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Newsletter #1 - July 12th, 2002

Welcome to the Mars Gravity mailing list. The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program is a collaborative effort involving the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and the University of Queensland. The mission will make the first comprehensive study of mammalian physiology in reduced gravity,providing important answers to fundamental biological questions.

PROJECT UPDATES: This is the first monthly update for the Mars Gravity satellite project and mission. You are receiving this message because, at some time, you signed up for e-mail updates regarding the project, possibly at our homepage.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Last month, our project managers met with officials at NASA, NIH, Congress and other organizations in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Mars Gravity mission. This trip helped raise our profile in official circles, and gave us useful information about regulatory issues, fundraising, and involving the scientific community.

LIFE SUPPORT PROTOTYPING: The payload engineering team, based at MIT, has begun development of a prototype life support system to demonstrate closed-loop autonomous life support with mice for a model mission cycle. This effort will extend the feasible lifetime of isolator habitats to the full mission duration and create a complete working system similar to that planned for the spacecraft.

MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE: Teams from all three universities will be converging on Colorado next month for the annual Mars Society conference, held at Boulder on August 8-11. We will be presenting papers about the project at the conference, and look forward to seeing some of you there. This will also provide an opportunity for team members from different universities to establish a working relationship and plan out the next phase of project development.

GET INVOLVED: You can get involved in this exciting mission, and make a difference in the effort to understand the effects of partial gravity on mammals. We are looking for people to participate in hands-on engineering, science, management, or in advisory roles. If you are interested, please let us know.

FUNDRAISING: We have begun submitting proposals for grants and donations to support the mission, and are making presentations to several possible sources of funding. If you know of any sources we should consider, or are interested in making a donation, please let us know at info@marsgravity.org.