The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 1 IN THIS ISSUE Summer 2012 - Volume 4, Issue 1

Publisher A Space Program We Can Believe In The Mars Society Headquarters Robert Zubrin...... 3 11111 W. 8th Ave., Unit A Lakewood, CO 80215 USA Red Dragon Mission www.MarsSociety.org A DISCUSSION WITH CHRIS MCKAY...... 4 President ...... Robert Zubrin Executive Director ...... Lucinda Land Director, Strategic Planning A Discussion with John Callas ...... Susan Holden Martin PROGRAM MANAGER: MER...... 6 Director of Membership ...... Open Director, Public Relations The 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention...... 9 ...... Michael Stoltz Director, University Rover Challenge ...... Kevin Sloan A Discussion with Gernot Groemer Director, Mars Desert Research Station PolARES...... 10 ...... Open

The Mars Quarterly Editor-in-Chief ..... Susan Holden Martin Art Director ...... Keith Keplinger, Keplinger Designs, Inc. Editorial Team/Copy & Proof ...... Kenneth Katz, Debbie Foch, Larissa Douglass, Daniel Beliveau, Edie Tepper, Jocelyn Thomson, Esq. Legal...... Declan O’Donnell, Esq.

A Note to Readers The views expressed in articles are the authors’ and not necessarily those of The Cover design by Mars Quarterly, or The Mars Society. Caitlin Folchman-Wagner. Authors may have business relationships with the companies or agencies they discuss. FROM THE FLIGHT DECK Reproduction The Mars Quarterly is published quarterly by The Mars Society, Lakewood, Colorado, USA. Volume 4, Issue 1, © 2012, The Mars Welcome back to the pages of The advocacy organizations is an Society. Nothing herein contained may be Mars Quarterly, which has been on a extraordinary opportunity to enjoy the reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, brief hiatus due to scheduling issues. best of both. Register today at: http:// including photocopy, recording, or any As this issue goes to press, we are home.marssociety.org/2012-convention- information storage and retrieval system, gearing up for our 15th Annual registration/. without written permission of The Mars International Convention which will be In this issue we offer interviews with Society. held at the Pasadena Convention NASA scientists Christopher McKay Advertisers send email to Center, August 3-5. The convention and John Callas, as well as Gernot [email protected]. Address will continue into the evening hours of Groemer of the Austrian Space Forum. letters, general inquiries, or send member dues or charitable donations to The Mars August 5, so that attendees can join us We invite you to read beyond our Society, 11111 West 8th Avenue, Unit A, in viewing the landing of the Mars pages to fully understand the extent of Lakewood, CO 80215, USA. Please include Science Laboratory - Curiosity. The their respective contributions to Mars your full name, address, and daytime phone number. The Mars Society is a 501(c)(3) convention hall will also be hosting research and exploration. organization. The Planetary Society on August 4-5, and this conjunction of space See you in Pasadena!

The Mars Quarterly 2 Volume 4, Issue 1 A Space Program We Can Believe In

Robert Zubrin First published at SpaceNews on May 21, reprinted with permission.

