The Mars Society is looking for a few good men - and women - to spend four months holed up in an artificial igloo or tromping around the Canadian Arctic in bulky faux spacesuits. This won't be an extended vacation, or a reality-TV plotline. For rocket scientist Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, next year's exercise on Devon Island will be an experiment in the exploration process - a test that could help smooth the path to Mars. It's been a couple of months since Zubrin first announced the plans for a four-month simulated Mars mission on Devon Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, just 900 miles (1,440 kilometers) from the North Pole. Now he and other mission planners are ready to sign up a volunteer crew of seven who will operate from the Mars Society's Arctic habitat from May to September next year.

Being cooped up on a space mission can do funny things to you - even if it's a make-believe mission. During an extended simulation of a voyage to Mars back in 1999, a bloody fistfight reportedly broke out between two ersatz astronauts, and one woman participant complained of sexual harassment. So it'll be interesting to see what happens next year, when the Mars Society is due to stage a simulated four-month mission - not within the comfy confines of a laboratory, but amid the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. The society's president, Robert Zubrin, confirmed last week's reports that his organization was forgoing its annual simulated mission on Devon Island this year, and concentrating instead on next year's Arctic expedition. "Essentially we're saving the money from this year so we can do something bigger next year," Zubrin said.

Robert Zubrin uses his vision of the past to extol his vision for the future, but he never allows himself to go off on a tangent. He has the ability to provoke laughter, but also to incite outrage in his single-minded approach to Mars exploration: that it trumps other purposes of the U.S. space program.

Dennis Hands, a science program presenter at the Natural Science Center, was selected by the Mars Society to participate in its Mars Desert Research Station extended simulation in southern Utah.

Nunavut's own wannabe Mars explorers are back on Devon Island, poking around the Haughton Crater in space suits and souped-up ATVs. And if you want to see why gardening in Nunavut is like gardening on Mars, you won't want to miss descriptions and photos of the greenhouses they're building on Devon Island. The first greenhouse, already up and running, is the pet project of a group of Mars enthusiasts and scientists with the Haughton-Mars Project, a yearly field camp that receives support from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Mars Institute and the SETI Institute.

Australian scientists are planning to build a "space station" in the remote Outback to simulate the conditions that future human explorers could face on Mars. Mars Society Australia says the station will be the final step in a worldwide experiment which has seen similar projects set up in the Canadian Arctic, the Utah desert and Iceland.

The first person on Mars might be a grandmother. That's one unexpected possibility discovered by an all-female, six-member international crew that has just returned from Mars, or a reasonable facsimile of it, in the desert of southern Utah. The all-female Mona Lisa Project is the second half of an all-male, then all-female crew experiment by the Mars Society in the remote Mars Desert Research Station to see how different groups perform under conditions resembling those of the Red Planet.

Psycho-Sociological Study on Group Dynamics was the main objective of the Mona Lisa - Leonardo project. Each crewmember took a personality test before the rotation; then during the isolation period at MDRS, the crewmembers had to take a set of three measurements: Salivary samples to measure physiological stress; Cognitive performance evaluation using the CogHealth software; Online survey on group functioning, perceived stress and coping strategies. These measurements were taken three times during the mission: on Day 1, Day 6 and Day 12. The results of the Mona Lisa crew will be compared to the ones of the Leonardo crew, and the results will be published in a paper at the IAF congress in October 2005.

Yesterday, Crew 40, the Mona Lisa Project, got underway at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) near Hanksville, UT. The Mona Lisa Project is the second half of a study to observe the effects of having an all-female crew in a Mars analogue environment. The first half of the study was the just completed Leonardo Project that had an all-male crew establish a baseline. The idea of sending an all-female crew of six to one of these analogue habitats was born in August 2004 at the Summer Session of the International Space University (ISU). The main research topic of this project is to assess group dynamics in an international all-female/all-male crew in a Mars simulation.

We started the day with a big clean up... Reorganization like only girls can do! We also fixed the generator and one of the space suits... After having organised the Hab and completed the clean up, we are ready for two extravehicular activities (EVA): Anne and Natalie did the emergency evacuation experiment from elementary students. You should have seen them running in the space suits... fantastic!

