The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 1 IN THIS ISSUE Volume 5, Issue 3 Publisher: The Mars Society Mars Arctic 365 Crew Selection Underway .........................................3 Headquarters 11111 W. 8th Ave., Unit A An Urgent Appeal for Help Robert Zubrin ..................................................4 Lakewood, CO 80215 USA www.MarsSociety.org MDRS: Becoming an Astronaut-Mind Elizabeth Howell .............................5 GreenHab: Planting the Seeds of Our Martian Future Nick Orenstein ......7 President ..........................Robert Zubrin Media & PR Director ....... Michael Stoltz Testing Google Glass “on Mars” Tereza Pultarova & Ondrej Doule ..................9 Education Director ...........Nicole Willett MDRS Director ........... Shannon Rupert MDRS Photo Gallery Crew Photos from 2013-14 Field Season ........10 FMARS Director ..............Joseph Palaia URC Director .......................Kevin Sloan Past, Present, Future on Mars - Q&A with Dr. Jim Rice Jason Rhian ...........12 YRC Director .............. Chuck McMurray Massive Response to Inspiration Mars Student Design Contest ......14 Administrative Director ...Jill Robertson Volunteer Coordinator Florence Maisch Chapter Close-Up: Poland Joanna Jodłowska & Mateusz Józefowicz .......15 Political Affairs Coordinator ...........................................James Wolff Youth Rover Challenge to Encourage STEM Education .....................17 Webmaster.......................... James Burk Chief Archivist .............Frank Crossman The Mars Quarterly On the Cover – Editor ............................... Michael Stoltz An aerial view of MDRS taken from a quad-copter (credit: Jim Urquhart), Deputy Editor ............Kerri Beauchesne and a MDRS crew member directing a rover across the Mars-like Utah desert. Art Director ................... Keith Keplinger Contributing Writers ......... Jason Rhian, Mike Killian Copy Team ...............Jocelyn Thomson, Larissa Douglass, Kenneth Katz, FROM THE FLIGHT DECK Debbie Foch, Edie Tepper, Daniel Beliveau It is becoming more and more Another version of the URC, but A Note to Readers apparent that Science, Technology, intended for younger students, is the The views expressed in articles are the authors’ and not necessarily those of Engineering and Mathematics (or YRC. Organized in 2013 by Chuck The Mars Quarterly or The Mars STEM) are playing a larger role in our McMurray, the YRC is an annual Society. Authors may have business global society and greatly impacting educational project designed to relationships with the companies or agencies they discuss. the direction it takes. The Mars Society challenge students in grades 5-12 to Reproduction understands that encouraging today’s build LEGO Mindstorm rovers and The Mars Quarterly is published youth to study and pursue STEM compete in a nationwide (eventually quarterly by The Mars Society, education is a key element in ensuring worldwide) contest. With 22 student Lakewood, Colorado, USA. Volume 5, Issue 2, © 2013, The Mars Society. humanity’s future in space and long- teams registered for the inaugural Nothing herein contained may be term survival. competition to be held in the coming reproduced or transmitted in any form Three programs organized by the months, the YRC provides students or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, Mars Society - the University Rover with an opportunity to delve into basic recording, or any information storage Challenge (URC), the Youth Rover elements of engineering and robotics. and retrieval system, without written Challenge (YRC) and the European Finally, the Mars Society’s Poland permission of The Mars Society. Rover Challenge (ERC) - are chapter launched a new annual Advertisers send email to tmq-editor@ marssociety.org. Address letters, galvanizing students to get further initiative in late 2013 called the ERC. general inquiries, or send member involved in STEM-related learning and Similar in many aspects to the URC, dues or charitable donations to The research. Established in 2006 and the ERC will involve student teams Mars Society, 11111 West 8th Avenue, Unit A, Lakewood, CO 80215, USA. managed by Kevin Sloan, the URC is from mainly European-based Please include your full name, an annual competition held in the Utah universities and research institutes address, and daytime phone number. desert that brings together college testing various aspects of rover The Mars Society is a registered 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. student teams from the U.S. and technology for possible use in future around the world to design and build Mars exploration. The three-day Sign Up for rovers that will test robotic, competition will take place in Poland Mars Society engineering and field science methods later this year. Twitter