-----Original Message-----
From: Jan MacVarish [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 February 2002 09:14
To: Jan MacVarish
Subject: The Maverick Club: dinner is Tuesday 5 February
Hello All,
Thursday's message may have left some of you confused, as the date for One
More Step? was incorrect. The dinner is tomorrow night (Tuesday 5 February).
There are still a few places available. If you have already booked, please
ignore this message.
Best regards,
Jan Macvarish
The Maverick Club
[log in to unmask]
www.MaverickClub.com
020 8761 4592
07909 993 007
------------------------
ONE MORE STEP?
with Bo Maxwell of The Mars Society
The skies and the stars have been an eternal object of curiosity to mankind.
The 20th century brought them within reach. Many of the hopes of that
century were shaped by the dream of space colonisation; many of the fears
were shaped by the nightmare that 'they' would find us first. Mars was
central to this imagination and 'the Martian' embodied alternatively
aspirational, hostile and fearful attitudes towards life beyond earth.
In contrast, the post-cold war world has little time for 'the final
frontier' - in the new Star Trek series, instead of leaping even further
into the future, the plot is played out just 150 years from now, where the
technology is far from perfect and the Enterprise travels at half the speed
it was capable of in the original 1966 series.
In the real world of space travel, NASA's current strategy is based on the
principles 'cheaper, faster, better'; making more frequent but less
expensive and less ambitious missions into space. Future human missions look
increasingly doubtful. Research programmes are as concerned with the way
astronauts get along with one another (Big Brother in space?) as with what
can be discovered for greater human benefit.
Today, high-profile space travellers are more likely to be retired
millionaires or internet entrepreneurs - hardly in the league of Yuri
Gegarin or Neil Armstrong.
What is the future for space exploration, in particular, the colonisation of
Mars? What questions about life on Earth could be answered through more
ambitious exploration programmes?
Read on:
Why Go to Mars Scientific American
http://130.94.24.217/2000/0300issue/0300zorpette.html
Website of The Mars Society
http://www.marssociety.org/
Date: Tuesday 5 February 2002, 7.30 for 8pm
Venue: The Commonwealth Club, 18 Northumberland Avenue, London WC1
Tickets: £30 Maverick members, £40 non-members (includes 3 course meal and
coffee) There will be a cash bar.
By cheque: Send cheques, made payable to The Maverick Club UK Limited, to 36
Tritton Road, London SE21 8DE.
By credit/debit card:
Email your card number, expiry date and, if it is Switch, the issue number,
to [log in to unmask] or call 020 8761 4592
END
**********************************************************************
1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to [log in to unmask] with the following message:
set psci-com nomail
2. To resume email from the list, send the following message:
set psci-com mail
3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message:
leave psci-com
4. Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive,
can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html
5. The psci-com gateway to internet resources on science communication and science
and society can be found at http://psci-com.org.uk
**********************************************************************
|