This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome!We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road. Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel - SAA.TV. View the livestream here.Katie Mack sheds light on the current state of modern cosmology, the Big Bang, and the ultimate fate of the Universe Dr Katherine (Katie) Mack is a theoretical astrophysicist. Her work focuses on finding new ways to learn about the early universe and fundamental physics using astronomical observations, probing the building blocks of nature by examining the cosmos on the largest scales. Throughout her career as a researcher at Caltech, Princeton, Cambridge, and now Melbourne University, she has studied dark matter, black holes, cosmic strings, and the formation of the first galaxies in the Universe. Katie is also an active science communicator and is passionate about science outreach. As a science writer, she has been published by Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time.com, and other popular publications, and has been a columnist for Cosmos Magazine.

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.  The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel SAA.TV or directly here.  MEDIAN: Methane Detection by In-situ Analysis with NanoLanders - A Mars Mission MEDIAN is aiming at Mars to be the first multi-probe extra-terrestrial network and it's looking for Methane. It is a joint UK, Australian project. Robert Brand is a leading Australian space entrepreneur, aerospace engineer and innovator. At the age of 17, Robert was involved in support for Apollo 11 in Australia with the feeds from Honeysuckle Creek and the Parkes Radio Telescope. He supported almost every mission from Apollo 11 to STS-7 and played a minor support role in Shuttle flights right up to 1985. In that time he worked at the Parkes Radio Telescope in support of the Voyager Uranus encounter and ESA’s Giotto mission to Halley’s Comet. Thunderstruck Aerospace is Robert’s company and the vehicle for several projects such as the StratoDrone and the Mars Median Mission. The Median Mission is based on Methane detection technology and has passed many milestones. The use of penetrators to land the payloads was his concept as was the mapping, orientation and more.   Mars 160 Mission Report The Mars Society's analogue research mission, Mars 160, is using both of the organisation’s analog research stations. This program involves the same seven person crew doing similar science operations for the same period of time – 80 days – initially at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah during the autumn of 2016 and then continuing at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in northern Canada during the summer of 2017. Annalea Beattie is an artist and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Her art practice is based in space science and she is especially interested in the role art will play in small isolated communities living in extreme environments off- Earth. For the twin desert Mars 160 mission, Annalea is the field artist. Through simulation and in environments analogous to Mars, her research explores how observation is key to the role of all field geologists, including those on a planetary exploration crew.  Annalea is a Director of both the Mars Society Australia and the National Space Society of Australia. She is a member of the British Interplanetary Society and the Victorian chapter of the International Dark Skies Association. Currently she is a crew member of the Mars Society analogue research mission, Mars 160.  Mars 160 Crew Portrait by Leo Flander  Two years ago, Leo Flander completed a Bachelor of Illustration degree and, in the process, rekindled a long lost love of painting. Since then, Leo has become obsessed with painting oil portraits: "Oil portraiture is steeped in tradition as a medium, I am always exploring how it can work in a modern context. To this end I look for the differences between oil painting and other media: not just another painting but also photography, film and even games. I am continually fascinated in the way people are portrayed and what that can say about them. In our photo-obsessed world, I try to offer a different realism to that found in the mechanical click of a shutter. For me oil paintings feel more alive, and more "real" than photos can and this is always at the forefront of my work. From this starting point, I explore what stories can be told through a singular image. Something that lacks the temporality of a movie, or sequence of a comic. With each of my works I try to tell as much of the story of the subject as I can, often creating mythic versions of themselves. I strive to show more than what they look like. Often my subjects are performers, small business owners and scientists - These are people who define themselves with their story." 221

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.  The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel - SAA.TV or directly via https://youtu.be/nlhluhT7t-s 221

