FBI file on Wernher von Braun

The FBI’s “Electronic Reading Room” has scores of case files and thousands of documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies, including more than 300 pages from the file on famed German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was a proponent of a manned mission to Mars back in the 1950's. At quick glance, the file contains information about von Braun's personal life, his involvement in secret Nazi science projects, death threats against von Braun and President Nixon, protests of von Braun by groups representing Holocaust survivors, and possible sabotage of the United States space program! Some things have been redacted, but this still makes for fascinating reading.

"Why Viking Lander, Why the Planet Mars?" a 1976 poem by Ray Bradbury

Thanks to Doc Mars of the amazing French website Mars & la Science Fiction, you can read Ray Bradbury’s beautiful 1976 poem “Why Viking Lander, Why the Planet Mars?” as it originally appeared in the pages of Star*Reach #6, complete with awesome artwork!

New poem: “Spirit at Troy” by Mary A. Turzillo

Award-winning science fiction writer and poet Mary A. Turzillo just had an interesting new poem entitled “Spirit at Troy” published on the website of The New Verse News. She cleverly works some Greek tragedy into the recent fall of NASA’s rover Spirit at the Martian crater named Troy. Here are the opening lines of the poem: "Two able rovers, one called Opportunity, the other Spirit, launched as the Achaeans did to conquer Troy."

Sci-Fri: NASA and Microsoft launch Martian website, use crowdsourcing to map Red Planet

Earlier in the week, NASA and Microsoft launched a new website called “Be a Martian! Part education and part fun, it is an attempt by the space agency to enlist the public in the study and mapping of the Red Planet. “There's so much data coming back from Mars. Having a wider crowd look at the data, classify it and help understand its meaning is very important,” said Michelle Viotti, a representative from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Sci-Fri: Gravity-loading skinsuit for walking on the Red Planet

The website fibre2fashion has a neat article on an Australian professor who is working on a next-generation spacesuit for astronauts of NASA and other space agencies to use while spacewalking on the surface of Mars. According to the article, the gravity-loading skinsuit seeks to address “a significant health problem faced by astronauts -- extreme bone loss -- by mimicking the effect of gravity on the skeletal system.”

NASA teams up with Hall of Fame to help students play baseball game on Mars

NASA is teaming up with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to host an Imagine Mars workshop on September 19th and 20th in Cooperstown, New York. Using information they learn about the Martian environment and facts they glean about baseball, area middle school students will work together to devise a way baseball can be played on Mars, complete with uniforms, stadium concepts, concessions and rules of the game. Registration is required and space is limited.

Pictured: Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars (1955), a children's book written by Walter R. Brooks and illustrated by Kurt Wiese.

Two Mars SF works by Mary Turzillo provided as rec reading aboard International Space Station

Author and poet Mary Turzillo revealed in a recent entry in her LiveJournal that two of her science fiction works set on Mars are provided as recreational reading to astronauts aboard the International Space Station: The novelette “Mars Is No Place for Children” (1999), which won a Nebula Award; the novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl (2004), which was serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

To see what other recreational materials are on the International Space Station, check out this 13-page document (pdf) of “NASA List of books, movies, television shows, and music maintained on the International Space Station (ISS) for recreational/off-duty consumption,” released by the Johnson Space Center in April 2008.

Mary Turzillo is working on a science fiction novel about Mars entitled Isidis Rising.

Augustine Committee to scientist Robert Zubrin re case for Mars: “We’ll read your book”

In what is the latest sign that the Obama adminstration is cool to the idea of NASA bypassing the moon for a human expedition direct to Mars, the presidential Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee -- known as the Augustine Committee after its head, Norman Augustine
-- was less than receptive to testimony from Robert Zubrin, scientist, author, and president of the Mars Society, at a hearing regarding the future of NASA. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle:

But the panel, led by retired aerospace executive Norman Augustine, appeared to brush off the Mars proposal and focused instead on generating a far more modest road map to send to Obama by Aug. 31.

“Your enthusiasm is certainly not lacking,” Augustine told Zubrin, author of The Case for Mars. “We appreciate that. We'll read your book.”

Neither Augustine nor any member of the panel questioned Zubrin after a fast-moving briefing where the witness belittled rival proposals to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972. [...]

But Augustine made it clear that ignoring costs to quickly reach Mars would not be an option presented to the president.

“There's no sense proposing things that are dead on arrival,” said Augustine, a former head of Lockheed Martin and a veteran of past presidential study commissions.

“If something is plausible, we ought to include it. If it's not, we should move on.”

