Boskone 45 to be Held in Boston

Boskone 45, the New England Science Fiction Association’s regional sci-fi convention, will be held this weekend, Feb. 15-17, 2008, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston.

The program schedule contains some interesting events, including a nonfiction presentation about the Mars Homestead Project by two members of the Mars Foundation. Here’s a partial description of the project, taken from the program schedule:

“The mission of the Mars Homestead Project is to design, fund, build and operate the first permanent settlement on Mars. The initial goal for the Mars Homestead Project is to identify the core technologies needed for an economical, growing Mars Base built primarily with local materials. Efforts will then be focused on prototype projects of increasing sophistication. These could include the selection of existing equipment which could be used on Mars, or the construction of prototypes of new equipment. These steps will lead the Mars Foundation to the establishment of an entire simulated Mars settlement at a location here on Earth, which will serve as a research and outreach center.”

One of the presenters is Bruce Mackenzie, co-founder and Executive Director of the Mars Foundation, whose “concepts for brick masonry structures for Mars settlements have been featured in … the science-fiction trilogy Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.”