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.

Live on Stage Australia in association with Mark Stewart Productions and National Geographic Channel proudly presents the Australian tour of Gene Cernan: naval aviator, engineer, fighter pilot, NASA astronaut and last man on the Moon. This major event will feature the AUSTRALIAN PREMIER of the multi-award winning documentary film, The Last Man on the Moon and GENE CERNAN himself live on stage discussing the film, his life and extraordinary career with the Q&A hosted by CSIRO astronomer and science educator, Dr Lisa Harvey-Smith. Australian Tour Dates: 27 May - Perth | Perth Concert Hall 28 May - Carnarvon | Carnarvon Civic Centre 30 May - Sydney | Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Cremorne (matinee & evening show) 31 May - Melbourne | The Astor Theatre, St Kilda  2 June - Canberra | Canberra Theatre Centre The Space Association of Australia has been working closely with Live on Stage Australia, the producers of the Australian tour, and we are delighted to offer you a 10% discount* on tickets for you, your family and friends. * This discount applies to all shows (excluding Carnarvon) and all price points, including the Meet & Greet package! Discount tickets are only available from this exclusive link to Ticketmaster.  The Space Association of Australia takes this opportunity to thank and congratulate Live On Stage Australia, Mark Stewart Productions and National Geographic Channel on a highly successful and hugely memorable Australian tour of Gene Cernan - The Last Man on the Moon. 

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 Surveyor 1 - The View from Downunder​ with Mike Dinn, Deputy Station Director at DSS-42 (Tidbinbilla) in 1966 Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969.  Surveyor 1 was launched on 30 May 1966, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and it landed on the Moon on 2 June 1966. Surveyor 1 transmitted 11,237 still photos of the lunar surface to the Earth by using a television camera and a sophisticated radio-telemetry system. Mike Dinn was born and educated in England. After graduating in Electrical Engineering (London) in 1955, he worked in British industry mainly on aircraft electronics and electrics.   In 1960 he moved to Australia, and was responsible for aircraft flight testing instrumentation with the Royal Australian Air Force. Mike moved to the Canberra Deep Space Tracking Station (Tidbinbilla – part of NASA/JPL’s Deep Space Network) in 1966 as Deputy Station Director in charge of Operations, his first mission being Surveyor 1. In 1967 he took a similar position at Honeysuckle Creek, one of NASA’s three main communications facilities for the Apollo program, and was actively involved in missions 7 to 14. He returned to the DSN station during the building of the new 210 ft dish at Tidbinbilla, and spent a year at JPL Pasadena (1972). This antenna supported Apollo 17 as its first task. After a period in Australia’s Department of Defence he returned to the Deep Space Station in 1983, becoming Director in 1988. NASA’s main missions during this period were Voyager, Magellan and Galileo, but the facility also supported Shuttle until the TDRSS spacecraft were in place. Mike retired in 1994 – on Apollo 11’s 25th anniversary, having just succeeded in obtaining an Apollo 11 lunar rock for display, which was presented by NASA astronaut John Young. Mike considers the highlight of his career as being Apollo 11 operations (and in particular the TV of the first lunar step to the world coming through Honeysuckle), closely followed by being at Houston during Apollo 17 and sending some commands from Ed Fendell’s INCO console on Gene Kranz’s shift, and also Apollo 8 where Honeysuckle Creek first came into its own. Mike was awarded two NASA Public Service Medals – in 1986 and 1995. (Source: Biography and photograph of Mike Dinn courtesy of honeysucklecreek.net - a tribute website to the men and women of Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station in Canberra, Australia and the wider Australian involvement in manned and unmanned space exploration).