Vol. 2, No. 6 June 2000
The purpose of the Red Planet Satellite Report is to provide up to date information to both our membership and the general public on the many activities of the Mars Society chapters, task forces and Chapter's Council. Please use the Table of Contents to quickly access those sections of the report that are of primary interest to you.

Table of Contents

 Introduction
 Chapter's Council News
 United States Chapter News
 International Chapter News
 Mars Youth Group News
 Task Forces/Special Interests News
 Miscellaneous: Special Offers and More
 Web Site of the Month
 Quote of the Month
 Photo of the Month
 Reader Comments
 Submission Guidelines
 Red Planet Satellite Report Contact Information


Introduction

Welcome to the Red Planet Satellite Report for June 2000. This report summarizes the activities of the world wide network of Mars Society chapters, the Chapter's Council and the many Task Forces that the Mars Society has established to further the goal of robotic and human exploration of the planet Mars.

Is your chapter represented on the Chapter's Council? If not, be sure to read the section on Chapter Representation as there are new rules that make it possible for every chapter to have a representative. There is now no excuse for your chapter to not be represented on the Chapter's Council.

Also this month, we have a special report on a meeting of the European chapters. Be sure to check it out.

To learn how you can contribute to the Red Planet Satellite Report, please read the Submission Guidelines section. The deadline for submitting materials for inclusion in the next issue is the last day of the month. We want to hear from you!

I want to hear from you to. If you would like to make suggestions regarding the format of the Red Planet Satellite Report just send me an email.

Thank You,
Jim Plaxco, Editor






Chapter's Council News for May 2000

Welcome to the Chapter's Council News. Here you can read about the most recent activities of the Chapter's Council as well as finding out how you can participate in our various projects and contribute to our success.

Special Alert Number 1:
See the Chapter Representation section for important information about your chapter and the Chapter's Council.

Special Alert Number 2:
The Chapter's Council will be sponsoring several programs at the Mars Society 2000 conference. The purpose of these programs are to assist chapter activists in establishing, financing, promoting, and running a chapter. If you will be attending the conference and have experience either organizing a chapter, running a chapter, arranging fundraising activities, setting up outreach activities, then please share your expertise by volunteering to serve on one of our panels. Planned panels will cover the topics:

To volunteer to serve as a panelist, please send your email to Jim Plaxco at the earliest possible date.

Other News
In May the Chapter's Council continued work on the several projects already underway. Progress has been slow due to a shortage of volunteers and representatives (see the Chapter Representation section). Projects in progress include:

For additional details on these and other Chapter's Council issues, please use the following index to go directly to the topic area that is of primary interest to you.

Index to Chapter's Council News
  The Monthly Agenda
  Chapter's Starter Kit
  Chapter's Council Status Report
  Chapter's Council and the Steering Committee
  Call for Volunteers
  Chapter Representation
  The Chapter's Council Web Site
  The Mars FAQ
  Chapter's Council Membership
  Getting the Council's Attention


The Monthly Agenda
To assist in planning for each month's activities, the Council votes on a conceptual agenda. Items to be included in the agenda are first identified and then voted upon by the Council so that a priority may be assigned.

During the month, a motion was made, voted upon and passed regarding the assigning of Chapter's Council representatives to items on the agenda. The text of the motion was:

     " To make the agenda more effective, all those voting for a particular item will automatically become an exploratory committee on the issue. This exploratory committee will be charged with coming up with a preliminary proposal for the issue they voted on. They may assign this duty to a volunteer or group of volunteers rather than tackle the issue themselves based on a majority vote. The volunteer (s) may be from outside exploratory committee provided no one on the exploratory committee wishes to work on the draft proposal. The chapter's council must be notified if the item is transferred out of the exploratory committee.

The exploratory committee may also recruit volunteers to help with the draft proposal. The voting status of any volunteers is up to the committee. Exploratory committee volunteers don't have to be official Mars Society members if they have relevant expertise (this does not apply to normal committees or the council unless previous motions are subsequently revised).

The duties of the exploratory committee will end when the item reaches 3rd or higher on the priority list or a preliminary proposal is made to the chapters council. This proposal may be made at anytime but further discussion should wait on a change in priority status by clearing higher items or by quick vote.

This motion may be amended or revoked at any time by a simple majority vote."

      

The intent of this motion, which passed, is to insure that one or more individuals on the Council will be assigned to pursue the agenda item in question. It is felt that assigning representatives to the items for which they voted would be the most democratic method; would involve the least overhead; and provide for the quickest progress in addressing the agenda item.

The following table documents the agenda for the month of June.

The Monthly Agenda
Rank Description
1 BOD and Steering Committee Council Rep
1 What needs to be done to get council more productive
2 Setting up a chapters council track or session at next convention
2 How to get more people on the council
3 Prepare council introduction tools for new members
3 Take over the Red Planet Satellite Report
3 Develop a Chapters starter kit
3 Face to Face Meeting with all council members at Toronto Conference
4 Building a chapters council website
4 Setting up Mars FAQ web page
4 Setting up a Speaker's Bureau
4 Discussion regarding whether the Mars Society's bylaw regarding members' rights is detrimental to the chapters and ideas for addressing this concern if it is
4 Develop merchandising support system for chapters
4 Have Council select chapter/task force and member of the month for each issue of RPSR



Chapter's Starter Kit
Veronica Ann Zabala of the Phoenix, Arizona chapter continues to work on developing a Chapter's Starter Kit. If you have suggestions as to what you would like to see included in the Chapter's Starter Kit, please contact Veronica Ann Zabala.



Chapter's Council Status Report
In order to facilitate production of the Chapter's Council Status Report, Piotr Moskal was elected as a second Secretary of Communications for the Chapter's Council. Piotr will work with Jim Plaxco to produce this report.

The purpose of the report will be to provide a detailed review of the progress that the various committees are making towards completing their work on the agenda items to which they have been assigned.



Chapter's Council and the Steering Committee
During the month of May, discussion continued regarding the Chapter's Council having a representative on the Mars Society Steering Committee. An election for the position will be held and the results of that election will be reported in the July issue of the Red Planet Satellite Report



Call for Volunteers
The Chapter's Council is looking for volunteers who can help us with our various projects. If you would like to assist the council with any of our projects, have an idea for a project that should be undertaken by the Chapter's Council, or have a suggestion regarding an item on the agenda, then please send an email to the Mars Society Chapter's Council.



Chapter Representation
In order to expand chapter representation on the Chapter's Council, the Council has voted to rescind the 10 member minimum requirement on chapters. It is critical that your chapter be represented so that your membership can be better informed of the actions of the Council. Further, representation means that your chapter will be able to provide valuable input that can determine and direct the Council's course of action. Every chapter should be participating in the activities of the Chapter's Council and now there is no longer an excuse for non-participation.

For additional information and to access a form to speed the process of identifying your chapter's representative, please visit the How to Join the Chapters Council page of the Chapter's Council web site.

For additional information, please send an email to the Mars Society Chapter's Council.



The Chapter's Council Web Site
The Chapter's Council has a web site to document the activities of the Council and to serve as an online resource for both the chapters and the general membership of the Mars Society. The home page for the Chapter's Council web site is:

    http://chapters.marssociety.org/council/.

Back issues of the Red Planet Satellite Report, a list of Chapter's Council representatives, as well as other council related information may be found here.

During May, the council took action to clarify how additions are made to the web site. The following motion was made and passed:

     "The webmaster of the chapter's council's website will make any additions recommended by council representatives unless he has a strong objection. In the event of a webmaster objection, the representative recommending an addition must make a formal motion to the council. Any editorial changes by the webmaster with regard to tenses, spelling, and other grammar should be discussed with the author prior to posting.

Webmasters may make format and layout changes as they deem fit subject to council reversal. This includes changes with regard to capitalization, font, and how material is split into pages. They may add but not remove text as well.

Once text is posted to the website a motion must be made to change it unless it relates to information that has clearly changed such as agendas, status reports, revised bylaws, and current officers. All council approved changes (additions or revisions) must be implemented. Failure to do so in a timely manor will be grounds for changing webmasters.

The webmaster will notify the council whenever a change is made. A motion to reject a change may be made if the change has not already been the subject of a motion. Volunteers (other than webmasters) may make suggestions for website changes, but they must be supported by a representative to be implemented.