Feed for future planetary exploration. The Please visit the Mars Society web Get regular updates and information about the Mars Society and the latest URC draws from an international pool site (www.MarsSociety.org) to learn news about Mars exploration and of talented and promising students, more about these important programs. planning for humans-to-Mars by with 31 student teams scheduled to joining our organization’s Twitter feed: @TheMarsSociety. Thanks! participate this June. Michael Stoltz, Editor The Mars Quarterly 2 Volume 5, Issue 3 Mars Arctic 365 Crew Selection Underway Semi-finalists for crew selection for recruitment is down-selecting to 18 closest analog to the surface of Mars the Mars Society’s Mars Arctic 365 finalists. Once chosen, the finalists will that we will find until we actually land (MA365) mission were announced in be divided into three crews of six on Mars. The Mars Society has long February 2014. Chosen from a pool of people each and then sent to the Mars been the leader in exploiting these over 200 applicants, the 62 semi- Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic regions and is continuing that tradition finalists consist of 49 men and 13 Research Station (FMARS) on Devon with this new initiative. This effort will women drawn from 17 countries (the Island in northern Canada for two bring real understanding to the space United States, Canada, Brazil, the weeks of challenging field testing in exploration community about what it United Kingdom, France, Germany, the late summer of 2014. On the basis will take to settle human beings on the Italy, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, of demonstrated performance, the surface of Mars,” said former NASA Bulgaria, Turkey, India, Japan, best crew will be selected for further Administrator Dr. Mike Griffin. Australia and New Zealand). training, leading to the initiation of the By conducting this full-scale dress The individuals selected represent a Mars Arctic one-year mission at rehearsal of a human expedition to broad range of expertise and skills FMARS the following year. Mars in a realistic habitat and including geology, biology, medicine, Situated at 75 degrees north and environment for practically the same aerospace, mechanical and electrical less than 1,000 miles from the North duration as an actual mission to the engineering, Arctic and wilderness Pole, the FMARS facility is perched on Red Planet, the Mars Society will take survival training and journalism. the rim of a 14-mile wide impact crater a great step forward in learning how A complete list of the semi-finalists in the midst of a polar desert people can work together to can be found on the Mars Society web considered one of the most Mars-like effectively explore the new frontier of site (www.MarsSociety.org). environments on Earth. the Red Planet. The next step in the MA365 crew “The Earth's polar regions are the The individuals selected represent a broad range of expertise and skills including geology, biology, medicine, aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering, Arctic and wilderness survival training and journalism. Nadav Neuhaus Nadav The Mars Quarterly www.MarsSociety.org 3 An Urgent Appeal from Dr. Robert Zubrin Dear Friends, Last month, the Mars Society selected 62 crew semi-finalists for the Mars Arctic 365 (MA365) mission, which will be the highest fidelity human Mars simulation in history. As part of this, our organization is currently planning a second refit mission to our FMARS facility in northern Canada this July to complete preparations for long-term continuous operations at the station. Following this, three crews of six candidates will be tested and trained on Devon Island, allowing us to choose a final crew for actual participation in our 12-month long Mars-on-Earth analog, a historic project that will show our global community the promise of human Mars exploration and settlement. The MA365 mission is truly an unprecedented undertaking. While past simulations by the Mars Society and others have achieved much good scientific data and attracted worldwide attention, MA365 will go much further. The expedition will deal with isolation issues as other studies have done in the past, but instead of sitting safe and sound in a warm room in a major city or tropical space center, the crew at FMARS will be conducting a sustained program of geological, microbiological, engineering and climatological field exploration in a cold, dangerous and remote environment, while operating under many of the same constraints that a human crew would face on the Red Planet. Only under these conditions, where the crew is trying to accomplish real scientific work, while dealing with bulky equipment, cold weather, discomfort and isolation, will the real stresses of a human Mars mission