The current administration says it around technologies that are either in wishes to set a course towards hand or clearly feasible. Making the sending humans to Mars. If it does, mission dependent upon fantastical here are the essential features that futuristic systems, such as gigantic such a program needs to have in 100,000 kilowatt nuclear electric order to succeed. spaceships is simply another way of 1. The Mission Objectives insuring that it never happens. Must Be Worthwhile. 4. The Mission Leadership The reason to send humans to Mars Must Not Be Feckless. is not to set a new altitude record for It is essential that issues be dealt the aviation almanac. Rather it is to with as problems to be solved, rather conduct serious exploration that will than as excuses for avoiding action. resolve the questions of the potential Thus, for example, NASA needs to existence and diversity of life in the stop hiding behind the cosmic universe and open a new world to radiation and zero gravity health human settlement. Therefore missions issues as excuses for not going to that do not actually land on Mars, or Mars until unobtainable propulsion only stay for brief durations, are to be systems are available. More than half shunned. There is no point going to a dozen astronauts and cosmonauts Mars unless you can do something have already received cumulative useful when you get there. If the cosmic ray doses during extended program is not solidly based on such stays in Earth orbit without harm. Zero a rational foundation, it will be gravity health effects can be avoided cancelled long before it ever goes by rotating the spacecraft to create anywhere. artificial gravity. 2. The Mission Must 5. Mission Success Must be Be Proximate. the Highest Priority. Claiming one is setting a goal of That may seem self-evident, but it is sending humans to Mars in the year not. The achievement of mission 2047, or some other far future date, is success requires really flying the risible. No one living several decades mission (see relevant points, above). hence will know or care what today’s Furthermore, placing the highest NASA’s officials chose to put into their priority on mission success means schedules, and to assign the mission placing mission success above crew to execution by such people is simply safety. There are an unlimited number to avoid commitment. For the of candidate technical improvements, program to be real, it needs to be Leek Julian precursor missions, and test programs planned in a way that will allow it to possible, with the fewest needs for that could potentially marginally be flown by people who are in the new technologies. The wrong way is improve the safety of the first Mars astronaut corps today, not by to take the most complex approach, mission crew. But if all, or even a generations yet unborn. Furthermore, with the maximum expenditures for significant fraction of them, were for the program to have any chance of new technologies. The Mars mission attempted, the mission would never success, it must reach its objective should thus not be designed for the fly, and we would guarantee program within a limited time. Otherwise the purpose of justifying the complete failure achieved at infinite cost. political conditions that allowed it to assortment of NASA or industry Precursor activities might improve the be launched will almost certainly advanced technology efforts seeking chances of a given Mars mission, but disappear before it reaches its goal. funding. Running a program that way they come at the cost of reducing the 3. The Mission Plan Must is like running a company with its number of missions that can be flown, Be Practical. expenditures determined by its and they certainly cannot be allowed The right way to do engineering is vendors. Practicality furthermore to proliferate to the point where they to take the simplest approach requires that the mission be designed continued on page 12

