March 2006
From RmmsWiki
General Meeting - March, 2006
In attendance: Ray Mc C; Dewey A; Eric B; Jim W; SEDS students Ryan Kobrick; Sean O'Dell; Ben Herbert; Lisa Geschwell; John Campbell
Due to the poor weather several of the regular members were not able to make it for the meeting and presentation by Ryan Kobrick for Expedition Beta, Crew 44 from Mars Canada. This was the second of two expeditions designed to run in series for the purpose of training and cross-training and to carry on longer than single-expedition research in the field as well as to more closely simulate actual Martian long-term field research. They had done a previous expedition in the outback with the Australian Mars Society. They used both wired and wireless recordings of voice, camera and GPS readings all uploaded to Mission Control for data and process recording and to capture more data for later analysis.
Ryan's PowerPoint of the crew members and their specialties of geology, biology, engineering and cross-training efforts showed a crew selection that deliberately promoted prior e-mail and phone contacts for a few months before the expedition began, to create some positive crew dynamics and cooperation, and effort that seemed to pay off handsomely in the field. They also ate most dinners together and scheduled movie nights, card games and other team recreational activities to further crew cohesion and camaraderie. The psychometric evaluations of crew fatigue, cooperation and mood were measured remotely by online assessment tools for a Univ. of TX psychologist. There was also a Canadian news crew slotted for a couple of days of reporting and filming as well as an independent film producer on the crew creating a show for an online viewing through the Space Channel and can be found at www.andredunford.com. They are looking to continue this long-term approach with a month-long expedition at either Flashline or in the Australian outback.
Due to the low turnout of regular members there was no business discussed except for SEDS announcement of scheduled activities for Yuri's Night. There was some follow-up discussion of how to get Mars Society papers and research published by peer-reviewed journals for higher visibility and credibility along with how to catalogue and make more accessible the already-considerable amount of research that has been done through the analogues and sims so as to avoid duplication of efforts and to suggest further areas of research and development.
