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This year's Mars Society Convention is in Boulder, Colorado, starting tomorrow (8/14) and going until Sunday. I'm in Boulder right now, and I know that several other newmartians are here. Boulder is a lovely little town, with spectacular views of the Rockies.
Anyway, I've created this thread to post my impressions of the convention, as well as notable presentations. Anyone else's comments are also welcome, of course.
-Josh
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I'm really busy this week, so I only purchased a one day pass, which I plan to use Saturday. But I'd be happy to meet up with anyone on Friday afternoon/evening as well.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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I'll be around. I'd imagine that the other newmars users here would also be interested, I'll raise the subject with them. We break for dinner from 5-7, perhaps we should meet at a restaurant in downtown Boulder
-Josh
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I'd be up for that. There are a lot of options downtown, though it will be pretty hoppin' on a Friday night. Probably best to meet somewhere and then scout out a venue for dinner. Maybe rendezvous at the information kiosk where 13th and Pearl intersect? Figure out a time that works tomorrow and I can head there after work.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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It might be better if you were to stop by the university memorial center (about 3/4 mile south of there on Broadway), which is where the conference is held, then we could decide what to do
-Josh
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That works too, I know where that is. So, meet there a little after 5pm?
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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OK. I'll be wearing glasses and a grey "College of William and Mary" T-Shirt with a small MAVEN button near my collar.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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Midoshi:
Sorry I missed you. We (wife and I) were there at the Saturday banquet with Josh Friedman.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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GW, I was the fellow you sat across from when we had dinner at the pizza place Friday night. I met Josh first, and nobody used my internet handle in person, so I'm not surprised you didn't get the connection.
I did manage to come around Saturday for the afternoon, but didn't bump into anyone I knew. After the end of the plenary I went to the session that started with the talk on the cubesat mission. Sadly, I wasn't able to make the banquet due to preparing for a MAVEN instrument science team meeting.
Actually, we just finished the team meeting here in Boston an hour ago. Things are shaping up well; looking forward to launch!
I was reminded at the meeting that I can invite friends to the MAVEN launch (window begins November 18th). Would anyone care for an exclusive NASA invitation to the MAVEN launch at Cape Canaveral? If so, just PM me with your full name and a valid e-mail. Be sure to contact me by the end of the month so I can get it submitted in time.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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Hi Midoshi! Sorry I didn't recognize who you were. I saw the MAVEN presentation at the convention. Very impressive. Keep me posted, and good luck on the launch!
I don't know about you probe launchers, but we in the rocket missile business used to laugh and joke about sacrificing a virgin (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) to the test gods.
Whatever it takes, I suppose. None of the lady engineers or technicians ever volunteered. Yet we still usually had successes, even in development work.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Midoshi:
Did you survive the floods OK? Been worried about you!
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Midoshi:
Did you survive the floods OK? Been worried about you!
GW
Yes, I'm fine thanks. The apartment building I live in is not far from the Boulder Creek, but the land here was high enough that we did not need to evacuate. At no point did we loose power, but the main sewer line did get clogged temporarily. It was pretty intense; the creek was carrying over 5,000 cubic feet per second, which is ~100 times its normal flow for this time of year and well over 2 times the previous record in 2003. If I step outside, even now there is a load roar coming from the creek a few hundred feet north of here; normally you can't hear anything.
It's somewhat ironic, seeing as we've been in a drought recently. Since folks on the forum here are scientifically minded, you might enjoy checking out this graph of the Boulder Creek discharge rate over the past month, along with the 26 year median (just scroll down a bit):
http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/ … o=06730200
And yes, that is a log scale.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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Glad you're OK. By the news, it seems that too many are not.
Amazing log-scale data. Sort of makes the 100-year flood concept seem a tad irrelevant.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Midoshi:
I see that the idiotic government shutdown may have stalled your MAVEN launch. The news reports indicate that your launch window closes in Dec. After that it's 2 years' delay waiting for a launch window again. That's terrible! How does it look "from the inside"?
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Thanks for your support guys!
We are definitely concerned here. We do have some schedule slack, and people are willing to work double shifts and weekends to get things back on track, but we can only absorb so much delay. If this drags out much more than a week we'll start freaking out. If things get really bad we might be able to swing a some tricks to extend our launch window a few days: the payload is actually slightly less than what the deltaV numbers were originally run for so there some slack there, and we could also do a less-than-desirable orbital insertion at Mars, but those would be last ditch efforts.
Besides the budgetary problem (we'd have to pay people to be on the mission for 2 extra years), there's good science reasons why delaying 2 years would be terrible. We'd be getting to Mars at dead solar minimum, when the atmospheric escape processes we're studying would be inactive and we wouldn't see much variation over our nominal 1 year mission. Our saving grace politically could be that our ability to act as a relay for ground missions is being depended upon for the future of the Mars Exploration Program (a much bigger deal than MAVEN alone), and delaying 2 years would throw a wrench in those plans.
We've got people working the politicians hard to get an exemption by the end of the week to continue work, but it's not for sure yet. Stay tuned.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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I just got word that MAVEN has obtained an exemption for immediate and full reactivation to support launch at the beginning of our window on November 18th. Looks like we're back in business!
And though it is a bit moot now, you're welcome to quote me, Josh; I don't think there's anything in my post that the higher-ups haven't mentioned or alluded to in the press already. Well, maybe not the justifications for getting an exemption, but those aren't exactly a secret.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein
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Very good news. Keep us posted.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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This weekend is the South Central Convention, May 14-16th. I have seen NOTHING about it or any other upcoming event here on the forum. Doesnt anyone go to these things?
Burke
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