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 3 Red Dragon Mission

A Discussion with Chris McKay

TMQ I understand from reading become suitable for life at high only way to get into it is with a drill. A several media reports that you coined liquidity and it is accessible. Ice can shovel, a spade, an arm, they just the name Red Dragon. preserve bio-markers, if there is life. won’t work - as Phoenix found out. CHRIS No, I didn’t. John Karcz’s The low elevations of the northern So the key bit of technology that partner suggested it. I was the one plains contains ice that if warmed up, allows us to sample inside the ice is who put it in the press. But John came would form a liquid and be stable, the drill. Our drill has to be over a in one day and said he was talking unlike the southern plains where the meter long so we can drill very deep with his partner and she said “Why pressure is too low and the ice would into the ice - deeper that anyone has don’t you call it Red Dragon?” go to vapor. Being near the poles with ever gone on Mars. The drill has been Nobody did anything with it, and then high liquidity, the Phoenix site would built and is in Honeybee Robot one day when I was talking with a get as much sunlight and as high a Company’s shop in Pasadena. That is reporter, the conversation with John the first and most important part of came back to me, and I said “We’re the Icebreaker payload. calling it Red Dragon.” The second key part of Icebreaker is an instrument called the ‘Signs of Life TMQ What is Icebreaker? Detector’. The acronym is SOLID. It is CHRIS Icebreaker is a payload, and being built in Spain and will detect the Red Dragon is a mission concept for a bio-markers of life. particular capsule for landing on Mars. TMQ How does it do that? Icebreaker is a drill and a bunch of CHRIS It detects life using amino instruments that can go to Mars on assay technology. It will have a many different capsules. In fact microchip on which we will attach Icebreaker was designed with Phoenix literally hundreds of individual as the carrier spacecraft. But it could molecular sensors that are tied to go on Red Dragon - a SpaceX capsule; specific molecules like DNA and or it could go to Mars on a Phoenix proteins, and so on. When those lander. If someone else came to me molecules are present they bind, lock with another spacecraft that was going and key, and that turns on a little to Mars, I’m sure I could figure out florescent tag that will allow us to how to strap Icebreaker on to it as determine what molecule has been well. So Icebreaker is effectively a NASA detected. drill and some instruments. liquidity as the Earth’s polar regions The name Icebreaker also wasn’t get now and refine life on Earth’s polar TMQ Will you also be assessing invented by me. It was invented by regions. So we think that the best subsurface habitability? Roy Nakagawa who was our project place to find evidence of recent life on CHRIS Right. We are interested in manager a couple of years ago, but Mars is at the Phoenix landing site, so the search for life and searching for who now works for The Aerospace the target site for Icebreaker is right bio-markers, but we will also want to Corporation. The alternative name now is on top of Phoenix, and I will understand the environmental context. suggested by the guys working here take the cheapest and most reliable We have a lot of other instruments at Ames was “Bruno”. Choose spacecraft I can find. To me Red that will tell us: Was there salt here? between those two! I chose Dragon or Phoenix are just taxi rides - Was there water here? Did the ice Icebreaker. So in both cases I didn’t that’s just how I get my instrument to ever melt? And so on. So that is come up with the name, but I chose it the field. Price and availability are trying to understand habitability. so to speak, and pushed it forward. factors. I have a payload, an instrument that I want to get to Mars, TMQ What else will the ice tell you? TMQ What are your potential and I don’t care how I get it there. Will you be establishing an ice record landing sites? or the climate history of Mars? CHRIS For Icebreaker, we want to TMQ What type of analytical lab CHRIS We may get that go back to where Phoenix landed, you are designing? information, but for me those are of because we think that is the best place CHRIS The key part is the payload. secondary, even of tertiary interest. on Mars to search for evidence of life. There are two pieces that really I’m interested in the search for life, There we have ice close to the surface matter. One is the drill because the and we will do that with bio-markers. such that it could warm up and frozen ground is very hard and the Now we will get a lot of other

The Mars Quarterly 4 Volume 4, Issue 1 SpaceX information too, and will probably looking, because when I go to HQ, it is committed to doing it with Dragon, write a lot of other science papers, in the cost of payload, reliability, and the but we need to determine if Dragon is addition to the discovery of life. As far cost of the spacecraft. Most of the a viable option with the Icebreaker as the mission goes, I hope we will cost is the spacecraft. That’s why we payload. We know that the Phoenix have discovered evidence of life, and missed the last round – the spacecraft spacecraft is a viable option - we have knowing 10 million years ago that the cost was too much. That’s when I already determined that. Dragon is climate was different - these other started looking for another taxi – the cheaper, but we need to determine if it science goals will simply pale by fare on this taxi was too high. And the is technically viable, and that’s what comparison. curious thing is, if you have another we are doing right now. taxi, the fare on the first taxi goes TMQ Dragon isn’t large enough to down. TMQ At what point does the door carry a rover, so how will you deploy close on the mission concept? the drill? TMQ What are you working on CHRIS We have about a year. CHRIS The concept right now is to right now? There have been rumors that other have a little trap door at the bottom of CHRIS We are working on the spacecraft companies would be the capsule, so when we land the drill payload – developing the drill, the getting into the business, and so we will go straight through the bottom. sample transfer system, and all the are very interested in that. If I hear of TMQ This is not a sample return instruments to work them into a single another company, I will call them up mission, correct? coherent package. We are testing it in and ask them if their spacecraft can CHRIS No. Whether it goes on the two places – one in a Mars chamber in carry my payload. The more potential Phoenix spacecraft or on the Dragon, Pasadena that is the size of a VW bus rides I have, the happier I will be. it will do all of its analysis in situ; all it – a huge vacuum chamber; and two, will send back is data. we are testing it in Antarctica, which is TMQ Is it possible that you might the coldest, driest environment that end up riding with an international TMQ What type of instruments will we know. We want to get the payload partner? be on board doing the analysis? ready, and we encourage spacecraft CHRIS We will not have an CHRIS SOLID is the main companies to build spacecraft. international launch or an international instrument. It will process the data Eventually we will hitch a ride. spacecraft – partly because no other and send it back. There is a laser country has landed on Mars inside SOLID, but nothing like TMQ Who is the decisionmaker on successfully. The Russians have tried ChemCam. MSL will come up to the mission, and when will a decision and the Europeans have tried. In many rocks and will use ChemCam to be made? terms of building instruments, our decide which rocks to pick up, CHRIS The key decisionmaker is international partners have done a whereas we are just drilling down. the Associate Administrator for Space great job, but for my precious So we don’t need to do any selection. Science – John Grunsfeld. By the time payload, I won’t deviate from U.S. We land, turn on the drill, and down he gets it, it will have gone through launchers, and I believe HQ will we go. several committees, but he will make require it. the final decision. A final decision will TMQ What’s the timeline? I likely be in 2014 – four years before understand the first Discovery-class launch. Once he says go, we will have Christopher McKay has a Ph.D. in vetting process is closed. What four years of frenetic activity before AstroGeophysics from the University targets do you have to hit for the next we launch. of Colorado in 1982. His research round? focuses on the evolution of the solar CHRIS Yes, we are shooting for the TMQ Is there any back and forth system and the origin of life. He is next Discovery round, which is likely between your office and SpaceX right also actively involved in planning for to be a mission in 2018. So right now now regarding payload size and future Mars missions including human we are doing trajectory analysis and design? exploration. He has been involved plans for a 2018 mission. Cost is the CHRIS Yes, we have with polar and desert research, primary target – and not just payload teleconferences every week to traveling to the Antarctic Dry Valleys, cost, but the whole thing. That’s why determine payload accommodations – the Atacama Desert, the Arctic, and I am encouraging Red Dragon and we need to determine if Dragon can the Namib Desert to conduct research Phoenix as spacecraft. I will also keep carry the payload. We haven’t in these Mars-like environments.

