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starship-design: The URANOS Club Newsletter No. 7
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CLUB * for * EXPANSION * of * CIVILIZATION * into * SPACE
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No. 7 URANOS CLUB NEWSLETTER 11.XI.2001
This is the new issue of our irregularly published
electronic newsletter.
To receive further issues of this newsletter individually,
please send a letter stating so to the address:
<uranos@uranos.eu.org>
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We apologize for a long delay (over a year) in issuing our
(normal) Newsletter. It reflects a long delay in developing
the new edition of our site, due to a limited productivity
of the editors caused in part by their involvement with
new Polish initiatives in the field of space exploration.
Also, though we have appealed for new teammembers in our
previous Newsletters, it is only quite recently that
an additional member for our editorial team has volunteered
(welcome! - see the URANOS Group page).
Despite the delay, we were updating and extending our site
incrementally according to current needs. E.g., before issuing
the new edition we added the items described below.
The preliminary version of the new edition was put on
the web a considerable time before this Newsletter is issued.
Its distribution has been delayed additionally due to recent
events (see the previous Newsletter No. 6).
Since the changes and additions concerned practically only
the Polish language pages (we are short of time and hands to
translate larger parts of our site into English), this English
version of the Newsletter gives only short account of the most
important changes.
- The page "What to Do in Poland" underwent most changes and
updates, as we tried to inform of all current events and
other possibilities of active involvement in space-related
activity in Poland. Among others, we informed about:
-- Petition for sending the "Marie Curie" rover to Mars.
-- Results of subsequent stages of various space-related
competitions open to Polish participants, like "Red Rover
Goes to Mars" (where several Polish participants got
final awards and special mentions), two competitions
connected with the opening of International Space Station,
"Space Odyssey 2001", "Hakluyt Prize", and "Life in the
Universe" competitions, and Shoemaker grants results.
-- New possibilities for participation of Polish industry
in space-related contracts with European Space Agency.
-- Development of the Polish Mars Pressurized Vehicle project
(within The Mars Society competition).
-- Starting of studies in astronautics at Warsaw Technical
University.
-- The forthcoming space propulsion conference in Warsaw.
- Three new books were added to the recommended books page:
"Again to the Moon" by A. Marks, "And Yet There Was a deluge"
by A. & E. Tollmann, and "A Photographic Moon Atlas" by
J. Cook (all in Polish translation, of course).
- New items were added to the pages of Polish space institutions
and organizations.
Main changes in the new edition of the URANOS site
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- A new part of the site named "A Settler's Guide to the Solar
System" was launched. Its aim is to inform about perspectives
of human settlement outside Earth. As yet only a part of the
intended contents is ready, including some general information
about the Solar System, basic data about inner (Earth-like)
planets, and more extensive sections on Mars and Moon,
describing also perspectives of their colonization.
- The library of links to other space sites has been generally
updated and restructured into a web of separate thematic pages.
- Library of Polish space sities is still in the process of
verification and update.
Other information
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- The URANOS server continues to host the websities of
The Polish Astronautical Society and its journal
"Astronautics", as well as the e-mail list of the Mars
Society Polska governing board. The server changed also its
geographical location, which caused temporary access problems.
- The Editor-in-Chief of the URANOS site became a member of the
Astronautics and Space Technology Commission of the Space
Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
- The <klub@uranos.eu.org> discussion list now counts about
70 subscribers.
Special information - The URANOS Club is over three years old!
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- On August 18, 2001, exactly three years have passed since
the official appearance of our site on the Web. In that
time, our site has been rebuilt and extended many times,
gathering many new supporters and fans on our two e-mail
lists <devel> and <klub>, and on the distribution list
for the Club Newsletter. An excerpt from the usage
statistics for the second year of activity shows among
others:
-- the total number of hits: about 360,000 (i.e., a more
than 70% increase compared with the prevoius year);
-- average numbers of hits:
. per month: around 30,000 (peak values: 45,414 in
November 2000; 41,998 in March and 39,518 in January
2001),
. per day: around 1,800 (peak values: 2,983 on Nov. 14,
2000; 2,161 on Mar. 15, 2001; and 2,032: on Dec. 11,
2000).
A continuous appeal to our sympathizers
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- We invite you warmly to join us and help us in the development
of the site - details how to do it can be found
on the "Activity" page. Active collaborators, who contribute
to the development of the site, will be, of course, listed
on our pages, or incorporated into the team of site editors,
not counting their personal satisfaction coming from
contributing to the realization of the Club goals.
- All our visitors are encouraged to send us reports about
any errors noticed on the site. We are especially interested
in verification of all the links to other websites included
in our pages. Please send us wrong addresses and dead links,
providing the exact indication of the page containing them,
the wrong address, and its anchor (i.e., the text fragment
to which the link is attached). If possible, provide also
the correct address if you know it, or are able to find it.
Your cooperation will help us in providing an up-to-date
information on our site, useful for current and potential
fans of our Club and other space enthusiasts.
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Please forward!