President's Report

We are well and truly into 2007 and the NSSA wings have soared taking grasp of the excitingly new space age!

The leadership of the NSSA has expanded and we will be welcoming Anthony Wicht as a Director. Anthony has recently obtained his qualifications as a solicitor and has led the UNSW BlueSat team. He brings to the team strong professional skills and we look forward to his input into the future of the NSSA.

We also welcome Natalie Gardner as an Executive member of the NSSA leadership, taking over the role of Publications. You can read all about Natalie in her biography below, what you may not know is that Natalie is a fantastic dancer!

You may notice shortly that the NSSA has had a facelift. Our new website will be launched shortly and I encourage you to regularly look at it, better yet – add it to your favourites. (www.nssa.com.au) Your thoughts, comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated. We aim to keep it fresh and updated. The website has been designed by a fellow space enthusiast – Bill Butler from Space Magnetics.

April 12th was the anniversary of the first manned flight to space by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin. Yuri’s night is held all over the world and is a celebration of the pioneering golden era in space including the first space shuttle flight which occurred exactly 20 years after Yuri’s flight in 1981. Sydney Space Frontier Society organised a traditional Russian dinner and NSFS also organised a special outing.

The NSSA is also preparing for the Australian Space Science Conference to be held in Sydney in September. We are looking for a wide variety of potential posters and papers, so if you have any ideas, please send them through to us!

Two of our NSSA members have had wonderful news. Dr Paul Leopardi has accepted a post- doctorate position at the ANU and Jason Held has become engaged! We wish them both the very best on the new challenges (!?) they face.

Importantly, I would also like to thank Alan Bates, a Director of the NSSA for taking charge of membership. Alan has a strong head for organisation and we are very grateful for his help.

There is so much more happing, so there is no better time to get involved!

Ad Astra!
Anny Joseph
President NSSA
ALJoseph@bigpond.net.au
0414 456 043

In this months issue:

If there is a topic that you'd like to read about in the next issue of eSFN or your chapter would like to be featured just let us know. Email your Readers Requests to: esfn@nssa.com.au

http://www.physorg.com/news94310298.html

The landing site is unknown. The rockets are still on the drawing board. Some of the astronauts haven't even been born yet. Never mind all that. NASA's journey to Mars has already begun. "Astronauts are stationed on the ISS for six months at a time," says Dr. Clarence Sams, lead scientist for the ISS Medical Project at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). "Coincidentally, that's about how long it takes to travel to Mars. " For example, what happens to food and medicine exposed to six-plus months of space travel? Curiously, food kept in orbit seems to lose some of its nutritional impact. "We may have to come up with a plan for protecting our supplies," continues Sams. "How fast do food and medicines degrade?". To help answer these questions, an experiment is running on the ISS called Stability of Pharmacotherapeutic and Nutritional Compounds. Other experiments on the ISS examine the bodies of the crew themselves, requiring them to take blood and saliva samples and sonograms while aboard the station. Other questions -- such as how the body reacts to the partial gravity of the Moon or Mars -- will have to wait until NASA sends astronauts back to the Moon in the coming decade.Meanwhile, says Sams, the ISS is an excellent place to start.

Humans on Mars, an artist's concept (pictured)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/science/space/25pluto.html?ei=5090&en=2a0d3516ec414e00&ex=1314072000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a "dwarf planet." In the new solar system, there are eight planets, at least three dwarf planets and tens of thousands of so-called "smaller solar system bodies," like comets and asteroids. "The new definition makes perfect sense in terms of the science we know," said Alan Boss, a planetary theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It has long been clear that Pluto, discovered in 1930, stood apart from the previously discovered planets. Not only was it much smaller than them, only about 1,600 miles in diameter, smaller than the Moon, but its elongated orbit is tilted with respect to the other planets and it goes inside the orbit of Neptune part of its 248-year journey around the Sun. Pluto makes a better match with the other ice balls that have since been discovered in the dark realms beyond Neptune According to the new rules a planet meet three criteria: it must orbit the Sun, it must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball, and it must have cleared other things out of the way in its orbital neighborhood. The latter measure knocks out Pluto and Xena, which orbit among the icy wrecks of the Kuiper Belt, and Ceres, which is in the asteroid belt. Dwarf planets only have to be round.