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 5 A Discussion with John Callas

PROGRAM MANAGER: MER

JOHN Right, we are just south of is that you are not sure whether any of the equator. We are only a couple of the techniques you might envision will degrees south latitude, but that means work. There is one theory that dust that the sun is in the northern sky. To clings electrostatically. If that’s the maximize energy production, we case, it’s just like trying to sweep off position the rover by parking it on a those annoying Styrofoam pellets you slope to tilt the arrays toward the get in a shipping box that cling to your north. These rovers were never skin electrostatically; you try to designed to go through winter; they remove them, but they just cling there. landed in the summertime - originally So they do look at active techniques - only for a 90-day mission; so we whether they could have a solar array never had to worry about this kind of that you could re-deploy or that you thing. But as the missions have gone could tilt, or maybe a windshield wiper on, it has become an issue with each mechanism for dust removal. season - and the rovers are affected by dust on their solar arrays. We have TMQ What does the team do while been benefiting from wind cleaning off the rover is stationary, in contrast to TMQ John, please tell our readers a dust at unpredictable intervals, but what it does when it is in motion? little bit about yourself. there is a lot of dust on Opportunity’s JOHN This winter for Opportunity JOHN I grew up in Massachusetts, arrays right now. That means this has presented us with a unique and and attended Tufts University School winter is the first winter of the five that exciting opportunity, and that is to of Engineering where I earned a she has been on Mars where we track the radio signal from the rover. bachelor’s in science and engineering. actually had to take active mitigation When the rover is stationary on the After that, I attended Brown University where we deliberately parked the surface, the Doppler signature we see and earned both a master’s and PhD rover. We did this for Spirit for her in the radio signal is now a proxy for in physics. My first job out of school second, third and fourth winter, and the motion of Mars. By tracking that was working at JPL. I had always had now we are doing it for Opportunity. very precisely, we can actually infer a passion and love for robotics There is still quite a bit of dust on the the rotation of Mars and the position exploration, and so JPL was the arrays that has not been cleaned off of the spin axis of the planet. And so natural fit for me - and here I am. by the wind. we have been measuring the precession rate of Mars. It was last TMQ What is your current position TMQ When will Opportunity be in measured in the Pathfinder days back at JPL? motion again? in 1997. By getting the rate of JOHN I am the project manager for JOHN We can’t say exactly because precession, one can get a measure of the Mars Exploration Rover project, it depends on whether we get any the moment of inertia of Mars. This is operating two rovers on the surface of dust cleaning on the arrays. If the important because the moment of Mars: Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit arrays were cleaned today, we would inertia tells us about the mass lasted over six years for a 90-day be moving tomorrow. Right now the distribution within the planet, rover, but eventually the environment estimate is the first of June, when we potentially the size of the core, and if took her away from us and we had to will continue the exploration of we can tease out the nutation, which say goodbye. Opportunity continues Endeavour Crater. is the small wobble in the precession to operate very successfully on the rate, we might even be able to tell the surface. My job now is to keep TMQ Will Curiosity also require the fluid state of the core. This a Opportunity going, and to continue cleaning of solar arrays? technique very similar to what you do that exploration for as long as JOHN Curiosity has an entirely in the kitchen if you want to find out if possible. different power system – it uses an egg is raw or hard-boiled, you spin nuclear power - so they avoid this it - and if it spins freely you say “Ah TMQ Opportunity is currently* in situation altogether. But they do talk hah! It is hard-boiled”, but if it the southern hemisphere of Mars about mitigation strategies for future sloshes, then you say “Ok. It is a raw gathering sunlight for those dusty missions that might be solar-powered egg.” Planets do the same thing. If solar arrays? on the surface of Mars. The challenge Mars has a fluid core there should be

