Monthly Meeting

Location: Streamed online.

As technology advances, human society gets closer and closer to landing on and eventually permanently settling Mars. However, once the technology has been developed, the questions don’t stop: settling Mars is complex and involves many disciplines. In 2020, the Mars Society hosted a competition in which teams thought through technical as well as non-technical questions associated with permanently settling Mars.
A group of students and one faculty member from Wheaton College participated in this competition and will explain their solutions for technical problems (water, oxygen, radiation, etc), social and cultural aspects of life, questions of government and economics, healthcare, education and more!

Multiple people from Wheaton College will present:

Rhiannon Blaauw Erskine is an assistant lecturer, teaching physics and astronomy. Prior to coming to Wheaton, she worked at NASA’s Meteoroid Environment (MEO) for seven years, modeling the space environment as it pertains to spacecraft risk and operations. As a result of her work for NASA’s MEO, Rhiannon received the naming of an asteroid: 10279 Rhiannonblaauw!
Rachel Barron is a senior physics major and is pursuing a career in cybersecurity. She enjoys making science accessible to kids and the general public.
Emma Henschel is a junior applied physics major and art minor. She is interested in architecture and hopes to attend graduate school for architecture after graduating.
Tamara Watson is a sophomore physics and math major. She is also currently pursuing an accelerated master’s in teaching and hopes to combine her love for physics and education in the future.

This event is open to the public and free of charge.