Hello everyone,

I realize that it’s been quite some time since I last sent out an email, or since the PA Chapter has done anything.  Hopefully that will all change.

First, I want to let you all know about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science.  This is an annual lecture series sponsored by the Eberly College of Science at PSU.  This year’s topic is “Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds.”  There are 5 lectures remaining this year.  They are held every Saturday through March 1^st from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus.  The Penn State Chapter will be manning an informational booth at each of these.  The full press release with details is included at the end of this message.  Of special note is the final lecture.  Robert Zubrin, president of the International Mars Society, will be speaking on March 1.  I will probably try to organize a meeting in conjunction with this event.

            As an update on the chapters in the region:  Last spring a student chapter was officially formed at Penn State (which I am the vice-president of).  We have been very hard at work on a project which we presented last August at the Mars Society Conference in Boulder (more information can be found on our web site.  The Pittsburgh chapter is currently without a chapter contact.  Until we find one, I will temporarily be filling in for that position.  If anyone from the Pittsburgh region is interested in taking over, please let me know. 

            Websites:  PA Chapter – http://chapters.marssociety.org/PA

                             PSU Chapter – http://www.clubs.psu.edu/mars

The PA chapter has been somewhat stagnant of late, and I apologize for that.  I would like to get everybody involved in at least one project this spring.  One thing I have in mind is working on developing outreach material for the Mars Society.  A lot of the material available online is incomplete, out of date, or otherwise less than ideal.  Any other ideas are always more than welcome.

Again, I am planning on holding a meeting on March 1 in conjunction with Robert Zubrin’s lecture here at Penn State University Park, so try to keep that in the back of your minds.  This meeting is not exclusive to the PA Chapter.  It is open to anyone and everyone, especially those from other chapters.  I would like to see all of the chapters in PA working together on projects in the future.

If anybody is interested in helping man the booth for any of the Frontiers of Science lectures, please let me know.  I will be in touch about the meeting.

 

Kevin Sloan

Chairman – PA Chapter of the Mars Society

http://chapters.marssociety.org/PA

Vice-president – Penn State Mars Society

http://www.clubs.psu.edu/mars

 

Frontiers of Science Press Release

Saturday Science Lectures, "Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds," to Begin on 25 January

"Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds" is the theme of the 2003 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a series of free public lectures that will begin on Saturday, 25 January.  Designed to be a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities, the lectures take place on six consecutive Saturday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. on the Penn State University Park Campus in 100 Thomas Building. 

"Challenges in Space Exploration," the first lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 25 January by Pat Dasch, an author, consultant on space exploration, and former executive director of the National Space Society.  Dasch will discuss some of the technological, social, economic, and political hurdles that would need to be overcome for human habitation on other worlds.  Her lecture also will include a review of the past 50 years of space exploration, an assessment of the current state of space exploration, and some predictions about the future of space exploration, including the prospects for additional space stations and human missions to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond. 

"Mars on Earth: Polar Research and the Human Exploration of Mars," the second lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 1 February by Pascal Lee, chairman of the Mars Institute, planetary scientist with the SETI Institute (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), and principal investigator and project leader of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project.  His lecture will provide an overview on the NASA Haughton-Mars Project, a research program on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, one of the most Mars-like sites on Earth, designed to help scientists learn about Mars and how to plan for a journey to the Red Planet.  "While no place on Earth is truly like Mars, the polar regions and other extreme environments on our planet offer a wide variety of possible 'analogs' from which we may learn key lessons about the evolution of Mars, the history of water on that planet, and the possibilities for life beyond Earth," Lee explains.  Lee will discuss the how the similarities and differences between the Earth and Mars affect the planning for future human and robotic missions to explore Mars. 

" 'Water Found on Mars' . . . the Story Behind the Headlines," the third lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 8 February by Christopher Shinohara and Heather Enos, managers with the Gamma Ray Spectrometer Odyssey Team in the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona.  The scientists will discuss will discuss the extraordinary effort it takes to build and operate a successful science instrument for a mission to Mars, such as NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter spacecraft and its Gamma Ray Spectrometer, which began mapping the Red Planet during February 2002.  The instrument and its team of scientists recently were featured in news stories worldwide when data obtained by the spectrometer provided scientists with the best direct evidence yet available of water ice on the surface of Mars.  During their lecture, Shinohara and Enos will share the recent "water ice" findings from the Mars Odyssey Mission and will explain what this discovery might mean for the future of Mars exploration. 

"What Price a Martian?  Human Limits to Exploring the Red Planet," which is the fourth lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 15 February by James Pawelczyk, assistant professor of applied physiology and kinesiology at Penn State and a former NASA astronaut.  Drawing on both his research and his experience with NASA, Pawelczyk will answer the question of whether technology can overcome the limitations of human physiology to enable long-term habitation on nearby planets.  His research focuses on the dynamic regulation of blood pressure and how atrophy caused by disuse affects the regulation of blood pressure.  "Problems with moment-to-moment regulation of blood pressure lead to an inability to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain, known as orthostatic intolerance, which affects as many as 500,000 Americans," Pawelczyk explains.  "This condition is observed routinely following spaceflight."  Pawelczyk flew aboard the 90th mission of the space shuttle in April and May of 1998; logging 16 days and 6.4 million miles in space; circling the Earth 256 times; and conducting neuroscience experiments that addressed changes in the development of the nervous system, balance, blood-pressure regulation, sleep, and control of movement during spaceflight. 

"Settling the Moon: The Challenge and the Possible Rewards," the fifth lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 22 February by James D. Burke, an aeronautical engineer with the the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an advisor to the Planetary Society.  Burke will discuss scientific developments that are needed for the establishment of a settlement on the Moon, including closed ecological life-support systems using lunar resources, research to reveal the nature of the putative lunar polar ices, and fundamental knowledge of human interactive behavior under stress.  "The cutting edge technology needed for, and advanced by, lunar settlement is primarily in the area of processing and using lunar material and energy resources," Burke explains.  "The challenges include developing entirely-new ways of mining, refining, shaping and using raw materials; entirely-new ways of doing agriculture; and partly-new ways of achieving economical and reliable energy conversion under lunar conditions." 

"Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade," the sixth and final lecture in the 2003 series, will be given on 1 March by Robert M. Zubrin, founder and president of the Mars Society and the former senior vice president of the National Space Society.  Zubrin will discuss a plan known as "Mars Direct," which was devised under his leadership by a team at the Lockheed Martin company to send a group of American astronauts to the Red Planet.  The plan has attracted both international attention and broad controversy.  "President Bush, on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing in 1989, called for America to renew its pioneering push into space with the establishment of a permanent Lunar base and a series of human missions to Mars, but many said that such an endeavor would be excessively costly and would take many decades," Zubrin says.  "Our Mars Direct plan uses Martian resources to support a human exploration program on Mars at a cost one-eighth that previously estimated by NASA, and it could send a group of American astronauts to the Red Planet within ten years," he explains. 

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science for the enjoyment and education of residents of the Centre Region.  Additional financial support for the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is provided by Pfizer Inc. 

Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus.  Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium on Shortlidge Road.  For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-8453, by e-mail at science@..., or click on the web link at <http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers/FrontiersIndex.html>