Passage of this motion will close the chapter website agenda item.

      

Jim Burk is the webmaster for the Chapter's Council web site. If you have questions about the site, or would like to make suggestions, please send email to Jim Burk.



The Mars FAQ
The Mars FAQ committee continued its work on a Mars/Mars Society FAQ through the month of May. The purpose of the FAQ is to answer as wide a range of questions as possible about Mars, Mars exploration and the Mars Society. Once completed, this FAQ will be hosted on the Chapter's Council Web Site.

The FAQ committee is using eGroups as our communications vehicle. You can drop in and read our email traffic by visiting our egroup site. You can also make suggestions regarding the structure of the FAQ and questions to be considered for inclusion by sendin an email to the Mars FAQ Committee.

The members of the committee are Jim Burk, Stephen DeVoy, Mark Eby, Brad Jarvis, Matthew Lowry, Jim Plaxco, Stacy Sklar, Bill Weitze and Chris Vancil.



Chapter's Council Membership
The Chapters Council is currently made up of the following individuals:
Office Title         Representative        Representing Chapter

Thomas J. Allred Utah
Jim Beyer Michigan
Sam Burbank California, Northern
Webmaster Jim Burk (volunteer)
Ombudsman Erik Carlstrom Oregon
Stephen DeVoy Arizona, Tucson
Serina Diniega California, CALTECH-JPL
James Eberhardt Georgia
Sec. Agenda and Mark Eby Alabama Ombudsman
Sec. Voting and Gary Fisher Pennsylvania Sec. Documentation
Matthew Giovanelli Wisconsin
Domenique van der Goore California, C. Valley
Richard Heidmann France
Lisa Ice New Mexico
Carmen Marra Canada, Toronto
Council Vice-Chair Piotr Moskal Poland and Sec. Communication
Vesna Nikolic (volunteer)
Sec. Communication Jim Plaxco Illinois
Raimund Scheucher Germany
Stacy Sklar (volunteer)
Council Chair Chris Vancil Washington, Puget Sound
Paul Wooster New England
Veronica Ann Zabala Arizona, Phoenix

You can also access a list of the Chapter's Council Representatives on the Chapter's Council web site at http://chapters.marssociety.org/council/reps.html.


Getting the Council's Attention
Anyone, members or nonmembers, can bring issues to the attention of the Chapter's Council by sending an email to the Mars Society Chapter's Council.

If you want to keep tabs on what the council is up to, then point your browser at the Mars Society Chapter's Council Group area on the eGroups web site.

Return to the Chapter's Council Index





United States Chapter News

You can use the following index to go directly to the chapter of your choice. Use your Browser's "Back" button to return to this index.
    Alabama
Alaska
Arizona, Flagstaff
Arizona, Phoenix and Arizona State University
Arizona, Tucson
Arkansas
California, CALTECH-JPL
California, Central Valley
California, Northern
California, South
Colorado (Rocky Mountain Mars Society)
Florida
Georgia (RedDirt)
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois, Chicago
Illinois, North Shore
Illinois, Schaumburg
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky - Tennessee
Louisiana
Maryland/Virginia/Wash DC
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri, Kansas City
Nebraska
  Nevada
New England
New Jersey
New Mexico
New Mexico, Northern (aka Los Alamos Chapter)
New York
North Dakota
North Dakota, Eastern
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania, Penn State University
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee - Kentucky
Texas, Austin
Texas, Dallas
Texas, Houston
Utah
Washington, Grays Harbor/Olympic Peninsula
Washington, Puget Sound
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Alabama

Contact: Mark Eby, maeby@zebra.net
No report submitted.

Alaska

Contact: Marilyn Dudley-Rowley, MD-R@msn.com
No report submitted.

Arizona, Flagstaff

Contact: Stacy Sklar, JMakus3339@aol.com
No report submitted.

Arizona, Phoenix and Arizona State University

Contact: Veronica Ann Zabala, GEOBUM@prodigy.net
Web Site: http://frontpage.inficad.com/~azmars
We have had a tremendous month. Firstly, I want to thank all my members:
Kerry, Nathan, Ernest, Bob (and his wife Lydia), and Cornel (and his wife Nancy)
for volunteering from May 27-30, 2000, at the International Space Development Conference in Tucson, Arizona. We had an awesome weekend to where we got to meet with Dr. Zubrin, Pascal Lee, Allen Steele, Buzz Aldrin, etc. Trust me, the list goes on and on and on.......

Kerry and myself commuted to Tucson (a 2 hour drive) on Thursday to help set up the Conference areas and get the equipment taken care of. The following day (Friday) we helped getting our Mars Society table taken care of and meeting people as them came to the conference. We checked into our hotel and took pictures for the Chairman of the Convention, Bill Weigle. Bill is a great guy and did a great job with the Convention! I salute him!

A few of our members from both Chapters came in on Friday and volunteered between the Mars Society table and the ISDC people. The deal was: if we volunteered roughly 12 hours at the Convention, we would have the opportunity to sit in on the Sessions we chose. I would seriously recommend to all Chapters to see if you can do this with other functions and organizations. Trust me....it is a "WIN WIN" situation!

Buzz Aldrin came in on Friday night and I was introduced to him by Bill Weigle. I felt my heart skip a few beats and almost passed out on the floor that very second (and you think I am kidding - huh?). I felt like a little girl on Christmas morning. It is a feeling I will never forget. I was able to follow Buzz around and help him with a fax and talk with him for a while. I have my pen that he used to sign an autograph for a gal who was in the main office of the hotel when he was getting his fax taken care of. I have that pen in a very, very safe place. Then, I met up with Buzz later and everyone rushed to buy his new book "The Return". After that, I was able to sit with him in the front of the Conference room and help him with his presentation! I was not letting him out of my sight at all. Trust me on that! I asked him if he was tired of seeing the tape he had brought to show everyone before he made his speech and he said "I have seen it a few times", then he laughed. He then leaned over to me and asked how long did he have to talk before the Congressman, Kolby, was to speak and I told he....."Sir...take all the time you need!" That made him laugh even more. I have to say that I felt sad that Buzz had to leave but I know the life of an Astronaut for that is the life I have chosen to pursue. He had other obligations to be at and I just want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to sign my books and let me help him with his presentation. I was sitting next to and talking to a walking legend and I was very proud to be a part of his life in some way, even though I know he has already forgotten who I am.

Saturday was filled with so much activity I do not know where to begin. Dr. Zubrin came to our table and sat at the table for quite sometime. He talked to people and signed books and was very pleasant. I do have to say that when Dr. Zubrin talks, everyone stops what they are doing and listens whole heartily. Dr. Zubrin's conference rooms were always full and he made the people laugh on more than one occasion. But, at the same time, he captivated the people in the room with the sense that we must go to Mars and we must do it now! We need to get in touch with our Congressmen/women and make a constant presence in the judicial system and let them know that we are not going away and that we want a better Space Program that "will take us somewhere". Kerry and I had the opportunity to sit at the same lunch and dinner table as Dr. Zubrin and I have to say that we are so happy that we did for we are Undergraduate students at Arizona State University and what we learned about the Space Program and Mars, we will never learn at the University!

Sunday approached and our hearts sank as we came to realize that the weekend was just about over for us. All the Mars Society members had the privilege of going to Dr. Zubrin's Pioneer Luncheon. (I do have to say that the food wasn't too bad at the Convention at all). Once again, Dr. Zubrin made a great speech about "WHY" we should go to Mars and that "WE" need to do something about it. After the luncheon some of us went over to listen to Pascal Lee talk and I have to say that he is an excellent speaker. Pascal had a lot of vivid images of Devon Island and the landscape of the area where the Flashline Arctic Research Station will be located. He discussed how one would live, work and analyze a analogous Martian environment. The time had come for Dr. Zubrin to leave and we felt our hearts sink once more. Kerry and I attended the NSS Banquet and afterwards we packed up the car, went up to the Hospitality Suites (which I highly recommend after a long day of lectures and volunteering and to "Hob Nob" with the Best in the Business). After collecting nearly 50 some odd business cards, ate to our hearts content, took enough pictures to put Kodak out of business, bought enough NASA, Apollo books, stickers, shirts, etc. (wondering if I still had enough gas money to get home) and wishing that we had more time to talk to people about "JOB" opportunities - Kerry and I left about 12:30 a.m. (2 hours later then we wanted) and I managed to get us both home in one piece after having the radio on and putting the air conditioning on and off to stay awake.

