On Thursday afternoon, as part of the Mars Society’s annual conference, being held this year in Washington, conference attendees will participate in a “Mars Blitz” on Capitol Hill. According to a Mars Society press release about the event, the purpose of the Blitz will be to promote an “integrated Moon-Mars plan that will emphasize common hardware for missions to the Moon and Mars; accelerate the VSE schedule; and to make use of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon and Mars.” They will also ask for a Hubble servicing mission.

While the atmosphere of the event will have a definite Martian focus, the atmosphere itself—the weather—will seem positively cytherean on Thursday, according to the latest forecast: “Mostly sunny in the morning…then becoming partly cloudy. Hot with highs around 100. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Heat index values up to 110 in the afternoon.” Let’s hope the Blitzers don’t have to spend too much time outdoors…