From left, Richard Binzel, Christopher Corbally and Jocelyne Bell-Burnell voting during the closing session of the International Astronomical Union's 26th General Assembly in Prague.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/feb/HQ_07053_NEEMO_12_crew.html

NASA will send a flight surgeon, two astronauts and a Cincinnati doctor into the ocean depths off the Florida coast May 7-18 to test space medicine concepts and moon-walking techniques. During the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 12 (NEEMO 12), the crew will conduct a variety of advanced medical technology experiments, including robotic telesurgery on simulated patients. Scientists and school children also will be able to move two remotely controlled surgical robots in Aquarius. This will be the 12th NEEMO undersea mission. Similar in size to the International Space Station's living quarters, Aquarius is the world's only permanent underwater habitat and laboratory. The 45-foot long, 13-foot diameter complex is three miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, about 62 feet beneath the surface. A surface buoy provides connections for power, life support and communications. A shore-based control center monitors the habitat and crew.

Image above: A NEEMO 11 crew member works near the undersea habitat "Aquarius" during a session of extravehicular activity for the NEEMO project. Image credit: NASA

Call for Abstracts and Meeting Announcement
7th Australian Space Science Conference
24 - 27 September 2007
Sydney NSW Australia

We are pleased to invite you to submit abstracts for presentations (oral and posters) at the 7th Australian Space Science Conference (ASSC). This will be the first ASSC meeting jointly sponsored and organised by the National Committee for Space Science (NCSS) and the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA). The ASSC is intended to be the primary annual meeting for Australian research relating to space science. It welcomes space scientists, engineers, educators, industry and government. The focus this year will be on attracting and bringing together the professional Australian space science community, so as to make the ASSC the annual conference for Australian space science, while retaining the strengths of earlier meetings. Invited oral talks and both contributed talks and posters will be presented, with prizes for the best presentations by graduate and undergraduate students. A voluntary proceedings with fully peer-reviewed papers will be published, with submission of papers shortly after the conference.

This year's ASSC will run in conjunction with the NCSS's workshop on implementing Australia's first Decadal Plan for Space Science, currently being developed. This two-day workshop will discuss the Plan and Government's responses, better link the scientific community and associated stakeholders in Government and industry, and start implementing the Plan's recommendations.

Please make this conference known to your colleagues and attend.

Anntonette Joseph, Co-Chair, National Space Society of Australia
Iver Cairns, Co-Chair National Committee for Space Science & University of Sydney

SUGGESTED TOPICS (but not limited to):

• Space Science
  • Space and atmospheric physics
  • Remote sensing from/of space
  • Planetary sciences, including atmospheres and geology
  • Astrobiology and life sciences
  • Space-based astronomy and astrophysics
• Space Engineering
  • Satellite Communications
  • Navigation (and applications)
  • Space operations
  • Propulsion
• Spacecraft design, test and implementation
• Space industry
• Government, international relations and law
• Education and outreach

PROGRAM COMMITEE:
Bill Barrett
Iver Cairns (Chair, i.cairns@physics.usyd.edu.au)
Jon Clarke
Roger Franzen
Trevor Harris
Alex Held
Jason Held
Marc Norman
Carol Oliver
Murray Parkinson
Mike Tobar

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Anntonette Joseph
President
National Space Society of Australia
GPO Box 7048
Sydney NSW 2001
asscconference@nssa.com.au
phone: 0414 456 043
Website: www.assc.nssa.com.au

We would like to send our best wishes to ex NSSA President Tim McEgan and his wife Maria on the birth of their first baby Daniel. He arrived at 3.40pm on Wednesday 24th January as a healthy 3.5kg and 50cm in length. Lets all congratulate Tim on his sterling efforts to expand the NSSA membership!

We are very excited to announce the NSSA website is being completely re-done, you can see the start of the creation at: http://www.spacemagnetics.com/NSSA/index.shtml

This month's NSSA Member Profile: Natalie Gardner - Executive Committee Member for Publications

How to start an NSSA Chapter

Have you got a group of friends that enjoy discussing space? Would you like to do it regularly and get recognised for your efforts? Well here is your chance! Start a new NSSA Chapter today, it's this easy:


1. Identify which of your friends enjoy chatting about space issues

2. Suggest that a group of you get together one time to talk about space eg. at a cafe

3. If it goes well then suggest you do it regularly eg. once a month

4. Once you have 5 people who are NSSA members let NSSA know and request recognition as a chapter.

5. Ask NSSA for the contact details of other members in your area.

6. Find a regular venue to meet eg. Uni tutorial room or a community centre

7. Appoint a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer (although these do not need to be three separate people).

8. Each chapter receives a share of the membership fees paid by their members who join or renew each year.

9. Arrange a guest speaker eg. A local university lecturer

10. Organise a public outreach event eg. Have a stand at a public event such as National Science Week

11. NSSA can tell you when people of note will be in your area and help you invite them to your meeting as a speaker eg. Andy Thomas is occasionally in Adelaide.

12. Inform the Board of your activities if you are doing something exciting.

13. Have the chance to stand for election to the Board as your Chapters representative.

Tips on how you can be more involved with the NSSA