We found everyone at the Conference friendly and willing to teach us the "tricks of the trade". This was our first Convention as a newborn Chapter(s) and we didn't do too bad at all. We sold over 30 of Dr. Zubrin's books (both the "Case for Mars" and "Entering Space", got over 40 new E-mails to add to our E-mail list, sold about 15 of the Mars Millennium Calendars, had 5 Mars Society T-shirt orders and about 7 new memberships! Not bad for our first Convention.

I know several people from the Mars Society that were at the convention and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for taking some time out and talking with us and enlightening us and showing us a good time and making us feel welcome. These are the people I personally feel indebted to:

Dr. Zubrin - for taking the time to teach us how to become better as a chapter and as future explorers

Buzz Aldrin -For letting a little girl's dream come true

Ron Jones - For explaining the "Ins and Outs" of the business and making me laugh (remember to send me that info Ron :) )

Francis Govers III - For letting us know that there is hope of getting information about "How to become an Astronaut" available out there

Bruce Makenzie - For talking with one of my members and getting him info about web graphics

James George and James Busby - For being the best neighbors that a bunch of first time Convention participants can have

Jerry Cross - For hooking us up with some outreach materials and info for the next ISDC convention (tell your wife that I will write her a letter as to why you spent so much money at out table - LOL )

There are so many more people we have encountered at this venture and I really do not think that Jim has a whole lot of room in the RPSR to put all of this on. But you know who you are and I just want to say thank you from all of us. We had a lot of fun and if you would like to see some pictures of the Convention I will not only have it on my website, but on our Chapter's website. You can also visit to Convention's website at:

www.tucson2000.org

They should have it completed by the end of this week.

Arizona, Tucson

Contact: Aaron Schultz, aschultz@Seds.org
No report submitted.

Arkansas

Contact: Wayne Bowen, bowenw@alpha.obu.edu
No report submitted.

California, CALTECH-JPL

Contact: Derek Shannon, dms@caltech.edu
Web Site: http://mars.caltech.edu/
No report submitted.

California, Central Valley

Contact: Domenique van der Goore, traveler@cyberlynk.com
No report submitted.

California, Northern

Contact: Bill Weitze, bweitze@california.com
Web Site: http://chapters.marssociety.org/northca/
Mailing list: Majordomo@lists.Stanford.EDU
       with the command subscribe norcal-mars-society as the message.

Member Dustin Putnam spoke to 4th and 5th graders on the topic of Mars on June 2 at Baywood Elementary School in San Mateo.

Science fiction author G. David Nordley, along with Dr. John Crowley and JPL engineer Bridget Landry, participated in a panel discussion at BayCon 2000 (a science fiction convention) on Mars Exploration and Colonization. Bridget Landry also gave a presentation on the Mars Pathfinder. (Note: These were not Mars Society events.)

Our next meeting will be held at 1:00pm on Sunday June 11 at the Shoreline Grill in Mountain View.

California, South

Contact: Dave Jedynak, jedynak@sileas.com
No report submitted.

Colorado (Rocky Mountain Mars Society)

Contact: Brad Jarvis, bjarvis@ezlink.com
Web Site: http://www.rmms.org/
No report submitted.

Florida

Contact: Dick Brodeur, r.e.brodeur@mindspring.com
No report submitted.

Georgia (RedDirt)

Contact: Mike Kretsch, mkretsch@compassusa.com
Red Dirt reminds everyone the deadline for enties in the VRML 2.0 Spacecraft design competition is July 4 not June 1 as was previously announced. Red Dirt also hopes you are well on your way to completing your design. The current announcement is as follows:

Red Dirt, the Mars Society in Georgia is sponsoring a VRML 2.0 space craft modeling competition. The prize for a winner (judged by myself and one other Red Dirt member) includes a posting on our Red Dirt WebPage, an original space art image in 8x10, AND A GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR $25 to Amazon.com. The rules are simple: Design and build a VRML 2.0 model of a spacecraft for a manned Mars mission. The model will be judged on realism, asthetic value and useability. The craft should be sized to accept a 1.7 meter (standard) avatar. There should be an interior in other words that can be explored, as well as an exterior. There are many online resources available for VRML 2.0, and there are probably some cheap or free editors. I use Notepad, so you know you don't need much software. You will need to enable JAVA on your browser, and you will need the 3d plug-in. You can get that at www.colonycity.com, which is also free. Happy modeling and Good Luck! Contest to be judged july 4th 2000. File size restrictions available at our website (click contest) The Red Dirt Website is located at http://mike1mars.tripod.com Email entries to me, Mike Kretsch, mkretsch@compassusa.com.

Hawaii

Contact Needed. Volunteers, please contact Maggie Zubrin, mzubrin@aol.com
No report submitted.

Idaho

Contact: Chris Struble, clstruble@earthlink.net
For the past few months I have been in contact with Curt Boyll, author of the MarsArt Toolkit. He can no longer maintain the toolkit and has agreed to transfer ownership of the toolkit to me. I will be setting up a new Mars Art web site for the toolkit as well as a chapter web site next month. Over time I plan to add new 3D models that can be used in programs other than Bryce, 3D art, and links to Mars art and 3D content on the web.

I contacted the Discovery Center of Idaho, a popular children's science museum in Boise. I have made inquiries about having meetings there in the future, and about having a Mars Society table or exhibit at a future star party, probably next year.

I wrote a letter to the Fort Hall, Idaho teacher whose students have the "Spuds in Space" experiment growing potatoes in simulated Martian soil on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. I congratulated them on their efforts and offered to come speak to the class about the Mars Society in the future.

Illinois, Chicago

Contact: Matthew Lowry, lowryclan@geocities.com
Web Site: http://www.astrodigital.org/marschicago/
No report submitted.

Illinois, North Shore

Contact: Matt Lowry at lowryclan@geocities.com
Web Site: http://www.astrodigital.org/nsms
On May 15th, the North Shore chapter gave a presentation to the Racine Astronomical Society about human missions to Mars and the Mars Society. The talk was very well received, and there is potential for a follow-up presentation focusing on the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in August or September. In addition, at our June 1st meeting we hosted Jack Kramer who spoke about the Mars Millennium Project (http://www.mars2030.net). Jack is also a senior member of the Lake County Astronomical Society, and there are hopes that the NSMS and LCAS could link up together in the future.

The NSMS is hoping to obtain a substantial amount of the Martian Analog "Soil" (actually regolith) direct from the supplier. We hope to begin conducting a series of experiments on the simulated soil testing various parameters such as magnetic properties, fertility and growth potential, etc. We also hope to somehow get the "recipe" for the soil, so that we can vary the composition to conduct a wider range of tests. Any ideas or feedback we could receive on our plans would be welcome.

On June 9th, we'll be presenting to the Skokie Valley Astronomical Society -- the presentation will be "To Mars: The Next Frontier".

In an attempt to become more legitimate and organized, we officially elected a treasurer for the chapter. Congratulations to Salman Aasi on his new post as NSMS treasurer. Any advice or feedback on the handling of chapter monies would be appreciated -- Salman's email address is saulyfal7@hotmail.com

The NSMS also has a new website, courtesy of our webmaster Bob Lindquist. The new site will be up-and-running within a few weeks. Anyone interested can take a look at http://homepage.interaccess.com/~psycho/nsms/ .

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, July 13th. The exact time and location are TBA.

Illinois, Schaumburg

Contact: Jim Plaxco, astro@astrodigital.org
Web Site: http://www.astrodigital.org/mss/
No report submitted.

Indiana

Contact: Steve Resler, sresler@eyeworld.net
No report submitted.

Iowa

Contact: Katharine Osborne, kosborne@eai.com
No report submitted.

Kansas

Contact: Holly Kellogg, HKellogg@feist.com
No report submitted.