Dr. Robert Zubrin is the author of the nonfiction book The Case for Mars (1996), the science fiction novel First Landing (2001), and the hybrid book How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet (2008).

Norman Augustine is the author of Augustine’s Laws (6th edition, 1997). Law XXXI: “The optimum committee has no members.”

Mars in NASA chief's lifetime may rest on whether Obama believes space shuttle is a clunker

Whether or not the United States is capable of sending a human expedition to Mars in the lifetime of new NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr., who's 62 years old, may revolve around whether President Barack Obama believes our aged fleet of space shuttles qualifies for the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program.

Bolden, a retired United States Marine and veteran of four space shuttle flights, "did grow up watching Buck Rogers and Buck Rogers didn't stop at Mars.” In one of his first interviews last month, the
new NASA chief said, with surprising candor, "In my lifetime, I will
be incredibly disappointed if we have not at least reached Mars."

Obama, who last spring appointed a 10-member presidential panel headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine to review the future of NASA, will be in the hot seat by the end of the summer, when the Augustine panel presents him with a menu of options. Among the many difficult decisions the President will have to make
is whether to scrap the clunky space shuttle program in 2010, take the budget money earned from the scrap heap, and roll it into a fast-lane-to-Mars-in-my-lifetime expedition. If Obama decides the rickety old space shuttles do not qualify for the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program, Charlie Bolden will probably not see Mars before he departs planet Earth.

Pictured: NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

Not only was the 1976 Face on Mars photo a farce, the 1990 stamp set was a scam

The Smithsonian Institution takes a look back at NASA’s 1976 Viking Orbiter Mission and the infamous aerial photograph it shot of the "Face" in the Cydonia region on Mars. Despite NASA’s insistence that the photo depicted nothing more than natural geological features, a small group of individuals believed that the geological features in the photo formed a face. Richard C. Hoagland theorized that the face was part of the ruins of a civilization constructed by intelligent extraterrestrial aliens. He even wrote a nearly-bestselling "nonfiction" book about it: The Monuments of Mars: A City of the Edge of Forever (1987, 5th edition, 2002).

In the wake of the publication of The Monuments of Mars came mail-order millionaire and philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein, his 1990 $135 "Face on Mars" stamp set issued through the West African government of Sierra Leone, and gullible collectors who bid the price of the set up into the thousands of dollars. Here are a few links to get you started on reading about this clever scam:

• “Feinstein's universe: Alan Shawn Feinstein: You know the name, but do you know how he made his money?” a lengthy 2004 article in The Providence Journal that provides insight into Feinstein’s character.

• “Face on Mars investors saw only red ink,” a lengthy but excellent article in the May/June 2006 issue of The Texas Philatelist: The Journal of the Texas Philatelic Association.

• A July 2009 eBay testimonial from “one of the idiots” who bought the stamp set.

August 1969: Demonstrators at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles say “Fuck Mars”

A newly-released CBS News poll finds that 43% of Americans are opposed to the United States sending astronauts on a mission to Mars. In 2004, 47% were opposed; in 1999, 35% were opposed; in 1994, 40% were opposed. Perhaps then it should come as no surprise that back in the summer of 1969, shortly after the astronauts of NASA's Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon, some Americans opposed the idea of the United States sending humans to the Red Planet:

Shortly after the Apollo 11 mission was completed, President Nixon hosted a large formal dinner to celebrate the event. The dinner was scheduled for August 13, 1969, and was to be held at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. As a NASA center director, I was invited to attend the party along with my wife. I want to describe what happened at the dinner, not because it was intrinsically important, but because it illustrated the attitudes toward the space program that were prevalent at the time. My wife and I were pleased to be able to attend, and we were excited because this was the first time that we had been invited to go to a party hosted by the president of the United States. Accordingly, we made the necessary preparations to attend.

On the appointed day, we flew to Los Angeles and drove to our hotel. We changed clothes and then drove to the Century Plaza. In the politically heated atmosphere of the time, there were almost certain to be pickets in front of the Century Plaza, and there was the possibility of a more active demonstration as well. Sure enough, the pickets and the demonstrators were out in force. A major feature of the demonstration was a huge sign with the legend “Fuck Mars” printed on it in large letters that the demonstrators had somehow been able to hang along the upper floors of one of the office buildings across the street from the Century Plaza. The same message was clearly repeated on signs that some of the demonstrators carried. It was very apparent to us where the demonstrators stood on the value of the space program and on some of the plans then being considered for the post-Apollo effort. (I thought that the way the message was presented was also typical of the intellectual level on which the protests of the 1960s - with few exceptions - were conducted.)

