News

To celebrate aWorld Space Week 2020 the ad astra vita project and Mars Society Australia have joined forces to present an inaugural Australasian virtual Space Health Symposium (including Human Rights in the Space Environment) to be held on Monday 5 October and Tuesday 6 October 2020 via Zoom (free registration).

We are excited to feature Human Rights in the Space Environment as the key plenary session on Day 2. That human space exploration is both expensive and dangerous is a given, but it also represents a unique set of circumstances where human beings are totally dependent on what is provided for them in order to be able to survive. However, as the good health (both physical and psychological) of expeditioners is...

Congratulations to MSA member, Dr James Waldie for receiving funding from the Australia Space Agency to help develop  the next generation of space suits in a major international collaboration involving NASA and the European Space Agency.

The $844,000 Australian Space Agency grant will develop three types of compression space suits, each designed to protect astronauts from the physical strains of space. Two of the designs will be developed as advanced prototypes and one as a concept.  

Human bodies in weightless space, once unloaded of gravity, also weaken. Astronauts lose muscle and up to 2 per cent of their bone mass every month while in space.

With future missions, such as those to Mars, likely to take well over two years to complete, protecting people from these health...

Do you like taking photos of the planets? Whether you're an expert planetary astrophotographer, just starting out or even like to simply photograph or draw the nightsky, the upcoming Mars 2020 Opposition is a great time to get out under the stars and look up at Mars!

The Mars Society Australia is running a competition to see who can produce the best image of Mars in 2020 as well as other categories. 

If you'd like to find our more details on how to enter simply visit this page.

Happy Mars 2020 imaging!

Mars Society Australia member Dr Steve Hobbs has commenced a Mars Society Australia project that would enable Steve that would fly a cubesat, most likely from the ISS.

The cubsat would carry a red edge spectrometer and demonstrate the technology for future application to planetary cubsat and rover missions and for Earth observation.  It builds on previous experience with flying payloads from high altitude balloons in near space conditions. 

The project would be in partnership with the Centre for Cubesats, UAVs, and their Applications. More details can be found on their website -  www.cuava.com.au.

An Australian national agency, Geoscience Australia, has also contributed funding towards this project.  www.ga.gov.au

The Mars Society Australia needs further donations from members and supporters to help get this new mission into space. 

The project goal...