The Phoenix Lander mission to Mars is expected to touch down on that planet at about 0000 hrs (GMT).
The mission is searching for evidence that there were ever habitable environment on Mars. It will also make a geological study and study the property of the soil of the region where it lands. (via)
We would like to wish the Phoenix team all the best for the impending landing.
Related Pages:
In the words of Rich Tumilson, welcome to the revolution!
I have been asked to write a brief update on the current ongoing efforts of
the SEDS organization in the
So far SEDS-USA has had an excellent year. With the election of our new
board in November of 2007 we have started a number of new initiatives and made
significant progress on our projects. Items I will update you on include:
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1. 501c
In
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2. SEDS Rocket Competition
SEDS-USA is hosting a national rocket competition this year called the SEDS
Innovation Challenge. This competition challenges student groups to design,
build, and launch a 'Rockoon' to altitudes of over 100,000 feet. Rockoons are
sounding rockets that have been modified with helium balloons to obtain higher
altitudes than would normally be accessible on a low budget.
Right now SEDS-USA is entering into negotiations with Spaceport
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3. Council of Chapters
The SEDS-USA Council of Chapters has now met twice under the direction of
Darrell Cain, the new SEDS Director of Chapter Affairs. Both meetings have been
quite productive. One of the first orders of business was approving a new
SEDS-USA constitution. The previous document dated back to 1993, and was
outmoded for the current organization.
As for the individual chapters, this year they are involved in a large
variety of projects. Both UofA SEDS and TAMU SEDS are working on large
telescope projects. MIT,
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4. Endowment Fund
One problem that has continually plagued SEDS-USA is our lack of a yearly
operation budget. While we can easily fundraise for individual events,
operational expenses have traditionally come out of the pocket of Executive
Board members (and hence have been minimal). Under the direction of Ryan
McLinko, SEDS-USA Vice-Chair, we are fundraising for a SEDS USA Endowment fund.
This fund will be a quantity of money invested for SEDS by the same company
handling our 501c status. Each year we will receive the interest off of this
account as our operational budget. This money will go to expenses such as
travel, mailings, fliers, SEDS promotional items, etc..
This could be historically the most significant development in maintaining
the SEDS organization over the long run.
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5. SEDS-USA National Conference
It has been decided that the 2008 SEDS-USA National Conference will be
hosted at
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6. Mars
On May 25th the Mars Phoenix Lander will be touching down on Mars as the
next step in NASA's search for water on the Red Planet. SEDS National is
currently working with the
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That is a rocket summary of everything going on at a national level in SEDS-USA
currently. Look forward to more regular updates from SEDS-USA in the future,
and I hope to see you all in person in
Clear skies!
Joshua V. Nelson
Chairman, SEDS-USA
Email: chair@seds.org
P.S. Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions!
In 2008, the American Astronautical Society is hosting the second
edition of a student lunar rover design competition with UKSEDS. The basic
concept is the design of a small rover that could be used to assist a human
mission in site selection on the lunar surface.
Phase I of the competition will occur at the UK Space Conference (
http://www.spaceconference.org.uk ), which is held in Surrey, England from
26 to 29 March. Phase I is conceptual design only. Abstracts are due on 7
March 2008.
Phase II of the competition will be held at the SEDS International
Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on 27-28 September. Phase II is
design/build/test. Abstracts will be due July-ish.
In last year's design competition, Ganesh Kumar of Vellore Institute of
Technology won a half-tuition scholarship (~8000 euros) to the International
Space University. This year, another ISU scholarship is up for grabs for a
Phase II prize. Phase I prizes will include travel scholarships to
SGC/SEDSIC/IAC, IAC registration, bonus points for Phase II, as well as
other prizes.
Note: you can participate in one or both phases. Phase I participants will
receive extra points for Phase II. Can't make it to the UK for UKSC? You can
do what the Indian students are doing: hosting their own Phase I; email me
for 'franchise' info.
For more information:
* Web site: http://earth.seds.org/rovers
* Blog: http://blogs.seds.org/rovers
* Forum: http://forums.seds.org/forumdisplay.php?f=64
* Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SEDSIC
2008 is being celebrated as the International Year of Planet Earth. Explorers is a mini-project that aims to link Earth and space through its explorers.
Both, are making important contributions to the study of Earth and Space and this is a small "thank-you" from young explorers for the wonderful work that they have done and that we, someday hope to do.
We hope that reading about the lives of these explorers will spark interest in the arena of exploration - both on Earth and Space.
posted in the mailing list by Alison Gibbings, Vice Chair, UKSEDS
Hello to the people of SEDS-EARTH –this is my first posting! Wish me luck.
Anyway, my name is Alison Gibbings. I have become the newly elected Vice Chair of UKSEDS and in light of the International Astronautical Congress coming to England next year and UK-SEDS 20th Birthday, there is going to be lots to do and even more to celebrate this year!!
First in support of the IAC, from the 26-29 March 2008 in Surry, UK , the UK Space Community in conjunctions with UKSEDS are organising **The UKSEDS Space Conference ** entitled ‘Space Connects’. This conference was formally known as BROHP and has been running for many years and this year we really want to expand it out of the UK into the rest of the world.
This is where I ask for your assistance. The conference runs for four days,
showcasing UK involvement in space programmes and activities. It has a long and distinguished history of offering a wealth of collaboration between all parties,
inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers a-like.
In March the last two days will be dedicated to specific UK-SEDS sessions,
presentations and workshops. This would be an amazing opportunity to get
international exchange, communication and collaboration before the forthcoming IAC.
I invite every SEDS member, every branch, basically everyone to attend, perform
presentation and more. We want students and young professionals involved in SEDS to give presentation on their research, experiences and careers to date, thereby providing a forum of debate and discussion - lets create a significant investment in the future.
There will also be the 20th Birthday celebration of UK-SEDS on the Friday Night with a dinner buffet and live band AND the Sir Arthur Clark Awards on the Saturday. For more information please see: http://www.brohp.org.uk/arthurs.html
If anyone has any questions or comments then please email me
alison_gibbings@hotmail.com
It's been a long time since we posted something worth reading on this blog. So, after some nudging, here is the SEDS-Earth update.
The latest SEDS-Earth Council was ushered into office in October 2007. It consists of me and Prasanth and me from India and Mike from Canada.
As stated earlier, the SEDS International Conference 2007 was a grand success. You can read the Post-Event Report here and see the pics here. Hope to see more people next year.
Also, rather than just having SEDS national chapter updates I am looking at posts from people who actually attend the events that we put up in the Space Events section in the Space Information Archive. This, I hope will give us some satisfaction for putting it there in the first place and give an all around complete look for the whole process. I have asked if some of the guys who participated in the X Prize Cup event could write something for this blog. But, SpaceVision 2007 prevents an early posting. Coming soon, though!!