Author: Earl White

At this year’s AMEC (Australian Mars Exploration Conference) Marion Anderson (Monash University) presented a talk on how she and her students are involved in selecting possible landing sites for MSL (Mars Science Laboratory). This research is being carried out in collaboration with NASA. Marion and her students identified the top twelve possible sites for landing. The sites must conform to a number of criteria, such as having a flat circular area with a diameter of at least 10 km for MSL to land on. Ideally the site would be located between 60 degrees N and 60 degrees S.
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AMEC 2006 was held over the weekend of October 13th–15th at the Victorian Space Science and Education Centre (VSSEC). Around fifty delegates attended as well as speakers from all around Australia. The theme was “Establishing Base Camp: Science, Methods and Technologies to support the Human Exploration of Mars.”

Read a full conference report here.
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The German Mars Society is undertaking a project to design and hopefully deploy a Mars balloon probe called ARCHIMEDES. During the last 4 months, the project team in Munich and elsewhere has been busy with drafting mission requirements, testing schedules and development programs that will concern all major parts of ARCHIMEDES.
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A project to design a human base for the Martian North Pole, Project Boreas, has now been released. Continuing in the long line of visionary BIS projects, Project Boreas summarises the three year deliberations of a group of BIS members and non-members on the design of a station for the Martian Geographic North Pole. The volume describes the base design, science and exploration objectives, communications, history of Mars polar studies, human factors studies, life support and many other factors neccesary for the explorers to spend nearly two Martian years at the Martian pole.
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September 15th: Starchaser Industries, long-time friend and supporter of the Mars Society in the UK and Australia, and key backer of the Society’s Mars Analogue Research Station programme have announced a major new initiative to extend their space tourism activities through the development of a new spaceplane that will offer up to 6 passengers a 40-minute sub-orbital flight into space.
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MSA is pleased to announce a major achievement by David Willson, MSA member and director, and also manager of the Mars-Oz project, in his hobby of scratch building rocket engines. Along with several work colleagues, David successfully test fired the rocket engine four times at a location 30 minutes drive from Hobart in Tasmania.
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Registrations for the 5th Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC V) or AMEC 2005 are now open. Full details are to be found by following our Events-AMEC 2005 link in the menu to the left. This looks like an exciting event, hope to see you there – Dave Cooper (Il Presidente).
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Two complementary Mars simulation projects have commenced at the Mar Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah to investigate the role of gender in an international Mars mission crew. Organised by alumni of the International Space University, the Leonardo project will be carried out by an international male team from April 15 to May 1, while the Mona Lisa project all-female crew will be in the MDRS from May 1 to 15 2005.
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The 12th Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC) will be held in Canberra in 2012. While the venue and dates are to be confirmed, however expected to be at ANU in early November. Dr Jonathon Clarke and his team will be running this event, and welcome any assistance. Further details to follow.
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The Canadian Space Agency was one of the sponsors for Expedition Two, last August. A report on the 4 week exercise has been sent to the CSA. This report represents the efforts of Jon Clarke and Rocky Persuad, MSCanada and the AMEC 2004 crew, who successfully put together a large group of scientists and engineers working on putting a permanent human presence on Mars. This document may be modified from time to time.
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