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I really like your idea Adrian. I am not sure it should be restricted to world space week though, you could kick it off during world space week.
I see no reason why the new mars webboards cannot be used. I think it is a good idea. The only problem is whether the proposed participants have internet access at the station and whether or not they have the time. If they are interestedit would be great.
The ice is unstable over thousands of years but it appears to be stable in the short term. No changes in the ice structure has been documented, just the appearance of change on a large scale. You are likely much safer on europa than on the ice sheets near the north pole of earth.
I have very little mechannical aptitude myself. Good luck.
I have to admit I highly prefer a conjunction class mission. I have a lot of trouble with going millions of miles and not staying for a good period of time. I find a Venus swingby possitivly idiotic especially with the high concern about radiation exposure. In fact this mission style probobly has a higher radiation exposure than a conjunction style mission.
I beleive that europa (as well as jupiters other moons) only has short term lethal doses of radiation at certain times, when it is passing through the heart of the radiation belt. At other times I understand that you could explore the surface, although the radiation is pretty intense. You would need somewhere to go during the very lethal times though. Also, I don't think that the intense radiation enviornment of jupiuter was understood at the time Arthur C. Clark started his 2001 series. I beleive that the series was started before interplanetary probes measured the radiation. The radiation may not have been totally recognized untill long term observations were carried out by the gallileo probe.
Elite member sounds good.
I have the national audobon society's feild guide to the night sky which is a great refrence for many astronomy things including identifying constellations etc. It has some beautiful photographs of the constellations to help identify them as well as star charts perfect for use with binoculars and a wealth of information on the planets and constellatations. The star charts aren't quite detailed enough for the best use with a telescope but it is an excellent book for night sky familiarity and binoculars. If you want some telescope material I reccomend star hopping for the ametuer astronomer which has some excellent star hopping trips all planned out, it is a good book to use to get into telescopic observing, as well as see such famous objects as the ring nebula and the whirlpool galaxy. If you are good at building things you might want to consider building your own telescope. I reccomend going to the library and seeing which books you like as well as reading up on astronomy and telescopes. Keep using your binoculars, don't rush into getting a telescope, with something this expensive it is a good idea to take your time and see what the best scope is for you.
I star hop to find objects, partially because I can't just plug in the coordinates on my telescope and partially because the trip is about as good as the destination. I do scan the sky randomly with my telescope sometimes, it is not as rewarding as when using binoculars as you are seeing so much less of the sky. I remember very fondly all the loose star clusters I have found with my telescope just by accident. I also found a globular cluster by mistake when I was looking for mars once, it was at least as worth looking at as mars was. I still randomly scan the sky with binoculars sometimes, I love finding interesting faint fuzzies. I think the lowest magnification I can achieve with my telescope is about 25, at least without some minor modifications.
I have seen mars with my telescope. It is not an easy target to find or veiw. I have seen surface features including the icecaps and it was very interesting to observe. It did not have the same awe inspiring detail and beauty of jupiter and saturn, still it was a very interesting target. You can see mars' moons in my telescope. They are very faint and the problem is not seeing them but in telling them from a faint background star, after all they are basically asteroids, you aren't gonna get any spectacular veiws of them. Overall mars is a challenging target, if you want to see any surface features.
I am not hostile toward an international mars mission. I am just afraid that russia will be unwilling to commit to a long term colinization and exploration project due to their poor financial situation. I just don't want to see a repeat of the apollo program, a few missions which have a relativly low (compared to their potential) scientific payoff and give people a reason to say "Why do we need to go to mars, we have already been there?"
What happened to the 10th and 11th planets. Also if a planet were that bright it would be known from one of the all sky surveys. To have been missed up to this point it would have to be exceedingly faint, more than pluto. It is however quite possible there are additional planets especially if you count pluto sized objects as planets. A small gas giant couldeven have been missed out beyond pluto. There are several groups of astronomers who postulate an additional relativly large planet. Perhaps future very faint detection full sky surveys which come back over the same spot will find additional planets. It will be interesting to see what comes up.
