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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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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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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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.”
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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In this talk held in Brisbane on Monday 19th March, astrobiologist and cosmologist Charles Lineweaver reviewed what we think we know about the origin of the universe and the origin of life. Where and when did the first stars and terrestrial planets form? Where is there liquid water in the universe? How old is life on Earth? Is life common in the universe? Dr Lineweaver gives pretty good answers to most of these questions and educated speculations about the origin of life on Earth, in our Galaxy and in the Universe.
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It is now less than 2 weeks until the seventh annual Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC 2007), opens at Trinity College, East Perth. Presentations over the weekend of the 13th to 15th of July will cover a range of issues concerned with forging, nurturing and developing the pioneering culture and methods required to explore Mars. The conference is designed to be of interest to both scientific specialists and the general public.
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The MSA board has formally written to Professor Piper, the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, expressing our disappointment and concern at this development and asking that it be reconsidered in the light of the significance of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA) and its unique role in Australian Space Science. We are especially concerned at the diminished opportunities the closure of ACA means for student and research choices, forcing Australian students and researchers to move overseas.
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MSA President David Cooper and Starchaser MARSupial Rover Project Manager and Director, Dr Graham Mann, recently visited St Joseph’s School in the Town of Northam, in the wheat-belt of Western Australia.
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