Woodstock of Mars

Grypd · 2005-08-15 08:15:30

Tom Hill attended the conference and described it as a less big than previous conferences with only 4 splinter talks. He apparently enjoyed the conference but felt that with NASA back in space and the first private spaceflights that the Mars society had lost its way.

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 11:25:55

SpaceReview Article
Tom Hill attended the conference and described it as a less big than previous conferences with only 4 splinter talks. He apparently enjoyed the conference but felt that with NASA back in space and the first private spaceflights that the Mars society had lost its way.

It is kind of like being a veteran now I suppose. So many of us remember the days when we couldn't get out of LEO and some even remember when Apollo was cancelled and the lack or resistance such a plan faced. It is just as important now for the mars society to stay together as ever because the effort must survive many administrations to be successful. Shall we become complacent and forget the past then we will be doomed to repeat it.

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 11:31:05

New Slogan Time:
Mars Forever
Mars Lest we forget
Mars is Now
The time is Mars
more to come …

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 11:32:48

stepping stone Mars
Mars everlasting

BTW what does mars or bust actually mean and why does it not apply any more?

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 11:38:15

baby mars
Mars, cradle II
Mars, earths new garden
Mars, the door to the infinite
Mars, the key to our past and future
Mars, take me home
A Martian Dreem
A Martian Reality
The Dream was reborn
The dream never died
The dream will never die again
Mars, A dreem to reality

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 11:40:14

Now some brand name rip offs
got mars?
just do it, mars
Mars, life on the rock

Grypd · 2005-08-15 13:35:58

Though the interesting bit for me was the challenge put out to colleges to create a telerobotic exploration rover for use on Mars. It would obviously have a time delay loop so that the distance control from Earth could be accurately replaced and the robot tested.

I dont think the Mars society has lost its way I just think we are on the verge of progressing somewhere and we want to take the first step. I suspect that a lot of people where expecting the new rocket architecture to be announced and were disapointed that it was not. Nothing like eager anticipation to be dashed to put a small downer on things but think of the arquements that would have livened the confrence up if it had been announced.

C M Edwards · 2005-08-15 15:35:25

According to the Gale Group's register of associations, the Mars Society's membership is now declining after growing roughly linearly between 1998 and 2003. Does this mean we only had support when people were afraid we weren't going to Mars? Or does it mean that I need to start paying my dues again so I'll actually show up on the next count?

Hmm...

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 15:46:41

According to the Gale Group's register of associations, the Mars Society's membership is now declining after growing roughly linearly between 1998 and 2003. Does this mean we only had support when people were afraid we weren't going to Mars? Or does it mean that I need to start paying my dues again so I'll actually show up on the next count?
Hmm...

I think it means I need to start paying my dues again, lol.

John Creighton · 2005-08-15 20:05:54

For all those not on the mars society mailing list:

