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With this second newsletter we continue our travels into the year 2020. Last month ESA published a stunning 3D picture of Mars' north pole. The agency did this to coincide with the Seventh International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration, held in Argentina last month. 

Activities

The Mars Society Netherlands organizes a couple of discussion meetings on the topic of the colonization of Mars. Considering the rapid technological advancements in space fare and plans to settle the red planet within the coming decade, we think it’s crucial that we talk about the ethical consequences of these plans.

As a participant of this meeting you’ll be invited to give your opinion about different aspects of colonizing Mars. For example: How should this project for humanity be financed? Is it acceptable to let children be born on Mars or should Mars colonists be sterilized? The answers of the group will be the starting point for an interesting discussion…

If you want to join, please send your e-mail to info@marssociety.space. 

The meetings we have planned are:
February 26th 2020 , from 8 to 10 PM in the Copernicus Observatory, Tetterodeweg 27, Overveen. We will do this discussion in Dutch.
March 2nd 2020, from 12 AM to 1:30 PM at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement, RIjnstraat 8, The Hague. Will will do this discussion in English. 

Recommended: Mars Colonies

In October 2018, the Mars Society announced that it was holding a special international contest called “The Mars Colony Prize” for designing the best plan for a Mars colony of 1,000 people. The top 20 papers have now been published in a book - Mars Colonies: Plans for Settling the Red Planet." You can buy the book at Bol.com, Amazon or let your local book store order it for you. 

Further News:

	ExoMars Rover completes environmental tests The Rosalind Franklin rover of the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars mission completed a series of environmental tests at the end of 2019 at Airbus, Toulouse, France. This included final thermal and vacuum tests where the Rover is heated and cooled to simulate the temperatures of its journey through space and on the surface of Mars.
	Nine Finalists Chosen in NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Naming Contest Members of the public have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name for NASA's next Mars rover. The nine candidate names were made possible by the "Name the Rover" essay contest, which invited students in kindergarten through 12th grade from across the United States to come up with a fitting name for NASA's Mars 2020 rover and write a short essay about it.
	Your brain on Mars: How scientists will track astronauts' mental performance on missions A journey to Mars is not going to be easy and there are a number of problems that need to be solved before we go. One interesting problem is how do we monitor the astronauts themselves. Of course, it is easy to monitor their heart rate and blood pressure, but is it possible to monitor what is going on inside their heads?
	How to die on Mars Science fiction media has approached this question for decades. For those who die aboard spacecraft on the journey to Mars or some other cosmic destination (e.g., Spock's death in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and events in the recent film "Ad Astra"), the solution is always the same: toss 'em out of the airlock. But what about burial? Burying people once we get to Mars seems like a decent option...