First extravehicular activity EVA for 4 of us. What a great experience! Looking for geology samples and a nice site for geology exploration, testing the Cliff Reconnaissance Vehicule CRV. First elementary student experience on Mars: for that mission: the temperature and the degree of humidity inside the space suit during a space walk. How much does the body have to adapt itself to the variation of temperature? What a lot of adaptation! The sun is very hot in desert on the top of the space suit, the boots, the gloves and hair in the face. Impossible to scratch your nose! The view is marvellous. OK, my colleagues insist, I asked for the same color of space boots to match the color of my space suit because the picture will be on the web site and in the media…They really laughed at me but not me! Ah girls… To continue...

The Leonardo crew left around 9 am. Then we had a morning briefing were everybody presented their projects: the spacesuits comparison, the student experiments from Canada, the CRV, the geological studies and the psychosociological studies. Then after lunch some of us worked on the generator issues (see engineering report) while the others cleaned and organized the lab downstairs. Finally we all practiced riding the ATV without spacesuits.

Our rest day! All crew slept in as any dawn EVAs were postponed due to muddy conditions. We were inside all day, and each was able to pursue his own interests, such as catching up on email, reading or doing some engineering work on MarsSkins. Georg was even able to suit up and go for a run! So a relaxing day, and now we're ready for another week. Tomorrow we plan for an all-day rover trip to Capitol Reef for three, and also an ATV ride up Candor Chasm for other three. This latter EVA will be the first Leonardo EVA for the MarsSkins and a trial run before comparison CRV EVAs begin with the MDRS suits. We are starting to look hairy and haghard (so apologies for webcam appearances!), but we are all fighting fit and keen to continue our scientific explorations.

The wind is howling around the hab tonight. A dust storm has enveloped us, and the structure groans and creaks in response. This late weather is in contrast to the bright sunshine during the day, which baked us in our suits as we journed to the east on Cactus Road. With the sun focused on my face through the helmet bubble and the ventilation working full-time, I felt like a roast chicken in a fan-forced oven. This was all forgotten, however, as we were again treated to a spectactular scene of flood plains and huge rock formations at our destination.

Another cooked breakfast fuelled EVA-7 towards the northern reaches of the Copernicus Highway. After travelling along various ridges, the 'highway' dipped down into the magnificent labyrinth of the Snoshti Canyons, where the infrequently travelled track was lost among a carpet of blue and yellow flowers. After several dead-ends, washouts and backtracks, the team eventually battled through to Muddy Creek. While not the most analogous scenery to Mars, our geologist made several interesting finds, including anomolous black rocks that seem to have just fallen from the heavens. EVA-8 pushed even further north, taking the Hubble Highway just before the creek. Future EVAs will strive further northwards to the end of the Hubble Highway and the tracks of Crew 22, whose map is serving us well. The generator has been fixed and hopefully the power fluctuations will cease, but the vacuum cleaner needs another power-head belt. Hopefully this arrives before the all-female Mona Lisa crew, or gender relations may never be the same again! Three pizzas were 'delivered' tonight, and finished off a great day. Almost half-way through, and all lights are green on Leonardo.

Another great day on Mars. Early morning jitters with the generator couldn't take the gloss of the sunshine pouring in through the portholes. A big cooked breakfast by Kurt of bacon, pancakes and eggs kicked off a successful EVA to search for concretions in the morning. The afternoon EVA included four crewmembers to the Pinto Hills in the pressurised rover for trials with the CRV. The vehicle was lowered from three different sized cliffs, but problems with the camera precluded any successful imaging. A late dinner of Dutch influences, then some report writing and this crew is off to bed for some sleep...

The Crew 39 - Leonardo Project is going wild: huge plans are being prepared... EVAs to dream places, engineering developments and improvements of the Hab, documentaries of the project, etc. Our common ISU (International Space University) ground makes us a strong, confident, united team and the results show. We had some interesting discussions and SSP slide shows today... Martian greetings to all ISU alumni out there! We also want to thank the support from all friends and space fans who have been supporting and cheering. Obrigado!