The Mars Quarterly 6 Volume 4, Issue 1 ...it is important to remember that we still know so very little about the planet Mars. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona a certain amount of slosh in its rover sleeps at night to conserve where we can view the data in 3D and rotation. It is a very small, small power. When the rover wakes up in by driving a virtual rover in that 3D signal, but tracking the rover’s radio the morning, we send it a set of model, it helps us to generate a signal which is now fixed on the commands, and then the rover command that we would send to the planet, we can try to tease out that autonomously will carry out the rover to carry out driving. signal, and so that is one of the things instructions over the course of the day we are doing now that the rover is - and that includes driving. So we TMQ If you see something in the stationary. have to have a rover that first of all data from the previous day that you will keep itself safe; and secondly, we think is worth going back to look at a TMQ How is the rover operated? have to send a set of instructions that second time, that has to come in the JOHN We don’t control the rover in the rover can actually execute. We next day’s data stream? real time because radio signals take have sophisticated tools here on the JOHN That’s right. We are a very too long to get from Earth to Mars and ground that take the same data the reactive, non-deterministic mission, in back again. At the shortest, a signal is rover has - the rover sends us all of its that we don’t know what we are going only about four and a half minutes; visual information. The images it has to do today until we have seen the but at the longest, it is 21 minutes. taken are stereo generally, so that results of yesterday’s activities. So we What we do is send instructions to the means we can review certain data in do react to what we have seen and rover almost every day. Typically, the three dimensions. We have tools discovered on the surface of Mars.

