TasMars Mission Commences
MSA wishes the greatest success to the TasMars expedition, which has just commenced at the Mars Desert research Station. The TasMars crew is the 123rd to work at MDRS and includes members of Mars Society Australia and Mars Society New Zealand with colleagues from NASA Ames Research Centre.
Crew commander is MSA dire
ctor David Willson, he is joined by Emma and engineer from Melbourne, Melanine Newfield, a biologist from New Zealand, and Dr Jennifer Blank, a geologist from NASA ARC. Other researchers will visit the crew during their two week stay.
The TasMars mission is a follow on to the very successful KiwiMars mission in 2012. Like KiwiMars, it has a joint Australian-NZ crew with additional participation from crew members from the US. The name is chosen to reflect the common exploration heritage of Australia and New Zealand in the voyages of Abel Tasman who explorered the coastlines of our two countries in 1642. Tasman’s explorations are reflected and honoured in many place names in both countries. The spirit of exploration shown by Tasman and his antecedents in the aboriginal and Maori peoples of Australia and New Zealand is the same spirit that will one day take us to Mars and beyond.
You can follow the mission at http://www.kiwispace.org.nz/