Two EVAs for CRV cliffs exploration and geology studies. Interesting blue berry concretions found. Thermal hardware ready for experiment. Two EVA helmets repaired.

Second day of the mission. The full simulation has not yet really started since the Beyond 2000 guys went on beyond yesterday and since Kurt had to go back to Hanksville to fix his laptop. So we’re free to move around for one more day. Kurt and Georg took that chance to visit the unreal surroundings with the ATVs. Remon and Mat also managed to build the Cliff Reconnisance Vehicle (CRV) in the morning, while James was helping the other Aussies filming around in their Mars suits.

Crew 39 - Leonardo Project has landed on Mars. It was a pretty long day until docking on the Martian Hab. Unpacking goods, hardware, supplies, etc; lots of footage for Beyond Productions TV taking place; testing the ATVs; performing first EVAs. We got the first hang of each task and the specifics of the complex and time consuming maintenance of the Hab. The scenic surroundings are awesome and everybody is feeling pretty enthusiastic about closing the hatch of the air lock tomorrow for full Mars Station simulation kick off. The engineering team had already some challenges keeping the power as the space-generator is playing some tricks on us. They have proven being worthy of the task.

Morning planning meeting to work out details of Boudreaux scouting in area beyond Pooh's Corner; involved all subsystem teams—science, agents, robot, and communications. Attempted trial in afternoon (3 hrs) failed for several reasons, including recently introduced software change in robot. At evening briefing, Boudreaux reported as ready to go for astronaut EVAs; many good results from simulated rover EVA; plus group pleased with Brent & Abby's late afternoon EVA. Yesterday's "hero of the day," John Ossenfort, awarded Jeff Graham (Boudreaux engineer) the hero award for today (a Mobile Agents 2005 badge with a flashing light).

Continued progressing on two fronts -- Boudreaux behavior debugging (moving forward with obstacle avoidance) and the ATV driver simulating a robot with visual touch screen display showing commands directed to the robot. Boudreaux has now made two runs to Pooh's Corner; now testing the laser obstacle avoidance system for the first time (Boudreaux is a bit too conservative about hills). Also did two runs of the ATV/ERA display system; this is useful for several reasons: Testing Mobile Agents without a robot, showing use of an ATV with navigation advisor for an astronaut; showing use of display system to augment voice commanding with personal agent. Also changed cards in astronaut backpack computers to be more compatible with Tropos base station and relays.

Two NASA robots and two geologists are now simulating an expedition to another planet during a field test expected to continue until April 15 in Utah's Southeast Desert, near Hanksville. During the ongoing 'Mobile Agents Project,' NASA engineers are working to improve human-robot interactions to help NASA accomplish its Vision for Space Exploration to return to the moon and venture to Mars. The wheeled robots are attempting to help the astronaut team to maintain connection with a wireless computer network. Scientists and engineers from NASA Ames and NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, are taking part in the test. Prototype 'Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Robotic Assistants,' developed at NASA Johnson, will follow geologists and respond to voice commands at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station.

Progress on the Mobile Agents system continues on all fronts: programming the robot arm to deploy the relay (by removing a pin); verifying network connectivity to all computers inside and outside the hab with Tropos relay from top of MDRS (seeing 10 db variance within 2 m shift in position); installing astronaut backpack upgrades (including new air system for helmet); language training test for astronauts; verifying and debugging voice recognition of commands and agent processing of voice commands (efficiency problem with backpack-B tracked to the UK/British recognizer for Abby); setup of EVA database (ScienceOrganizer) local server. Also handling logistics for visits next week from eight scientist colleagues and several reporters. Liam is preparing lamb stew for dinner.

Around this time of year college students gather in places like Daytona Beach, Panama City Beach or South Padre Island for a break from school. Several Georgia Tech students and Fayetteville resident Dr. Jan Osburg, a research engineer in the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory at Georgia Tech, will be spending the next two weeks in Mars, or rather an area in Utah meant to simulate the first manned mission to Mars. The Mars Desert Research Station in Utah was built by the Mars Society.

