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Chapter Spotlight - Mars Society San Diego; Anti-Mars Pressure Building In Congress
It is our intent to highlight the activities of our numerous chapters around the world. They are all doing extraordinary work and are helping immensely in our effort to promote the concept of humans to Mars. At least once a month, we will highlight a chapter that has been maintaining a high level of activity or whose members have otherwise distinguished themselves.
If you would like your chapter highlighted, please send us a report of
no more than 3 paragraphs to patt@marssociety.org.
THE MARS SOCIETY - SAN DIEGO (TMS-SD)
The San Diego chapter of The Mars Society, founded in 2001 by Gerry Williams, engages in a wide range of activities from participating in space-related public events such as Sally Ride Science Festivals to hosting a free monthly Mars-themed movie night. TMS-SD visits classrooms, museums, public libraries and other venues around Southern California with an interactive display including a remote controlled 1/4-scale Mars Exploration Rover, relative gravity bricks, Mars soil simulant, Mars globes, and a Mars Surface Simulator Suit.
TMS-SD members frequently provide Mission Support for the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) simulation habitats. TMS-SD has an active message board for spacefaring news and publishes a "This Week In San Diego" e-mail of local space-related events.
For further information about TMS-SD, or to attend a monthly chapter meeting, please visit our website at http://MarsSanDiego.org. You can join this chapter (or your local chapter) by joining the Mars Society or renewing your membership.
As most of you know, the FY08 federal budget contained language that would prevent NASA from using any money on programs that are exclusively intended for sending humans to Mars. This language is already beginning to have an impact on what NASA is allowed to do as they plan for the next stage in the American human space flight program. Unfortunately, it is highly probable that there will be an attempt to place this language on the FY09 budget. In addition, there are growing budgetary pressures on the NASA budget - as noted in SpacePolitics.com yesterday, the House will be holding a hearing to challenge the foundations of the Moon-Mars program. We need to make sure our elected officials know that their constituents support a fully funded program.
We realize that you were asked several times in 2007 to call, write, or fax your members of Congress. However, this is the reality of the American legislative system. Every year we need to fight to support the programs that we believe in – this year is no exception. On the contrary, this is perhaps the most important year in decades. The American public will be electing a new President of the United States.
Even if Congress and the President are not able to finalize the budget this year (which is highly likely) we still need to make a LOUD statement. Congress and the candidates will hear us.
Please contact your members of Congress and the Presidential candidates to tell them that you support a human mission to Mars and that they should prevent any restrictive language from being added to the FY09 or any future budgets (remember that all three candidates are in the U.S. Senate).
At the bottom of this email is a link to the Mars Society fax program. We will help you fax the candidates and Congress.
For better or for worse, 2009 will mark the start of a new era for the United States space program. Help us influence the people who will make those decisions. On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania voters will have a tremendous impact on the campaign. April 22nd primary could decide the outcome of the Democratic race. Both candidates will be spending a large amount of time in Pennsylvania for the next three weeks. While we want everybody to contact the candidates, if you live in (or near) Pennsylvania, you will have an opportunity to go to one of these events and tell them that you think that they should support a human mission to Mars. You can also hand them our talking points page and a sheet of reasons to support human space flight ( Democratic version; Republican version).
Here are two good sources for campaign event information in Pennsylvania: If you meet a candidate, please have a picture taken so that we can post it on our webpage.
To make the process easier for you, The Mars Society is now offering a program in which you can write a fax online that will automatically be sent to your members of Congress and the presidential candidates. How can you access the fax program?
THE MARS SOCIETY - SAN DIEGO (TMS-SD)
The San Diego chapter of The Mars Society, founded in 2001 by Gerry Williams, engages in a wide range of activities from participating in space-related public events such as Sally Ride Science Festivals to hosting a free monthly Mars-themed movie night. TMS-SD visits classrooms, museums, public libraries and other venues around Southern California with an interactive display including a remote controlled 1/4-scale Mars Exploration Rover, relative gravity bricks, Mars soil simulant, Mars globes, and a Mars Surface Simulator Suit.
TMS-SD members frequently provide Mission Support for the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) simulation habitats. TMS-SD has an active message board for spacefaring news and publishes a "This Week In San Diego" e-mail of local space-related events.
For further information about TMS-SD, or to attend a monthly chapter meeting, please visit our website at http://MarsSanDiego.org. You can join this chapter (or your local chapter) by joining the Mars Society or renewing your membership.
IT'S TIME TO MAKE A POLITICAL STATEMENT!
As most of you know, the FY08 federal budget contained language that would prevent NASA from using any money on programs that are exclusively intended for sending humans to Mars. This language is already beginning to have an impact on what NASA is allowed to do as they plan for the next stage in the American human space flight program. Unfortunately, it is highly probable that there will be an attempt to place this language on the FY09 budget. In addition, there are growing budgetary pressures on the NASA budget - as noted in SpacePolitics.com yesterday, the House will be holding a hearing to challenge the foundations of the Moon-Mars program. We need to make sure our elected officials know that their constituents support a fully funded program.
We realize that you were asked several times in 2007 to call, write, or fax your members of Congress. However, this is the reality of the American legislative system. Every year we need to fight to support the programs that we believe in – this year is no exception. On the contrary, this is perhaps the most important year in decades. The American public will be electing a new President of the United States.
Even if Congress and the President are not able to finalize the budget this year (which is highly likely) we still need to make a LOUD statement. Congress and the candidates will hear us.
Please contact your members of Congress and the Presidential candidates to tell them that you support a human mission to Mars and that they should prevent any restrictive language from being added to the FY09 or any future budgets (remember that all three candidates are in the U.S. Senate).
At the bottom of this email is a link to the Mars Society fax program. We will help you fax the candidates and Congress.
OPERATION PRESIDENT MOVES TO PENNSYLVANIA
For better or for worse, 2009 will mark the start of a new era for the United States space program. Help us influence the people who will make those decisions. On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania voters will have a tremendous impact on the campaign. April 22nd primary could decide the outcome of the Democratic race. Both candidates will be spending a large amount of time in Pennsylvania for the next three weeks. While we want everybody to contact the candidates, if you live in (or near) Pennsylvania, you will have an opportunity to go to one of these events and tell them that you think that they should support a human mission to Mars. You can also hand them our talking points page and a sheet of reasons to support human space flight ( Democratic version; Republican version).
Here are two good sources for campaign event information in Pennsylvania: If you meet a candidate, please have a picture taken so that we can post it on our webpage.
WE'LL HELP YOU SEND A FAX TO CONGRESS AND THE CANDIDATES
To make the process easier for you, The Mars Society is now offering a program in which you can write a fax online that will automatically be sent to your members of Congress and the presidential candidates. How can you access the fax program?
- Go to http://fax.marssociety.org.
- Fill in your name and address and then write your letter. The fax generator will automatically send faxes to the candidates or your United States Senators and Representative. It will also provide the proper heading to the fax. You do not need to add a heading.
- A sample letter is available on the fax page.
- If you have any problems getting the fax generator to work, contact Alex Kirk at alex@marssociety.org.
