And then our group of campernauts fell in love with a 96-year-old man.

Dr. Georg von Tiesenhausen might not be a name you recognize, but when you see a photo of the lunar rover (aka, the Moon buggy), you’re looking at a bit of engineering developed by him.

Now, it’s really easy for me to fall asleep in a dark presentation room with the a/c cranked. I start to shiver, curl into whatever extra layers of clothing were in my bag, and BOOM! out like a light. But when Dr. von Tiesenhausen lights up the overhead projector you stay awake. Because he is just so interesting; you hang on every word.

With his slight German accent he starts, “In zee beginning, zere waz no-thing. Zen, there waz a dot.” He speaks weekly to the kids with one of two presentations; one on the universe or one on on the solar system. He took us through the planets, including a diagram of the orbits with Pluto cut out.

And then the exciting bit. Mars. In interviews with the early astronauts–Mercury, Gemini, Apollo–they all talk of going to Mars. In the 1970s von Braun (Dr. von Tiesenhausen’s boss) was addressing Congress with a plan that would get us there–the engine capability required, timeline–all the details there for them. But enthusiasm in the space program had waned and so the funding never came. In fact, even the Apollo program was cut short.

Things have changed a lot since 1972 when less and less money was filtered NASA‘s way. Our shuttle program is ending, our astronauts will be hitching rides with the Russians, the Indians are asking for help with their own program, and the Chinese will probably land a man on the Moon in the next five* years. We may have gone to the Moon in peace, but even peace has politics behind it–the nation that controls the sky has a lot of power.

In the September issue of DETAILS is an interview with Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy creator). He states,

In the sixties and seventies there was such a high regard in this country for the achievements of human beings in science, in technology, in space explorations. And in some ways we turned into this wimpy, astrology-loving, angel-loving, pseudoscientific culture that no longer has that ability. We’ve gotten lazy about our willingness to use our brains.

We’re about to rent space on Russian rockets to get to space. America is going to be RENTING our transportation when we were once the leaders in getting there ourselves. Speaking to kids at Space Camp, Alan Shepard once said:

We must continue to believe in technology because it helped us become the leading nation in the world and technology is going to help us in our everyday lives…It’s important that we keep this tremendous moment going that we achieved with space technology so that it makes the world a better place to live. (The Real Space Cowboys, p. 164)

Mars has been the goal for when we irreparably harm Earth. Maybe that day has already come and gone. There are talks of how our tax dollars need to be spent on cleaning up the mess we have made of the blue marble, of new standards that need to be put into place.  We seem to be more talk than action. I view striving for Mars as a “plan B” should we not be able to do so.  As population counts rise and natural fuel supplies dwindle, we need to develop the technology needed now and not at the last minute.

Shepard’s fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter has added,

When we get down to the bottom line, we’re eventually going to run out of space on Earth and destroy our atmosphere if we don’t get in gear and start improving things. I think it certainly behooves us as  a people of the world to really look towards exploring, to find other planets we can populate…we’re eventually going to have to look in that direction. (The Real Space Cowboys, p. 148)

I’m halfway through the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and was foolhardy enough to bring book two, Green Mars, with me. As if I’d have any time to actually read it. Ha! The novels begin with Red Mars, published in 1992. Robinson had 100 scientists and engineers heading to Mars to build a scientific colony in the year 2026. Decades before these novels came out, von Braun wrote his own novel of the same theme called Project Mars. He spent years not only thinking about his rockets and getting man into space, but of space stations, lunar colonies, and visits to Mars. Had his proposal to Congress been considered and funded, Robinson would be on his way to being compared to Jules Vern–a science fiction writer able to predict the future.  As it stands, his approach might still happen, but most likely not on his timeline.

The trilogy looks at a likely future: over population and capitalist-run governments looking to flee the chains of gravity. Less fantasy and more science. Robinson notes that by virtue of stepping onto the surface of Mars, you begin to change it. Factional parties support terraforming the planet to be more hospitable to human life or have more purist ideals of preservation. Scientific endeavors are influenced by governments that are in turn influenced by corporate greed. The technology used, while not invented yet, has practical and logical roots. The future on the red planet could possibly be very close to the vision on the pages.

There is a theory that the first person to walk on Mars is currently in the fourth grade–about nine years old. Science camps like Space Camp provide a place to foster a desire in learning and exploration in our future generations. These kids will continue on with what the space program originally started and we need to foster that desire.

The famous Russian rocket scientist Tsiolkovsy once said “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” These kids will be the ones who leave the cradle.

*My opinion. Not based on any scientific data. But they are working on it, and I foresee it in the very near future.

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