Louisiana

Contact: Shelly Hynes, cshynes@cp-tel.net
Louisiana Mars Society Meeting
When: Saturday, June 10, 2000
Time: 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: North Kenner Library
630 W. Esplanade Ave.
Kenner, LA 70065 (suburb of New Orleans)
Directions: Take I-10 and get off at Exit 221 - Loyola Drive - Kenner, LA. Head North ( approximately one mile) on Loyola Drive until you get to W. Esplanade Ave. (there will be a Rite Aid Pharmacy on your right-hand side). Take a right onto W. Esplanade Ave. and go approximately 0.5 - 0.75 miles and you will see a gymnasium, an elementary school (Alexander) and a Track and Field area. The North Kenner Library is on your left-hand side by the Track and Field area.

If you need further detailed instructions, you can go to Maps On Us or call me, Craig Dooley, at (504) 466-3955, Craig.D.Dooley@maf.nasa.gov

Also, Craig and some of his collegues have come up with a poster to advertise the meeting.  Please contact Craig for a copy!

Lastly, we have sent two letters to Sen. Breaux requesting his presence at our meeting and the other to ask for a date we could meet with him.  He respectfully declined to come to the meeting, and we haven't had a response to our request for a date to meet with him in his office.  But, at the very least we have made our presence known!  Let me know if you would like a copy of our letters to Sen Breaux to use as a template to your senators and reps!

Maryland/Virginia/Wash DC

Contact: Theresa Klein, tjk2@ix.netcom.com
No report submitted.

Michigan

Contact: Julie Edwards, jedwards@umich.edu
Web Site: http://chapters.marssociety.org/usa/mi/
Our table at the "What's Up Weekend" at the Jackson Space Center was a success. We were pleased to meet Stephen and Micky, 2 new members who came for our monthly meeting which was held on Saturday at the Center.

This was this first time our Arctic Mars Hab model was put on display for the public, and it appeared to be well accepted. You can see it on display on the museum grounds with several of our most active members at

http://chapters.marssociety.org/usa/mi/public/habmodel.html

All members agreed that more detail is needed to improve the model, which is still a work-in-progress.

One thing several of our members did discuss is the poor financial state of this great museum. Out of state visitors were impressed with the quality of the items on display here. But the museum is barely, if at all, breaking even. We are not sure how to help, but even word of mouth advertising is good since many Michigan inhabitants are unaware of the existence of this fine small museum on the campus of Jackson Community College.

During the last few months, some of our members have tended tables at Space Day celebrations at a few universities in southeast and mid Michigan.

The team organized to work on an entry to the pressurized rover contest continues to have meetings several times a week. General meetings are normally held on Monday evenings, and several more specific group meetings are held other times during the week.

Minnesota

Contact: Ben Huset, BenHuset@skypoint.com
No report submitted.

Mississippi

Contact: Garry W. Speer, VMSmith1@aol.com
No report submitted.

Missouri, Kansas City

Contact: George Howard, Ghoward683@aol.com
No report submitted.

Nebraska

Contact: Derrick M. Davis, dmdventures@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Nevada

Contact: Shawn Plunket, SPlunket@aol.com
No report submitted.

New England

Contact: Paul Wooster, pwooster@mit.edu
Website: http://chapters.marssociety.org/usa/ma/
The MIT Mars Society chapter continues to work with the Mars Society Youth Group to publish the monthly Martian Chronicles. The June issue has just been release, to read it online, click here.

New England Chapter member Bruce Mackenzie met with a 4th grade class during "Everyone's a Scientist/Engineer Week" at a local school. He showed slides of future crewed Mars missions, including some from the Mars Society slide show.

Suggestions for someone making a similar school visit is to choose a couple of simple science and math examples, work out the pictures or math ahead of time with the teacher, for example:

  1. to show how to make fuel, draw a picture of a water molecule being electrolyzed, then show a picture of CO2 + H2O molecules making CH4 (methane) (don't rely on the chemical formula, draw a picture of the atoms.)
  2. for older students, try Keppler's 3rd law, written out as an arithmetic problem (not algebra), to figure out how long a planet's year is and how long a round trip flight to Mars or Pluto would be.
  3. how many cars would be needed around the edge of a 10 meter greenhouse dome on Mars to hold down the dome against the internal air pressure? (hint, only worry about the upward force of the air, the sideways force cancels itself out.)

New Jersey

Contact Needed. Volunteers, please contact Maggie Zubrin, mzubrin@aol.com
No report submitted.

New Mexico

Contact: Eric Orrill, mailto:eorrill@jntsw.com
Members from throughout New Mexico have been meeting in Albuquerque once a month. We have decided to work on a project and plan to discuss what project to take on at our next meeting (June 10). We have also been reading and discussing "The Case for Mars." In addition, a smaller group has been meeting in Albuquerque between our state-wide meetings for the sole purpose of book discussion.

We have also been continuing our outreach efforts, mostly in conjunction with the New Mexico Space Society. Our combined "potential space advocates" list now has over 100 members on it.

New Mexico, Northern (aka Los Alamos Chapter)

Contact: Lisa Ice, ice@cs.unm.edu
No report submitted.

New York

Contact: Paul Contursi, pcon@pipeline.com
No report submitted.

North Dakota

Contact: John R. Cable, jrjohn@martin.ndak.net
No report submitted.

North Dakota, Eastern

Contact: Jonathan Hovland, fenix@thequest.net
No report submitted.

Ohio

Contact: Tamarack R. Czarnik, patttam@erinet.com
Presentations
Activities

Oklahoma

Contact: John Ohlheiser, JPO10708@aol.com
No report submitted.

Oregon

Contact: Gus Frederick, gus@norwebster.com
Web Site:http://chapters.marssociety.org/or/
No report submitted.

Pennsylvania, Penn State University

Contact: Wojciech Klimkiewicz, Ph.D., wklimkiewicz@ieee.org
On May 5, 2000 at the NASA Planetary Institute Forum 2000 - Human Exploration and Development of Space held in Houston, Texas, Penn State students scored third place together with California Institute of Technology. The second place was awarded to the University of Maryland, and the winner for this year is the Colorado School of Mines (undergraduates) and Georgia Institute of Technology (graduate category). The competition was tight and included twelve other prominent universities.

Penn State University HEDS-UP team (class EE497D, ME497C, Instructor: Dr.W.Klimkiewicz) has designed a novel Mars robotic mission approach to investigate the history of Mars by going to spectacular cliffs in Valles Marineris. The details and our final report to NASA can be found at the website: http://www.ee.psu.edu/pub/ee497d/. NASA HEDS-UP website is http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/HEDS-UP/. The title of the report is:

SCALING THE MARTIAN WALLS OF TIME

On Earth, when scientists want to investigate planetary history they take a core sample, with deeper fragments corresponding to older materials.  In essence, descending through sedimentary layers is like going back in time. But creating a robot capable of taking samples more than a few meters below the planetary surface is still beyond the current available technology.  The cliffhanger idea takes advantage of the natural surface features of Mars to explore the history of the planet without digging.  So interesting and difficult questions can be answered not with the brute force of a drill, but with creative mission design.

We designed a novel Mars mission approach. A main Lander with a Rover and a Cliffhanger will land near cliffs of Valles Mariners. Especially design canon (gas, guided munitions or rocket) will deploy a long rope into the canyon. The rover will carry the cliffhanger to the edge of Valles Marineris following the rope, attach the cliffhanger to the rope. The Cliffhanger will climb a 2 km down the rope and will allow the team to study sedimentary layers of rock on the side of the cliff. Samples and high-resolution images will be taken and delivered to the Lander for further investigation (optical multispectral imaging microscope, spectrometry) and sending the results to Earth.

The robot has been designed to have the capability for locomotion at any angle (including somewhat uphill slopes) but maximum effective motion will be achieved at descent angles from 70-85 degrees.

After the mission of rope climbing is completed the Rover and Lander will embark on another long-term mission to provide meteorological and geological data over a long period of time (long-term Mars Observatory), and perform acoustic and seismic experiments on the surface of Mars in preparation for human arrival.

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (The Independence Chapter)

Contact: Gary C. Fisher, gcfisheris@aol.com
No report submitted.

Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh

Contact: Daniar Hussain, daniarh@yahoo.com
Mailing List:mars-penn@onelist.com
No report submitted.

Puerto Rico

Contact: Jose Lopez Reyes, skyloop@caribe.net
No report submitted.

Rhode Island

Contact: Steve Connors, connors@ici.net
No report submitted.