-------- Original Message --------
Eighth International Mars Society Convention a Great Success
August 15, 2005
For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org
Roughly 400 people from around the world attended the 8th
International Mars Society Convention at the University of Colorado
Boulder, August 11-14. In the course of the conference over a hundred
and fifty papers were presented, covering every aspect of both the
robotic and human exploration and settlement of Mars, with subject
matter ranging from the latest data returned from the Mars probes to
advanced technologies for robotic and human Mars exploration, to
political strategy, to the philosophical and theological implications
of opening a new world for humanity.
On Thursday, August 11, Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin
opened the conference with a plenary talk entitled "Moon by 2012,
Mars by 2016." In his talk, Zubrin said that the conditions for
pushing a human exploration initiative ahead now were uniquely
favorable, but that these conditions could not be expected to
last. "We have to make hay while the Sun is shining," Zubrin said,
and get the new initiative solidly off the ground by the time
administrations change in January 2009. The key to determining
whether the Bush "Vision for Space Exploration" is the actually
beginning of a Moon-Mars human exploration initiative or just a
flashy cover for terminating the Shuttle and downsizing the Space
Station, he said, is whether or not a heavy lift launch vehicle
program is begun. "A heavy lift launcher is essential for sending
humans to the Moon and Mars, and it is not essential for anything
else. If we get a heavy lift launcher we are on our way to Mars. If
we don't, we're not going anywhere."
Zubrin was followed by William Farrand, a member of the MER Pan Cam
team, who wowed the audience with spectacular images taken by the
Mars Exploration Rovers.
The next to speak was former Shuttle commander Dr. Scott Horowitz,
now with ATK Thiokol, who presented his ideas for a new generation of
launch vehicles based on Space Shuttle technology. The concepts
include a 130 tonne to LEO heavy lift vehicle (HLV) employing two 5-
segment solid rocket boosters (the current Shuttle uses 4-segment
SRBs) and 5 space shuttle main engines (SSME) in the first stage,
with a Shuttle external tank providing the first stage core, and a 9-
meter diameter payload fairing including a hydrogen oxygen upper
stage powered by 1 SSME mounted above. In Horowitz's plan, this
vehicle would deliver all the heavy cargos needed to go to the Moon
or Mars to low Earth orbit (LEO). The crew would then be delivered to
orbit in a capsule CEV on a medium launch vehicle (MLV, 20 tonne to
LEO capacity) composed of a single 5-segment SRB with a hydrogen
oxygen upper stage powered by 1 SSME. He then caused considerable
excitement by showing the conference a copy of a White House memo
issued the day before, showing Defense Department concurrence with
the plan and authorizing NASA to develop such vehicles, with MLV
development to commence immediately, but the start of the HLV program
deferred until 2010. Horowitz then announced that ATK Thiokol has
been developing the 5-segement SRB the new launcher will need on its
own money, and invited those present to come to Utah to witness it
being test fired THIS WEEK (!).
The Thursday afternoon session included four simultaneous tracks,
each with nine papers. Track 1 was Technologies for Mars, Track 2 was
Mars Analogue studies, Track 3 was Mars and the Arts, and Track 4 was
Life Support and Biomedical Issues. A special presentation was also
given by Kevin Grazier of JPL, on the latest results from the
Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan.
The Thursday evening session was rounded out with entertaining
presentations by Larry Kuznetz and Gerry Williams dealing with Mars
in pop culture and cinema.
The Friday morning plenaries were begun with Robert Cataldo and Dr.
Stan Borowski of NASA Glenn Research Center presenting the space
agency's latest analysis of what the future space nuclear power and
propulsion systems are going to look like. Dr. Chris McKay of NASA's
Ames Research Center then discussed the need for human astronauts to
do astrobiological research on Mars to resolve fundamental scientific
questions concerning prevalence and potential diversity of life in
the universe.
These talks were then followed in the afternoon by four simultaneous
nine-paper tracks, including the very well attended Spacesuit
Symposium in Track 1, the Mars Homestead Project in Track 2,
Commercial Spaceflight in Track 3, and Political and Educational
Outreach in Track 4.
The conference then reconvened after dinner to hear Italian geologist
Tizania Trabucchi present a plenary talk on the activities of this
summer's "Crew Greenleaf" at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research
Station on Devon Island. Tizania was then followed by a special
premier presentation of the powerful new two-hour documentary
movie, "The Mars Underground," (www.themarsunderground.com) making a
strong case for the feasibility and vision of human Mars exploration
and settlement, and keeping the audience riveted to their seats until
well past 11 PM.
The Saturday morning presentations were led off by Dr. Bill Clancey
of NASA Ames Research Center who discussed the important work his
team has done developing intelligent "mobile agents" to assist
exploration and demonstrating them in use at the Mars Desert Research
Station. Clancey was followed by Chris Shank, Special Assistant to
NASA Administrator Dr. Mike Griffin, who gave the conference a sneak
preview of NASA's soon to be made public new architecture for human
lunar exploration. As presented by Shank, the NASA plan closely
resembles the systems advocated earlier by Scott Horowitz, with Lunar
missions performed by a dual launch of a Shuttle derived HLV in the
100 tonne to LEO class, and a crew-launching Shuttle-derived MLV in
the 20 tonne to LEO class. These talks were then followed by Joroen
Lapre of Industrial Light and Magic, who knocked the audience flat
with new special effects visualizations of Mars based closely on the
latest data.
Saturday afternoon included four more nine-paper tracks, including
New Launch and Propulsion technologies in Track 1, Mars Society
Chapter and Task Force Activities in Track 2, Public Policy and Space
Law in Track 3, and Mars Analogue Studies in Track 4.
On Saturday afternoon, the Mars Society Steering Committee also met.
Based upon their outstanding contributions to the Society, it was
decided to nominate new members to the SC. These new members include
Jonathan Clarke, Lucinda Weisbach, Kevin Sloan, Gus Scheerbaum, Steve
McDaniel, Chris Carberry, Artemis Westenberg, Gus Frederick, Jean
LaGarde, Ed Fisher, and Shannon Rupert Robles.
The Mars Society Steering Committee also decided to launch an
International Mars Rover Competition, or Mars Grand Prix, for short.
This contest will be open to student teams from colleges around the
world. In this contest, the teams will design and build their own
