ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY NATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETING 2006
THE PUBLIC LECTURE

This year's Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting 2006
(NAM2006) is being held at the University of Leicester from Monday 3
to Friday 7 April 2006.

A tradition of the National Astronomy Meetings is that one of its
keynote events is a public lecture on a topic of current interest
in the field of Astronomy and Space Science.

This year's lecture will be given by Professor Charles Cockell,
who is Professor of Microbiology at the Planetary and Space
Sciences Research Institute at the Open University. His theme
is a topic of major current interest, namely the prospects
for future human exploration of Mars.


Humans on Mars

Professor Charles Cockell

"The Red Planet offers remarkable expeditions for future explorers who
will cross its ice caps, climb its mountains and descend into its
canyons. During these expeditions they will carry out scientific
exploration to understand the history of a planet that has been
described as `an Earth that didn't quite make it'. In this talk I
will describe these expeditions and explain how humans on Mars will
help us understand the history of the Earth."

The lecture will be given at 7.30 pm on Thursday, 6th April in Lecture
Theatre 1, Ken Edwards Building, University Main Campus.

Tickets, which are free of charge, are available from Mrs Pat Russell,
NAM2006 Office, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leicester, University Road, LE1 7RH.