South Carolina

Contact: Richard Allen Brown, Charlestonideas@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Tennessee - Kentucky

Contact: Trae Winter, hwinter@latte.memphis.edu
No report submitted.

Texas, Austin

Contact: Tim Crain, crain@csr.utexas.edu
No report submitted.

Texas, Dallas

Contact: Scott Bell, ntms@usa.net
No report submitted.

Texas, Houston

Contact: Chris Barnes, USAMarsMan@aol.com
No report submitted.

Utah

Contact: Tom Allred, AllredTj@ubtanet.com
No report submitted.

Washington, Grays Harbor/Olympic Peninsula

Contact: Johannes Helgeson, noachis@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Washington, Puget Sound

Contact: Jim Burk, President, jburk@jburk.com
Chapter email: marspuget@egroups.com
Web Site: Mars Society Puget Sound
Unfortunately we had to cancel our "Four Corners" regional chapter meeting due to lack of interest from chapters in BC, Oregon, and Idaho. One large stumbling block was our scheduling it over the Father's Day weekend (necessary due to our geologist/speaker's schedule.) We hope to try again with a similar event later this year or next summer; again we will try to bring together Mars Society chapters (and possibly other space activists) in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia (Canada).

Chapter members Jim Burk and David Stuart attended ISDC 2000 in Tucson, AZ. We met and were impressed with our counterparts in the Arizona chapters, and gave out copies of the betas for Issues 2 and 3 of the Ares CDs. There were a few good talks in the convention tracks (Rick Tumlinson speaking about MirCorp was one interesting talk.) The Kitt's Peak and Biosphere 2 tours were brief but very enjoyable. We look forward to the possibility of Stacy Makus/Sklar, founder of the Flagstaff chapter moving to our area to attend the UW Astrobiology program.

We have just finished with the production of the third Ares CD-Rom (see below) and are looking forward to #2 shipping soon. We are trying to convice HQ for us to take over production and duplication of future issues ourselves instead of outsourcing to Imagineering or other firms. We still hope Imagineering can be involved, perhaps by printing the cover sleeves or inserts for the CDs. By adopting a just-in-time manufacturing model (where we only produce copies of CDs after they are ordered,) we can keep the costs of this project down and ensure a regular schedule of four issues a year, as originially envisioned for this project. Recently HQ has stated that funds are only available for one issue a year, which is reasonable considering the first issue's costs were in the 5 figures. We hope to keep the costs as low as possible by using more volunteer effort in bug-fixing and duplication, as well as cheaper CD insert/sleeve production costs.

West Virginia

Contact: Robert Strong, strongro@WLSVAX.WVNET.EDU
No report submitted.

Wisconsin

Contact: Scott Davis, scud1@execpc.com
During May, 2000 the Wisconsin Mars Society chapter did not have any official activities. We had been preparing for a booth at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association the weekend of June 16-18th in Madison, Wisconsin. We sent in our application with the required $100, but they turned us down - more interested in getting off grid than off planet.

Meanwhile, member Peter Kokh took in the National Space Society's annual International Space Development Conference over the Memorial Day Weekend in Tucson, Arizona. Bob Zubrin, Chris McKay, and Pascal Lee were featured speakers. Peter took his Earth-Mars-Moon gravity brick set along and Pascal Lee, on seeing it, ordered a duplicate to take to the Arctic Mars station on Devon Island. According to Pascal's talk, the idea of the Haughton Crater effort is more to simulate operations than hardware (though they will undoubtedly have recommendations in that area too). Getting a feel for the gravity differences will help the team to adjust their operational experiences accordingly.

Peter Kokh
Wisconsin Mars Society Red Satellite reporter

Wyoming

Contact: Patrick Banks, PAT@uwyo.edu
No report submitted.

Mars Youth Group

Contact: Margarita Marinova, mmm@mit.edu
Web Site: http://chapters.marssociety.org/youth/
Production of the Martian Chronicles is going as planned! The June Martian Chronicles are now out. In this issue:
  1. NASA's Long Term Mars Plans
  2. The Heavy Lift Challenge
  3. The Search Continues
  4. Meet the Scientist - Dr. Chris McKay
  5. Dirt to Build a Habitat
  6. The Recluse - Part IV
  7. Mars Q and A
Check out the Martian Chronicles online . The Deadline for submissions for the July Issue of the Chronicles is June 18.

Please distribute the Chronicles to youth in your area (let me know if you need paper copies), and any other help that you can offer - writing articles, editing, answering Mars Q, etc. - will be greatly appreciated!!!

The Winner of the Mars Rover Bumper Sticker Contest is Gene Johnson with:
I'd rather be driving a Mars Rover!

All entries can be viewed by going to the Mars Youth website.





International Chapter News

You can use the following index to go directly to the chapter of your choice. Use your Browser's "Back" button to return to this index.

Be sure to read the European Chapters Meeting Special Report.

    Argentina/Latin America
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Canada, Ottawa
Canada, Toronto
Canada, Vancouver
Chile
Cyprus, Mediterranean
France
Germany
Iceland
Israel
Italy
Japan
  Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Peru
Philippines
Polska
Russia
South Africa
Spain, Canary Islands
Spain, Peninsular
Sweden/Scandinavia
Switzerland
Ukraine
Mars Society UK Ltd.



European Chapters Meeting Special Report

Meeting of the European leaders of the Mars Society
European Leaders Meeting, London, 3-4 June 2000

The leaders of the Mars Society in the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Netherlands, Austria and Sweden have met 3-4 of June near London. We wanted to get to know each other, have a chance to swap ideas and experiences, and generally lend each other some impetus. The talks took us one day and a half, during which we made some important decisions (details below).

List of attendants:
  Bo Maxwell, (UK)
  Philip Dembo, (UK)
  Peter Loftus, (UK)
  Daniel Loftus, (UK)
  Piotr Moskal, (Poland)
  Arno Wielders, (Netherlands)
  Frans Blok, (Netherlands)
  George Overmeire, (Netherlands)
  Richard Heidman, (France)
  Bertrand Spitz, (France)
  Claes Nordquist, (Sweden)
  Hannes Griebel, (Germany)
  Manfred Hettmer, (Austria)


The meeting agenda was prepared by Philip Dembo, Bo Maxwell and Peter Loftus from the British Chapter and it included several issues, like: membership management, outreach, education, fundraising, publicity, technical projects and others. During the meeting we discussed those subjects in detail, some additional issues were proposed as well. Below you will find the list of all the most important conclusions and decisions we made. The text is divided into three parts: development of existing chapters, creating new chapters and joint european initiatives.

Piotr Moskal
President, Mars Society Poland




DEVELOPMENT OF EXISTING CHAPTERS

1) Member benefits
We agreed that MS chapters have to be attractive to people in order to get as many members as possible. Here are some ideas concerning the things we can offer to our members:

2) Promotional brochures
In the near future each of our chapters will print color brochures (similar to those printed in the US). We considered printing a large quantity for all the european chapters, but due to language difficulties we decided that it will be better to have separate versions for each country.

3) Commercial activity
We browsed through the possibilities of commercial activity and products we could manufacture. Here are some ideas: T-shirts, postcards, stickers, pens, mugs, Mars globes etc. So far, the UK chapter manufactured T-shirts and the Austrian Chapter pens. Philip Dembo from the UK chapter made some research on the Net, here are the results, maybe you will find it useful: inflatable Mars globes can be found at http://www.screameria.com/order.html, and at http://www.diyprint.com/diyprint you will find a page where you can upload your logo and apply it to a mug / pen / whatever to find if it looks good. If so, you can order the merchandise.

4) Lobbying with other organizations
Joining forces with other space oriented organizations may be a valuble option for any MS chapter. Such lobbying gives us more influence in any actions. However, in some cases the goals of such organizations may differ from ours. If so, we should focus on common elements in our statutes and try to find some points of agreement. We discussed also what influence may have letters to governement members from space oriented organizations. The oppinions were divided here and we were unable to find an absolute answer to the question if such actions might prove successful in Europe. And back to the lobbying -- in Poland we made our first step by joining forces with Uranos, an Internet organization that have many common goals with Mars Society. Our cooperation proved very beneficial for both sides, so I advise all other chapters to do the same.

