Mississauga Astronomical Society
                                                                    Seventh Meeting
                                                                    First Speakers’ Night

 Day:           8 p.m.   Friday, September 19, 2003      

Speakers:     Randy Attwood 
                          Ivan Semeniuk   -  Guest Speaker
    


Introduction and welcome

Randy Attwood welcomed current and new members. He acknowledged that many were members of the Toronto or Hamilton Centres of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and he pointed out the value of membership and urged others to join. 

 

NASA press conference video 

Randy Attwood presented a video from the NASA TV channel showing the press conference held on Sept. 17 by the Galileo space mission scientists and managers. Galileo  which was launched in 1989 has been an extremely productive spacecraft and has vastly increased our knowledge of the Jupiter system. One of the major discoveries was the likely presence of oceans of water on three of the Galilean moons. To prevent the contamination of these moons by terrestrial life, especially Europa, the Galileo spacecraft will be sent into Jupiter’s atmosphere on Sunday, Sept. 21 to disintegrate. The conference participants discussed the rationale of this as well as the discoveries that Galileo has made.

 

New Mississauga Astronomical Society council 

Randy Attwood presented the new executive and council for the M.A.S. The council’s mandate is to set and approve the 2004 budget, set membership fees for 2004, develop and approve bylaws for the society and set out benefits of membership. The members of the executive and council are as follows:

                                                 Executive                               

            President                                Randy Attwood
                        Vice President                       Ian McGregor 
                        Secretary                                Chris Malicki 
                        Treasurer                                Paul Brandon

 

Council                                  

            Dairne Boyd                             (membership secretary)                                 
                        Phil Mozel                                (members night co-ordinator)
                        Muhammad Asheik                   (web site administrator)
                        Vimal Lad                                (newsletter, telescope loan program)
                        Kari Ross                                 (City Star Party co-ordinator)
                        Henry Neil                                (promotion)
                        Betty Robinson                         (welcome table)
                        John Marchese 

 

Mars and Mars Missions

Ivan Semeniuk program producer at the Canadian Discovery Channel, and writer for SkyNews magazine was the speaker for this first “Speaker’s Night” of the Mississauga Astronomical Society. He gave a very interesting presentation about Mars missions past and present with special emphasis on the three landers that are currently on their way to Mars. It makes sense to send these spacecraft to Mars because in studying Mars we get to understand the Earth better; Mars could also potentially harbour life and Mars is relatively easy to get to.  It makes sense to land on the planet’s surface because we can learn certain things only by touching and sensing, and correlating with images from orbit. It is also extremely compelling to us humans to see images from the surface of the planet because we get to understand Mars as a real place.

Of 10 previous attempts to land on the surface of Mars, there have been only 3 successes, namely the two Vikings in 1976, and the Pathfinder rover in 1996. Since then, the two active spacecraft around the planet, the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey have found evidence of a rich geologic history, evidence of water in the past and of recent water activity especially as seepage features in certain craters.
At the present time, three landers are on the way to Mars.

as Day at Isidis Planitia Basin which is filled with sediments and may have water and organic compounds which the stationary lander will test for.

In January 2004, the two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers, about the size of golf carts will land at two different but interesting sites of the red planet. Ivan showed two fascinating computer animations showing in graphic detail the launches, cruise to Mars, descents and landings using parachutes and airbags of these two rovers. Spirit is to land in Gusev Crater which is felt to be a potential delta/ drainage basin with sediments and a possibility of water and ancient life. It will then travel up to 100 meters per day for a projected 90 days exploring all manner of rocks and geologic features. Its twin, Opportunity, is to land in Sinus Meridiani, in the only area of Mars containing large deposits of hematite, a mineral requiring water for its formation.  Ivan explained how the two landing areas of Gusev and Sinus Meridiani were chosen after a very detailed study of numerous potential places; these two are especially interesting for their sediments and probable relationship to water on Mars. The computer animations of the two NASA rovers, as well as the one on the ESA Beagle 2 mission were fascinating to watch and were greeted with a hearty applause. 

On behalf of the M.A.S., Randy Attwood sincerely thanked Ivan Semeniuk for his extremely interesting and timely talk about the red planet and missions to Mars.

 

Following announcements from Phil Mozel and Brian Cheaney, the seventh meeting was formally concluded.

 

 Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to M.A.S. meeting reports page
Mississauga Astronomical Society