As rovers and orbiters continue to scour Mars for more signs of water and the potential for extraterrestrial life, space scientists and enthusiasts are champing at the bit to put humans on the red planet. "There's no question we'll ultimately go there. It's a matter of when, not if," said Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Robert Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society, a Colorado-based organization that promotes human exploration and settlement of the red planet. He said the technology exists to put humans on Mars within a decade. "We are much closer to being able to send humans to Mars today than we were to being able to send men to the moon in 1961, when [United States President John F. Kennedy] started the Apollo program," Zubrin said.

Filmed at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station...

During the active field season, the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station rotates every 2 weeks. These are the scientists and engineers who live and work on site within the MDRS. They explore all of the facets of human exploration in a simulated Mars environment. The MDRS will be active for a 7 month period.

The Mars Society has begun a new series of simulated Red Planet expeditions at its Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, following up on past rounds of research. "Expedition Alpha" moved in to the space-outfitted habitat this week and is already sending back dispatches. Over the next two weeks, the nine crew members will test tools and techniques that could be used someday during a human mission to Mars — then make way for Expedition Beta.

Expedition Alpha launches Mars Society Canada's field research training program. ExAlpha will be the 30th Crew at the Mars Desert Research Station, and the first of the 4th Field Season at the Utah site. This two-week mission will run from November 27th to December 12th, 2004. The ExAlpha crew hopes to set a new standard for high science-return missions at MDRS.

NASA's Spirit Rover has just completed a long hard slog across difficult Martian terrain to reach the Columbia hills. The short journey of just a couple of kilometres has taken Spirit months. Imagine if it could thoroughly analyze an area and then just pick up and fly somewhere new? NASA is considering a proposal from Pioneer Astronautics, which envisions a vehicle that could land on Mars, refuel with local materials, and then fly hundreds of kilometres to explore; repeating this process over and over again - the Martian Gashopper Aircraft.

The October 31, 2004 deadline for first round selection of Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) crew slots for the 2004-2005 field season is now approaching. Those wishing to make the deadline should either mail in their applications now to Mars Society, PO Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454 or send them via email to Tony Muscatello at tony.muscatello@pioneerastro.com. Previous MDRS or FMARS crew members who wish to serve again this field season should also send an email to Tony stating their dates of availability.

Devon Island is cold, rocky and desolate. Plus it has a huge, well-preserved impact crater. In other words, it's perfect for scientists who want to test new technologies and practical ways of living on the Red Planet.

Call for Volunteers: The Mars Society is requesting volunteers to participate as members of the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah during extended simulations of human Mars exploration operations. The upcoming Mars Desert Research Station field season will begin in December 2004 and run through April 2005. The Mars Society will be issuing an additional call for volunteers for the summer 2005 field season of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island later. However those volunteering for MDRS at this time may also volunteer for FMARS 2005. FMARS crew selection is highly competitive, and prior experience at MDRS, while not strictly required, is considered to be an important credential for FMARS selection. In 2004, for example, 6 out of 7 FMARS crew members had prior MDRS experience. Submission deadline for the first round of MDRS selections is October 31, 2004. Applications submitted after that date will be considered for openings as they become available.

The Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, south central Utah, has proved very productive. M.D.R.S. is the second Mars Society Analog Research Station, the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, F.M.A.R.S., on Devon Island in Canada's arctic north being the first. While the latter is located in terrain more analogous to what we expect on Mars, its operable season is only six weeks long. The Utah location allows several months of operation. Because of those limitations, time is much more precious at the Arctic outpost, and talent and expertise requirements more exacting. It is now the practice to accept no application for a 2-week long crew rotation in the Arctic unless the applicant has already served a stint in Utah.

Call for Volunteers: The Mars Society is requesting volunteers to participate as members of the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah during extended simulations of human Mars exploration operations. The upcoming Mars Desert Research Station field season will begin in December 2004 and run through April 2005. The Mars Society will pay travel and related expenses from Salt Lake City, Utah during training and simulation, but there will be no salary. Volunteers will need to pay their own travel expenses to Salt Lake City. Applications including resume, character references, and a brief letter explaining why you wish to participate should be sent to Mars Society, PO Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Total length of applications should not exceed 3 pages. Please include 3 copies. Submission deadline for the first round of MDRS selections is October 31, 2004. Applications submitted after that date will be considered for openings as they become available.