5) Educational outreach
In the upcoming months we will try to get in touch with schools in our countries. While public presentations are very valuable, we agreed that getting kids involved will have a long term positive effect on our cause, so school presentations are one of the most important things we should focus on. So far we have no experience in such actions, I hope one of the european chapters will make the first step soon.

6) TV outreach
It is not a secret that good TV outreach is the key to success. The British Chapter was involved in the production of a short documentary about Mars (something similar to the "Pioneering the planet"). In the upcoming months all the other chapters will try to get in touch with TV stations in their countries and will try to do the same. The more programs wemanage to produce, the better, so we should try to get as amny TV stations involved as possible (I mean we shouldn't stop after finishing just one show).

7) Public outreach
In order to organize the issue of public outreach, each chapter will try to create a separate task force that would spread the word about TMS. The task force members will be provided with appropriate materials, texts, slide shows photographs etc. and they will organize presentations around the country. It is important to organize as many such events as possible, but from my own experience I can say that 2-3 speaker for a chapter is not enough. We need a large task force to do it properly.

8) Museums
The German Chapter shared some valuable experiences concerning lobbying with museums. They managed to make an exposition in a wide known museum, showing to people materials on Mars, Mars Direct and other Mars related things. This is a very good way to make a publicity of The Mars Society. Probably in any country such partners could be easily found -- any space museum, aircraft museum, astronomy museum or so will probably do just fine.

9) Industrial partners
Of course the best way to get involved in advanced technical projects is to get in touch in the space industry in our countries. Sadly, not in each country this industry is developed... In this area, the British, French and German chapters have most possibilities. We are already in contact with the ESA, in the future we will try to develop this link. Also, each chapter will try to get in touch with space officials in its country, even if the space industry isn't very developed there.

10) The Space Week
4-10 of October has been proclaimed International Space Week. We intend to organize some public outreach events during this period. Of course each chapter will deal with this opportunity on its own, but we agreed on the main course of action: a public presentation accompanied by some slide or photo show would surely do the trick. From our experience here, in Poland, we can say that such events are often a success - last weekend we celebrated the Science Day in Warsaw. Many science oriented organizations made their presentations (on open air), we held a stand along with the Space Research Center. We presented some pictures, demonstrated materials from Ares CD and gave some speeches about Mars Direct. Our intention is to organize some similar event during the Space Week.


FORMING OF NEW CHAPTERS

Comparing to other areas of the world, the Mars Society chapter structure in Europe is very dense. We have now 7 big and active chapters, around 11 smaller ones are struggling to gather enough members to start their projects. I made a few maps to show the situation:


CHAPTER ACTIVITY IN EUROPE

Mars Society presence in Europe
  • Countries with an active chapter

  • Countries with chapters less active or with only a contact person

  • Countries with no chapters/contacts

11) Inactive contact persons
There are a number of names listed as chapter contacts on the web that appear to be defunct. Some of them have been out of date for some time (like Italy, since a month after the first conference in 98). We've been aware of this for some time, but didn't think there was any harm. However, it was pointed out at the meeting that if there is a name, for example, for contact in Italy, but no one to reply for it, it becomes ten times harder to start anything up. People from Italy who are interested will not get a reply and loose interest, and certainly anyone wanting to start a chapter will think there is one in existence already, and not bother. Philip Dembo volounteered to organize this action and he has written to Italy, Belgium, Iceland and Switzerland, asking them if they are still active, and to get back to within a week (a couple of days to go). If they will keep ignoring mails, the old inactive contact persons will be wipped out in order to give others the possibility to take initiative in the region.

12) Expanding our influences
Within the next six months we will try to reanimate chapters in those countries that lost their momentum and to create chapters in countries that still dont have one. Our targets will be as follow: Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Spain and Ireland. If everything goes OK, we expect representatives of those coutries to show up on our next meeting in Germany.


JOINT EUROPEAN INITIATIVES

And now lets proceed to the most important section -- the results of our negotiations concerning european cooperation. The meeting proved to be very satisfying in this matter, we agreed to join forces and came up with some really intereseting joint projects. Below you will find a list of all areas where the european chapters will cooperate.


13) European Committee
We decided to create the European Committee, a structure that will help organize our actions across Europe. All the persons who have been in London are now in the EC, we hope to gather more members (chapter leaders, in general) when new european chapters will be created. To help us communicate we created a group on the e-groups server, the same that hosts the Chapters Council. The main purpose of the EC is to support the cooperation between european chapters.

14) Regular meetings
The European Committee will meet twice a year to establish global european course of action and to discuss progress made so far. The next meeting will take place on 2-3 of December, in Munich (Germany). We have 6 months to execute all the decisions made in London, probably the main purpose of the meeting in Munich will be to discuss how it worked.

15) European conference
We decided to organize an european conference similar to the annual Mars Society convention. The first one will probably take place 14-15 of October in Amsterdam or in Paris (we'll decide soon).

16) European tour of dr Zubrin
In the next year (probably during summer) we hope to organize a tour by dr Zubrin in Europe. After the stunning success of such tour in Australia it became clear that we must organize a similar event in Europe to improve our performance. This is only a free idea now and we didn't contact dr Zubrin yet, but Bo Maxwell, President of the British Chapter will do it soon. All the chapters represented on the meeting in London were interested in the tour, we hope also that by the time of the tour some new chapters will show up (such event would be a very good begining for a news chapter, as it would surely attract many people interested in the subject, who would probably also be interested in joining the chapter).

17) Pressurized rover project
During the meeting we presented briefly our entries to the pressurized rover contest organized by the HQ. The Britsh chapter and the Polish chapter have already sent their proposals to the US and now we are preparing more detailed versions. But the important thing is a proposal made by the representatives of the British chapter: if our projects will not pass to the next round in september, it is possible that european chapters will join forces to build a joint rover using our own funds. We agreed that it would be a very interesting project and that we would like to do it. However it is, of course, not settled yet and we don't have any sponsor for the moment, but the idea appeared and it might be our first joint technical project in Europe.

18) CD-ROM
In the near future several of european chapters would like to prepare a promotional CD, a bit similar to the Ares CD. It would contain presentations of The Mars Society, Mars Direct and so on. We considered making one version for all the european chapters, and then changing only the language version, leaving graphics and animations intact. It would surely be cheaper (due to the quantity). However, wre not sure if the language difficulties wont prove too annoying, so the project is still only an idea and it is probable that we'll decide to produce the CDs separately.

19) Sharing resources
Finally, we decided that it would be good if we could share our resources in Europe. For the beginning, it was proposed to make a database containing articles that we have written (or someone from outside MS have written for us). There is of course the problem of language, but we'll try to resolve it somehow. In the future maybe we'll be able to share more resources, like models, displays and so on.


The meeting in London was a very interesting event and we all enjoyed it very much. I hope that our chapters will all benefit from the initiated cooperation and I can't wait the next meeting. See you in Munich!


Piotr Moskal
President, Mars Society Poland

Argentina/Latin America

Contact: Gabriel Rshaid, grshaid@marsacademy.com
No report submitted.

Australia

Contact: Andrew Hamilton, ahamilto@nsw.bigpond.net.au
No report submitted.

Belgium

Contact: Antoon Van Boxstael, Antoon@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Canada

Contact: Marc Boucher, webmaster@marssociety.org
Web Site: http://canada.marssociety.org
No report submitted.

Canada, Ottawa

Contact: Jean Lagarde, jlagarde@bigfoot.com
No report submitted.

Canada, Toronto

Contact: Rocky Persaud, rocky.persaud@utoronto.ca
Web Site: http://Chapters.MarsSociety.org/toronto/
No report submitted.

Canada, Vancouver

Contact: Stephen Braham, warp@polylab.sfu.ca
No report submitted.

Chile

Contact: Cristian Puebla-Menne, cpuebla@cmet.net
No report submitted.

Cyprus, Mediterranean

Contact: George Lordos, Lordos@mit.edu
No report submitted.

France

Contact: Richard Heidmann, Rheidmann@aol.com
The managing board of the APM (Association PLANETE MARS) met on May 04 and decided to implement "tasks forces" on terraforming Mars and on economical aspects of missions to Mars.

Richard Heidmann made two lectures on Mars:

The APM is now in touch with AAAF (Aeronautical and Astronautical French Association) and with ANSTJ (Science and Technique National Association for Youth).