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.  The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel - SAA.TV. How to go from a satellite mission plan to a space business - a workshop with Dr Jason Held, CEO of Saber Astronautics This month, we are breaking away from our usual meeting formula to bring you a truly fun, informative and interactive evening! Our guest speaker, Dr Jason Held of Saber Astronautics, will be a conducting a guided tour, and interactive workshop, using Saber's internationally renowned Predictive Ground Station Project (PIGI) software. PIGI is a next-generation space mission control software that brings together the latest techniques in human factors, artificial intelligence, and dynamic 3D data visualization to make it easy for spacecraft operators to monitor, fly, and rapidly diagnose faults in spacecraft systems. By special arrangement with Saber, attendees of the meeting will get a chance to use the software themselves! So, what does PIGI do? Okay, so imagine you have spacecraft, a launch date, and a plan to grow. Now what? In this workshop you will learn how to use a bit of science and the PIGI to calculate the number of customers you can get for a mission. Changing orbits, ground terminal locations, and other space mission fundamentals can greatly affect how many customers you can get and what they can do. Jason will show us how to find out if the mission we plan generates income. We will have a number of laptops available to use, so you can buddy up and get involved. And the winner gets a prize!    About Dr Jason Held, Saber Astronautics PhD, Aerospace and Mechatronics, 2008, University of Sydney BSc, Computer Science, 1993, Virginia Military Institute Saber Astronautics is a space engineering company based in Sydney and Colorado dedicated to researching cutting edge methods of spacecraft control. Prior to founding Saber Astronautics, Dr Held was a US Army Major and Army Space Support Team leader for USSTRATCOM (formerly Space Command) and deployed internationally in support of military space missions. Dr Held was a lead instructor at the Interservice Space Fundamentals Course and a guest engineer at Army Space and Missile Command Battle Lab. He conducted flight software engineering for the Wide Field Camera 3 of the Hubble Space Telescope and testing for the International Space Station. He also conducted verification and validation testing for an invasive class II medical device currently in market. Dr Held was twice a guest instructor for the University of Stuttguart’s IRS Space Station Design Workshop and led a research expedition in the high Canadian Arctic. He also co-founded the Delta-V Spacehub Startup Accelerator. At the University of Sydney, he founded the space engineering laboratory, providing leadership for the university CubeSat project and Australia’s first premix rocket engine

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.  The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel - SAA.TV.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQ5ROF1D1M Tragedy struck on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy during a preflight test for Apollo 204 (AS-204) on 27 January 1967. The mission was to be the first crewed flight of Apollo, and was scheduled to launch on 21 February 1967. Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the command module of what came to be known as Apollo 1.

You are invited to join us for the final meeting of the Space Association of Australia for 2016 - all welcome! Our fourth annual Space Trivia Night is free and open to all members, non members, friends and family. These nights are loads of fun and have become the social highlight of the SAA calendar. As usual, we'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue. For planning purposes, we ask that you RSVP your intention to attend and how many will be in your party by clicking on the  Buy Tickets  button at right.​ There is no 'fee', this just allows us to know how many to plan for. To help the night flow, please be at the RSL at or before 7:00 pm so that we can form teams and seat accordingly (we do plan to mix the groups up so please be open to the possibility of sitting with people you may or may not know). We will be screening the original 1966 NASA documentary, Gemini XII Mission, starting promptly a 7:00 pm for those that wish to watch. Others may choose to stand and chat. If you do want to watch the film, please arrive at the meeting early to place a meal order and get settled. We would also like you to place meal orders prior to getting started so the meals can be delivered upstairs at 8.00 pm. So, dust off your space knowledge, get lots of sleep, eat healthy, get out and exercise and most of all, be ready for a fun night, we look forward to seeing you there! 60

 The meeting will be streamed live via the SAA YouTube channel, SAA TV at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2k55A7TdI This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue. 50th Anniversary of Gemini XII Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, seen here in a 1966 Gemini 12 photo, will celebrate their mission's 50th anniversary in Florida. (NASA)

