HARROW: NASA has successfully made its first trip to Mars — the Butler County borough, that is — to celebrate the New Year on the planet of the same name Friday and Saturday.
The celebration marks Mars Year 33. Mars’s new year begins on the planet’s northern hemisphere spring equinox when the sun is directly over its equator at noon. Mars years last about 687 Earth days, or about 1.88 Earth years, so Mars Year 34 won’t begin until May of 2017. Scientists only began calculating the Martian New Year in 1955, which is why its now Year 33.
Celebratory events at the main stage — near the town’s landmark flying saucer — ranged from scientific to silly on Friday, the celebration’s opening day.
The Carnegie Science Center presented “Solar Quest,” a short film about the Earth and its interconnectedness with the sun, and NASA gave a presentation on its plan to send humans to the planet in the 2030s. People of all ages were invited to dress up for the Space and Sci-Fi Costume contest.
Later in the evening Jim Green, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science, delivered a keynote speech, followed by a screening of the trailer for “The Martian,” starring Matt Damon, about human travel to Mars, for which Green was a consultant.
Green appreciated that the science fiction film and the book on which it is based are “a pretty good representation of what Mars is actually like,” and they deviate from the space battles and made-up alien races typical of the genre.
In the film, Damon — who finds himself stranded on Mars — must use his knowledge and experience to survive. While NASA employees don’t regularly fight for their lives, Green said the film reflects, “challenges that we see people that work for NASA do almost on a daily basis.”
Pittsburgh artist Dan Wilcox performed his one-man show, “Onward to Mars: A One Astronaut Space Rock Opera,” and Friday’s festivities ended with a fireworks display to celebrate the new year.
According to Green, Mars is of great interest to NASA because it is the next logical step in space exploration. Before traveling to the moon, scientists gathered information about its surface and conditions.
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