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 7 When the rover is driving, we can date? into space. The importance is that drive it in a mode in which we give full JOHN My job is to maximize the Mars is shrouded in mystery. What autonomy to the rover and we let the utilization of the assets we have on we discover at Gale Crater with rover make decisions - and most are Mars, and even though this rover is Curiosity will likely be very different based around keeping itself safe. We eight years old now - well past its from what we discover at Endeavour do have a mode where we can say we design line, it is still very capable. Crater with Opportunity. It is want it to drive to a particular There is still a very exciting mission important to have a diversity of waypoint in the distance, and then the ahead. We tracked 34km on the exploration on the surface of another rover will plan how it actually has to surface of Mars to get to Endeavour world. We’ve only explored drive to get to a particular point. It Crater. Endeavour represents an kilometers of the planet, and that is uses its knowledge of the terrain, it entirely new mission for the rover. So like saying “I drove from L.A. to takes images, generates terrain maps; it is almost like we have a brand new Barstow and so I know everything from those, it generates hazard maps mission - an “Opportunity 2.0”, if you about the geology of the Earth.” You and course plots, and drives can’t make that claim on Earth, along that route, updating its and you can’t make that claim on progress as it goes and sees Mars. whether it can continue along that route, or whether it has to make a change based on new information to get to its target. *Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in March 2012, TMQ What is the rover’s while Opportunity was stationary. onboard computer storage At press time, it is currently capacity and processor speed? mobile and investigating gypsum JOHN It is remarkably slow. It deposits on the rim of Endeavour is a 20 MHz processor so it is 1% Crater. For updates on the status as fast as the processor in your of both Spirit and Opportunity, smartphone. This is one of the please visit: http://marsrover. limitations we have on Mars, nasa.gov/mission/status.html. A because when we drive it in its bio for John Callas can be found autonomous mode, it takes a lot at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_ of compute power. And so the pages/mer/070628/callas. rover has to stop, take some images, take several minutes to process those images, make a NASA decision, and then drive again for will, because we are in much older another step. It can be quite slow. So terrain than we have been in the last we often use a combination where we eight years. There are signatures seen look at the images so we can see that from orbit of types of minerals in the it is safe maybe 70 meters in front of rim of Endeavour that represent some the rover and we can tell the rover to intriguing science targets - mainly the drive blindly. In other words, don’t presence of clay minerals. We want to rely on imagery, just spin your wheels explore those clay minerals with a certain distance in a certain Opportunity when we get clear of direction. And once that is completed, winter. to start using autonomous navigation to drive the rest of the way, or as far TMQ Are there any mission as it can on the available time that is parallels with Opportunity and left. Curiosity? JOHN I think it is important to TMQ Will you also be part of the remember that we still know so very Curiosity team? little about the planet Mars. And you JOHN I will not be directly involved might be asking “Why should we in Curiosity, but many of the people bother with Opportunity when we involved in Opportunity will be. have Curiosity, which is a much more capable rover?” It has fantastic TMQ How long will Opportunity instrumentation on board - the most continue its mission - is there an end sophisticated rover we have ever sent

The Mars Quarterly 8 Volume 4, Issue 1 The 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that it will be convening the 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention at the Pasadena Convention Center on August 3 - 5, 2012 in Pasadena, California. The annual event convenes key experts, scientists and policymakers to discuss the latest news regarding Mars exploration and efforts to promote a humans-to-Mars mission in the coming years.

Call for Papers Presentations for the Mars Society convention are invited dealing with all matters (science, engineering, politics, economics, public policy, etc.) associated with the exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent for considerations by June 30, 2012 to: The Mars Society, 11111 W. 8th Avenue, unit A, Lakewood, CO 80215 or forwarded via email to: [email protected]

Registration Registration for the Mars Society convention in Pasadena is now open. Rooms at the Pasadena Sheraton are available to convention attendees at a specially discounted rate of $99/night for single or double occupancy. To reserve a room, please call Tel. 626- 449-4000 or visit the hotel web site. *When making reservations, please note that the Mars Society convention is not being held at the Pasadena Sheraton, but rather at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Speakers http://www.marssociety.org/ convention2012/speakers

For more details, please contact us: [email protected]

