Broadcast 1585 (Special Edition)

Guest: Lucinda Land. Topics: The Mars Society and the upcoming 14th Annual International Mars Society Conference. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Lucinda Land, Executive Director of The Mars Society to update us on the organization and the upcoming conference scheduled for August 4-7, 2011 in Dallas, Texas. Visit the conference website for more information, registration, and hotel information, www.marssociety.org/home/join_us/convention. We started out talking about the main keynote speakers. Most of these speakers can be seen along with a short bio by visiting www.marssociety.org/home/join_us/convention/marsconv2011speakers. As Lucinda tells us about each speaker and their planned talk, you will see that this Mars Society Conference covers many interesting Mars related topics as well as cutting edge space exploration topics such as the Kepler Mission, Mars Science Lab, and more. Lucinda also told us about some of the specialty panels including nuclear propulsion, radiation, microgravity and more in the multi-track program. Lucinda went over the full range of networking opportunities along with the details for the reception, banquet, and outreach program. Later in the discussion, listeners asked about the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and how to participate as crew. The same for FMARS located at Devon Island. Conference registration details were provided along with the hotel information for the Embassy Suites Grapevine in Dallas. The registration rate increases on July 20 so if you can be there for this year's conference, you want to be sure to register before then to get the Early Bird rate. Near the end of our discussion, Lucinda talked about the two other Mars Society Conferences, The Australian Mars Exploration Conference in Perth, Australia July 23-24, 2011 and the European Mars Convention in Neuchatel, Switzerland from Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2011. Another important point Lucinda made about the conference dealt with the Steering Committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon. This meeting is open for all to attend as you do not have to be on the Steering Committee since its open to conference attendees. If you have comments or questions about our discussion, post them on the blog URL above. You can email specific Mars Society and conference questions to Lucinda Land at lucinda@marssociety.org.