Perceived risks associated with a human flight to Mars are just excuses to delay the trip, Mars Society President Robert Zubrin said at Space Congress on Thursday. Zubrin, long an advocate of a direct-to-Mars voyage, compared the nation’s space exploration goals to a rope. A tight rope between two points is the shortest route. A curvy, long rope, like a detour to the moon, means one thing — someone is selling rope, he said.

Will red tomatoes grow on the red planet? The answer could bloom inside the Mars Pod, a geodesic greenhouse dome modeling a semi-permanent colony on Mars to be built at the West Melbourne Elementary School for Science. “Where are these kids going to be in 2020?” asked Maria DeChristofano, the science teacher who conceived of the base along with parent Susan Kawa. “I see some of them as future astronauts.”