| All:
This is a quick month, and it is time again! We will meet at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Plano, off of rt 75 at 15th street, at 6:30 pm on Sunday, Feb 24. There are a number of activities going on, in our Chapter, National, and at NASA: >the regional Science fair, and the first ever Dallas Chapter prizes being awarded on Feb 23. We will have details! >The preparations for URC are getting into gear, with a record 15 teams registering this year (gulp!!) >I’ve downloaded the Adobe InDesign software package, and we are gearing up to start work on the paper editing. >The call for papers went out from National for the annual convention, to be held at Boulder this year in mid August. >the poster contest from national >progress and activity on the Zooniverse ‘Planet Four’ wind streak mapping project. I’ve done a few dozen photos – it is neat to be looking at actual pictures of Mars and to be working on an actual Mars Science project. >Curiosity went drilling, and NASA has agreed on a 2020 rover, mission TBD. Meanwhile, in Washington…… See you there this Sunday!! Kur__,_._,___ |
Meeting This Sunday, January 27
All:
I hope we have all enjoyed the holidays – it is time to start our 2013 meetings! We will meet this Sunday, January 27, at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Plano off of the 15th street exit from rt 75, at 6:30 pm, same as always.
We all enjoyed our trial at Outback last November, and we can discuss if we want to alternate meeting places more often, or make a permanent change, but for this month for simplicity’s sake, let’s meet at Spaghetti Warehouse again.
Our agenda of chapter activities includes a full plate of activities:
- I spent a day talking about Mars with groups of 7th grade gifted boys at SMU this past January 10th. This is an annual event which normally comes in the Spring, but this year it occurred in January.
- The chapter will send three judges to the Dallas Regional Science Fair on Feb 23. This is the first time for our chapter in this event, so we are looking forward to a new experience!
- The University Rover Competition is starting up in earnest, with two members from our chapter agreeing to volunteer. Around 10 teams have registered, so it looks to be a busy competition (the URC competition is held in the end of May and early June).
- This follows up not only on the URC volunteering, but the great volunteering done by our chapter in the refurbishment and repair of the MDRS hab last Thanksgiving.
- It looks like a great volunteer opportunity has opened up for us to perform real Mars Science: the HiRise team on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been generating millions of photos of the Martian surface covering several years of seasonal changes. Interesting weather and dust patterns are showing up on the Mars Southern hemisphere with the seasonal coming and goings of carbon dioxide ice, and the team has asked for ‘crowdsourcing’ help on Zooniverse.
- And of course we can discuss the latest on Mars goings on, from the almost flawless functioning of the Mars Science Laboratory to the less than flawless budgetary situation surrounding future Mars and manned exploration.
See you next Sunday!
Kurt
No meeting this month
This is a reminder that Dallas Mars Society does not meet in December due to the holidays.
Regular meetings will resume in January 2013.
Dallas Mars is Alive
Please rest assured Dallas Mars is alive and well.
The monthly meetings have continued to meet on the normal schedule. Regrettably the members attending have been too busy to produce meeting minutes suitable for distribution on the website. Please join the DallasMarsSociety group in Yahoo! Groups for regular updates.
On the website, we have updated to the latest version of WordPress. In addition we have made the Twitter Feed for Dallas Mars accessible directly on the website.
Please contact us if you have any concerns, and we hope to continue regular update to the website shortly.
Regards,
Greg
July 2012 Meeting Minutes
All:
A lot of activity has happened in the last few months! We had the University Rover Competition in late May, Moon Day on July 21, and the Mars Society National Convention and flawless MSL landing in early August.
Our July meeting was held in the midst of this – just after Moon Day and just before the convention and MSL landing. Seven people were in attendance, including Ron, a retired engineer who dropped in. We enjoyed you coming by and hope you come again!
It was a bit crowded this month as it was national lasagna day – at least at the spaghetti warehouse, so the place was packed. We did not get the back room or even our usual quiet section in the back of the restaurant.
We went over the Moon Day presence, going over our success, and thinking of ways to make it even more dynamic next year.
We also reviewed the upcoming national convention. Tom handed me our banner to hand carry to Pasadena. Dan went over the T-shirt orders – we agreed to get 60 (I ended up selling all but 6, plus 6 of the older ones), and wrote out the check to give to National in memory of Roger Carr.
We also discussed the evolving rules for the University Rover Competition. I can’t go into all the details in an open forum, but it looks like we’re gong to mix it up a bit and add a dynamic new challenge for the upcoming year.
Another good meeting! With MSL on the ground, and the convention and moon day behind us, we can rest and celebrate our accomplishments, and think of what to do next….
See you in August on the 26th!
Kurt
Moon Day – July 21, 2012
All:
A brief (and late!) note on our very successful Moon Day this past July 21.
The group came out in force, with at least six regulars manning our table. Improving from our initial appearance last year, we had a dynamic and interactive exhibit with Tom’s MSL rover, mat sized map of Mars, and TV coverage, along with Dan and Mark’s crater obstacle. Many kids came over to try our rover.
Being that we had a rover, we were placed near the other robots, but we still got a lot of traffic from the public as well as admirer’s from other robotics groups. We the only rover that was remotely controlled via camera link, and the only map and obstacle course!
