Finally returned from the Sixth Annual Mars Society Conference in Eugene, OR. I'll have many reports on it this week, as I sift through my thirty-five pages of handwritten notes for interesting bits of info.

The primary message of the conference was great, and dovetails with what a lot of space advocates have been saying since February:

• The United States needs a manned space exploration program;
  
• NASA, the present custodian of that program, needs a focus for its efforts; and
  
• Mars should be that focus.
  

Much to my surprise, over the course of the conference Bob Zubrin repeatedly made the same arguments as I did in my presentation: the Shuttle stack (sans orbiter) is the best available basis for a Saturn V-class heavy-lift launch vehicle, and it must not be abandoned when (inevitably) Shuttle is phased out of service.

Much much more later...

Posted by T.L. James on August 18, 2003 12:12 AM