An excerpt from The Space Station (1987), a nonfiction book written by Hans Mark, former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center and secretary of the United States Air Force.

A review of Stephen Baxter’s 1996 alternate history novel Voyage

The blog Republibot recently posted a lengthy review of Voyage (1996), an award-winning alternate history novel written by British hard science fiction author Stephen Baxter in which President John F. Kennedy survives his assassination attempt and the first manned mission to Mars blasts off in 1985. Trumpeting Voyage as the best alternate history novel ever, Republibot concludes, in part: “This is a great, great, great, book and very strongly recommended. It avoids all of the flaws of the Alternate History subgenre, and most of the flaws
of the “First mission to Mars” stories as well.”

Speaking of voyages to the Red planet, a majority of Americans surveyed believe the United States should send astronauts on a mission to Mars, a newly-releasesd CBS News poll finds.

Malle Mars: Retired NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin featured in new Louis Vuitton ad campaign

Looking to the future, French fashion and luxury goods company Louis Vuitton is seeking to capitalize on several past NASA missions. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, Louis Vuitton hosted a star-studded party on July 13th in the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in Washington. Retired astronauts Buzz Aldrin, the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11 and the second man to walk on the moon, and Jim Lovell, the captain of Apollo 13, were the guests on honor, while Sally Ride, of space shuttle fame, was also in attendance. In addition to historic photographs, vintage space-themed toys, and moonfaced models from Victoria’s Secret, the bash featured a conceptual trunk for what Louis Vuitton hopes is the future of luxury travel: Malle Mars. According to The New York Times, Daniel Lalonde, the CEO of Louis Vuitton North America, said the space-age silver trunk, which looks a bit like a futuristic Faberge egg, is “a luxurious and pragmatic way to get to Mars.”

Aldrin, Lovell, and Ride will also appear in a brand new Louis Vuitton advertisement campaign. According to The Wall Street Journal, the threesome will appear in photos shot by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, sitting on a battered pickup truck in the California desert, gazing at the stars, talking about how space changed their lives. The ads will appear in magazines in a couple of weeks and Louis Vuitton will also maintain a website, A Journey Beyond. Meanwhile, check out the ad campaign’s video teaser and see what's inside Malle Mars!

Pictured: Louis Vuitton's Malle Mars trunk.

Pardon me, would you care for a biscuit and a Mars card with your cup of Brooke Bond tea?

Thanks to an older biographical sketch of Welch science fiction author and newly minted millionaire Alastair Reynolds printed in the anthology Mars Probes (2002),
I learned about “The Race into Space," a collection of fifty collectible picture cards that were issued by the Brooke Bond Tea Co. in Britain in 1971. Distributed inside boxes of tea, the collection contains several cards related to Mars, including card #50, “The Manned Flight to Mars,” detailing a plan in which the United States would launch an expedition to Mars in 1981.

As Reynolds recalled in 2002 in Mars Probes, “As a child, I was an avid collector of the cards that appeared in boxes of Brooke Bond tea, and one of them, I recall, prophesied that we would most likely have sent someone to Mars by 1980. I remain bitterly disappointed that, even some twenty years later, we still haven’t managed to do that.”

NASA Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin to hip-hop President Barack Obama re Mars: Yes We Can

Cheers to Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin for his campaign to convince President Barack Obama , NASA and the American public that United States space policy is on the wrong trajectory. Advocating an extension of space shuttle missions and only a limited return to the moon, Aldrin believes we should set our sites on colonizing Mars. Check out some recent interviews with and articles by Buzz Aldrin:

• “Questions for Buzz Aldrin -- The Man on the Moon,” interview with Deborah Solomon, The New York Times Magazine, June 15, 2009

• “Let's aim for Mars,” op-ed by Buzz Aldrin, CNN, June 23, 2009

• “Buzz Aldrin to NASA: U.S. Space Policy Is on the Wrong Track,” article by Buzz Aldrin, Popular Mechanics, June 24, 2009

• “Moon Walker Buzz Aldrin: Time to Settle on Mars,” interview with Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2009

Aldrin recently recorded a rap song and video with hip-hop star Snoop Dogg to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's July 1969 landing on the moon. The song, "Rocket Experience", was Aldrin's idea as part of his mission to reignite public interest in the United States space program and to teach younger generations about the importance of space exploration. Here's one of the lines from the song:

"I'm the spaceman, I'm the rocket man, it's time to venture far, let's take a trip to Mars, our destiny is to the stars."

