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  11th April 2013
 

We are happy to announce that the Italian Mars Society has been accepted as an official Google Summer of Code 2013 mentor organization.

So, from now on, we would like to encourage all interested students to visit our GSOC Ideas Page.You may decide to work on these ideas or use them as a starting point for your own. Either way, come talk to us on the erasproject@googlegroups.com mailing list. The projects we are proposing relate to the development of the Command, Control and Communication (C3) Prototype as part of the European MaRs Analog Station for Advanced Technologies Integration (ERAS) program which IMS is currently spearheading.

From April 22nd to May 3rd, we encourage any interested students to apply at the GSOC home page to work with IMS. After that, we’ll notify applicants whether we get to work with each other according to the GSOC schedule.

                     

 

 

 
  13 July 2012
 

The Swiss chapter of the Mars Society is organizing a conference with the title "Searching for Life on Mars" on 10 September.

Thwe conference will be held at the Natural History Museum in Berna with the participation of a very famous Swiss astrophysicist: Professor André Maeder (Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Observatory of Geneva University. He was before, Director of the Geneva Observatory) and Doctor Beda Hofmann (Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum Bern).


  10 May 2012
 

The Italian Mars Society is taking part to the 'Agrospaceconference taking place in Sperlonga (Latina) on 24 and 25 May 2012.

The intervention of Franco CARBOGNANI and Lara VIMERCATI of the Italian Mars Society is scheduled for Thursday 24 May at 4.40 p.m. with the title "Keynote:“Life Support System at ERAS: forward osmosis technology towards food production”.

Click here for the program and all the information about the Agrospaceconference.


  10 May 2012
 

The call for papers for the 5th issue of "Mars Transactions", the review of the Italian Mars Society, is now open.

Papers should be in English, in Word format; graphics and photos may be included. Readers are encouraged since now to submit their papers.

Deadline for sending title, abstract and complete paper: 30 June
Length of papers: length of text not higher than 15.000 characters spaces included
Type of paper: scientific paper related to Mars Exploration
Address: please send to segreteria@marssociety.it.

To take a look at the previous issues of Mars Transactions please visit the web-site Lulu.com (click here for the link) or the shop online on the website of the Italian Mars Society .


  7 May 2012
 

A crew from the Italian Mars Society has participated in the Dachstein cave field tests organized by the Austrian Space Forum between 27Apr and 01May 2012 near Hallstatt/Austria.
As part of the European MaRs Analog Station for Advanced Technologies Integration project (ERAS) the station Command, Control and Communication (C3) system simulation has been
implemented on top a Distributed Control Framework running on a single portable computer.
During the field tests the communication between ERAS C3 and the Aouda.X Spacesuit (in particular for main biomedical and engineering telemetry data) has been successfully tested.


  26 April 2012
 

ReMY (Remote Mars Yard) is a international education project related to space exploration created by the Polish Mars Society. The project is published at www.kickstarter.com. The aim of the portal is to collect funds to create a Mars mission simulator. For images and further details on the project click here.

  2 April 2012
 

EMC12 is open for registration and submission of papers. EMC12 will be the XII edition of the European Mars Conference, the yearly European conference of the European chapters of the Mars Society.

The EMC12 will be held in Munich from 12 to 14 October 2012.

At the same time starts the "Call for Papers"on one of the three topics of the EMC12, which are:
1. “ARCHIMEDES and the Flight Test Program MIRIAM”
2. “Mars Exploration, Mars Missions and Mars Science”
3. “Experience from European Manned Programs: what do we learn for future manned Mars Missions?”

Information and instructions for submission of abstracts can be found here: http://www.marssociety-europa.eu/index.php/emc12/submission-of-papers.

  5 March 2012
 

The new web-site online www.marssociety-europa.eu, the common web-site of the European chapters of the Mars Society is online.

The publication of the Europortal constitutes at the same time the official announcement of the EMC12, the XII edition of the European Mars Convention, to the public, since the EMC12 website has been integrated into the Europortal.


www.marssociety-europa.eu

 

  17 febbraio 2012
 

Read here Robert Zubrin's letter of protest to Obama's cuts to space budget.

