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The Mars Society Netherlands wishes all readers of this newsletter a Happy 2020! You're looking at the first newsletter of the new year. We are planning for a year full of exciting activities. As written in last December's newsletter, 2020 will be an exciting year for those who are interested in the exploration of Mars. We'll surely keep you updated on every new step that is taken and every discovery that is made. 

The new year brought a new addition to our website. If you want to support us in organizing meetings, lectures and workshops and in maintaining and expanding our webshop, you can now donate money to us by simply clicking on the 'donate' button and filling in the form that appears. 

Last month we met in Amersfoort. We visited the exhibition One Way Ticket to Mars. We teamed up with six people. In the exhibition different artists, authors and scientists gave their thoughts and visions on what living on Mars would be like. That gave us a great assembly of stories, images and sounds to inspire us. It's certainly worth a visit and will also be a great experience for children. Exhibited are a couple of impressive pieces and the children can for example design their own space outfit, just to give an example of the activities for our littlests. After visiting the exhibition we ended up drinking coffee and having a nice discussion.

Activities

On February 26th 2020 the Mars Society Netherlands is organizing a discussion meeting on 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…

Send your e-mail to info@marssociety.space if you would like to join. The meeting will be from 8 to 10 PM in the Copernicus Observatory, Tetterodeweg 27, Overveen.

Reaching Mars with space policy

We would like to draw your attention to Richard Herts' research project. For his master's thesis at the University of Maastricht, Richard researches what obstacles there are between science and politics for effective coöperation for humanity to reach Mars. He aimes at more understanding about the current coöperation gaps between political and science institutions, and to find ways to reduce them. To this purpose Richard wants to interview key actors within the EU in Mars exploration missions and policy decision making, such as the Council of Europe, ESA, UN, etc. If you can lend Richard some support in contacting these people, or for more information on his research project, please contact him at  r.herts@student.maastrichtuniversity.nl.

Recommended: Terraforming Mars

If you as a reader of this newsletter also like boardgames, Terraforming Mars by the Swedish gamedesigner Jacob Fryxelius might be the game for you. And for those who like to have their games in Dutch: Intrafin Games has it's version on the market. In the basis game you play as a corporation, battling with other corporations for resources to terraform Mars.  Last year FryxGames issued an expanxion called Turmoil which will surely add more hours of fun by introducing politics to the game.

Further News:

	Media Meet NASA's Mars 2020 Rover and Builders Members of the media walked the clean-room floor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Dec. 27 to glimpse the agency's Mars 2020 rover and speak with experts working on the mission. It was the media's only opportunity to see the rover from inside the clean room prior to its shipment to Cape Canaveral in February.
	Promising progress for ExoMars parachutes A series of ground-based tests designed to check the extraction of the ExoMars 2020 mission’s parachutes from their bags have started successfully with promising results to keep the mission on track for next year’s launch.