Mars Society Switzerland
"Mars Vue de Neuchâtel"
The premiere of « The Marsdreamers », a documentary by Swiss movie director Richard Dindo (member honoris causa of our society), took place in Zurich, Geneva and Lausanne at the beginning of February. In Zurich (at the Arthouse Le Paris) it was presented by Richard Dindo, the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier and our vice-president Barbara Burtscher and the American astronaut George Mitchell. You still can see the movie at the Zinema (rue du Maupas). It will be shown latter throughout Switzerland. This movie is a "must to see", for all the « Marsdreamers ». Richard Dindo interviews the American ones on their motivations for Mars and on their dream to go there someday. The variety of people picked for the sample does show that Mars is a beacon for all kind of characters. They are sensitive people inspired by a true passion. They express it in a more or less sophistica-
"The Marsdreamers"
Our first conference took place on December 3rd 2009 in the University of Neuchâtel, with the support of Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise , EPFL and UniNE . It was made of the folllowing presentations: 1) Why we must go to Mars by Pierre Brisson . 2) Feasibility of manned flights to Mars by Richard Heidmann . Richard Heidmann is a founding member of the Mars Society and the President of Association Planète Mars (French Branch of the Mars Society). Engineer in space propulsion (French National School of Aeronautics and Space), he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique de Paris. Formerly director (retired in 2002) at SNECMA, in charge of strategic orientations for research and technology, he participated actively in the conception and realization of the Ariane V engines. Since 2002 Richard Heidmann has been active in numerous working groups dedicated to propulsion in Space, set up by institutions such as AAAF (Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France), CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), ESA (Agence Spatiale Européenne), ESPI (European Space Policy Institute), ISU (International Space University), CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies)… 3) FAMARS, the Atomic Force Microscope embarked on Phoenix and its first results . By Dr Sebastian Gautsch . Sebastian Gautsch is a scientist of SAMLAB (Sensors and Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory) which is part of EPFL (IMT-NE) and working under the direction of Professor Nico de Rooij. Since Autumn 2007, he is the leader of the Nanotools team. His thesis, published in 2001, led to the successful creation and operation of an AFM microscope compatible with Martian exploration. Chosen for the 2007 Phoenix mission of NASA, this instrument sent back to Earth spectacular measurements of Martian fines, with resolution lower than 10nm. Media interest for this event has been high and still on line on specialized channels. The last one: in "Histoire des savoirs"; was transmitted on TSR and on TV5 on Oct 14th 2009.
ted way according to their background and their level of education. Their statements are often very moving when one considers the gap between their passion and the limited attention that political reluctantly grant them, or the very limited hope they have that their project will be implemented during their lifetime. These Marsdreamers are the salt of the Earth, the memory of which will be cherished by the future inhabitants of Mars for they will have been the first ones to carry forward the dream which will have become the essence of their life.
The Mars society Switzerland, in partnership with CHYN (Hydrological and Geothermic Center of Neuchâtel University) is organising a symposium on Martian geology which will take place (in English) in Fribourg University, on the Saturday afternoon, November 20th 2010, in the frame of the 8th Geoscience Meeting, on the topic of “Hot and Cold, extreme climates in space and time”. Mars qualifies perfectly as an example of extreme climate. We now know enough about this neighbor planet, to speak of it as a geologic object. Mars primordial history was shaped by water as well as lava. It stayed liquid long enough in pools, lakes or even maybe oceans, to alter lava rocks into all kind of hydrated rocks, phyllosilicates, sulfates and even carbonates, that we do find on Earth. With the thinning of its atmosphere, water could not stay liquid on the surface but it was saved as visible ice on the poles, as veils of stratospheric clouds of ice particles and as ice within the immediate sub-soil, even at medium latitudes. Since there have been no plate tectonics and very little erosion during the last 3.5 billion years, Mars, as our rocky sister planet, is an open book for the Earth early history. We will describe the impacts of water and lack of water along the various periods of the red planet history, compare them with various similar impacts on Earth and hint at its possible consequences for the emerging of life. To make understand how the exploring of Mars is nowadays possible, we will also present the feasibility of manned flights to Mars and present the Atomic Force Microscope, “FAMARS”, conceived in Neuchâtel and embarked on board the PHOENIX spaceship, as an example of the equipment available for the study of the geology of the planet. Speakers will be: Pierre Brisson : General interest of Mars exploration and feasibility of inhabited flights. Charles Frankel (geologist, member of the Mars Society and member of the Board of Association Planete Mars): Mars hydrogeology. Sebastian Gautsch : (SAMLAB/IMT/EPFL & Vice-President of MSS): the Atomic Force Micrsocope “FAMARS” embarked aboard Phoenix. Marie Josset , geologist at the Space Exploration Institute (Neuchatel): some points of Martian geology (to be specified).Look at www.geoscience-meeting.scnatweb.ch/sgm2010/ then "program, then "saturday 20th symposia session". Put it on your agenda and come to learn and support us ! Pierre Brisson
Participation to the 8th Swiss Geoscience Meeting.
Events