My History with Mars

I recently submitted my registration for what, if I get selected, would be my second official NASATweetup, after the launch tweetup of STS-132 in May of 2010. This particular tweetup is for the launch of the latest in NASA's line of Mars rovers, "Mars Curiosity." It is perhaps fitting that the next tweetup to really excite me would have a Mars connection.

More than anything else the Red Planet is what ignited my passion for space exploration. When I was somewhere around 13 or 14 I read Ben Bova's book about a first human expedition to "Mars", for the first time. It's safe to say my childhood dreams were never the same after that. I instantly wanted to be an astronaut but also to know everything there was to know about Mars. I would spend hours on my computer writing short stories about my own dreams of one day adding my footstep to the red Martian soil, and with the rise of the Internet, scouring NASA web sites for news on missions, proposed missions, etc.

As a teenager two posters hung prominently in my room. One was a USGS survey map of the surface of Mars. As I read the "Mars Trilogy" by Kim Stanley Robinson I would place thumb tacks to mark my best guess of where the cities and locations described in the trilogy were. The "Mars Trilogy" really kicked the Mars fascination into overdrive for me. The idea that it might actually be possible to Terraform the planet, build cities, and perhaps even a new society there?! There is NOTHING I would like to see more than that vision realized as the eventual fruit of humanity's efforts in space. The second poster was one that depicted two globes of Mars, similar to this one, I would stare at it and wonder what it would be like to staring out the window of an approaching spacecraft at that view.

Perhaps the next pivotal moment in my fascination with Mars came courtesy of the little rover that could known as "Pathfinder." July 4th 1996 America was celebrating it's birthday once again. I was glued either to a TV or more than likely a 17" Sony monitor I had saved up for, dialed in to the Internet watching a tiny Real Media Window of NASATV. I distinctly remember watching as the very first image from Pathfinder was received. NASATV was just broadcasting the UNIX Desktop of one of the engineers, slowly block by block a window painted and eventually revealed the first image of Mars from Pathfinder. Then eventually several days later came the famous panorama. Of course Pathfinder was special with it's base station and little rover, the cute names the mission team gave rocks and features they discovered, and the airbag method of delivering it to the planet in the first place. I followed Pathfinder very closely, watched the press briefings, knew the names of the engineers from those briefings, downloaded several of the early images (which survive in a folder on my hard drive even today!). It is interesting looking back now it feels like we have the legacy of Pathfinder to thank for a bit of a renaissance in Mars exploration.

Somewhere along the line I read Robert Zubrin's book "The Case For Mars" and well before it his essay "The Significance of the Martian Frontier" which much like the fictional tales of Mars only further crystalized my belief that Mars must be the ultimate destination for humanity. "The Case For Mars" for me really made it look like this is something possible, we actually really could do this, technically at least. Indeed when I was at Kennedy Space Center for the launch of shuttle mission STS-132 what you come away with in talking to engineers at NASA is that we can solve any technical hurdles we proved that in 1969. The only thing we lack is the collective will and financial backing.

As I matured and made my way through high school the dream morphed a bit. Reality did not deal me a deck that was going to lead to a career as an astronaut. Mars still beckons though. I tell people now my dream is to one day retire to Mars. Take up residence in one of the terraced cities carved into the side of Valles Marineris, commute from my flat to a small Earth antiquities shop down on one of the shopping levels and watch the sunset over the canyon.

Am I likely to live long enough to see that dream realized? Doubtful. What I do hope to see however is the launch of the Mars Curiosity Rover. The latest generation in NASAs increasingly impressive lineage of Mars bound rovers, which of course started with Pathfinder. Curiosity first piqued mine (I had to get at least ONE) back when I saw a video going around of it's skycrane. Go ahead and watch the video below...



...defies words doesn't it? My immediate, and indeed still current, reaction is that it looks like something right out of SciFi. I watch that video and it just amazes me who came up with that? This is what humanity can do at it's best, this is what NASA can and will hopefully do at its best. You see things like that video and concept and it just defies all logic that anyone would think it makes good sense to cut a program coming up with things like that. Designs and concepts that don't just push the boundaries of what's possible and what's been tried before but more laugh in their face.

The Curiosity tweetup promises to be a good one. If science is your thing there's no better place for it than Mars. If robotics is your thing, wait you did watch that video right? If you're a launch chaser well the Atlas V rocket puts on a heck of a show. Hopefully I'll get the chance to let my passion for all of those things run amuck at the tweetup in November. Either way though Godspeed Curiosity! Can't wait to see what secrets of the Red Planet you unlock!