Life Support Project
Meeting Minutes |
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| March 22nd Vancouver, BC | ||||||||
| Date: | 17 March 2000 | |||||||
| Location: | TIME Centre, Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre Campus, Room 7420 Vancouver, BC |
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| Time: | 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM | |||||||
| Attendees: | Steve Braham Dean Calahan | |||||||
| - | This was an informal meeting, agenda-free, convenient to Mr. Calahan as he was vacationing in Vancouver at the time. | ||||||||
| - | Following introductions, the meeting commenced. Discussion varied widely and at whim. | ||||||||
| - | The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), NASA's Haughton-Mars project, and a Mars Base were discussed in general. | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham went to Devon Island with Haughton-Mars last year, and will be going again this summer. | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham noted that eliminating waste heat might well be a requirement for a Mars Base (though not necessarily for an Earth analogue), due to the lack of convective cooling on that nearly airless world. | ||||||||
| - | The role of the Mars Society's Technical Task Force (TTF) came up. | ||||||||
| - | There seem to be several ad-hoc projects underway, particularly an in-depth technical review of Mars Direct, and the NASA Reference Mission studies, none of which are really anything more than design concepts. | ||||||||
| - | Such studies are seen as a way to attain credibility, so that when The Mars Society speaks officially on technical topics, we are respected and trusted | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham mentioned that he is happy that, concurrently with our activities, the Life Support Project (LSP) is pursuing a thorough literature review. | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham suggested that one of the worst outcomes would be to try something, find out that it is wrong, and then find it that it was KNOWN to be wrong before. | ||||||||
| - | Other Mars-and non-Mars related topics arose during the course of our discussion: | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham and Mr. Calahan agreed that Chariots for Apollo, by Pellegrino and Stoff; is an excellent book. Dr. Braham recommended Chaikin's A Man on the Moon. | ||||||||
| - | Dr. Braham summarized one aspect of the moonwalkers' experience with regard to Mars exploration: The Moon should be an excellent Mars analog for dust. The Lunar astronauts had to start using their spare spacesuits because the pervasive dust getting into the joints started causing leaks almost immediately. | ||||||||
| - | Meeting Concluded, 2:00 PM | ||||||||