Our understanding of the universe is currently in a state of flux. What with the rapid changes in cosmology in the last few years many are unsure of the fate of the universe. A big crunch however seems very unlikely. There is a group of theories gaining popularity which suggest that the universe may have begun and may be changed ocassionally through collisions with other universes in higher dimentions. It is mostly amused speculation at this point though.
Overall new mars seems to have a relativly well rounded group. At least compared to other forums. I am sure that the number of crazed incoherent posts will expand with the popularity increase of the webboards.
Good luck with your ideas, I think that the newmars members will support you in anything you suggest. I suggest a nice looking easy to use website explaining the goals Ideas etc of the mars society. This would be geared towards the curious to attract and draw attention and interest. It could be a branch of new mars. I find the new mars website much less intimidating than the mars society wesite if you know what I mean. The general public outreach of the mars society seems to be mediocre, with new mars and doctor zubrins books the crown jewels of the effort. Still it could be better.
I have been thinking if Doctor Zubrin took it in his heart to release the case for mars free to all via the internet it could go a long way towards helping the mars society. I don't know how he or his publisher would feel about that but it is worth a try.
The best veiwing in my telescope is at 50 X magnification. This lets you see a wide field and get a lot of light in your eye. My favorite object is the Orion nebula which is a beautiful green gray cloud which has all sorts of interesting things in and around it. They include a parellelogram of stars called the trapezium in the middle of the nebula and a loose star cluster nearby. The moon, jupiter, and saturn also number among some of the most awe inspiring sights I have ever seen. I have three eye peices two of which came with my telescope and one which I bought later. They provide about 50, 150, and 200(which I bought seperate) X magnification. I have found that in general I prefer the lower magnifications. I use the 50 and 150 X eyepeices most frequently and the 200 X one least of all. In fact if I bought another eyepeice now I would buy one which provides less magnification. One of the most annoying things which has happened to me while using my telescope was when I went to look at the pleadies and couldn't see the whole thing. What I saw was great but I really wanted to see it all at once, and I couldn't do so at 50 X.
Colmination can be nerve wracking as such a big deal is made of it but it really isn't that hard. Anyway you will get more demanding in precision as you use your telescope more and get more practice colminating. You shouldn't have a problem.
I agree phobos, a flags and footprints mission could very well do more harm than good to human presence on mars. Russia dosn't have the money to go for a sustained commitment to mars exploration. I actually have trouble seeing them able to foot a third of the bill without some major improvements in their economic situation. The benifit the Russians have is a developed heavy lift boost capable of going into production. We shall have to see how things pan out, perhaps the mission will work out to the ultimate benifit of manned martian exploration. I think it needs to be recognized by the russians that what is needed is not a mission to mars but a program of human mars exploration, habitation, and colinization. We learned our lesson with the apollo program, you have obviously screwed up if you ever feel that you have finished because planetary exploration and habitation for man can never be finished. By the time one project is finished the next needs to be more than half way out the door.
I beleive that the reusable launch vehicle clause is there to prevent a flags and footprints approach to space exploration. Rep. Lampson is proposing building an exploration fleet, not the ridiculous excesses of the old massive exploration plan which dominated before mars direct but a permanent exploratory fleet. Mars direct is too abortable after completion, reusability is necissary for permanence, at least so my reasoning goes. Don't you think the space shuttle would be dead except that congress can't condone destroying something useful which they have already built. Reusability protects against the vagaries of political change and insures the continuation of missions into the future. It is more a political than an engineering move.
The astroscan telescope is incapable of being colminated from what I have read. The mirror is fixed in place or something. Sometimes this results in problems but usually the mirror is fixed in roughly the right place. Colmination allows you to keep the image quality very good all the time. You don't need to be very accurate with the colmination for casual observing. If you want to use high powers and see lots of detail your colminataion had better be perfect. Ditto for pictures. Also the shorter the ratio of the mirror's width to its focal length the more important colmination is. F4 is a short focal ratio, itmeans that the focal length is four times as long as the diameter of the mirror. F6 is medium short, F8 is medium long and F10 is really long. Refractors usually have long focal ratios whereas reflectors tend to be shorter. The focal lengths of catadioptric telescopes are complicated, there is a lotof good information out there. Someone elsecan probobly explain it better than me.
