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:: Geology Instructor Covering Simulated Mission to Mars on Oct. 23


Oct. 22, 2009


*******PHOTO/NEWS OPPORTUNITY*******


Experience in July of month-long analog environment part of effort to collect realistic data field for future colonization on Red Planet; Presentation part of Natural Science Department's Friday Science Seminar Series

WHO: Walter “Vernon” Kramer, Del Mar College (DMC) geology instructor and 2009 Commander of the 12th crew of The Mars Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS)

WHAT: Department of Natural Sciences Friday Science Seminar: “Life on Mars—Living and Working in a Mars Analog Environment on Earth”

WHEN: 1 p.m., Friday, Oct. 23 (tomorrow)

WHERE: Retama Room (second floor), Harvin Student Center, Del Mar College East, Ayers and Kosar (online map available at www.delmar.edu/resources/maps/east.php)

VISUALS: Vernon Kramer discussing his role as Commander and team member of The Mars Society’s 12th mission to simulate life on the Red Planet for research purposes for future colonization on the planet; showing short movie clips and pictures of team members collecting realistic field data; and demonstrating how to extract water from rocks similar to those found on Mars.

FYI: For Del Mar College geology instructor Walter “Vernon” Kramer, “home” during July was a tiny 25-foot diameter simulated space capsule on the edge of a large meteor crater on Devon Island, the world’s largest uninhabited island located in the Canadian arctic with topography and minerals similar to Mars. He and five other crew members simulated life and conducted experiments to collect field data as though they were actually on the Red Planet––space suites and all––while also watching out for polar bears as they conducted their work.

Tomorrow, Oct. 23, Kramer will present “Life on Mars—Living and Working in a Mars Analog Environment on Earth” as part of the Department of Natural Sciences’ Friday Science Seminar Series this semester. During the presentation, he will provide visuals and actually demonstrate how humans would need to extract water from rocks to survive on Mars.

The crew’s time at the station was the third-longest mission with each member focusing on different experiments addressing the technological, physiological and psychological aspects of human existence on Mars. Kramer’s role was to determine the economic aspects associated with Mars, meaning how do we develop an economy using resources available on the planet.

During an earlier interview before his mission, Kramer said that one similarity between Devon Island and Mars is the presence of gypsum, a very soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate. When heated, the mineral releases water and another product, plaster of Paris, which can be used to make cement.

Kramer will also discuss other experiments and data that he and other crew members completed during the XII FMARS 2009 mission.

To read an online release on The Mars Society’s site about the completed mission, go to:

www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/AnalogsTF/FMARS2009Completed/

To read releases produced before and during Kramer’s mission, use the following two links:

www.delmar.edu/news.php?newsid=1594

www.fmars2009.org/


-DMC-mce



For more information, media can contact Walter “Vernon” Kramer, DMC geology instructor, at 361-698-1385 or wkramer@delmar.edu or Roger Steinberg, DMC associate professor of geology, at 361-698-1665 or rsteinb@delmar.edu.







Date of this item added : 2009-10-22