World Space Week

Adrian · 2002-07-08 14:23:05

Well, I've been thinking about World Space Week on and off for a bit. The idea of some kind of physical meetup is obviously attractive but I don't think that's possible this year at such short notice. Maybe next year. I also thought of doing some kind of synchronised physical event, so members of New Mars could hold parties or talks or whatever where they lived - but again, too short notice (October isn't as far away as you think) and I'd like to get more members before trying something like that.

There was the idea of a competition, which a couple of organizations are doing (ESA is doing an essay contest, QinetiQ is doing a Mars lander design and construction contest). The essay contest is the usual boring run-of-the-mill thing. The Mars lander thing is more interesting - I've participated in a similar thing at Astrium - but I've found that the rules are often arbitrary and there's a limit to the number of people they let in.

But a competition is possible. New Mars and the Gen Mars organization are not without their financial resources (they're not *that* big though!) and I could always ask you guys to donate some money, or at least buy some Mars maps.

So, maybe a competition. I don't know.

Something that's just occured to me is quite attractive, and fulfils all the criteria that I have for a WSW event:

1) Can be done on relatively short notice
2) Is inclusive
3) International
4) Will involve New Mars members in an appreciable way
5) Won't cost much money
6) Will produce a lot of good publicity for WSW, New Mars (possibly Gen Mars as well), and of course the Mars Society

It would be a website, hosted on the New Mars website (e.g. www.newmars.com/wsw) where people from around the world could virtually get together and talk about their ideas, thoughts and dreams about space. Maybe we could set up a nice bulletin board system together with a location finder which would put 'pins' for the location of all contributors. A financial incentive for contributors would also not be out of the question. We could do publicity for this on the innumerable weblog sites on the Internet although the real problem there is trying to make it into a real phenomenon, which is harder than it sounds.

Anyway, it's just an idea and there are probably better ones. I'm going to keep on thinking about it, and if anyone has any other ideas, please put them down here.

clark · 2002-07-08 14:36:00

Signuture signing contest.

Have interested New Mars members collect signitures (real) of people who want a manned mission to mars- have them mail in the final results at the end of the contest- any individual, or group of individuals working together with the most signitures wins. All submitted lists are forwarded to the politicians.

This allows people to work alone, or in groups, or in any manner they can figure out while furthering the goals of the Mars Society- it should be a win-win for all.

Phobos · 2002-07-08 15:09:37

I think all of the above are doable. The signature drive could make an interesting article for New Mars. Hmm, I already see the article in my head, "One Small Town's Views on a Manned Mission to Mars." In addition to collecting signatures, maybe do short interviews with random people to get their thoughts. Even though the results are likely to be very negative, at least we'd have some idea of what people think. Anyways, I'm all for doing a momentous project that involves as many people as possible. *wracks brain for momentous projects*

Canth · 2002-07-08 21:06:44

I really like your idea Adrian. I am not sure it should be restricted to world space week though, you could kick it off during world space week.

clark · 2002-07-09 11:46:06

Name the "first Mars Ship" contest.

Have people submit a name for any future space ship for Mars, with a brief explanation of why it should be that name. Let everyone decide, most votes wins.

clark · 2002-07-09 14:40:36

First words on Mars Contest

Have people submit a brief statement that should be spoken by the first person on Mars.

Phobos · 2002-07-09 15:15:30

The creative juices seem to be flowing for Clark. I like those name the ship and first words contests. Hmm, what to name to the first ship...

clark · 2002-07-09 16:05:03

Have people submit the "best" fake picture of Mars. This could be a real place that looks like mars, a picture of mars that is doctored- the only rule is that it must not be a REAL picture, it must be modified in some way, or must be a complete forgary.

You could have categories: Best Faked picture, Best doctored picture, Most Outlandish, etc.

I thought it would be a good exercise if people started looking for the "mars" on earth- that in and of itself might be a worthwhile way to change people's perspective.

Find a picture, or whatever, that shows the SIMILARITIES that Earth and Mars share.

Just sitting outside the box...

Palomar · 2002-07-09 16:30:37

Hmm, what to name to the first ship...

*"The Voltaire" Or "The Arouet" [his last name].

--Cindy

Adrian · 2002-07-09 17:09:18

I really like the First Words on Mars contest. Lots of potential for both serious thinking and fun there - we could probably do different categories and prizes. Any other ideas?

Canth · 2002-07-09 20:34:59

A poll of what year people beleive the first man will land on mars. Or better yet, a contest to guess the Earth date of the first manned mars landing. Closest person gets a prize, upon commencement of the landing. A long term project.

clark · 2002-07-10 06:55:35

Maybe along the lines of what Canth was suggesting: A Time Capsule that will not be opened until a Man lands on Mars.

The contents of the time capsule can include, but in no way limited too: letters, messages, pictures, current thoughts, newspaper clipings, names of people who support Mars exploration, etc.

Byron · 2002-07-10 08:32:38

How about this...the best Martian *calendar*. The one that makes the most sense and is the most "practical" wins...

