Mars. The Inside Story Of The Red Planet
On 9th February 2004
I recently popped into the local museum to research the "Exploring Space" Exhibition to which I hope to organise a visit in April. Whilst in the museum I noticed that there was to be a talk at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe by noted Martian experts Dr Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest.
There wasn't time to put the Martian talk in the magazine but I put it on the East Midlands internet list and was pleased to have 5 people expressing an interest to attend.
Although the grammar school is fairly close to where I live I'd never been before and did a reconnaissance, primarily to identify suitable car parks particularly for Brian and Wendy who were travelling from Chesham.
The night of the lecture soon came round. I was pleased to find all the members of the group without too much difficulty. There were over 200 people in attendance and I didn't know the geography of the Grammar school very well.
We quickly made ourselves comfortable and soon the talk began. Heather and Nigel showed themselves to be good speakers as well as leading scientists in their field. They conveyed that scientists were people and suffered great disappointments when their projects went wrong as had recently happened with the ill fated Beagle 2 which they advised was not the first probe to be lost on a mission to Mars.
They also talked about some of the successes focussing on recent pictures and data discovered by the American "Spirit" rover.
Inevitably the discussion widened to cover other bodies in the Solar system and the possibility of life somewhere.
Intriguingly we were told that an earlier mission to Mars just may have discovered primitive life on the red planet though the evidence was inconclusive.
The lecture finished and was followed by a lively question and answer session before it was time to leave. On the way out I was pleased to run into another local Mensan who attended independently.
I had managed to follow the discussions without much difficulty. I chatted to Peter, a doctor, on the way out who told me he was pleased that the lecture hadn't been "dumbed down". On reflection Heather and Nigel must have pitched the talk about right as it had appealed to the layman and the scientist alike.
Alistair Blackett