News

18th Australian Space Research Conference

September 24 to 26, 2018

The 18th Australian Space Research Conference (ASRC), will be held at Gold Coast in Queensland over September 24 to 26, 2018.

This will be the Twelfth ASRC jointly sponsored and organised by the National Committee for Space and Radio Science (NCSRS) and the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA), with the support of the Mars Society of Australia (MSA).

The ASRC is intended to be the primary annual meeting for Australian space research. It welcomes space scientists, engineers, educators, and workers from across the university, industry and government parts of the space sector, and is not limited to Australian-based research, International participants are most welcome.

The scope of the conference includes fundamental and applied research, operational matters, technology, and use of space...

The Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP), jointly with Human Research Program NASA (HRP NASA), will be conducting an extended duration lunar mission simulation at its facility in Moscow in 2019 and 2020. The mission, known as Sirius, will involve a crew of six, including three Russians and three non-Russians. IBMP has  asked the Mars Society to recruit the three non-Russian crew members.

The mission duration will be four months during 2019 and eight months in 2020. Crew members will need to be available for both. IBMP will provide lodging and meals for the volunteer subjects during quarantine before the mission and during the simulation itself. There will be no salary or expenses paid by IBMP, so volunteers will either need to be self-funded or backed by resources from their own institutions or universities.

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MSA is very sad to announce that MSA Vice-President David Willson passed away yesterday evening in the presence of family and friends after struggling with cancer for a bit over a year. This is a great loss to us all and those who know him mourn the passing of a dear friend and great colleague.

David joined MSA in 2003 after encountering our web page. At that time he was a senior project engineer with the Hobart-based consultancy firm SEMF and had considerable experience in design and management of multi-million dollar construction, including ship loaders, mine metallurgical plants, and power. In his spare time he built liquid fuelled rocket engines, helped his parents in their tin mine in south west Tasmania, and flew light aircraft. David brought all these skills to MSA and led to him become project manager for the Mars...

MSA is holding its Annual General Meeting. Part of this process is to call for nominations for director’s positions. Up to 10 director’s positions will be available.

Any current MSA members are eligible to nominate. Directors are expected to contribute to the operational running of the organisation, including undertaking office bearers roles if required.  Nominees should email a maximum one page statement outlying relevant experience and intended contributions to the board. Statements should be submitted by night Australian Eastern standard Time 1st of April 2018. Please send statements to guymurphy(at)gmail.com Statements will be posted online after the close of nominations.

Voting by MSA members will be by email if more nominations are received than there are positions available. Further details will be announced once nominations close.

Office bearers will be appointed at the first meeting of the new board which will occur before the end of May, 2018. Positions...