Searching for Life with the SpaceX Dragon, IceBreaker and BRINE

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.