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 9 PolARES

A Discussion with Gernot Groemer

TMQ: deal since then. Our research group Gernot, please intends to challenge that paradigm tell our readers and we try to demonstrate that the about yourself. advantages of having a human GERNOT: explorer in the field assisted by robots I’m a 37-year is the way to go. old Since then, we have been astronomer, developing the Aouda.X spacesuit holding a PhD simulator, a 45kg research-grade in the field of “spacecraft & computer to wear”. astrobiology Details can be found at: http://www. from the oewf.org/cms/polares_suit.phtml. This University of Innsbruck. I went to the currently involves about two dozen Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) engineers, medical people and IT twice in 2003 (Crew 11) and 2006 specialists. Plus, we are also working (Crew 47). My participation in those on a rover called Phileas, and of missions basically co-defined my course the planetary protection scientific career. research. Luckily, my university highly appreciated the work we’re doing and TMQ: Tell us about your so we even got a fully-fledged experiences at MDRS. laboratory for furthering our research. GERNOT: During our 2003 and In the course of our project, we had 2006 MDRS missions, we were - until now – nine field campaigns with looking into various science questions, varying degrees of complexity, ranging from robotic vehicles to sometimes including hardware from extraction techniques and telemedical dozens of external research studies including human factors with institutions including the European cutting-edge vigilance monitoring Space Agency and Universities. As an studies. During the AustroMars example, we went to the Spanish Rio mission in 2006, we had about one Tinto site, which is probably the year of preparation, selecting the flight world’s best analog site for early and crew (and their backup) from 183 wet Mars. An account of this applicants and having a thorough (including pics) can be found at: science and engineering training over http://blog.oewf.org/en/2011/05/first- half a year. We also had a fully-fledged review-rio-tinto-2011-mars-simulation Mission Control Center which was and that was spacesuit simulators, staffed with roughly 20 people on a with a particular interest in creating a TMQ: What has been your biggest 24/7 basis monitoring our activities - high level of realism and looking into accomplishment so far? so this simulation was fairly high the issue of planetary protection. GERNOT: Having an operational fidelity when it comes to the decision That means that if you’re trying to prototype for the suit simulator. making processes, the data flows and find diminutive traces of extinct or Science-wise we found out, that it is the flight planning procedures. A extant life on Mars, such as molecular surprisingly difficult to take sterile detailed account for this $200,000 USD tracers, biologically precipitated samples on Mars. We now have a mission can be found at the mission minerals and similar, that IF you find fairly clear (quantitative) understanding report under: http://www.oewf.org/cms/ something you need to be really sure of the contamination vectors and have aid%3D732.phtml it is indigenous and not a hitchhiker published that in peer-reviewed from Earth. In previous decades that journals. The next step will be to TMQ: What is the PolAres was one of the major arguments of investigate these vectors under field program? the robotics community telling us that conditions in a more comprehensive GERNOT: Upon return from our last we should send rovers only - to manner after our pilot measurements. mission in 2006, we decided within preserve the pristine nature of the Just recently we went into the ice the Austrian Space Forum to focus on samples. However, our life detection caves of the Dachstein mountains in a specific aspect of analogue research techniques have advanced a great Austria emulating a subsurface EVA The Mars Quarterly 10 Volume 4, Issue 1 on Mars and to see what the major challenges are. A great pictorial account can be found at: http://blog.oewf.org/en/2012/05/dachstein- mars-simulation-a-review-in-25-pictures/ The NASA astrobiology website has released a very nice account of that project: http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/4789/ exploring-mars-in-the-austrian-alps ...we have been TMQ: What’s next? GERNOT: The next step will be a developing the large field campaign in the Northern Aouda.X Sahara of Morocco in February 2013 (MARS2013 - campaign). For more spacesuit information, visit: mars2013.oewf.org simulator, a 45kg

TMQ: Who funds these missions? research-grade GERNOT: We have in-kind “spacecraft & contributions from industrial partners, also some public national research computer to money, plus donations. The reason wear”. why we are able to do projects is also due to a significant amount of volunteer work. We had the privilege to build a team with people who are real specialists in their “civilian” life: programmers, medical doctors, scientists and engineers – they have an impressive track record of previous technical projects, access to infrastructure and also add a lot of credibility to our programs. Plus, organizations like the Mars Societies Simulated rescue and the Austrian Space Forum spend research money at least by a factor of 10 when it comes to spending efficiency.

However, as any grass-root organization, we heavily rely on private donations. Plus, for companies, we offer very interesting marketing cooperations due to fairly significant media exposure ranging from BBC to Discovery© Channel and others, especially in Europe.

