Mars Society

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The Mars Society is a non-profit organization committed to exploring and colonizing the planet Mars . It was founded on August 15, 1998 at the Mars Society Founding Convention in Boulder , Colorado (USA) with a founding declaration from the Mars Underground movement of the 1990s by scientists, engineers and space fans from all over the world. Robert Zubrin has been president since then . The founding members included, for example, director James Cameron and former Apollo astronauts. In many countries there are regional organizations, the chapters .

The Mars Society conducts information work and carries out its own technical and scientific projects, including various rover challenges for the development of Mars rovers (unmanned vehicles for Mars exploration). The US organization works in simulated Mars habitats in Utah (USA) and in the Canadian Arctic on Devon Island .

Germany

The Mars Society Deutschland eV (MSD), which is recognized as a non-profit organization, was founded in Germany in October 2000 . The organization has almost 300 members, including former astronauts, technicians, doctors, media professionals and those interested in space.

The board currently (January 2018) consists of:

  • Klaus Bayler (1st chairman, ARCHIMEDES project manager)
  • Tanja Lehmann (2nd Chair)
  • Nicolay Kübler (cash desk and member support)
  • Jürgen Herholz (public relations)
  • Lothar Karl

The organization aims to promote the manned and unmanned exploration of Mars and runs information events and its own research projects. The focus is on the Archimedes Mars balloon mission planned for 2018 together with AMSAT Germany .

The MSD is represented in the International Steering Committee of the Mars Society and works closely with the other European Mars Societies. She organized the 12th European Mars Conference, which was held from October 12th to 14th, 2012 at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Neubiberg near Munich .

Archimedes project

Archimedes is a balloon probe which is dimensioned in such a way that the heat dissipation when entering the atmosphere and further the slow descent to the ground are combined with the lowest possible weight. Packaging and deployment tests began in 2003, followed by Zero-G tests and space tests in April 2006 and October 2008:

  • During the REGINA flight test (REsidual Gas INflation test for Archimedes), a model of the deployment system on the REXUS-3 sounding rocket was brought from the Esrange in Kiruna , Sweden, to an altitude of 90 km and tested under space conditions.
  • MIRIAM-1 (Main Inflated Reentry Into the Atmosphere Mission Test) followed in October 2008. Here, too, a start was made in Kiruna, whereby the complete functional cycle of the system from inflating the balloon to entering the atmosphere, including data transmission, was tested. To do this, a REXUS-4 rocket was used to bring a balloon four meters in diameter with sensors and cameras to a height of 140 km. The test did not go completely as planned, but showed that the essential components were working properly and provided important sensor data and images for the unfolding process.

Another MIRIAM-2 mission is scheduled to launch into space in 2018/2019. DLR-MoRaBa is providing a suitable carrier and the entire launch campaign in Kiruna. A date has not yet been set for a flight to Mars with AMSAT-P5A .

See also

Web links

Commons : Mars Society  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rover Challenge Series. Retrieved April 21, 2019 .
  2. ^ Mars Desert Research Station. Retrieved April 21, 2019 .
  3. ^ Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. Retrieved April 21, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Our team - Mars Society Deutschland eV Accessed on January 9, 2018 .
  5. ↑ MIRIAM 2 space test - Mars Society Deutschland eV Accessed on January 9, 2018 .