Guest: Kevin Sloan: Topics: Mars Society University Rover Challenge, engineering, Mars Society Desert Research Station (MSDR) in Utah, President Obama. We started our program tonight with a message of congratulations to President Obama and Vice-President Biden. We wished them well and success. Kevin Sloan was then asked how he got interested in Mars and the Mars Society. It's an interesting story and I suspect it's not too different than many of your stories about Mars or something else space related. We then focused in on the Mars Society URC. We learned that the Feb. 1, 2009 deadline for letting Kevin know that you have a team to participate is approaching rapidly, so if you are interested in putting together a team, let Kevin know through the website or his email address. You can go to the URC website using http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/urc/urc-nav-page/?searchterm=rover%… . Kevin talked about some of the rules, the requirement for teams to be associated with a college or other school, about the engineering challenges of building a robot, and more. One listener asked if a robot could be designed to work inside one of the 7 Sisters Lave Tubes on Mars. Listen for the reply as it might prove an interesting and challenging academic or student project. Kevin received lots of engineering questions and questions about the logistics and environment at the MSDR in Utah. Other questions dealt with the Mars Society in general and other program sponsored by The Mars Society, as well as membership. If you have questions about the URC, the Mars Society, or letting Kevin Sloan know by Feb. 1 that you have a team to enter the URC, please email him at kevin@marssociety.org .
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The Space Show