 
  3 February 2012
 

The fourth issue of Mars Transactions, the review of the Italian Mars Society, is now available. In this issue:

  • C. Gillmann: "Evolution of the Martian Atmosphere: a Short Review"
  • Roberto Trucco, Mario Benassai: "MTD, the ALTEC Mars Terrain Demonstrator"
  • V. Masarotto: "Generation and Navigability of Planetary Terrains"
  • G. Cao, A. Concas, G. Corrias, R. Licheri, R. Orrù, M. Pisu: "Development of novel ISRU and ISFR technologies for future manned space missions"
  • F. Carbognani, A. Del Mastro "ERAS: a Project Proposal for an European MaRs Analog Station"

The fourth issue of Mars Transactions can be purchased on our online shop.

 
  30 January 2012
 

The Italian Mars Society has started working on the ERAS project. For more information the related web-site is www.erasproject.org.

 

 
  14 December 2011
 

The 4th issue of "Mars Transactions", the review of the Italian Mars Society, will be soon available. Among the articles included:

  • Roberto Trucco, Mario Benassai: "MTD, the ALTEC Mars Terrain Demonstrator"
  • G. Cao, A. Concas, G. Corrias, R. Licheri, R. Orrù, M. Pisu: "Development of novel ISRU and ISFR technologies for future manned space missions"
  • V. Masarotto: "Generation and Navigability of Planetary Terrains"
  • C. Gillmann: "Evolution of the Martian Atmosphere: a Short Review"

Our goal is to make the review a benchmark for the scientific debate related to research on the Red Planet, not only within the international Mars Society community but also in the more general range of space research and technology companies.
For further information please write to segreteria@marssociety.it.                                 

To have a look at the previous issues of Mars Transactions (in paper or PDF version) please visit the web-site Lulu.com (click here for the link) or our online shop.

 
  10 October 2011
 

The call for papers for the 4th issue of "Mars Transactions", the review of the Italian Mars Society, is now open. Papers should be in English, in Word format; graphics and photos may be included. Readers are encouraged since now to submit their papers.

Deadline for sending title, abstract and complete paper: 30 November
Length of papers: length of text not higher than 15.000 characters spaces included
Type of paper: scientific paper related to Mars Exploration
Address: please send to segreteria@marssociety.it to the attention of Miss Claudia Moreschi.                                     

To take a look at the previous issues of Mars Transactions please visit the web-site Lulu.com (click here for the link) or the shop online on the website of the Italian Mars Society .

 
  4 July 2011
 

The third issue of Mars Transactions, the review of the Italian Mars Society, is now available.
In this issue:
1) "Exploring the Subsurface of Mars with the Shallow Radar on MRO" (S.Mattei et alii): a description of RADAR SHARAD employed to geto to know the composition of the Martian soil;
2) "Expedition to the Gobi Desert: Like a trip to Mars" (G. Komatsu): an expedition to the Gobi Desert has found many anologies between Earth and Mars' soil;
3) "The changing Mars: how centuries of investigation have shaped our perception of the Red Planet" (R.Orosei, A. Coradini): a riexamination of the history of Mars scientific exploration;
4) "No date for Mars (yet) But let’s warm up the engines" (S. Di Pippo): prospectives of a travel to Mars according to a specialist of the European Space Agency.

The third issue of Mars Transactions can be purchased on our online shop.

  22th February 2011
 

Italian Franco Carbognani, member of the Italian Mars Society and Lara Vimercati, will command the crew 102 (26 March - 9 April) of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), the Mars Analog station located in the Utah Desert.
Starting functioning on 7 February 2002, the Mars Desert Research Station is the simulation of a Martian base to study the problems related to the survival of the first manned explorations on the Red Planet. The base is made up of a "hab" - a 8 meter diameter cylinder divided into two floors - an atronomic observatory and a greenhouse module.
Franco Carbognani is currently Head of Interferometer Operation Department at the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) di Pisa. There he is supporting the Virgo Project aimed at the detection of gravitational wave signals from cosmic sources.
He holds an MSc with double Major in EECS (Information Technology/Hardware Engineering) from the University of Bologna and CEFRIEL Research Center in Milan.
Franco professional experience focus on the areas of Control Software, Software Engineering and System Level Design both within large international companies and research institutions.
Scientific Project: definition and implementation of a Monitoring and Alarm System for the whole MDRS Station. The System will warn the crew team members in case of problems via dedicated graphical interfaces and audible/visible alarms. Such user interfaces will be web based to allow for remote monitoring.

