http://www.marssociety.org/portal daily 1 2005-11-18T21:45:23Z http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/SaveMSL Due to budgetary overruns, NASA and Congress may cancel the Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled to be launched to Mars in October of 2009 - in a decision that could be made as soon as Friday! This 9-foot long rover is far more capable than the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and will contain the most impressive array of instruments and experiments that has ever been sent to Mars. It will be able to look for the building blocks of life. All previous Mars missions have been leading up to this one. UPDATE: Any letters sent to Congress through 10:30 a.m. eastern time on Oct. 10 should be re-sent immediately. The system uses the house.gov web server to look up representatives, and that system is currently being overwhelmed by people upset with the financial bailout. As a result, letters sent to Congress were not properly generated. We apologize for the inconvenience, and have now implemented a workaround that will allow all letters to be sent. schnarff 2008-10-10T15:38:20Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/crossmanf/announcing-print-on-demand-of-proceedings Announcing Print-On-Demand book publishing of full papers from the Mars Society Conventions 2005-2008. crossmanf 2008-10-09T00:22:29Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/crossmanf/convention-papers-publication Submit your Mars Society Convention presentation for electronic publication in the MarsPapers Archive. crossmanf 2008-10-09T00:23:15Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/GermanyCH/archimedes-balloon-project/MIRIAMShipped Over the weekend, the flight system was successfully flight commissioned and the MIRIAM entry vehicle assembled and packed. On Monday morning, the Entry Vehicle was finally installed within the Service Module and the clamp ring was locked. The system is now ready for deployment in space. hgriebel 2008-10-03T23:17:26Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/CongratulationsSpaceX The Mars Society has extended formal congratulations to SpaceX, after Flight 4 of the Falcon 1 vehicle successfully reached orbit last night. schnarff 2008-09-29T16:24:12Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/GermanyCH/archimedes-balloon-project/MiriamCommissioning After receiving the proper trajectory file from MORABA and finding that no flight sequence modifications are necessary for successful operation, we proceeded with flight system commissioning tests. We tested failure modes and nominal missions. Despite a successful commissioning earlier this week, two potentially hazardous problems resulting from software upgrades were discovered and fixed. schnarff 2008-09-29T12:37:02Z News Item http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/TEMPO3/blog/TEMPOFirstMonthUpdate It's hard to believe that a month has passed since that day in August, when The Mars Society took on TEMPO3 as their latest project. The last four weeks have been spent pulling a team together, and getting word out to the world that the project is underway. Progress has been made on several fronts, but much remains to do. thill 2008-09-23T14:34:28Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/GermanyCH/archimedes-balloon-project/MIRIAMFlightSim The MIRIAM Instrument Pod, Service Module and Camera Module each underwent a complete flight simulation test cycle on September 18 at our own lab and the DLR field center Oberpfaffenhofen. schnarff 2008-09-23T14:58:59Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/GermanyCH/archimedes-balloon-project/MIRIAMShakerTestSuccess The MIRIAM Service Module and Camera Module were vibration tested last Friday, September 12, at IABG's Space Test Center of Ottobrunn, Germany. hgriebel 2008-09-17T14:12:26Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/MemorialGrantWaller Grant Waller, a veteran of MDRS Crew 59 and father of founding member Stacy Sklar, succumbed to cancer Monday evening. vzabalaaliberto 2008-09-11T14:03:24Z News Item http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/SpaceXHiring Mars Society member Derek Andreas, who has been working at SpaceX's Texas Test Site since February, is looking to recruit fellow members of the Society to work at that facility, as well as in other positions throughout the SpaceX organization. schnarff 2008-09-10T13:42:19Z News Item http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/MDRSSeason8Applications The Mars Society is now seeking crew members for the 8th season of field operations at the Mars Desert Research Station, scheduled to run between November 2008 and April 2009. Come and join one of the world's longest-running and most successful space simulation projects! schnarff 2008-09-10T14:25:16Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/Members/schnarff/SpaceDebateFollowUp Since the Space Debate that took place at the recent Mars Society convention in Boulder on August 14th, there has been an unprecedented amount of discussion about space policy coming from the candidates and their campaigns. While this sudden flurry of space support is indicative of how tight this race has become, it is also a tremendous opportunity for the space community to make sure that humans to Mars will become the official policy of an Obama or McCain administration. schnarff 2008-08-26T16:33:59Z Newsletter http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/GermanyCH/archimedes-balloon-project/archimedes-mag-test-success Dear Friends of Project ARCHIMEDES, on Friday, August 22, Miriam's Instrument Pod was successfully tested at IABG's Magnetic Field Simulation Facility near Munich, the largest of its kind in the world. hgriebel 2008-08-24T20:47:54Z News Item http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/Conventions/2008/ConventionPhotos Member Ben Huset, who was responsible for filming the presidential space debate at the convention, has now made a gallery of still photos from the convention available on the web. schnarff 2008-08-20T14:32:14Z News Item