TMQ: How can people contact you? GERNOT: The easiest way is either via the website www.oewf.org, or via our social media sites, such as For further information about PolAres, YouTube www.youtube.com/oewf or please visit: http://www.oewf.org/cms/ Facebook. Our general email address polares.phtml is: [email protected].

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 11 continued from page 3 cut the number of actual exploration missions to zero. NASA’s human spaceflight program is being done at a OFFICIAL MEMBERSHIP AND DONATION FORM cost of tens of billions of dollars, funds Contact Information which could save tens of thousands of lives if spent elsewhere. It therefore has a moral obligation to deliver. The Name ______mission needs to come first. Address ______6. The Mission Needs to Be Initiated. City ______If the commitment is to be taken seriously, it needs to be initiated now. State/Province ______Zip ______That means that rather than stop the robotic reconnaissance of Mars, it Country ______needs to be intensified, with probes of Email ______different types launched to the Red Planet at every opportunity. Contribution Information Furthermore, a practical plan needs to be drawn up for sending astronauts to Please check the amount of your contribution. All donations of $1000 or more pay your dues for life! Mars within a ten year time frame using available or attainable __ Visionary ...... $5000 __ Explorer ...... $2000 technology, and the agency’s __ Benefactor ...... $1000 __ Enthusiast ...... $500 expenditures then need to be __ Friend ...... $200 __ Donor ...... $100 prioritized and directed towards actually implementing that plan. If the __ Other donation ...... $______program is not started, it will never I’m donating $100 or more, please send an autographed copy of: happen. __ The Case for Mars __ Entering Space The American people want and deserve a space agency that is really __ Mars on Earth __ First Landing (a novel) going somewhere. Mars is the right __ The Holy Land (satire) __ Energy Victory destination, but if it is ever to be __ On to Mars 1 __ On to Mars 2 reached, the commitment needs to be real. Due to out of control deficits __ Mars Songs CD __ How to Live on Mars resulting from spending elsewhere in the Federal budget, there will soon be Membership Information a strong imperative for cuts. A NASA Please add to or upgrade my membership as follows: without a genuine goal will be a prime (Please check the appropriate membership level) candidate for the block. It is time for a __ Regular Membership: __ 1 year ...... $50 __ 3 years ... $100 space program we can believe in. __ Senior Membership: __ 1 year ...... $25 __ 3 years ..... $50 __ Student Membership: __ 1 year ...... $25 __ 3 years ..... $50 Dr. Robert Zubrin is president of __ Family Membership: __ 1 year ..... $100 __ 3 years ... $200 Pioneer Astronautics and the Mars Society and the author of The Case for Payment Information Mars. His latest book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Total Amount (Membership + Donation) ...... $ ______Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the __ Personal Check or Credit Card __ Visa __ M/C __ Amex Fatal Cult of Antihumanism has just been published by Encounter Books. Credit Card # ______

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The Mars Quarterly 12 Volume 4, Issue 1 Registration for the 2012-2013 season at MDRS will be open soon

THE MARS SOCIETY is a 501(c)3 THE MARS SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS: tax-exempt non-profit organization Robert Zubrin Rt. Rev. James Heiser with headquarters in Colorado, USA, Declan O'Donnell Scott Horowitz committed to furthering the goal of the explor-ation and settlement of THE MARS SOCIETY STEERING COMMITTEE: the Red Planet, via broad public Buzz Aldrin Declan O’Donnell outreach to instill the vision of April Andreas Ian O’Neill pioneering Mars, support of ever Jonathan Clarke Joseph E. Palaia, IV more aggressive government funded Patricia Czarnik Shannon M. Rupert Mars exploration programs around Richard Heidmann Kevin F. Sloan the world, and conducting Mars Rt. Rev. James Heiser Peter Smith exploration on a private basis. Jürgen Herholz Sara Spector Lucinda Land Michael Stoltz Bruce Mackenzie Chris Vancil Susan Holden Martin Robert Zubrin Anthony Curtis Muscatello

The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 13