And our website and the debate forum on Mars are more and more fully active!

Germany

Contact: Michael Bosch, Michael.Bosch@wiwi.uni-regensburg.de
Web Site: http://www.marssociety.de/
No report submitted.

Iceland

Contact: Olafur Patrick Olafsson, opo@hi.is
No report submitted.

Israel

Contact: Alin Moss, alinm@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Italy

Contact: Fabrizio Pirondini, pirro@tin.it
No report submitted.

Japan

Contact: Onizuka, Michitaka, onizuka@colorado.edu
Contact: Kiosuke Murakawa, murakawa@csp.co.jp
No report submitted.

Mexico

Contact: Rich Robins, Mars@SpaceProjects.com

The release of the movie Mission to Mars has been greatly delayed in Mexico and apparently the rest of Latin America and Spain as well. It would seem that in the wake of NASA's surprising pair of 1999 Mars mission failures, Mexicans feel much less "energizingly close" to humanity's finally being able to colonize the Red Planet during our lifetime. NASA has an annual Mars exploration budget that is only a little over $300 million dollars, and the U.S. Congress understandably won't boost NASA's budget by much at all due to popular opinion that NASA is too bureaucratic and reform-resisting.

On the other hand, perhaps OTHER U.S. federal agencies could be persuaded to somehow help support the space and eventually the Mars efforts? There's no doubt that they'd all like to get more money from Congress with which to try and improve upon the status quo. For inspiration, remember how Clementine went back to the Moon a few years ago for relatively LITTLE money, and it was a >Department of Defense< project??? And notice how the National Science Foundation ALREADY finances astronomy research... Also, the National Institute of Health could become increasingly interested in microgravity-related pharmaceutical studies (http://www.microgravity.com), considering the exciting privatization of Space Station MIR (http://www.MirStation.com ) which makes such research FAR more affordable than it will be on the government-operated International Space Station. Additionally, the Department of Energy could conceivably support space solar power and propulsion-related experiments. Those federal agencies and many more are linked at: http://www.cfda.gov/public/agy_list.asp. What are we waiting for? Universities and other entities simply need to request research dollars from them, and a budget-conscious Congress might be increasingly likely to appropriate scarce funds to entities other than bureaucratic NASA. With some imagination and determination, progress could finally be on the horizon! Private sector entities that are interested in microgravity research are mentioned at: http://spd.nasa.gov/SPD99.pdf (starting on page 46), and university entities currently still dependent upon NASA funds for such investigations are linked at: http://spd.nasa.gov/csc.html.

The private sector can be a big help, too, especially if tax incentive$ finally become a reality. George W. Bush personally told me that he's inclined to approve them if given the opportunity. So it's worth paying attention to Congressman Rohrabacher's "Zero Gravity, Zero Tax" proposal [H.R. 3898], as well as Senator Graham's Spaceport Investment Act [S. 1239, H.R. 2289], both of which are available at http://thomas.loc.gov. There's also "Alternative Access" whereby NASA would finally be obligated by an increasingly cost-conscious Congress to procure launching services directly from the innovative private sector instead of its expensive space shuttles. Wall Street dollars could soon follow the new market for commercial launchers and space tourism could finally affordably materialize, as well as other industries with which the USA could finally repay its $5.6 Trillion dollar national debt (http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm).

Meanwhile, hopefully other countries with Mars projects currently underway such as France, the U.K. and Japan can also help redeem people's faith that Mars colonization is attainable during the next few decades. It seems that it really will require a GLOBAL effort.

Netherlands

Contact: Arno Wielders, arnoux@strw.leidenuniv.nl
          or Arno Wielders, arno@marssociety.nl
Web Site: http://www.marssociety.nl
No report submitted.

New Zealand

Contact: David Maclenna, mac@xtra.co.nz
No report submitted.

Peru

Contact: Johan Veerman, jveerman@yahoo.com
No report submitted.

Philippines

Contact: Kin Enriquez, kin_toy@hotmail.com
No report submitted.

Polska

Contact: Piotr Moskal, piotr.moskal@lupus.pl
The most important event in this month was the european chapters meeting in London. The conference took 2 days (3-4 of June) and it gathered 13 people from 7 countries.

Other news:

Russia

Contact: Gennady Gusev, marssociety@mail.ru
No report submitted.

South Africa

Contact: Evan James Dembskey, evan@telemessage.co.za
No report submitted.

Spain, Canary Islands

Contact: Cayetano Santana Gil, csangi@idecnet.com
No report submitted.

Spain, Peninsular

Contact: Alexander Hristov, ahristov@psd.es
No report submitted.

Sweden/Scandinavia

Contact: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, c_g_nordquist@yahoo.com
No report submitted.

Switzerland

Contact: Claude-Alain Roten, claude-alain.roten@igbm.unil.ch
Contact: Gabriel Borruat, gabriel.borruat@igbm.unil.ch
No report submitted.

Ukraine

Contact: Vladymy Shevernytskyy, charity@akcecc.kiev.ua
No report submitted.

Mars Society UK Ltd.

Contact: Bo Maxwell, sagan@dircon.co.uk
Web Site: http://www.marssociety.org.uk
No report submitted.




Task Forces/Special Interests News

You can use the following index to go directly to the Task Force, Committee, or Special Interests Area chapter of your choice. Use your Browser's "Back" button to return to this index.
Ares CD-Rom Task Force
E-Commerce
Education
Executive Director
Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station Task Force
Fundraising Task Force
Graphics and Production
Greens4Mars Taskforce
Internet Task Force
Marketing
Mars Arctic Life Support System Group
Mars Civilization and Culture
New Mars
Political and Public Outreach
Technical Task Force


Ares CD-Rom Task Force

Contact: Jim Burk, Task Force lead, jburk@jburk.com
Web Site: Ares CD-Rom Task Force
Task Force email: ares-cdrom@chapters.marssociety.org
The third Issue of Ares is in beta-test right now. I am in the process of mailing out copies of it, so if you don't receive a copy within the next 2 weeks, please resend me your postal mailing address. It is free to be a beta tester and I give out about 50 copies of each beta for testing on all types of computer systems (the costs are subsidized by HQ and the Puget Sound chapter.) This beta is the most complete we've ever done and has only a few work items to deal with before the final product is done. We anticipate Issue 3 shipping just prior to the August convention, since Issue 2 is still not out.

We are still waiting on a decision on what to do with Issue 2. Our chapter leaders, Imagineering, and Mars Society HQ are deciding the best course of action. We are also trying to get the Mars Song Contest finalists on the CD. We have a mandate from HQ to get something out by the end of June, and we hope to do that. See the Puget Sound chapter report for more details.



E-Commerce

Contact: Tony Santana, TSMarsCo@aol.com
No report submitted.


Education

Contact: Gabriel Rashaid, GRshaid@marsacademy.com
Task force web site: http://www.marsacademy.com/marssoc/
No report submitted.


Executive Director

Contact: Maggie Zubrin, mzubrin@aol.com
No report submitted.


Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station Task Force

Contact: Kurt Micheels, kmicheels@aol.com
No report submitted.


Fundraising Task Force

Contact: Kristin Boekhoff, kboekhoff@excite.com
No report submitted.


Graphics and Production

Contact: Gary Hollingshead, garyah@imagineering-usa.com
No report submitted.


Greens4Mars Taskforce

Contact: Dan Hussain, (daniarh@yahoo.com)
E-List: greens4mars@egroups.com
Egroups: http://www.egroups.com/groups/greens4mars
The Greens4Mars taskforce wishes to hold a panel discussion at the Third Convention in Toronto this summer. We would like to have a well-rounded discussion about the possibility of forging a partnership between the Mars Society and the environmental movement. Since we want to have a diverse discussion, I welcome anyone who is opposed to this goal to join our discussion. If you would like to actively participate in the panel, please send an email stating your intent to me (daniarh@yahoo.com). I plan to organize a group of people with diverse interests so we can have a lively, entertaining, and insightful discussion. I look forward to hearing from everyone on this issue. Stay tuned for more information!


Internet Task Force

Contact: Marc Boucher, webmaster@marssociety.org
Contact: Harold Miller, peabody@wayback.com
No report submitted.