The French translation of THE CASE FOR MARS by Robert Zubrin and Richard Wagner has just been published by Henri Goursau Editions. This book was translated on the initiative of Bertrand Spitz a member of PLANETE MARS, the French Chapter of the Mars Society. Translation: Etienne Martinache. Drawings of the cover: Manchu With the help of: Planète Mars, the Space City in Toulouse, France, and the Euro Space Centre in Belgium.

A major sensation was caused at the convention by the announcement by award-winning filmmaker Sam Burbank that he would be making a theatrical motion picture based on Robert Zubrin's novel "First Landing." Listing the various Hollywood horror pictures or shoot-em- ups nominally featuring Mars, Burbank drew a sharp distinction between those efforts and the kind of movie "First Landing" will be. There never has been a movie actually about the human exploration of Mars. This will be the first." Burbank said, adding: "It will not be set in the glorious science fiction future, but in our own time, and it will show the mission done with all the grungy realism of the kind of space travel we can really do. It's not going to show the Mars mission as being easy. It's not going to show it as being impossible. It's going to show it as being really tough, but doable, by a group of people who have what it takes to do it."

The 7th International Mars Society convention has been a smashing success. Held at the historic Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL from August 19-22, 2004, the convention gathered 400 leading space scientists, engineers, government officials, entrepreneurs, activists, authors, and artists from many countries, including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Japan, China, India, and Australia to discuss ways and means of advancing the exploration and settlement. Over 120 papers were presented, and over $50,000 was raised to further the work of the Mars Society.

To promote interest in exploring the Red Planet and learn more about what would make a successful mission, the private Mars Society each summer sends volunteers who pay their own way to the uninhabited Devon Island, 900 miles from the North Pole. NASA also sends scientists to the rugged island, which comes as close to duplicating conditions on frigid Mars as Earth can offer. Louise Wynn was part of a seven-member international crew of four Americans, a Canadian, a Pole and an Australian.

Imagine it's 2100. Human beings have destroyed Earth. Do you and your family have a plan? If you're a member of the Mars Society you do. Since 1998, the group - which is holding its annual conference this weekend in Chicago - has been advocating and planning for human exploration of the red planet. "It may be where we're going to have our great-grandchildren living some day," said legendary science fiction writer Frederik Pohl of Palatine.

Mars visionaries are landing in Chicago this week to pursue their dreams for the Red Planet, ranging from robot missions to a manned colony. About 500 members of the Mars Society will be in an upbeat mood when they gather at the Palmer House Hilton today through Sunday to brainstorm topics such as nuclear-powered spacecraft and water recycling in the Mars desert. "Mars people tend to be very optimistic," said Mars Society President Robert Zubrin.

The Mars Society of Australia is to begin searching for investors to help fund a proposed Mars research station at Arkaroola in northern South Australia. The proposed laboratory will allow scientists to live and work in isolation, in an environment that closely resembles Mars. The site was picked during a month-long research trip by the Mars Society of Australia and Arkaroola was chosen because of its similarity to the Mars environment. Society director Jon Clarke says the challenge now is to get the funding to build the lab.

Simulating Martian environments began as an amateur passion among a scientific underground but NASA scientists — whose long-term brief is a series of robot missions followed by a manned mission to Mars by 2030 — are becoming increasingly interested and involved. Two Mars analogue environments have been set up, one at Southern Utah in the American desert and another in the Canadian Arctic on Devon Island. A third is likely to be based in Iceland and the location for the fourth was finalised last week by the Australian Mars Society at a site about 20 kilometres north of Arkaroola on the ancient basalt flanks of the Flinders Ranges.

