They may wear t-shirts that proclaim “GEEK” and sport “Mars or Bust” lapel buttons, but these people are serious about the red planet. And they loved it when astronaut and shuttle commander Eileen Collins, MS ’86, strode onto the stage in Dinkelspiel Auditorium and proclaimed, “Someday, hopefully while I’m still alive, we will see people walk on Mars.”
Collins was one of several high-profile speakers at the fourth international convention of the Mars Society, which was held on campus in late August. Hosted by electrical engineering professor Bruce Lusignan, ’58, MS ’59, PhD ’63, the conference drew some 600 believers who took notes and asked probing questions at seminars on robotic exploration, terraforming, spacesuit design, biomedical issues, interstellar panspermia and martian paleontology.
The society was formed in 1998 by aerospace engineers, lawyers, science-fiction writers, videographers and folks from many other walks of life who believe that manned exploration of Mars is financially and scientifically feasible—and who really, really want to go. “What Mars does for many people is give them a lens for looking back at Earth and talking about how to do things better here,” explains Michael Hicks, who received his doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics in September. “It’s a way of imagining utopia and opening up your mind to higher possibilities.”
The society proposes first launching several return vehicles from Earth, followed by manned spacecraft that could hopscotch around the planet, allowing their crews to explore in the vicinity of various landing sites.
Using donated funds, volunteers built the society’s first big project last summer—a simulated Mars-exploration base on an uninhabited island in the Canadian Arctic. It will be followed by desert bases in the American Southwest, Iceland and Australia, with the goal of sending a full-scale robotic mission to Mars in 2009. Then come the manned crews. Mars or bust.