Marketing

Contact: Maggie Zubrin, mzubrin@aol.com
No report submitted.


Mars Arctic Life Support System group

Contact: Dean Calahan, dean@baloney.com
Web Site: http://home.marssociety.org/tech/life-support/
The TTF's Life Support Project has recently posted a conceptual design document for a possible biological wastewater treatment system for F-MARS. More details can be found at our web page, listed above.


Mars Civilization and Culture

Contact: Bev Conolly, conollyb@terrigal.net.au

A number of our most productive contributors have been away from their computers in the last month, so the volume of mail has dropped considerably, and with it, new ideas and discussion topics. Hopefully, as these members return, as lurkers are coaxed into posting, and as other members join the list, we'll reverse this trend.

The majority of discussions in the last month have centered around Greenhouse Design and what we're calling "bootstrapping crews", (very early settlers) and what sorts of cross-skilling would be of the most benefit.

As the first topic covers a lot of ground, we have had contributors suggesting local production methods for the various components, such as glass and structural support, and discussions on the comparative merits of a high-natural Martian atmosphere, relatively low-pressure environment, (which would require working in pressure suits but be easier to build and maintain), versus a more terran environment (which would allow settlers to work in a "shirtsleeves", but which may be difficult to construct in a low-pressure atmosphere). Another point which we are considering is the best way to oxygenate the roots of plants, in a high-CO2 greenhouse.

As always, Civ-Culture welcomes contributions and new list-members. Subscribe by sending a message to majordomo@chapters.marssociety.org, and put "subscribe civ-culture" (without the quotes) in the body of the message. The mail volume is usually high, so members who may not have time to read all messages can subscribe to the digest option. To subscribe to the digest, send a message as above, but put "subscribe civ-culture-digest" (without quotes) in the body instead.



New Mars

Contact: Richard Wagner, mailto:campr2@javanet.com
No report submitted.


Political and Public Outreach

Contact: Chris Carberry, ccarberry@masshist.org
No report submitted.


Technical Task Force

Contact: Stephen Braham, warp@polylab.sfu.ca
Web Site: http://home.marssociety.org/tech/
No report submitted.


Miscellaneous: Special Offers plus Odds and Ends

Gravity Bricks,
By Peter Kokh

Last year, I put together a set of "gravity bricks" for the Wisconsin Mars Society.

I started with an "Earth brick" that is actually 2 and 5/8ths regular house bricks (the fraction was cut with a ceramic tile wet saw and bonded to the other two with liquid nails. It weighs approximately 10 lbs.

For the "Mars" brick, I took one regular house brick and embedded it in a styrofoam jacket the same exterior size and shape as the 2+ Earth brick pack. I primed the styrofoam and sprayed it with fleck paint to look Martian. It weighs about 3.5 lbs.

For the "Moon" brick, I did something similar, using 7/16ths of a regular house brick, again cut with a wet saw, and embedded it in a styrofoam jacket the same size as the two above and used a gray fleck paint. It weighs about 1.6 lbs.

All three have handles made of sections of 1 inch gray plastic conduit, attached by lengths of plastic coated 12 gauge conduit wire to the bricks.

These bricks have been seen and tested by many hundreds of people to date ("lift any two at the same time to tell the difference between gravity between Earth and Mars, Earth and the Moon, Mars and the Moon)

It is great to see the lightbulb of insight in the eyes of young and old alike.

You can expect a one word response: 98 % "cool!", 1% "neat!:" - Of course many women will say, "I'm going to Mars!" (even though their dress size will not go down)

It is one humble way to transport them to Mars for a moment.

Now, this would be a great outreach tool for any chapter. But not many of you may have access to a ceramic tile wet saw.

Add that once you have made a set it is easy to do again.

So I'd like to know how much interest there is in Wisconsin Mars Society producing more sets for sale. The ingredients should cost out about $15 including packaging (I have a limited supply of bricks and if the response is great enough, I'd have to get more, plus more styrofoam, liquid nails, fleck paint, and handles and packing boxes)

I haven't really costed it out yet. I'll attempt to do that in the coming week.

As to shipping, the carton would be an 18" by 18" x 12" box (cost?) and weigh about 18 lbs total. so you can call UPS and get an estimate of shipping charges to your location from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (it was 9 something to Chicago, about $19 to Tucson for the recent ISDC 2000) or find a cheaper carrier.

So at this point, I'd like to know how much interest their is. And you'll have to cut me some slack on delivery time.

If all your chapter has is a table full of literature, these Gravity Bricks really draw traffic. Everyone wants to try them out. Those who have go fetch their friends.

Oh yes, I forgot one thing. At the International Space Development Conference in Tucson this past Memorial Day Weekend - Zubrin, Pascal Lee, Chris McKay were there - Pascal Lee gave a great talk on the science to be done at the Flashline M.A.R.S. station, after which he came up to me (I happened to be by the gravity bricks display) and said "can you make me a set of these, and ship it to me at NASA Ames by June 16th, so I can take them to Devon Island? I can pay you now."

Told him it was "on me". Sort of made my day, if you know what I mean. The main purpose of the Mars Arctic station is to simulate operations, more so than hardware, and Lee's thinking is that the participants' perception of the difference between terrestrial and Martian gravity will help them in their simulation of various operations. (In fact he wanted me "next" to provide Earth-Mars sets of sandbags, shovels, etc. - told him he'd have to wait on that! Please DO feel free to pick up on that cue and brainstorm how to do it!)

Peter Kokh
Wisconsin Mars Society
KokhMMM@aol.com
414-342-0705
1630 N. 32nd Street
Milwaukee, WI 53208



Web Site of the Month

My web site of the month is the Mars Society Flashline Arctic Research Station. We all need to be well informed about this important Mars Society project.

Take me to the Mars Society Flashline Arctic Research Station



Quote of the Month

Well, the following quote isn't about Mars, but Mars is the first step that will make greater journeys possible.

"Space is huge enough, so that somewhere in its vastness there will always be a place for rebels and outlaws.... The open frontier will beckon as it beckoned before, to persecuted minorities escaping from oppression, to religious fanatics escaping from their neighbors, to recalcitrant teenagers escaping from their parents, to lovers of solitude escaping from crowds.

Perhaps most important of all for Man's future, there will be groups of people setting out to find a place where they can be free from prying eyes, free to experiment with the creation of radically new types of human beings, surpassing us in mental capacities as we surpass the apes."
Freeman Dyson



Photo of the Month


This month's photo comes to us courtesy of the Ohio chapters of the Mars Society.

Ohio chapter members of the Mars Society at Mars movie opening
Figure 1. Pictured, from left are: Monica Simmons, Patt Czarnik, Martin Schwab and Tam Czarnik at the 'Mission to Mars' movie premiere table in Dayton.


Do you have a photo you want to show off? Well, email it to Jim Plaxco (that's me) and you may just see it here in the next issue of the Red Planet Satellite Report. Please, no photos larger than 40K. Please provide a complete description of the photo provided and the date on which the photo was taken.



Reader Comments

This section gives members of the Mars Society the opportunity to comment on the items contained in the Red Planet Satellite Report and related issues. For instructions on making a submission, please see the section of this report titled "Submission Guidelines."


Submission Guidelines

Submissions that are relevant to the activities of the Mars Society are actively sought. Suggested submissions include reviews of chapter activities, event announcements, chapter election results, "how-to" articles that would serve as a source of ideas for other chapters, etc.

You may make your submission as either a plain ASCII text file or you may use basic HTML elements to provide additional formatting. If you would like to use HTML for formatting your submissions, please don't use the font or any other tag that alters the size and color of the textual submission. This is to insure a consistent look and feel across all received submissions. Feel free to use the bold, italic, list and table elements. You may also include links to articles on your chapter's web site in your submission.

The Red Planet Satellite Report will be published by the 7th of each month. Therefore, the deadline for submissions will be the last day of the month.

To make a submission, send email to Jim Plaxco with a subject heading of RPSR Submission. Please note on the first line of your submission the section of the report in which your article is to be included.



Red Planet Satellite Report Contact Information

For questions, comments or suggestions regarding the Red Planet Satellite Report please contact Jim Plaxco.




The Red Planet Satellite Report is a publication of the Mars Society Chapter's Council, copyright 2000. All Rights Reserved.