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PLAN YOUR VIRTUAL SPACE VACATION
Preview of Mars as a VR tourist destination
“This virtual reality app will finally make space vacations accessible to all,” Says Jana Grcevich, ITC's resident astrophysicist.
 Guerilla Science, the collective of artists and scientists behind the ITC, is using publicly available scientific data from NASA to create 3D renderings of otherworldly tourist destinations – adding their own twists to personalize the journey. The entire experience is wrapped in a cool retro-styled aesthetic; travel agents – like physicist-turned-operations-manager Olivia Koski (left) – wear pink hats reminiscent of mid-century flight attendants.
Currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money needed to complete their work, the ITC plans to release their custom VR app in September. Contributors to the Kickstarter campaign will get access to the app before it is released to the public, and, depending on the amount contributed, may also receive ITC swag, cardboard VR goggles, custom space travel postcards and posters, or have their name permanently embedded on one of their space travel destinations. |
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NEWS FROM FRIENDS OF MADAME MARS
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From Wendy Holforty at NASA Ames:
 Girl scouts and cookies have long been linked (thin mints – mmm!), but have you heard of “Space Cookies?” Also known as the Space Cookies VEX Robotics Team, this specialized troop of girls in grades 7-12 design, build and test robots using the VEX EDR platform. In March the team will participate in VEX Robotics Workshop Maze-Solving Bots, designed to introduce girls to robotics, and they will compete in the 3rd Annual All-Girls Showcase at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, CA. In April the team will demonstrate their competition robots during Golden Gate Bridging, when they join more than 6000 girls from across the country to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge as part of the ceremony advancing them from Juniors to Cadettes. Sponsored by NASA and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, the Space Cookies program is designed to encourage girls to study and work in STEM fields. The troop meets at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA.
HOW THE SPACE COOKIES BEGAN:
NASA engineer Wendy Holforty describes how she founded the Space Cookies: "In 2005, I connected with the three local Girl Scouts Councils (now only one council) and we all formed a NASA-Girl Scouts partnership to bring NASA content to the Girl Scouts. Right after that, my supervisor came to me and asked if I’d like to start an all-girl robotics team to compliment the all-boy robotics team that was the only NASA Ames house team at the time. I approached the newly formed partnership and the rest is history, as they say. In November 2005, we started the Space Cookies FRC team (grades 9-12) with 12 girls and a handful of parents to compete in the 2006 competition season."
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From the Mars Society :
The Mars Society invites your participation in advance of its 20th anniversary convention, to be held September 7-10 at the University of California, Irvine:
- Propose a presentation: Email your abstract of no more than 300 words by June 30th. Proposed topics can cover all matters associated with Mars exploration and establishing a permanent human presence there. More information, and a list of suggested topics, here.
- Submit a poster design: The winning design will be used as the main promotional graphic for this year’s gathering. Entrants are asked to incorporate this year’s theme, From Imagination to Reality, into their planned layout. Deadline is Friday, March 31, at 5 p.m. MST.
- For young people: The Student Mars Art (SMArt) Contest invites youth in grades 4-12 from around the world to depict the human future on the planet Mars. Cash prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250, as well as trophies, will be awarded. Artwork should be submitted by May 31, 2017, 5:00 pm MST via a special online form in either PDF or JPEG format.
- Conference volunteers are also needed: Those volunteering for 10 hours or more will receive free entrance to the daily sessions. For more details, please send email.
From Explore Mars:
The annual Humans to Mars summit is a comprehensive Mars exploration conference addressing the major technical, scientific and policy challenges of getting humans to Mars. Registration is open for this year's event, May 9-11 at George Washington University in Washington, D.D. Click here for more info.
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From Chabot Space and Science Center:
This summer's space day camp at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, CA, Mars Adventure: Rescue Mission, allows kids in grades 1-6 to spend a week on Mars. Their mission is to rescue an astronaut stranded on the red planet. Campers will work cooperatively to tackle problems such as traveling in space, landing on Mars, exploring the planet, communication, search and rescue, and returning to Earth. One week sessions begin July 10, 17, 24 and 31.
From David Cox:
Rachel Levin as Valentina Tereshkova. Credit: David Cox
Digital media artist and SF State Professor David Cox staged part three of his rocket opera December 3 at Other Cinema in San Francisco. In it, he offered a musical translation of the Space Race. The third part of the trilogy focused on three female heroes of the early space era: Margaret Hamilton, Valentine Tereshkova and Sally Ride.
From Mars One:
Mars One has released a revised mission roadmap, in which their first unmanned demo mission will be sent to Mars in 2022 (originally planned for 2016), and the first crew will land in 2032 (original target date was 2023). According to Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp, "This pushes the large expenses associated with the mission hardware back in time, making the company cash positive sooner."
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ARE YOU MAKING NEWS ABOUT MARS, SPACE EXPLORATION OR STEM/STEAM EDUCATION? SEND US YOUR NEWS SO WE CAN INCLUDE IT IN FUTURE ISSUES OF THIS NEWSLETTER!
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Artist's impression of how Mars colonists might evolve. Credit: Joseph Ventura
Beefy skeletons, big heads, oversized eyes – and orange skin? For the humans who may eventually settle on Mars, where gravity and sunlight are weaker than on Earth and mutation-causing radiation is more intense, long periods of isolation on the red planet could eventually cause the bodies of Mars colonists to change. NBC's David Freeman speculates on their future physiologies and appearances in his Feb. 28 article.
Read more...
NASA's New Take on Terraforming: Surrounding Mars With an Artificial Magnetic Shield
from Universe Today
Artist's comparison of Mars, without a magnetic field, and Earth, with one. Credit: NASA
At one time, Mars had a magnetic field which prevented its atmosphere from being stripped away, but it disappeared about 4.2 billion years ago. The Martian atmosphere was slowly lost to space and, as a result, Mars went from being a warmer, wetter environment to the cold, uninhabitable place we know today. On March 1 at the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop, Jim Green, Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, proposed a fix: creating an artificial magnetosphere that would encompass the entire planet, shielding it from solar wind and radiation. Eventually the enhanced atmosphere would encourage the growth of vegetation and would allow water to flow on the Martian surface.
Read more...
Artist's depiction of Mars lander and rover leaving Earth. Credit: Reuters/Sastind
In December, China announced long-term space goals, including plans to send a probe and rover to Mars by 2020 to collect samples and return them to Earth. According to newsline, the solar-powered rover would be smaller than Curiosity - weighing about 440 pounds as opposed to the NASA rover's 2,000 pounds. Earlier in 2016 China released plans including visuals, of its Mars technology.
Read more...
Columbia Hills, Jezero Crater, and Northeast Syrtis are the three finalists vying to be the landing site for NASA's 2020 Mars rover. The sites selected include regions where water may have flowed and, just possibly, microbial Martian life might once have flourished. In February, the selection process whittled down the three remaining contenders from eight earlier selections. NASA's goal is to have the site selection finalized two years prior to launch.
Read more...
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Madame Mars presents a fresh-as-a-springtime-shower look at the ways we will travel to, explore and perhaps put our roots down on another world. 
Madame Mars writer-director Jan Millsapps blogs for Arianna Huffington's new site, ThriveGlobal. Read her latest post, 
