FROM EARTH TO MARS
The
5th European Mars Conference
November 4th-6th 2005
A
weekend of guest talks, panels, debates, workshops and events featuring
some of the world's leading experts in Mars exploration
EMC5 Reports Home
Friday 4th November
Sunday 6th November
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Saturday 5th November
The great thing about having a conference all under one roof is that
you can get up, shower, wash, dress, saunter down the hall and joy like-minded
people for breakfast - and Alexandra House put on a really good breakfast
- a kind of "all you can eat" with hot and cold food, lashings
of tea and coffee and fruit juice and a pile of toast.
Fortified for the day, it was off to the morning sessions. I was a
bit surprised by the low turn-out: maybe 70 people all told, especially
after last year had been so rip-roaring. Guess it must have been too
short notice of some people.
During the opening address, Bo Maxwell revealed the news that Euro-MARS
wasn't yet in the UK and so the planned visits to see it just up the
road at the science museum were off. Apparently the news had been annoucned
on the website, but I missed it. During his address, Bo ignored the
PA system p which looked like it was going to single-handedly sabotage
the entire weekend - and introduced the first speaker, Hannes Griebel
of the German Mars Society, and their "Archimedes" balloon
project.
This was some exciting stuff: a Mars Society Chapter developing a mission
that would actually (hopefully) fly to Mars. "Archimedes"
is a ballon mission that will examine the Martian atmosphere during
entry into it and then take measurements and film footage on its way
down to the surface. Most of the audience reacted positively to it,
but it was clear some of the project caused some puzzlement in after-talk
discussions (like how is the balloon actually going to survive entry
into the Martian atmosphere when it is inflated in space BEFORE it hits
the atmosphere....).
Next up came Robert Zubrin with a new twist on Mars direct that addressed
the Vision for Space Exploration and also challenged the on-going "Moon
first" thing. Stephen Baxter then talked about the British Interplanetary
Society's Mars Polar Base Study in the first talk on the Mars Habitat
stream that was going to be a focus of the weekend.
Stephen's talk was interesting because the Polar Base Study is still
a work in progress, so he was able to delve into the way the study had
been shaped by past projects undertaken by the BIS (so showing us some
of the BIS's heritage) and how comparative studies into Mars habitats
and more general areas of social thinking had shaped the thinking of
the Polar Base team. Certainly, some of their thoughts on the matter
appeared to challenge things like the Society's MARS habitat approach,
where the living facilities are clearly designated and crew members
have individual personal cabins - a very "Western" approach
to things. In contrast, the Polar Base team have considered a more "Eastern"
approach, with a communal living / sleeping area (so the lving room
becomes the joint bedroom). It certainly appears to cut down on the
amount of living space, but I'm not sure that with modern sensibilities
it would work...
A break followed Stephen's talk and we adjorned for tea, coffee, biscuits,
etc. When we came back to hear Colin Pillinger, a new PA system and
speakers had been installed into the hall (hooray!). While the PA wasn't
strictly needed given the size of the audience, just having working
microphones improved things wonderfully, and the system had a very good
pick-up. Colin gave an unabashed review of Beagle 2 - the triumphs and
the tregedy and showed a brilliant video that summed it up, before he
went on to almost preview a new book / exhibit he's working on that
looks at cartoons and the use of humour to reflect space exploration.
Wonderfully presented, it was for me the highlight of the day's talks.
Conference Organisers and Guests (l-to-r): Bo Maxwell, Colin Pillinger
Robert Zubrin Adam Hawkey, Jerry Stone & Peter Loftus (click to
enlarge)
Lunch was not a highlight. Once again the venue seems determined to
undermine their work in correcting mistakes. The buffet that was laid
out (in our own room, separate from the main dining toom) was pretty
poor - and not helped by the fact that NO chairs had been set out and
NO water and glasses provided. Still, we all tucked in to what was there
and Jerry Stone ran some video stills projected onto a wall.
I didn't actually go to the afternoon sessions. I was still hungry
after lunch and needed to get some things, so I went off to my room
to grab my keys and coat. On the way back I spotted Bo having firm words
with a member of the Management, no doubt over the lunch, but I didn't
stick around to find out what was going on.
Swindon is a weird place. Why do all the road signs lead you all around
the town, without actually directing you to anything useful - like the
town centre and shopping? I think I circled it once before I found what
I wanted (or needed by that time - like a cashpoint machine).