Lara Vimercati pursued a Major in Biology while in college. She initiated her path towards space science through an internship at the Australian Center for Astrobiology. She worked for 9 months in 2009 in a collaboration between SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center: she focused on UV radiation resistant halophiles which were flown into space on the Biopan experiment. After this internship she received a Master's Degree in Advanced Biology.
She is currently involved in a Plantary Biology Internship at Nasa Ames Research Center where she is focusing on the existing connection of Dessication and UV radiation resistance in cryptoendolythic Cyanobacteria.
Scientific project: biology experiments focusing on detecting the presence of endolithic cyanobacteria contamination around the hab using specific kits able to detect those organism presence. Those experiments fits well with the recent planetary protection issue that is being given much importance lately for future space missions.

  16th February 2011
 

The Mars Society Switzerland (“MSS”) will host the 11th European Mars Society Convention ("EMC11"), in Neuchatel from Friday 30th September to 2nd October 2011. The convention will take place at the University of Neuchatel.

The presentation framework encompasses the following topics:
- Our present knowledge of Mars;
- What to explore next on Mars;
- How to explore Mars;
- How to go to Mars and return to Earth;
- How to survive on Mars;
- Present problems hampering the manned exploration of Mars (and how to overcome them).

To register to EMC11, present papers and have further information please visit www.planete-mars-suisse.com or write to the address pierre_brisson@yahoo.com.

                                     

  15 December 2010
 

                                        

The second issue of our review, Mars Transactions, is now available. Here the summary of the articles included:

1. "Workshop Progresses AgroSpace for future Mars Missions" (V. Bornisacci - Aerosekur)

2. "From Water to Life: from Phoenix to EXOMARS" (V.Giorgio - Thales Alenia Space)

3. "A New Approach to Human Exploration of Mars" (A. Lorenzoni - Italian Space Agency)

4. "Drive Motors used on Mars and in Medical Technology" (A. Bucheli - Maxon Motor)

5. "Report on Dainese Biosuit System" (D. Manzardo - Dainese)

6. " 8th Swiss Geosciences Meeting (8SGM): On to Marth Vallis!" (P. Brisson - Mars Society Switzerland)

                 To buy the second issue of Mars Transactions go here.

MARS 0 ( ZERO) DEFINITION

There will be a special year in the history of the humankind: the one in which the first human being will land on Mars.
The “MARS” community in the world works now to create the conditions to reach this result in the shortest possible time.
We obviously hope that this year will be in this century and if possible before 2050. So we could indicate such a year as 20XY. We know that many factors will contribute to this historical result, among them we can list the followings:

• Political decisions
• Technological innovation
• Private industry
• International cooperation
• Education
• Marketing and communication



It is sure that in the year 20XY a new era of the humankind will born, with a huge amount of consequences for the future.
In the past of our history revolutionary events have changed the way humans calculate years, as when about 2000 years ago, with the new Christian religion, people in western world started to calculate the passing of time from the year of Jesus birth instead of the year of Rome foundation (753 b.c.).
It is also possible that the humans who will live on Mars will start to count their years from 20XY. This year will be for them the first year of their history, and for us the scope of our dreams and work.
I think that for this reason we could define 20XY as MARS ZERO.
Let’s put out a challenge to all humans: to reach MARS ZERO as soon as possible!

Antonio Del Mastro
Italian Mars Society President

  30th August 2010
 

    

22- 23 October 2010
PIAP Conference Center, Aleje Jerozolimskie 202, Warsaw, Poland
For more click here.

  4th October 2010
 

20th November 2010
Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
For more information click here.

  10th October 2010
 

Virgin Galactic released exclusive footage of VSS Enterprise spaceship’s historic maiden solo flight.
The world's first commercial manned spaceship, VSS Enterprise, developed by space tourism company Virgin Galactic, achieved its first piloted free test flight on 10th October 2010 at Mojave, California.
The test, with Pete Siebold and copilot Mike Alsbury onboard, marked a historic event in the progress to the first real test for the space tourism programm conceived and promoted by Richard Branson, president of Virgin Galactic and founder of Virgin.
After having been released from its WhiteKnightTwo mothership dalla (VMS Eve), at 45,000 ft, the spaceship landed after 11 minutes at Mojave Air and Space Port.
Richard Branson, who was present at the flight, described it as “one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin”. He added: “The sky is no longer the limit. We will now begin the process of pushing to the final frontier of space itself over the next year”.
VSS Enterprise was described by Pete Siebold as “a joy to fly” and the company confirmed that all objectives of the flight were successfully completed.
The National Geographic channel in the United States will be showing a documentary on the build up and preparation for the first flight of VSS Enterprise on Monday, 18th October at 10.00pm ET/PT. For more information click here.

              

 
 

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