Mars Society Canada (MSC) will seek to fund, plan, manage and lead its own expedition to the Mars Desert Research Station in 2003. Other groups, such as the Canadian and Michigan Rover teams, and members of European, American and Australian chapters, will be invited to participate in these exercises. This project will advance exploration research, and be the next plank in an overall strategy to raise public awareness within Canada of Mars Society goals and activities. In preparation for this expedition, MSC members will be participating in Mission Support activities for FMARS this year, and integrating a number of electronic devices as one system, such as GPS, digital cameras, video and audio with transcription software, for use in the field by geologist-astronauts conducting EVA exercises to make their observations.

The first operational crew rotation of the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) has been successfully completed. The MDRS went operational on Feb 7 with a crew of 6. For the past two weeks, the station’s crew has been conducting a systematic program of exploration of the surrounding desert, while operating under many of the same constraints as an actual Mars crew. For example, as on Mars, anyone leaving the station to do field research needs to wear a simulated spacesuit, that limits the mobility, agility, dexterity, and sensory abilities of the wearer much as a real spacesuit would, and communication between EVA team members separated by more than a few feet has to be done by suit radio. While in the station, crew members also do laboratory analysis of samples brought in from the field, repair equipment, write reports (which are exchanged with Mars Society’s Mission Support group via a satellite link that imposes a Mars-like delay on communications), and engage in the chores of daily life living together as a team. The purpose of conducting such simulated operations is to gain essential knowledge of Mars exploration tactics, human factors issues, and engineering requirements – in short, to start learning how to explore Mars.

The Second European Convention of the Mars Society will be held 27-29 September in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. During this event internationally renowned scientists will meet interested laymen in a three day long festival of lectures, expositions, panel discussions, demonstrations and more informal activities. Topics covered will range from mission design to Mars survival skills and from outreach strategies to arts and literature.

The 1st Mars Society UK 1-day Symposium proved a great success. Held on the 19th January 2002, the event was attended by over 100 people of all ages and backgrounds. Featuring a total of 5 keynote speakers, the event promised to bring a huge amount of expertise and knowledge on Mars and exploring Mars together in one place. The morning got off to a flying start with Dr. Robert Zubrin appearing on the BBC News 24 morning bulletin, which not only gave him a chance to talk about the Society and Mars Direct, but which also lead directly to a number of additional attendees coming along to the event afterwards. After the opening address from the Mars Society UK President, Bo Maxwell, the event got underway with a 75-minutes presentation and Question and Answer session with Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project. During his talk, Professor Pillinger reviewed the history and progress of the Beagle 2 mission, before looking towards next year and the lander’s launch aboard the Mars Express mission in June 2003. He also looked at the science Beagle 2 will be taking to Mars and related it back to studies of Martian meteorites here on Earth, bringing the audience right up to date with the latest thoughts on ALH84001 and other meteorites.

The January 18-20 issue of USA Weekend magazine carried a full- collumn article about the Mars Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station project. Written by Elizabeth Kaye McCall, the highly favorable article focussed on the experience of Katy Quinn, the Australian/American MIT geophysicist who served in the second crew rotation in the Flashline Station on Devon Island last summer. The article, which prominently included the URL of the Mars Society website, began; “Desperate for adventure and glory? The Mars Society is looking for volunteers to test what life may be like on the red planet. “For geophysicist Katy Quinn, 30, that meant spending eight days last summer on a subzero arctic island surveying seismic activity in a spacesuit as part of the global group’s Mars research project… “Many scientists believe our closest planetary neighbor may someday be inhabitable…”

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the Fifth Internationl Mars Society Conference will return to Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado campus, August 8th through August 11th, 2002. The Boulder campus is a beautiful, open campus with newly renovated facilities. It is the original home of the Mars Underground and site of the founding convention of The Mars Society, so we are thrilled to be returning this year. The date of the conference has been moved up this year to make it easier for our student membership to attend.

Thanks to the more than 200 people who have made donations, The Mars Society has raised over $30,000 from the end of year fundraising campaign. Dr. Zubrin spend last weekend autographing books and we will be mailing them out within the week. Special thanks to those who became lifetime members. We will be designing a unique ID card to indicate your special membership status. The Mars Society will be continuing this offer of lifetime membership for individual donors at the $1000 level. Unfortunately, Apollo Energy has indicated that they will have to cap their donation at $1000. This leaves us a bit short of our goal of $50,000 to continue operations at the Desert Hab. Any donations of $100 or more received through February 28th, 2002, either at the website or by response to our recent mailing, will be eligible for Dr. Zubrin’s book offer and will be noted on our donor plaque. Also, remember that individual crew member sponsorships are still available at the $5000 level.

The plan for a Mars balloon mission proposed by the German Mars Society is now making important advances. With the final report on the preliminary flight system design nearing completion, the German Mars Society balloon probe team has been invited to present their concepts before the DLR (German Space Agency) space mission assessment committee in 2002. In support of this effort, the German Mars Society team has been granted DLR funding for studies and tests. If selected, the balloon mission would be Germany’s first interplanetary mission and the first mission to the Red Planet directly initiated by the Mars Society.

The following reports were received this week from Project Architect Frank Schubert and Program Manager Anna Paulson, who are leading the construction of the Mars Desert Research Station in the desert west of Hanksville, Utah…