We learned a lot and overcame a number of obstacles, including the camera battery running out quickly – causing an ensuing mad rush to get more batteries! Tom’s ‘satellite eye view’ overhead camera worked remarkably well, giving a clear view of our very realistic looking MSL rover.
As always, we can think of ways to make our exhibit even better for next year – a subject for next month’s meeting, now only two weeks away. But thanks to everyone for their efforts, time, and energy, and especially to Tom for his dedication and drive in making our Moon Day happen.
Kurt
2012 convention and MSL landing
All:
This is a quick note about our chapter’s participation in the 2012 Mars Society Convention and MSL landing. We can go into more detail at our next monthly meeting. I know i also owe a status report on our last monthly meeting and our very successful Moonday on July 21!! I have been super busy between Mars Society and work, but no excuses! coming soon!
The convention was, in a word, fantastic. The venue was convenient, Pasadena beautiful, the weather pleasant (you could walk outside without a blast furnace of heat!!), the convention smoothly executed, the speakers incredible, the experience unforgettable.
We watched a countdown to MSL’s landing via live feed, seeing Adam Steltzner, lead of the engineers at JPL in the Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) team on TV after having seen him that very day at he convention, and we joined in cheering wildly when we got word real time that MSL had landed.
We ran our T-shirt table, selling most (!!) of our T-shirts, as well as some old ones and not a few of Pam’s trinkets and Mimi and Roger’s budget beads. Tom gave an interesting talk on some old Mars mission profiles – the background on Von Braun’s 1950’s era plan to land with gliders in Mars’s ‘thick nitrogen atmosphere’ was both fascinating and totally new to me. Kris attended virtually every talk and track, taking reams of notes, as well as helping out with the T-shirt table and, of course, formatting the convention program everyone was using.
Tom, Donna, and Emily deserve a special mention for manning the main convention registration table for most of the convention. Without them, the convention would not have come off.
And, during the banquet, i was honored to present our check for $300 directly to Bob Zubrin in Roger’s memory. Roger was with us in spirit.
Over all, a great experience. Next year, we can look forward to hearing just what MSL has discovered!!
Kurt
Photos of Moon Day 2012
The site now has some photos of the MSL rover at Moon Day 2012. Click here for the gallery.
Meeting Minutes for June 2012
All:
This is a (very delayed) set of minutes from our last meeting. We had seven people show up to our last meeting before Moon Day, and Tom put on a real show that once again got the kitchen help talking!
Tom brought 4 giant mats that, when put together, made a complete, giant sized map of Mars that we can lay out on the floor and actually drive our rover over. The Rover was also in good shape, in the almost final shape we would see it on Moon Day, and it really looks like the MSL (Tom really did an incredible job!). Dan and Mark also showcased their (at the time of the meeting) still under construction Mars crater to add to the Mars map that Tom made. The crater is about 4 – 5 feet in diameter, in two pieces for breakdown to travel, and a realistic 3-D challenge for our Moon Day Mars Rover drivers.
As we say yesterday, this all came together beautifully, and we had not only a great rover, but the only ‘environment’ for a rover to immerse itself into to driver around in.
Kurt and Kris gave a rundown on our activities at the University Rover Competition (URC), and gave a slideshow of pictures we took there. It was a great event, and we are looking forward to staying connected and helping URC 2013 be even bigger and better than before!
Kris also discussed the considerable progress she has made on formatting the scientific papers submitted from past conferences – with the trial software she found formatting was much easier than word and the sample results were very professional. Kris has since been asked to help out with formatting the conference program, but we look forward to picking up the paper publishing task again after the conference.
We discussed our preparations for the national convention, and we settled on the T-shirt design, with Mark’s beautiful MSL artwork, and, given the larger audience (we are expecting over 200 at this year’s convention) and nearby planetary society, we are leaning forward and ordering 60 t-shirts this year, instead of the 40 we ordered last year.
The final plans for our Moon Day table we finalized, which i will describe in a separate e-mail detailing our very successful Moon Day activities!
Thanks to everyone!
Kurt
Monthly Meeting this Sunday, June 24
All:
With the last day of June falling on a Saturday, we have an early meeting this month. The next meeting will be on Sunday, June 24, 6:30 PM, Spaghetti Warehouse, in Plano, off of rt 75 and 15th street – same as always!
This is the last meeting before Moon day, so we will discuss the details of our preparations. The rover design is coming along well, and we look forward to hearing the latest from Tom on the preparations there. We are also building a Mars-scape for the rover to go over – this should have a lot of appeal to kids of all ages with our rover eye view remote control.
We will hear an update from Kris on the Mars papers, for which she has been making great progress. And we can give a report on the University Rover Competition, which was a great success and great fun. (stay tuned – we volunteered our group to help out with an event at next year’s URC!)
And of course, we need to plan in earnest for our annual T-shirt sales.
Speaking of getting close on the calendar, the national Mars Society Convention is coming soon – August 3-5 in Pasadena, CA. I hope for a good turnout from our Dallas area (especially for help at the T-shirt table!). Remember that MSL is going to land at 10:31PM local time (give or take) Sunday August 5th, so be sure to consider staying over a day so you can stay and experience the first signals from MSL together. Being right next to JPL just when MSL is landing, the speaker list is, no exaggerating, the best I have ever seen for the convention.
See you next Sunday,
Kurt