Curiosity: Author Robert A. Heinlein exiled to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's cafeteria in 1976

Belated congratulations to Clara Ma, a sixth-grader from Lenexa, Kansas, who submitted the winning essay in a recent national contest to name the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Scheduled to be launched in 2011, NASA gave the rover the name that Ma proposed: Curiosity. In recognition for winning the contest, Ma visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on June 8, 2009, and signed the rover while it was being assembled and tested at JPL’s "Mars Yard."

This reminds me of a curious, but humorous, incident that transpired at JPL back in 1976. Here’s how SF author Jerry Pournelle tells the story in the book Requiem: Collected Works and Tributes to the Grand Master (2nd ed., 2008), by Robert A. Heinlein and Yoji Kondo:

Some years ago when the United States flew spacecraft instead of endlessly redesigning them, I had the extraordinary fortune to be sitting with Robert A. Heinlein in the cafeteria at Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the landing of the Viking probe to Mars [July 20, 1976]. We were in the cafeteria because, while I had both press and VIP credentials, Mr. Heinlein did not. I had brought him to JPL because I thought he belonged there; but there hadn’t been time to get him credentials, so the NASA authorities ordered him out of the Von Kantian Center.

I was outraged, and wanted to make a scene, but Robert would have none of that. He trudged up the hill to the cafeteria.

There is sometimes justice in this world. At the moment our first spacecraft landed on Mars, most of the network news cameras were in the cafeteria trained on Mr. Heinlein, rather than down in the center recording what NASA's officialdom thought they should be watching.

Perhaps this explains why Robert A. Heinlein is not mentioned in “Mars? New Realities for Sci-Fi,” an article which appeared in The New York Times in late July 1976, and why he is missing from the library on Mars.

Did NASA robots cook life and human scientists drink all the beer on Mars?

David Shiga of NewScientist magazine has written an interesting science article titled “Mars robots may have destroyed evidence of life”, which speculates that NASA’s 1976 Viking landers and 2008 Phoenix lander may have destroyed chemical signs of life on the Red Planet when they heated soil samples in search of organic compounds.

Reminds me of “All the Beer on Mars” (1989), a hard science fiction short story written by astrophysicist and SF author Gregory Benford. The story is about an international team of scientists who hunt for life on Mars. Their findings are encouraging until they stumble across the wreckage of a 1971 Soviet spacecraft and conclude that it contaminated indigenous life on Mars. The title, "All the Beer on Mars", is simply a reference to the scientist’s consumption of small quantities of beer, which they brew to improve the taste of their recycled water. You can read the story in Isaac Asimov’s Mars (1991), an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois.

Should Vice President Joe Biden flee to Phobos?

With unrelated news reports that scientists in several countries are preparing missions to Phobos, a moon of the planet Mars, and that U.S. Vice President Joe “Jabbering” Biden recommends his family avoid flying on commercial airplanes or riding in subway cars because of the risk of exposure to the swine flu virus H1N1, perhaps science fiction author Pamela Sargent should pen a story titled “Joey Flees to Phobos”, in which Biden and his family members flee to the Martian moon in order to escape the deadly wrath of the swine flu. Benefits of living on Phobos: there are no airplanes or subways, and no documented cases of the flu.

Pamela Sargent is the author of the award-winning novelette “Danny Goes to Mars” (1992), a satirical piece based on an ill-conceived comment about oxygen on Mars uttered by Vice President Dan Quayle, as quoted in Mother Jones magazine, January 1990. Sargent is also the author of the novelette “Hillary Orbits Venus” (1999).

NASA creating online multiplayer video game

Space.com reports that three game developers have signed on to create NASA's massively multiplayer online video game (MMO), called Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond. The game, which will emphasize fun, will be developed by Virtual Heroes, Project Whitecard, and Information in Place. “We're talking about first person exploration, so it's all about exploring the environment, expanding and building things rather than shooting other players," said Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes. A playable demo of the game is scheduled to be released before the end of 2009.

NASA honored for tweets from Mars

NASA Honored for 'Tweets' from Mars
CNN.com
February 12, 2009

NEW YORK (CNN) -- NASA was honored Wednesday for its efforts to inform the public through the popular social-networking Web site Twitter.

More than 38,000 people followed NASA's "tweets" of the Mars Phoenix Lander mission.

NASA received the "Shorty Award" for documenting the mission of the Mars Phoenix Lander. The Mars Phoenix Lander spent nearly five months in 2008 on the red planet conducting research. ...

Read the entire article on CNN’s website.

Although the article notes that NASA beat out several science bloggers, I’m of the opinion that the more than 600 tweets from
“Mars Phoenix” were not only science, but a brilliant form of science fiction, as the tweets were really generated not by the spacecraft on Mars, but by Veronica McGregor, a NASA spokesperson on Earth.