instrumented teleoperated rovers within a certain weight limit. They
will then be challenged to navigate their rover around a piece of
desert terrain (cut off from their direct viewing), with a 15 second
time delay each way in the communication loop, around a piece of
desert terrain preplanted with obstacles, traps, and various
geological phenomenon of potential interest, for a set time limit of
two hours. The winning team will be the one that makes the most
accurate discoveries, with points taken off for making false
discoveries. The teams will thus be challenged to develop not only a
capable mobile vehicle, but instrumentation, data handling and
communication, autonomy and hazard avoidance technology, and the
expertise required to interpret the geological data into scientific
discoveries.
Complete rules for the contest will be published by mid September
2005, with the actual competition to take place in the desert May
2006. Prizes will include six two-week crew slots in the Mars Desert
Research Station, plus free admission and hotel for up to six team
members at the 9th International Mars Society Convention in
Washington DC, August 2006, where they will be presented with the
First Mars Grand Prix Cup.
That's' right, Washington. The SC decided to hold our next
international conference in the capitol of the USA, during August
2006, where we will bring together those fighting for humans to Mars
with those who will make the decisions to write the checks to get us
there. Details to follow.
On Saturday night, the banquet was held, and attendees were regaled
with the space ballads of Robert McNally and the humorous pro-science
songs of the San Diego based band "The Opossums of Truth." Mars
Society President Robert Zubrin then gave a short fundraising speech.
Zubrin cited the many accomplishments of the Society, and the
dramatic improvements in our prospects since the Society's founding
in 1998. "When we were founded in 1998, the political sophisticates
were all saying that a humans to Mars program was a political
impossibility. As later as the summer of 2003, cynical insiders were
still saying the same thing. Well, humans to Mars is now the official
goal of the US government. We proved the wise guys wrong. They said
that politics is the art of the possible. They were wrong. Politics
is not the art of the possible. Politics is the art of making the
impossible possible. We have done that. We have made the impossible
possible. Now we need to make it actual."
Twenty eight thousand dollars was raised on the spot.
The Sunday morning plenaries were led off by Jerry Stone, a director
of the Mars Society UK. Stone presented the conference with the
dramatic and welcome news that the Mars Society UK has finally raised
the funds to move the European Mars Arctic Research Station
(EuroMARS) from its current location in storage in Chicago, across
the Atlantic to Swindon in England (which is near Bath), where it
will be assembled and placed on display at a major science museum for
a five month exhibit. A pledge of $50,000 in matching funds has also
been obtained, which if put together with the same amount in
donations, will allow us to move the EuroMARS to Iceland in the
spring of 2006 for deployment. Stone also announced that the European
Mars Society chapters will be holding a pan-European conference near
Swindon Nov 4-6 in conjunction with the opening of the EuroMARS
exhibit. All are invited. Information on the conference can be found
at www.marssociety.co.uk, with more details to follow.
The next talk was given by University of Arizona Professor Peter
Smith, the Principal Investigator of the Phoenix mission to the North
polar regions of Mars in 2007. Prof. Smith described the mission,
underscoring its importance as part of the search for life on Mars,
and broached a number of possibilities on how members of the Mars
Society can participate as part of the Phoenix and just launched Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter missions. We will be following up on this
overture, with details to be published shortly.
The final speaker of the morning session was Dr. Penelope Boston, who
gave a fascinating talk her work underground in caves, exploring on
Earth environments that may be very similar to places on Mars where
life may yet thrive. Dr. Boston also made a case that caves or lava
tubes may also be an ideal place in which to locate extraterrestrial
settlements, and showed designs of such settlements that her team has
developed.
In the afternoon, four more nine-paper tracks were held, covering
Long Range Mobility on Mars in track 1, Mars Analog Studies in Track
2, Terraforming and Environmental Studies in Track 3, and Theological
and Philosophical Considerations in Track 4.
At the end of the day, attendees got together for a final plenary,
which Jerry Stone opened in a lighthearted tone by presenting a very
humorous monologue entitled "an alternate history of the space age."
As part of this talk, Stone quoted from an early 20th Century New
York Times editorial which mocked Robert Goddard for being so foolish
as to believe that rockets could generate propulsion in the vacuum of
space. Zubrin then closed the conference by quoting from the New York
Times editorial from that very day, which called for limiting the
Space Station program so that funds could be switched sooner to
enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. "You've come a long
way, baby," Zubrin said, commenting on the Times' shift. "But we've
still got a long way to go. On to Washington. On to Mars."
The entire conference was videotaped, and DVDs of all talks will soon
be available for sale. Details to follow.
For further information about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org.

Sounds exciting.

Stormrage · 2005-08-16 09:42:00

i think i have asked this before but i can't remember what thread it was in so i will ask again. Is this conference going to be on the internet?

tiberiu · 2008-03-28 12:07:10

I want to buy a house on Mars... just kidding but I would love to move there and be one of the first humans to inhabit the planet. Cool...

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#1 2005-08-15 08:15:30

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#2 2005-08-15 11:25:55

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#3 2005-08-15 11:31:05

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#4 2005-08-15 11:32:48

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#5 2005-08-15 11:38:15

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#6 2005-08-15 11:40:14

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#7 2005-08-15 13:35:58

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#8 2005-08-15 15:35:25

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#9 2005-08-15 15:46:41

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#10 2005-08-15 20:05:54

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#11 2005-08-16 09:42:00

Re: Woodstock of Mars

#12 2008-03-28 12:07:10

Re: Woodstock of Mars

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