I have had to colminate my telescope. It involves turning some screws on the back while someone looks through the eypeice to see when the mirrors are aligned properly. The screws move the main mirror. The secondary mirror also has to be adjusted but that is not hard. Colmination is not that hard but it takes a little bit of time and is much eisier with two people. Your link just brought me to the front page of orion. Which scope caught your eye? I have the skyquest 8 inch dobsonian. It is truly a wonderfull telescope. It is a bit bulky though. Luckely we have a big car.
I was really amazed at how much the boards changed in a month. I was totally gone for a month due to a trip and some computer trouble. When I came back the activity had doubled at least, and there were regular posts in almost every section. Congratulations Adrian.
I agree with you JGM, this sounds a little too flag and footprint to me. One of the reasons I favor the space exploration act of 2002 is that it stipulates reusable craft, a sure fire attempt to makeit not just flag and footprints. I beleive that if this is a part of an ongoing permanent international program of exploration and colinization it is a great idea. If it is simply a single mission it may do more harm than good. Leaving half the crew in orbit rankles me. I would hate to be one of the people who travels farther than any other person in human history and using the road trip analogie dosen'teven get to get out of the car. That is a true waste of manpower.
Sorry I was not able to post untill a few days ago due to computer trouble and a three week trip, if anyone is still up for a chat I would enjoy it. I think you are right, an irc chat would be much better than using the Mars Society chat.
I have a dobsonian mount wich is a simple up down side to side mount which sits on the ground. I have found it very easy to use. You should always check out reveiws or customer opinions of a telescope before you buy it. It is a good idea to go to a star party and try out a few telescopes. Most ametuers are not only willing but eagar to let others try their scopes. I suggest using sky and telescope's organizations search to find an astronomical society close to you. If there is one they are a great way to find star parties. I would also suggest looking in the yellow pages to see if there are any telescope stores near you. They are another great place to try out telescopes. Take your time picking out a telescope, I am sure you would be quite dicouraged if you picked one which wasn't right for you. (especially for a few hundred dollars
By the way you can't hurt your eyes looking at the moon with your binoculars unless they are about 90 mm, larger than a small telescope. When I first got my eight inch telescope I really hurt my eyes looking at the full moon. You are fine looking at the moon with a telescope eight inches or under untill after the first quarter. A few weeks ago I was quite enjoying using a 60 mm refractor to look at the full moon. I do prefer the veiw of the crecent moon with my big telescope to the full moon though. Good luck.
I am an avid subscriber to sky and telescope and have an eight inch reflecting telescope. A really good company for buying telescopes and getting information is orion telescopes and binoculars. Telescope.com is orion's url. I reccomend their learning center, it was an amazing help to me a few of years ago when I got into astronomy (I am only 16). Sky and Telescope's webbpage is also an amazing resource. Hope I am of some help.
I like the pamphlet idea. You could actually make pamphlets specifically geared to politicians as well as the ordinary public. In addition a simple easy to use polished website with good explanations of the marssociety and its various goals and projects would be very good for attracting new members/converts. The current website is mediocre and likely drives many people away. The whole public outreach of the marssociety could be much much better. Pamphlets and posters in public libraries, museums, etc. will gain supporters. The case for mars needs some revision as well to reflect the current situation. The pace of space activists needs to go from sluggish to frenzied. Lots of activity draws people in and gains attention. Currently the marssociety is sponsering four major research projects and a yearly conference.This is a good accomplishment but we cannot take time to appreciate it when we should have had men on mars before the founding of the marssociety. We have a need for growth which is not being fullfilled.
In my opinion if they can get the funding they should go for it. If it is gonna be a show stopper they should drop the requirement. It all depends on the attitude and forsight of the US congress. Also, congress will likely revise the bill. Who knows what kind of changes it will undergo before being passed or abandoned. It could end up supporting a mars direct style mission archatecture.