Two groups of researchers are winding down their field season in the Canadian Arctic, after testing tools and techniques that could well come into play during future human missions to Mars. They're bringing back tips for those future explorers — ranging from practical feedback on spacesuits and drilling equipment for the Red Planet to new types of robotic helpers you might call "hoverbots." The Mars Society has already finished up its three-week-long simulated Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. In one of the closing dispatches, simulation commander Jason Held noted that his seven-person crew covered 160 miles (257 kilometers) of off-road driving and 32 miles (51 kilometers) on foot. "There is no way that current robotics technology can cover that distance, over Mars terrain, while receiving the level of data detail recorded by our crew," Held wrote. However, he noted that robots would be essential helpmates on Mars, even after humans arrived.

When it comes to matching the blistering atmosphere of Mars for trying out a specially designed space suit, it seems there's nowhere better on Earth than the Australian outback. Over the next month a group of geologists, engineers, psychologists and biologists will test the suits as if they were operating from a base station on the red planet, identified as a target for a NASA manned mission by about 2030.

The crew of the Flashline Mars Research Station (FMARS, Crew 9) has completed the 2004 field season on Devon Island and is now preparing for pullout via Twin Otter to Resolute Bay. Reports and photos covering their month-long Mars mission simulation in the high Arctic can be found at www.marsociety.org. A complete report on the crew's activity will be presented at the 7th International Mars Society Convention, Palmer House Hilton, August 19- 22, 2004, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL. Registration is now open at www.marssociety.org.

The latest pictures of Saturn may have enthralled many amateur astronomers around the world, but there's one group that has its sights set on a different planet. The Mars Society of Australia is part of a worldwide network of space exploration enthusiasts dedicated to furthering our chances of one day walking on the Red Planet. The society is holding its 4th annual Australian Mars Exploration Conference, AMEC 2004, in Adelaide this weekend, attracting scientists from around the country and indeed from around the world. The Director of the Mars Society of Australia is Dr Jonathan Clarke, and he told Nance Haxton that Australia is playing a significant role in planning for the first Mars expedition.

Would you like to take a spin in the MARS-1 Humvee, short for "High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle" or HMMVV? If you're a researcher with Mars on your mind, you might end up driving the sturdy, 8,800-pound refurbished rover around the NASA Haughton-Mars Project camp on Devon Island. If plants interest you, then the project's Arthur C. Clarke greenhouse, named after the science fiction writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, may be just what you were looking for. Or would you prefer an EVA, that is some Extra-Vehicular Activity?

A Camas, Washington woman will spend four weeks in the Canadian Arctic simulating a mission to Mars. It's the best that earthlings can do for now. "I was raised with the whole moon-exploration thing, and since I was a kid I wanted to go to Mars," said Louise Wynn, 56. "I can't go to Mars in my lifetime, but I can do this." An international crew comprised of Wynn and six other volunteers will stay from early July to early August at the Mars Society's research station on Devon Island, a large and an uninhabited island.

Reports from the field indicate that the 2004 crew of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is doing very well. The FMARS is located on the rim of a 20 km diameter impact crater on Canada's Devon Island, 900 miles from the North Pole. The crew, consisting of five Americans, one Canadian, one Hungarian, and one Pole, are attempting to conduct a sustained program of field exploration of the Mars-like polar desert while functioning under Mars mission operational constraints. By so doing, they are gaining essential knowledge that will help develop the set of field tactics that human explorers will need to use on Mars.

The Blitz, which was the first important activity conducted by the new Space Exploration Alliance, occurred from July 11-13, 2004, and involved some 70 space activists visiting approximately 200 congressmen, senators, and congressional and Senatorial aides to convey to them a message of strong support for the new American space policy that refocuses the human spaceflight program on the goal of sending humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Of the activists present, about a third were drawn there by the Mars Society, a third by the National Space Society (NSS), while the remaining third comprised small delegations representing nearly all of the 20 space advocacy, industry, and professional organizations comprising the Space Exploration Alliance (SEA).

