This Page is intended to encourage constructive feedback on current & proposed projects
11-6-99
Mars Village Design Competition: Deadline 3/25/2000:
Calling all would-be Martians! The International Planetarium Society [IPS] has announced a contest in connection with the widely publicized Mars Millennium Project. In MMP, student teams design a Mars village for the year 2030. In the IPS contest, cash prizes will be awarded to the IPS members whose teams design the best Martian village that incorporates the concept of a global community. You could win money (well, some money), fame (at least among planetarians), and have a great time besides. You can find all the contest details on the IPS web site. The site also contains links to a participation guide developed by the MMP organizers and to an additional set of helpful materials prepared by IPS. Good luck to all! Deadline is March 25, 2000The competition is limited to students, working in association with an IPS member Planetarium.
Modular Human Wastes Bio-recycling System
Design & Development of a base-integratable module, possibly to be pre-tested at a later iteration of the M.A.R.S. arctic base simulation on Devon Island. Several people on the Arctic-sig discuss list have expressed strong interest in this project, which could not be ready or pass through all the necessary approval hoops in time for the Summer 2000 season.
...your constructive comments are welcome
.CURRENT Personal PROJECTS:
- Development of " Four Season Splityear" Alternative Calendar
- Options for Calendar Publication
- Mars Missing Colors Project
.Status Log: Alternative "Four Season Splityear" Calendar
- The wildly varying month lengths of Zubrin's calendar apparently pose a "big problem" for many people.
- I have been looking for a way to compromise: a system of months of comparable length but which reflected the seasons.
- I have found a modifiable model in Richard Weidner's proposal of 22 months, 6 each for the two longer seasons, 5 each for the two shorter seasons.
- I have long sought a calendar that would divide the long Martian year into two equal parts for the more convenient celebration of birthdays, anniversaries, and religious observances over a period slightly shorter than an Earth year instead of significantly longer. I have found a way to do this modifying Weidner's system.
- You can follow my development of this all new calendar option.
The calendar design and workup is already advanced. But it remains provisional, open for further improvement.- After looking at it, please feel free to offer your constructive comments.
- I am calling it "The Mars Pulse Calendar"
Status Log: Calendar Publication Options
- Graphics Homework
- Artistic zodiac signs - found
- Sets of zodiac constellation outlines - decided against
- Graphic of Mars Orbit divided into seasons & months,
highlighting current month- Latitude range of subsolar point above or below Mars equator
- VERSION OPTIONS
- Electronic computer screen version
- Printed (paper) Version
- Crafted versions (metal, ceramic, wood, fabric, etc.)
- host board with 12-pack rack of zode "pages" (front to back)
- host board with year #s on changing annually changing Scene-field plates
- special reminder appliqués (both recurring & nonrecurring occasions)
- peg slots, color filters, pulled out cells, pushed in cells, etc.
- GOAL: Calendar to hang at Haughton M.A.R.S. summer 2000.
- Possible showstopper: having to show terrestrial dates "side by side". As this equivalence is always shifting, anything but a throwaway paper calendar or computer screen would make no sense. On Mars, only those who left their heart on Earth would care what Earth day, month, and year it was. So on Mars, if you had a system where a given date always fell on the same day of the week, durable permanent crafted calendars would be desireable, and part of the culture.
Status Log: "Mars Missing Colors Project"
See description on Projects Page
Ambitious Project Ideas for WMS
- Mars Society Logo Buttons - 1st, try to get these done nationally
- Mars Society Logo Patches - 1st, try to get these done nationally
- M.A.R.S. Crew Patches - new design for each summer's mission?
- Mars Sundial Buttons
- Have access to Button Maker
- Determine cutout size and pic size
- Determine quantity per page
- Price laser printing per each
- Buttons and covers inventory
- Develop artwork (wording etc.)
- If these prove popular get quotes on nationally marketable run
- Mars Society Artwork Screensaver slideshow
- If we find a used 12" Replogle Mars Globe, produce a 22"
mounted Earth photo as a background to show true relative sizes.- Sponsor Oochie engine R&D Race (Bottled Oxygen & Methane )
We invent the race, others invent the engines, out of competition.- Working portable Redhouse (0.10 ATM CO2 @ 41°F, 5°C)
actually growing "Mars-hardy" plantsJoint Ventures - shared model priorities -
the following societies could work together to produce models that suit common outreach needs
- Wisconsin Mars Society
- Lunar Reclamation Society
- Artemis Society Milwaukee
Models illustrating frontier development on both Moon & Mars
- lavatube habitats - we have a plan! (thanks to Oregon L5)
- frogs & toads - amphibious space / surface vehicles
- hybrid rigid-inflatable torus habitats (TransHab architecture)
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