** Martian Civilization and Culture Group
(late Law and Governance Task Force)
Ruth Waterton, mailto:ruth@h2oton.freeserve.co.uk>
We have formed into teams working on a range of projects. One is
designing a domed Martian environment for display at the Convention or
maybe even in the Arctic! Another group is looking at the possibility of
UN governance for Mars and planning out some possible frameworks for
that. We are putting up a list of essentials to take on the first
missions, which will go on our website and hopefully open up into a
general discussion of bootstrapping Mars. And, slightly further back,
we've groups forming to consider art, design and aesthetics on Mars.
** Marketing
Maggie Zubrin, mailto:mzubrin@aol.com
See Executive Director's report
** Mars Arctic Task Force
Kurt Micheels, mailto: kmicheels@aol.com
The original bid date of 30 November was extended to allow some
additional bidders to compete for the opportunity to construct the hab.
We still plan to have a contractor selected by Xmas, though. The new
contractors (4 of them) are all composite / fiberglass specialists.
The habitat model and interior design for the web site is proceeding
under the direction of Society member Sonja Holmes and Dr. Ray McCall at
the University of Colorado, Boulder. A separate group at the Technical
University of Munich, coordinated by Society member Kristian Pauley have
begun hab design studies and will collaborate with the Boulder team.
A new hab proposal document will be prepared jointly by Maggie Zubrin,
Richard Wagner and Kurt Micheels. This document will be approximately 8
pages in length and provide updated drawings, images, estimates and
schedules. Work commenced last week, with a draft complete in
approximately 2 weeks.
** Political and Public Outreach
Brian Frankie, mailto:brianf5070@aol.com
Chris Carberry, mailto: ccarberry@masshist.org
Thus far we have spoken to all the major Presidential candidates except
Al Gore. We expect to make contact with the Vice President within a
couple of weeks. This past weekend, contact was made with George W. Bush
and with Alan Keyes in New Hampshire. Bush was handed a copy of "The
Case for Mars" and asked if he would support a human mission to Mars. He
replied that he needed to see how much it would cost and that two other
people had querried him on Mars within the previous couple of weeks. In
addition, Rich Robins had a successful conversation with George W. Bush
at the Republican Jewish Coalitionīs forum in Washington D.C. Alan Keyes
was very enthusiastic. He believes that it is a function of government
to sponsor exploration. He said that a Keyes presidency could certainly
include a human mission to Mars.
We are having an impact. Several candidates have commented on how many
people had asked them about Mars. If you have an opportunity, please go
talk to any of the candidates.
For schedule Presidential Candidate schuduling information and reports
of our meetings please look at the new "Operation President" site at
http://www.marssociety.org/oppresident.asp
** MarsNews.com
http://www.marsnews.com/
Jim Burk, Editor-in-Chief -- jburk@marsnews.com
Dustin Green, Assistant Editor -- dgreen@marsnews.com
We have rolled out the brand new version of MarsNews.com, as well as
moved the site to the Cyberteams server (which is also hosting
home.marssociety.org and chapters.marssociety.org) Our old host was
HyperMart, a free hosting provider, and was becoming quite inadequate
for the growth the site has been experiencing.
The site was redesigned to make navigation easier and to highlight our
content & the missions better. We added focus sections on "The Planet
Mars" (providing a broad overview of Mars) and "The Mars Society" (a
top-to-bottom look at today's Mars Society), among others. We also added
discussion forums (at one point, months ago, we had some, but the
software we were using for them was inadequate) So far the comments
we've received on the new site are "outstanding" and "this makes a great
site even better!"
We were able to provide good coverage of the lander events. Now that
they seem to be over (sadly), we'll focus on rolling out new features
like a polling center where you can participate and find the results of
Mars-related polls across the internet, XML newsfeeds that other sites
or individuals can pick up, much more content on Humans to Mars mission
plans, and other features we're keeping a secret for now.