When I got back to Alexandra House, it was already the afternoon break
and the registration desk was doing brisk business. I'd already brought
Colin Pillinger's books and got him to sign them, so I worked my way
down the line, picking up more books, some posters, and getting the
goody bag I'd somehow missed out on during Friday. Things were obviously
runing late as well, and Bo and Bo and Jerry were trying to herd people
back into the hall to get things moving again.
The last two talks of the afternoon were MARS-related, but by the time
I'd been down to my room, dumped everything, changed my shoes for trainers,
walked back to the lounge & had a hot drink, the main hall doors
were shut and so I sat down and went through all the bits of my goodie
bag (leaflets, posters, another nice pen, a Mars Bar, etc., and the
conference programme booklet - which I sat and read). Temptation then
got the better of me, and a went back to my room, grabbed a bag and
slipped off for a swim in the pool - where I encountered the evening's
Dinner guest, John Zarnecki and his wife (? partner?).
Saturday evening kind-of followed the events of last year - a final
panel event followed by a Dinner. What made it fun this year was that
the pnael discussion was in fact a skit of University Challenge, with
two teams of guests Captained by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest (Cydonia
College and Utopia University!) answering questions from a suited
Bo Maxwell doubling as Jeremy Paxman (or Bamber Gascoigne if you remember
him).
The quiz followed the tradional format "Your starter for 10, no
conferring" followed by the bonus questions - and just about every
subject was covered. Robert Zubrin showed he is a good all-raound generalist
on history, politics, geography, but Stephen Baxter (on Heather's team)
initially gave him a good run for his money. But - and there may have
been a bias here (or at least nerves in the question master) as it was
Nigel's team, with Robert on it, that won, scoring almost double Heather's
team. There were cries of "fix!" from the audience (and the
losing team) - but everything was in good humour and some of the questions
(many of which were aaprently supplied by a University Challenge researcher)
were designed to be funny and worked very well.
There was a brief break after the quiz to give anyone who hadn't changed
the chance to do so, before we all moved back into our private dining
room for the Gala Dinner. Have to be honest here, after lunch, I really
wasn't sure what to expect, and I think a lot of people were apprehensive.
A table plan had been put up by susan Haslam earlier in the evening,
and so several of us on my table had pre-ordered wine.
As it turned out, the meal was fabulous. Not only was our wine already
at the table waiting for us, the tables were beautifully set, the lighting
was perfect, and the staff serving us polite and pleasant. Jerry Stone
had again set up a projector, which was showing images of Saturn and
Titan and the Cassini mission in honour of our guest speaker. Everything
was spot-on...all we needed was the food. This was a bit delayed, apparently
because of some minor hitches in seating or something, but when it came
- WOW!!! I thought the dinner at the Chinese last year was brilliant
(and it was, but for different reasons, as it was so much more informal),
but this was just mind-blowing. The food came, the wine flowed, and
conversation buzzed. Everyone had dressed for the evning, so there were
almost no tee-shirts and jeans to be seen, and it really helped make
the atmosphere, with everyone praising the food.
As dessert was cleared away, Bo stood up and said a few words to us
all, and then introduced the guest speaker, Professor John Zarnecki.
At EMC-4, professor Zarnecki gave one of my favourite talks about Huygens
and Titan and the whole Cassini mission. At that time, he had no idea
if Huygens was going to work or not...now he was back with us, riding
on the wave of success from Huygens and proved to be an even more engaging
and gifted speaker, as he took us on a 20-min personal tour of his career
which was informative, humorous and very warm and which captivated the
entire room.
At the end of his talk, however, Bo wasn't done. Someone had mentioned
that it was professor Zarnecki's birthday that weekend, and so we were
all lead on a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday!
Coffees had been served just before John's talk, and more served during
and after it, and for a while the conversations around the room continued
until we started breaking up and drifting back to the main lounge and
bar. It was obvious no-one wanted the evening to end, as the conversations
kept going and going, and people moved between groups and so on, but
slowly the number dwindled, until about a dozen of us were seated around
- including a knackered-looking but satisfied Bo (who was being plied
with drinks!!), until I finally had to slink away at about 2:30am, despite
the fact some of the women from the Max Factor (?) conference that was
also going on had joined our group and were chatting away.
Like EMC-4, I went to bed looking forward to Sunday, but also disappointed
the whole thing would be over by the end of the day.