  Did you know that the Space Association of Australia has it's very own weekly one-hour radio program The Space Show  that goes to air every Wednesday at 7 pm and is broadcast from the Melbourne bayside suburb of Brighton? Long time member and past president, Andrew Rennie, is the producer/presenter on community radio 88.3 Southern FM. The show aims to promote the public understanding of spaceflight and astronomy, and to provide the public and members of the Space Association with up-to-date news of space related events. The show covers a wide range of current space and astronomical activities, both live and pre-recorded, from around the world and even across the solar system!    "Are you interested in learning about and maybe even getting involved in community radio?"   Here is your opportunity! You are invited to our free Space Show Open Night from 6:00-7:00 pm (immediately prior to the broadcast) on Wednesday, 26 October. We'll introduce Southern FM's new studios at 2 Parliament Street in Brighton to let you know where it is, how the show works, who’s involved and even how you can participate in the show as writer, presenter, producer or in some other way. So, why not come along and see behind the scenes of Australia's longest running space and spaceflight radio program and then stay to watch the show go live to air! No obligation and, if you are at all interested in getting involved, there are NO prerequisites. We will teach you everything you need to know and you will gain valuable skills while having a ball! Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot, Charlie Duke, is interviewed by Andrew Rennie and Peter Aylward on The Space Show in October 2014. 1544

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue. The meeting will be streamed live and then made available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/otji0JZI-aA Mars Update: Journey to the Red Planet Our feature topic will be our third annual review of the current status and feasibility of several planned missions to Mars with commentary and discussion by an expert panel. The evening will provide a local and global overview of plans, proposals, progress and timelines (including Elon Musk and SpaceX's plans for their Mars mission architecture - Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species - which was announced at the International Astronautical Congress 2016 in Mexico on 27 September and a Mars One update) and then to open up the discussion for special commentary from the panel, which will include: Mars One astronaut candidate and Space Association of Australia member, Dianne McGrath; the President of the Melbourne Chapter of the Mars Society Australia, Guy Murphy and others).  Space News: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli Lander Mission  The first mission of the ExoMars programme, scheduled to arrive at Mars on 16 October 2016, consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter plus an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, known as Schiaparelli. The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA's contribution to subsequent missions to Mars.

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue. The meeting was streamed live and is now available on-demand via the Space Association's YouTube channel - SAA.TV. The human body in space: The medicine of human spaceflight, surviving low earth orbit and beyond with Dr Marc Jurblum Human spaceflight has always been constrained by two dimensions. Engineering flight hardware capabilities and supporting the human body to survive spaceflight. There is no more extreme environment for human survival than the hazards of interstellar space. This makes spaceflight a unique opportunity and a powerful motivator for biomedical research, as we try to apply modern medicine and technological advances to push the boundaries of how long we can keep human beings alive and productive away from our native Earth’s biosphere. In this talk Marc will discuss the physical challenges of human spaceflight on the human body and their management in modern space medicine as well as considerations for cis-lunar missions, the challenges of Mars and true long duration spaceflight. About the Speaker: Dr Marc Jurblum is a training psychiatrist working with St Vincent’s Mental Health Service in Melbourne and a member of the Space Association of Australia. Dr Jurblum completed an Honours in biomedical sciences focusing on immunology and stem cell biology in 2004. He completed postgraduate medical degree with Deakin University in 2011 and has since pursued a research career in space medicine. He completed the International Space University's Southern Hemisphere Space Program and a Graduate Certificate in Space Psychology with Professor Sheryl Bishop of UTMB/NASA in 2014. Dr Jurblum was involved in research conducted at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station, with Crew 134 into psychological interventions for managing long duration space flight and isolated and confined environments (ICES). Dr Jurblum is a committee member of the space life sciences sub-committee for the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ASAM) and a member of the Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA), the Space Medicine Association (SMA), Space Association of Australia (SAA), Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) and the Mars Society Australia (MSA). Event Photo:  Dr Joe Kerwin examines Commander Pete Conrad on Skylab 2, 1973 - Photo courtesy of NASA

TICKETS TO THIS EVENT HAVE SOLD OUT AND REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED! If you would like to indicate your interest in being placed on a waitlist should places become available, please leave your details via our Contact Form: http://space.asn.au/public/contact_us The Space Association of Australia invites you to an exciting special event.  Join us in the Function Room at The Mail Exchange Hotel, 688 Bourke Street, Melbourne for a dialogue with the irrepressible Amy Shira Teitel. You may wish to arrive at the venue early and purchase a drink or a meal from the bistro but please note: you will not be able to take food into the Function Room during the presentation, which will commence at 7.30 pm sharp. Breaking the Chains of Gravity: A conversation with Amy Shira Teitel Amy Shira Teitel is a lifelong space-history nerd who has turned her schoolgirl fascination with the Apollo missions into a career researching the minutiae of spaceflight's history.  Amy started writing for the public with her blog, Vintage Space. She has also written for a number of other online and print publications including Discovery News Space, Al-Jazeera, The Guardian and Universe Today. She runs a thriving YouTube channel (also called Vintage Space), and has appeared on the Discovery channel, the Military channel, SyFy, and the Science channel, and she is a host on DNews, Discovery Channel's online daily news show. Amy was also an embedded journalist on the New Horizons team, bringing the excitement of humanity's first mission to Pluto to the space-loving public by presenting the enormously popular Pluto in a Minute videos for the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Amy's first book, Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA, was released in 2015.