MarsNews.com is a community effort and we wouldn't have been able to get
this far without help from all over the Mars Society. The Puget Sound
chapter has been leading the way but we have volunteers from all over
the world. We now have dedicated mailing lists available for our
volunteers:
announce@marsnews.com
-- announcements related to MarsNews.com (low volume)
reporters@marsnews.com
-- journalists, copy editors, news surfers, or other non-technical
volunteers who are willing to help (high volume)
developers@marsnews.com
-- volunteers with technical skills or who would like to learn -- web
design, html, javascript, perl, and other technologies (high volume)
editors@marsnews.com
-- send mail to myself and Dustin Green, Assistant Editor (private)
All lists are archived, and archives are available via email from the
server. There are also digest options available for the reporters and
developers lists. To subscribe to the announce, developers, or reporters
lists, send a message to majordomo@marsnews.com with one or more of the
following in the body of the message:
subscribe announce
subscribe developers
subscribe developers-digest
subscribe reporters
subscribe reporters-digest
The Mars Open Directory, a little-known but popular subsite of
MarsNews.com, was also updated -- http://www.marsnews.com/directory/
This is a mirror of a portion of the Open Directory Project (
http://dmoz.org ), an effort used by many of the leading search engines
(Lycos, Excite, Netscape & others) to provide a Yahoo-like alternative
of a category-based website directory. We actually maintain the
Science:Astronomy:Solar System:Mars category tree on dmoz.org and mirror
it to the Mars Open Directory site on MarsNews.com. What this all means
is that we have the best listing of Mars websites on the Internet --
because it can be updated by anybody who adds a site to dmoz.org (or
emails us at directory@marsnews.com )
** Ares CD-ROM Project
http://home.marssociety.org/ares/
(ares-cdrom@chapters.marssociety.org or ares@marsnews.com)
Jim Burk, Project leader
We are in the middle of the Beta1 evalutation phase. Over 2 dozen people
received copies of Beta1 and are testing it out on various systems,
browsers, & configurations. So far things are looking very well -- the
CD image creation process we used produces CD images that WILL work on
Windows, Mac, and many flavors of Unix. The first beta had a few minor
problems but we are moving ahead with plans to ship the second beta
sometime soon. (scheduled for today, but will probably happen later this
week or next, since our mailing list has been down)
The second beta will be "content complete" and will have everything that
the final CD has except for the graphical menu (that Imagineering does)
and any other post-production details. If you are interested in helping
to beta test, send your postal address to me at: ares@marsnews.com I
will sent you a copy of the second beta and instructions for beta
testing.
The final CD for Issue #2 is still on schedule to be shipped to members
by the end of the year. Issue #3 was to focus on the Mars Polar Lander
mission. With the apparent failure of that mission, we are looking for a
new focus for the next issue. Please send me your ideas, or any content
you'd like included on that issue: ares@marsnews.com or use the content
submission forms on the Ares website.
** Provisional Members' Council
Chris Vancil, CVANCIL@aol.com
No report.
** New Mars
Richard Wagner, mailto:campr2@javanet.com
Nothing new.
** Mars Polar Lander Mirror Site
Richard Wagner, mailto:campr2@javanet.com
Marc Boucher, mailto:marc@aterra.com
Our mirror site and special content for the MPL mission was success
until no signal was heard from MPL. Our main web site on Friday,
December 3rd recorded a record number of visitors. A little over 30,000
people visited that day. To put that in perspective that is 2/3 of our
traffic for the month of November. Because of this we signed up a good
number of new members. Thanks to all who helped make this happen.
** Miscellaneous:
Bruce Mackenzie, mailto: BMackenzie@alum.mit.edu
Many dozens of people attended the New England Chapter's Mars Fest
event, when we hoped to watch the arrival of the Mars Polar Observer.
Slide sets and Web space are still available for chapters.
Most Mars Society e-mail list were down for more than a week, due to
problems forwarding the mail to both list servers. If they are still
down as you read this, and you have experience with caching or
installing of DNS MX records, contact us.
--
=====================================
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/