For hard-core fans, Red Planet landing stokes dreams of manned exploration

By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter

	JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Adam Bruckner, chairman of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington, stands next to the device he helped create that simulates the atmospheric conditions found on Mars.
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For the anti-war movement of the early '70s, it was John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." Women's liberation had Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman." Now, the crusaders for manned Mars exploration have their moment — and their anthem, Karen Linsley's "Pioneers of Mars."

Last Saturday, we landed on Mars again, but this time, something is different. This was no mere flyby, no fuzzy transmission of black-and-white images an unimaginable distance away. With those pictures, and headlines about President Bush's planned new space initiative, the notion of manned Mars exploration looms suddenly ... thinkable.

And not a moment too soon for Chris Vancil.

The settling of the rover Spirit on Mars' surface echoed a Sunday afternoon 34 years ago — July 20, 1969 — when Vancil, then 13, was under the kitchen table, excitedly watching Apollo 11's televised moon landing and re-enacting the entire thing with a 1/24th-scale model.

Today, he's Puget Sound chapter president of the Mars Society, whose national leaders embrace manned Martian exploration as a cause to be waged with political action and song. They're possibly the happiest people outside of Houston and Pasadena over NASA's recent, stunningly successful landing on the Red Planet.

"I know people who sat up late at night watching it on streaming video," Vancil says.

Mars Fest today The Museum of Flight will hold Mars Fest '04 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today with Mars-related programs and live feeds from NASA TV. Presentations will include a lecture by Robert Zubrin, president of the national Mars Society. The museum is at 9404 East Marginal Way S., Seattle; admission is $11 for adults and $6.50 for children ages 5 to 17. More information: 206-764-5700 or www.museumofflight.org.

They were not alone. NASA's Web broadcast drew a record number of hits, into the hundreds of millions, and supporters hope continuing jubilation will plant Mars firmly in America's future space plans.

The mania began in a Connecticut-sized crater, following a remarkably well-choreographed dance of rocket motors and sensors, thrusters and cooling pumps. And it continues today in Seattle — with "Mars Fest '04," featuring Mars-related panels, exhibits and video screenings at the Museum of Flight.

This is history's fourth successful Mars landing, all of them American, including two Viking aircraft in 1976 and 1997's Pathfinder mission. "A proud moment for all Americans," President Bush called it, praising NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team for "daring to be great."

But it's more than that. Mars entices because it's our closest planetary neighbor, because 19th-century astronomers saw what resembled canals on its glowing red surface, because it's our most likely chance to encounter other life. While discoveries indicate such life would be dimmer of wit than your average bubble-gum pop star, even microbial life, or the remnants of it, could rock many a worldview.

The mystery of Mars

An angry red eye glaring in the darkness, Mars has long embodied mystery, fear and fascination, unveiled mostly via the silver screen. Now, in the incoming color snapshots, we are really seeing Mars for the first time, in 12-million-pixel clarity from 105 million miles away.

"Hollywood is never quite as cool as the real thing," says Lynnwood's Jeff Slostad, who designed the robotic arm of JPL's ill-fated Polar Lander, which lost contact during its descent to Mars in 1999. ("Nobody will ever know whether I did a good job or not," he laments.)

So far, the real thing has been a scoured, rock-strewn, geological nirvana that looks to most like the Mojave Desert at dawn. Within 90 days, says Adam Bruckner, chairman of the University of Washington's aeronautics and astronautics department, we could know whether water ever existed on Mars in large quantities. The rovers Spirit — and its counterpart Opportunity, if it successfully lands Jan. 24 — are seeking telltale signatures probably billions of years old.

Hear the Mars anthem The just-released CD, "To Touch the Stars," issued by Prometheus Music, includes the song "Pioneers of Mars," the winning entry in the Mars Society's annual songwriting contest. To hear a sample, click here: seattletimes.nwsource.com/audio/ news/local/mars/mars.mp3

Bruckner studies the possible use of Martian resources to make fuel that could, for instance, help spacecraft return to Earth. While enough moisture exists in Mars' atmosphere to fill Lake Washington, he says, the trick is to get at it. If the current mission yields evidence of water under the Martian surface, that could be even better.

If water existed where, and as deep as, some scientists think it did, that raises more questions: How long did it stick around? Long enough to start life on a primitive level? And where did it go?

"These rovers — it's amazing what they're seeing," Slostad says. "At the same time, you can look at these pictures and say, 'Wow. That's pretty boring.' I have no response for people who say that. You either get it or you don't."

That's the sort of thing that incites heated, cheap-ale-inspired discussions among members of the Mars Society, Seattle Moon Society (SMS) and National Space Society (NSS), whose local chapter members meet regularly at Barnaby's, a Tukwila bar.

There, an assemblage of astro-nuts focused on the future nonetheless operate in the past, ordering from a bar-food menu that no longer exists. That's because, starting with the NSS, they've been coming here for more than two decades.

	JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES UW professor Adam Bruckner, showing the chamber that simulates Mars' atmosphere, says that within 90 days, we could know whether water ever existed in large quantities on the Red Planet.

Oh sure, they talk about a lot of stuff, sports and what have you, but it's space exploration that really gets their juices flowing. "We get rowdy, actually," Vancil says. "There are heated arguments. Especially if we get into politics."

Where should NASA focus its efforts? Why bother with Mars, some say? Some push for return expeditions to the moon; others say it's time to focus on perfecting rovers and robotics technology. But others — well, you can see their eyes light up: What if Mars is a colonizable, livable place? Yes, it would take a lot of doing. But it's possible.

Vancil has been to every national convention of the Mars Society since its 1998 inception. Along with leading its local chapter, he also belongs to the Space Society and once was a member of the Moon Society.

He expects Spirit's success to feed local membership. The 80-member chapter meets monthly at the Bellevue Regional Library and imagines political outreach to support NASA efforts and manned missions to Mars, inspired by its Boulder, Colo.-based, evangelistic national president, Robert Zubrin.

In conjunction with the National Space Society and Prometheus Music, the Mars Society recently announced the release of "To Touch the Stars," a 17-track compact disc with music ranging from folk to ska and featuring "Pioneers of Mars," the winning entry in the Mars Society's annual songwriting contest.

Writes Zubrin in the CD's introduction: "If we are to win the hearts and souls of humanity to the vision of a spacefaring future, the space-exploration movement must also develop its songs. Few, if any, great social movements have succeeded without it."

The current atmosphere will no doubt help the group's cause. Many think President Bush delayed his decision about America's next major space goal until now so he could gauge the Mars mission's success and public response.

Lots on space Pacific Science Center: In the new "SPACE: Journey to Our Future" exhibit, visitors can touch actual rocks from the Red Planet and board the Mars Orbiting Space Station on a motion-simulated mission, then explore a Base Camp facsimile and living-quarters module on the rocky, dusty surface. Interactive displays allow visitors to move remote-control vehicles. Tickets for the traveling exhibit (which include general admission) may be purchased by phone at 206-292-ARTS, at the Pacific Science Center box office or online at www.pacsci.org. Cost is $18.50 for adults and $14 for children; Science Center members pay $7 for adults and $5 for children. Seattle Astronomical Society: Weather permitting, the next free public observing night will be at dusk (around 5 p.m.) Jan. 31 at two locations, the Bathhouse Theater at Greenlake Park, Seattle, and Paramount Park in Shoreline. More information: www.seattleastro.org. Eastside Astronomical Society: The next star-gazing night will be 7 to 10 p.m. Jan 31 at Lake Hills Greenbelt Park, Phantom Lake site, 2050 156th Ave. S.E., Bellevue. More information: www.eastsideastro.org. Battle Point Astronomical Society: The society, which operates the Edwin E. Ritchie Observatory at Battle Point Park, Bainbridge Island, will host its next star party Jan. 17, with a beginner session starting at 6 p.m. More information: bicomnet.com/ritchieobs. The University of Washington Observatory: The observatory, with its 110-year-old refracting telescope, is open to the public from 7 to 9 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of the month (through March). Talks on various astronomical subjects are given at 7 and 8 p.m. The observatory is located at the north end of campus, just east of the Burke Museum. More information: www.astro.washington.edu/observatory or 206-543-0126.

"If either of the two Mars rovers should land successfully," the society wrote on its Web site in mid-December, "the public excitement about Mars exploration that will inevitably occur will make nearly impossible any new space policy that excludes human Mars exploration as its goal."

"The Mars community is very excited about this," says robotic-arm designer Slostad. "I know some people at JPL who were pretty much ready to fold up the tents if things didn't go right. They don't have to worry now."

Price to be paid

The big question, says the UW's Bruckner, is whether we want humans to go there. The path to Mars is strewn with the wreckage of failure: Barely a dozen or so of the more than 30 international attempts have succeeded.

Batting one for three might be fine for Edgar Martinez, but when you're aiming to hit beyond Earth's atmosphere, each turn at the plate is hugely expensive. (The current mission is pegged at $820 million.) Add to that the risk of losing lives, and the stakes are even higher.

But this stuff isn't supposed to be easy, Slostad says. If he knew success was guaranteed, his work as chief engineer of Lynnwood's Tethers Unlimited, where he's studying advanced space-propulsion technology, would get boring in a hurry.

For humanity, then, Mars is a test of character and skill. "If we can master Mars," he says, "we've come a long way. Right now we're still getting our butts kicked. But we keep attacking. We're getting better."

Despite the odds, Bruckner says, "my feeling is that we will go to Mars, whether it be in the next 20 years or the next 200 years.

"And from my selfish point of view, I'd like for it to happen while I'm still around."

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com

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