I really like the time capsule idea, though, as it could contain so many of our activities that we may carry out now (artwork, musings, the other suggestions people have mentioned in this tread, perhaps even the first year of everything transcribed here on New Mars..LOL). It would be so much fun to crack that thing open to see what we were thinking about "back then" when "First Landing" does take place.

B

Canth · 2002-07-10 09:19:52

Perhaps a time capsuleof what our ideas of the situation of the first mars landing will be. I think that people in the future will find it quite amusing to see what we expected the first manned martian landing too be like. I know I find quite interesting (although kind of sad) to see the way that people thought that space exploration would progress from 1960 manifested in a beautiful very long article in a 1960 or 1961 national geographic. Unfortunately things only progressed as they expected untill the end of apollo. Since then things have mostly stayed the same except for the space shuttle. Even our space stations are pitiful compared too what was expected. Anyway time capsule sounds good, it isn't reallya competition though.

clark · 2002-07-10 09:55:40

Not everything need be a competition.... there are alternatives

Thanks for the "pat on the back".

What would be the possibility of doing "walk a thons" for space exploration or Mars itself?

Every step we take brings us one step closer to Mars....

Generates PR and can be a grass-roots type activity.

If need be, turn into a competion for farthest walked, most money earned, most support, etc.

Adrian · 2002-07-10 13:33:42

Wow - a veritable avalanche of ideas! Many of them are great, and it'd be a shame for them to go to waste, so I imagine we could enact that at various stages in the future. The time capsule idea sounds like a cool thing to get kids to take part in as well. Sponsored walks are a good idea - for a moment I thought maybe we could get people to try and 'walk to Mars' but that would involve at the very least, a total of 54 million km - which I think is just *slightly* excessive. We could do something else with that though.

Not too sure about the calendar idea - designing a good and consistent calendar takes a lot of work, and speaking personally I certainly wouldn't want to be on the judging committee for that - there's already enough strife between calendar makers...

Canth · 2002-07-10 13:46:51

Maybe the walk to mars could be a multi year event. 5,400,000 people walk 10k each and we are on mars.

Palomar · 2002-07-10 21:11:41

*If a Time Capsule project is in the works, consider printing out at random a handful of the posts here, with dates, names, etc., laminating each, and including them.

I've often thought future folks might get some enjoyment, even amusement, at reading the thoughts of we "in the olden days" relative to Mars exploration and settling, as we're doing here. ::Hi to all of you in the future!::

--Cindy

clark · 2002-07-11 11:57:39

I wonder if starting a write-in campaign to a TV network, or cable company (Sci-Fi network comes to mind) to get them to develop a TV series set on Mars.

Just a thought.

Adrian · 2002-07-11 13:55:23

The Sci-Fi network announced (and keeps on announcing) that it's developing a Mars series based on KSR's Mars trilogy. It goes without saying that if they do it well, it'll be a great thing to see. I'm fairly sure that they've at least optioned the Mars trilogy for a miniseries, and that they've made extensive plans to produce it. There have been conflicting reports about this, and AFAIK it won't be shown in the near future.

Anyway - back to the ideas. I'm thinking that by the end of this month at the latest, we should have one good project idea settled upon for World Space Week, which would give us two whole months to plan and organise. Preferably, if people can agree early, we can get started earlier.

Canth · 2002-07-18 23:04:41

I like your idea cindy, perhaps the best of new mars could be included on CD in a time capsule whenever it is made. We will follow your lead Adrian, perhaps you should declare some finalists and ask for a vote. (I still like the web developement suggestions.)

Adrian · 2002-07-25 13:43:47

I'm hoping to mirror the success of the Bulwer Lytton contest with this 'First Words on Mars' thing - here's something I posted to my weblog about it:

The reliably humorous winners of the 2002 Bulwer Lytton contest for worst opening sentence for a novel. Also, check out the 2001 Lyttle Lytton contest winners, which limits the sentence length to 25 words.

So I thought a nice addition to the categories would be 'In Five Words...' The Webby Awards (for best websites) have something similar, where winners are only allowed a five word award acceptance speech, which predictably results in fun.

Also, in order to drum up wider interest, we could invite famous and semi-famous people to submit their own entries, e.g. KSR, Greg Benford, Zubrin, various astronauts, Dan Goldin, Sean O'Keefe, ESA directors, Senators, MPs, Heads of State, etc etc.

Phobos · 2002-07-25 17:05:20

The worse opening sentence award reminds me of the bad writing contest that is held each year in San Jose. Hmm, opening words: It was a dark and stormy night when we first stepped out of our tin can....

clark · 2002-07-29 10:54:14

Five words or less, on getting to Mars:

Its not like it's rocket-science.

Of course I did use a contraction and a hyphen, but eh, whada ya do?

Adrian · 2002-08-08 19:52:21

So anyway, it's about two months until World Space Week. While I don't envisage any real difficulties in designing a website, I think that if we want to get some entries from famous people we'd better start soon. When I get back home I'm going to write up a template letter we can send to people (but if someone else wants to do this, please feel free!) since frankly letters get a lot more attention paid to them. Of course, if you know anyone personally email would do (e.g. I will email Zubrin and other Mars Society members like KSR, Benford, etc).

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