The parking lot of Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor’s Complex has been turned into the red planet this weekend to celebrate the final stop of LEGO’s Life on Mars Encounter. The walk-through trailer houses an interactive, hands-on exhibit built with more than a 250,000 LEGOs. Green aliens, Mars rovers and LEGO planets are accompanied by educational signs that give little tidbits about Mars. The exhibit was designed to encourage kids to learn more about space, and to build their interest in Mars exploration, said Stephen Meixner, tour manager. Michelle Salyer, spokeswoman for Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex said the Life on Mars exhibit also includes a baby and preschool area for small children.
September 28th, 2001
Engineer keeps dreams of trip to Red Planet alive Florida Today
NASA is trying to wring out more money for its haggard space station, the shuttle fleet is aging and even the image of the visionary young president who aimed America at the moon has faded. But that doesn’t keep Robert Zubrin from lobbying for a manned Mars mission. Instead of seeking out Capitol Hill for billions of dollars and a mandate, the aerospace engineer and founder of the Mars Society takes his plans to individuals around the world in an attempt to build political support. “We need to go to Mars not to beat a foreign power, we need to go to Mars for the true reason to go to Mars, and that is to open up a new planet,” Zubrin said, standing inside an experimental module the organization built to simulate space exploration. The can-shaped refuge is on display through this weekend at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex.
July 16th, 2001
New wheels developed for Mars Florida Today
NASA has spent the past few decades reinventing the wheel with hobby supplies, athletic equipment and a little ingenuity. Five thousand years after early man first turned a potters wheel on its side, one of the oldest technologies has been stripped down and rebuilt for the harsh environment of Mars. It’s a planet where dust storms are common, rocks litter the terrain and the temperature can dip down to minus 116 degrees Fahrenheit. At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, engineers are testing wheel designs for its 2003 mission to send twin rovers to the Martian surface. They’ll hunt for water and life.
June 23rd, 2001
Goldin waffles on blame for Mars failures Florida Today
Recent remarks to two different audiences have some wondering whether NASA Administrator Dan Goldin is dodging responsibility for two Mars failures without looking like he’s dodging. In a speech earlier this month to a computing summit in Maryland, Goldin blamed the Mars failures on inadequate computer design tools and said his critics tend to “look for the guilty and punish the innocent.” He adopted a different attitude, however, in a recent interview with Florida Today that touched on the 1999 loss of Mars Climate Observer and Mars Polar Lander on separate missions. “As an agency, we are willing to tell the world we made a mistake,” Goldin said. “In the case of the Mars program, I believe that the people pressed too hard and they pressed too hard because I asked them to. Clearly we have to push it a little less aggressively.”
June 16th, 2001
Newly discovered Mars meteorite could be window into Red Planet Florida Today
The new meteorite was named Sayh al Uhaymir 094 after the region of desert where the team found it and more than 180 other meteorites. The team, in a statement, said they were certain it would contribute to rapidly growing knowledge of the planet. Interest increased in 1996 after a Martian meteorite found near the South Pole, known as Allen Hills 84001, showed possible remnants of life. But such arguments “are hardly taken as solid evidence today,” the research team said. Most earlier meteorites from Mars were found in the Antarctic before scientists turned their attention to deserts in recent years.
June 4th, 2001
NASA cuts smaller Mars studies Florida Today
Space station Alpha, increased robotic exploration and the Space Launch Initiative all will get humans to Mars faster than relatively small studies and planning, according to NASA chief Dan Goldin. In his recent justification of why human exploration studies of the Red Planet are being shut down, Goldin said the work was minor compared to the multibillion-dollar efforts the agency has undertaken. “I think this will get us to Mars faster because when you try and do too much, you do too little,” Goldin said. “And getting the space station done and getting it complete and getting the assembly done, and getting the biomedical research done, is of a much higher priority than the dogs and cats of the small programs we were doing on getting ready for Mars.”
June 3rd, 2001
Field of astrobiology gains legitimacy, catches on Florida Today
There was never a “Eureka!” moment for David McKay. Instead, a slow, gradual process that led to the announcement that fossilized minerals produced by bacteria may lie deep inside a 4-billion-year-old potato-sized Martian meteorite found in Antarctica in 1984. It was one of the first pieces of credible evidence that remnants of life, however tiny, may have come from Mars to Earth. That was five years ago. Afterward, scientists still debated whether the fossils truly were of non-Earth origin.
April 10th, 2001
Bush’s NASA budget increases funding for shuttle upgrades, Mars exploration Florida Today
President Bush laid out a $14.5 billion NASA budget that includes a decrease in space station funding, and increases for shuttle upgrades and robotic Mars exploration…In addition to enhanced probes every two years for the rest of the decade, the recommendation would pay for a mission to bring back martian soil samples in 2011, three years ahead of schedule.
April 8th, 2001
Odyssey off to Mars Florida Today
NASA’s Mars Odyssey began its 286-million mile journey with a perfect launch Saturday morning, relieving many in the space agency who have longed for redemption since two Mars-bound robots were lost in 1999. The failures grounded the agency’s ambitious Mars plan while review boards scoured records and data for reasons. A rover slated to fly to Mars alongside Odyssey was axed, leaving Odyssey to make the trip solo.
February 15th, 2001
Mars exhibit awes Florida Today
Learn about Mars and you learn about Earth. So says Dr. Steven Lee, expert on the Red Planet and scientific advisor for MarsQuest, an interactive exhibition on view through May 6 at the Orlando Science Center. “We want to present ‘Mars, the National Park,’ ” Lee said. “We want to take people to a few places on the surface that are a lot like Earth – volcanoes, polar caps, clouds, dry riverbeds. People can relate to that.” The sleek exhibition – with a concept strong on scientific fact, working in concert with solid visual design – provides visitors with astute insights into our solar system’s fourth and third planets. It features 16 interactive displays, five computer stations, two videos, seven scale models and a theater with high-definition video images of Mars.