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.  

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue. SPACEFEST VII | June 9-12, 2016 Tucson, Arizona - A report by Dr Len Halprin Spacefest is THE event for space enthusiasts of any stripe – Astronomy, Manned Space Exploration, Robotic Space Exploration, Commercial Space Development or Space History Enthusiast. For the Professional and Amateur. Spacefest is an annual reunion of NASA Apollo astronauts, famous space scientists, authors, astronomers, space artists, and fans. It is produced by Novaspace, a Tucson space art gallery & memorabilia dealer with a six-person crew. Two of those six are ‘Mom & Pop’ owners Kim and Sally Poor, who opened their gallery in 1978. The couple takes on the arrangements of the monumental Spacefest effort themselves, with help at the actual event from family, crew, friends, and volunteers. Dr Len Halprin has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from Monash University, and a Graduate Certificate in Scientific Leadership from the University of Melbourne. He has also served as President of the Monash Astronautical Society, the forerunner of the Space Association of Australia. After retiring from a 31-year career as a Senior Research Scientist with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Dr Halprin decided to become a science teacher and is currently in the final semester of a Master of Teaching (Secondary Physics and Mathematics) at Monash University.   As a lifelong aficionado of space exploration and a student of all things Apollo, Dr Halprin has toured throughout the U.S. visiting space facilities and has met and corresponded with several former astronauts.  In 2011 he was invited by DARPA to present his views on spaceflight at their 100 Year Starship Symposium.  His paper on the way forward for manned spaceflight was published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in July 2014. 

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome! We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.

The Mars Society Australia and the Space Association of Australia invite you to a special joint meeting. Join us in the Function Room at The Mail Exchange Hotel, 688 Bourke Street, Melbourne for dinner at 6:00 pm followed by the presentation commencing at 7:00 pm. Searching for Life with the SpaceX Dragon, IceBreaker and BRINE SpaceX’s recent announcement that it intends to land a Falcon Heavy-launched Dragon 2 spacecraft on the surface of Mars opens up many possibilities for landing heavier payloads on the planet. At the same time, the US Congress directed NASA to search for life in the outer solar system. Both of these developments indicate a paradigm shift in both the way and what NASA explores in the solar system.  In 2012 and 2013 NASA's Ames Research Center undertook a series of studies using Dragon on Mars, defining possible payloads, which included deep drills for astrobiology missions and Earth Return Rockets for Mars sample return. In 2015 Ames proposed the IceBreaker search for life mission to Mars for NASA's Discovery Program and now is currently working on a mission to Saturn's moon Enceladus.    David Wilson will discuss the Mars Red Dragon studies, the Mars Icebreaker mission and the Enceladus BRINE mission, all related to the search for life.   Entry is free but registration is essential:  David Wilson | Vice President - Mars Society Australia David Willson has been involved with the Mars Society Australia since 2003 and has been vice president since 2012. Since 2010, David has worked as a a research and development engineer at the Space Science and Astrobiology Division in the NASA Ames Research Center in California. He is part of a team that has worked on a range of projects including the Red Dragon on Mars, the Icebreaker Mars Life Search Mission and, most recently, the Enceladus BRINE mission.  Prior to then he was a mechanical engineer with the Hobart-based engineering firm SEMF, and later Tenova SEMF and Takraf companies in the Australian materials handling and mining industries.  David has been extensively involved with the NASA Spaceward Bound Expeditions to the Pilbara, central Australia, and New Zealand and research at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.