Discussion was had about the July 11th-13th Moon-to-Mars blitz to be occurring in Washington D.C. to lobby for manned space exploration and several members of the Mars Society will be participating as part of the Space Exploration Alliance in this effort.

Brad Jarvis then gave a powerpoint presentation of "Nature's Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Potential Hazards of Asteroids", the entirety of which can be found on the RMMS website, which is a good thing since there was a wealth of information, much of which was alarming and sobering and certainly a strong encouragement for us to have a greater manned presence in space to be able to head off the next one. Highly recommended to check it out.

Further discussion was had about the Commission's report to the President regarding the the future of the space program with strong recommendations for more privatization, an increased and better public-private interface and cooperation, the creation of regional-research offices like JPL, more human-robotics development, and a continued and growing humans-in-space presence with the goals of going to the Moon preparatory to going to Mars. Continued lobbying of our Congresspeople is encouraged to keep the fires lit and the pressure on.

Congrats to Brad and Debbie on their upcoming union!

On to Mars.

-- Jim Weber

Click HERE to download a copy of "Nature's Weapons of Mass Destruction: the Potential Hazards of Asteroids" (1.1 MB zip).