The Canadian Space Agency has awarded a contract valued at $20,000 to contribute its support to the Mars Expedition Analog Program conducted by the Mars Society of Canada. Expedition Two will be launched this August in the red desert of Australia. It is the second of a long term series of expeditions using scientists, engineers, and a wide variety of supporting personnel engaged in interdisciplinary studies in Mars analog environments and situations. This program is managed by the international Mars Expedition Research Council, which has selected Mars Society Canada and Mars Society Australia to host Expedition Two. As a co-host, Mars Society Canada welcomes the Canadian Space Agency's contribution and thanks the agency for its support. This contribution brings the project funds, including cash grants and in-kind donations, to approximately $50k.

Admiral Craig Steidle will give a plenary address to the opening session of the 7th International Mars Society Convention in Chicago, August 19. Adm. Craig E. Steidle is the Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration Systems. He is the first to hold this position, since the office was created in January 2004.

It took an hour to get the EVA team prepped and out the airlock door for Crew 28's first exploratory mission into the Martian landscape. As they exited, Gregorio narrated the whole process into the HabCom radio, his voice rising with excitement. "They are opening the hatch," his voice crackled. "And ... EVA No. 1 ... of the Crew 28 ... is a go! Over."

The crew of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) for the 2004 field season has been announced. The international crew, which consists of four Americans, one French Canadian, one Pole and one Hungarian, will operate the FMARS in a single rotation which will run from July 7 to August 4, 2004. During that time they will attempt to conduct a sustained program of field research in geology, palaeontology, and microbiology in Devon Island's polar desert, while operating under many of the same constraints as an actual Mars exploration mission. By doing so, they will gain valuable insights to help design effective field exploration tactics for Mars.

Technically, we were dead. The diesel generator had quit, cutting power to the Hab and, presumably, our life support systems. Like any good Mars base, the Hab had a backup power source. But that generator failed as well. Don Foutz, our local mission support team and proprietor of the Whispering Sands Motel in Hanksville, drove out to have a look at the problem.

An Australian adventurer this week begins a solo hike across the Simpson Desert in a bid to take scientists closer to sending people to Mars. The Mars Society of Australia has engaged Robert Pecaro, 44, to test the likely impact of walking on the Red Planet.

Defiance, detachment, disagreement – harmful emotions in any small group situation, but in Outer Space these feelings are particularly damaging and possibly life endangering. ANU psychologists are preparing to gather unique insights into the duress of space travel as part of a “Mars expedition” to be staged in the Australian desert later this year.

Office politics can be hell, but just ponder being locked up with your workmates for years, never able to go home nor quit in a huff if the going gets too tough. That will be the dilemma faced by the first humans on Mars, with astronauts living together for more than two years in a craft no bigger than a small house.

The final Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Field Season 3 rotation is now history! Read Crew 29's Summary Reports, explore links to media coverage of various MDRS crews, and find out how to volunteer for the next field season...

The Mars Society has joined with twelve other space advocacy organizations to form a Space Exploration Alliance to secure passage of the first year's funding required to launch NASA's new exploration initiative which aims at sending human explorers to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

South Australian adventurer Rob Porcaro will soon be the focus of special research that could help in future missions to Mars. Later this month Mr Porcaro will begin a solo crossing of the Simpson Desert while undergoing psychological tests to measure the impact of isolation and fatigue on his decision making and thought processes. Scientists from the Mars Society Australia (MSA), the Australian National University and Melbourne company CogState Ltd will conduct the tests.

Gus Frederick of Silverton spent two weeks living at the Mars Desert Research Station, a simulated Mars habitat in Utah. He returned to Oregon on April 26, 2004. The habitat is run by The Mars Society, a nonprofit group of Mars enthusiasts who want to send people to the planet. Frederick was commander of Crew 28 at the station. This is the final of several reports he has made about living at the habitat.

Astronauts on future missions to Mars may get so bored and lonely they fight among themselves, say Australian psychologists. The researchers are testing their theory on group conflict with a team of scientists heading to a simulated Mars base in the remote Australian outback this August. The scientists will be living and working in Mars-like conditions at an experimental base at Arkaroola, in the Flinders Ranges, 660 kilometres north of Adelaide. The expedition to Arkaroola leaves on 2 August and is organised by the Mars Society, an international group of scientists based in Colorado dedicated to Mars exploration.