'Two Planets, One Future'
        Branch Pages & Contacts - Vic - NSW - Qld - SA - NT - WA - ACT - Tas - NZ                        Updated: 29 August, 2007.

                 The Mars Society Australia, Inc is an APPROVED RESEARCH INSTITUTE for the purposes of Section 73A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 for undertaking scientific research which is, or may prove to be, of value to Australia.


AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY BRANCH HOMEPAGE

For more information on branch activities contact -

Australian Capital Territory Branch Coordinator
Mars Society of Australia



News

Roving the Red Planet Via Canberra
The 5th Australian Mars Exploration Conference will be held in Canberra this weekend, allowing locals and visitors to hear the latest news about Mars exploration, including findings from the surface of the Red Planet. The conference known as AMEC, is co-hosted this year by Mars Society Australia and the Australian National University's School of Psychology and gives national and international Mars 'experts' including scientists, engineers and specialists in human factors/psychology, a forum for networking and showcasing their latest research.

Read the full media release here.


Professor Steve Squyres Keynote Speaker at AMEC 2005
MSA is delighted to announce that the keynote speaker for AMEC 2005 will be Professor Steve Squyres. A professor of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Mr Squyres is a principal investigator for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Missions. Spirit and Opportunity. Along with his work on MER, he is also a co-investigator on the 2003 Mars Express. and 2005 Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter missions, a member of the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer Flight Investigation Team for the Mars Odyssey mission, and a member of the imaging team for the Cassini to Saturn. He will be in Australia promoting his recently published book Roving Mars.

Find out more and register for the conference here.


AMEC 2005 Registrations now open
Registrations for the 5th Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC V) or AMEC 2005 are now open. Full details are to be found by following our Events-AMEC 2005 link in the menu to the left. This looks like an exciting event, hope to see you there - Dave Cooper (Il Presidente).


AMEC2005 Call for Papers Now Open
AMEC V, the fifth Australian Mars Exploration Conference, will be held in Canberra on August 19-21, 2005. The conference will be in the Manning Clark Theatre complex and hosted by the Australian National Universitys School of Psychology. The theme, 'Roving the Red Planet' reflects the prime importance of mobility in the exploration of Mars, both now and in the future and MSAs 'Year of the Rover' focus. You are invited to prepare talks for the conference. Overall there will be six themes, you are asked to consider submitting within one of these:

Theme 1 - Technology
Theme 2 - Planetary science and astrobiology
Theme 3 - The human factor
Theme 4 - Analogue studies
Theme 5 - Education and outreach
Theme 6 - Policy and planning

Expressions of interest should be sent to


Students Consider Life on Mars 'Down Under'
Seventeen Australian university students are about to examine what it would be like to live and work on Mars and the human and psychological effects of isolation and close confinement for months on end.

The Australian National University (ANU) School of Psychology, with the close involvement of Mars Society Australia (MSA), is running an inaugural Coastal Summer School, which will require young people to put themselves in the place of those who might one day venture to the Martian surface. This event, to be held at Kioloa, a property owned by ANU on the NSW coast, on December 9-11 was advertised nationally, with 17 students selected to take part from a group of around 70 applicants.

Find out more here.


New Museum Exhibition Focuses Attention on Mars Exploration
The opening of a new exhibition in Canberra on the search for the origin of life across the solar system has focused attention on Australian involvement in future human exploration of Mars, said Mars Society Australia President Guy Murphy yesterday.

To Mars and Beyond: Search for the Origins of Life opens at the National Museum of Australia on 13 December 2001 and continues until 26 May 2002. This exhibition features everything from astronaut Andy Thomas’ spacesuit to a piece of Mars rock, and visitors can even travel to Mars and across its red surface in a 3D virtual reality theatre styled to mimic the interior of a spaceship.

Click here to download the full press release.