Mars Is Kids’ Stuff

Many of the rover drivers are younger than thirty-five years old. In general, planetary science is an older man’s game; it takes more than a decade to plan and execute a space mission, and the pro­portion of women in the profession has been growing, but from a low base. However, NASA understands that the vitality of the space program depends on inspiring young people and broad­ening the participation of women. The Mars Exploration Rov­ers have set a strong example of engaging the next generation. It started with a third grader naming the rovers, as we saw in the opening vignette.

The trail was blazed by nine kids aged from ten to sixteen from around the world who won an even earlier essay contest. Their prize was to have guided a robotic rover on the Mars Surveyor mission, but that mission was cancelled. In March 2001, they came to the United States to work with the Mars Global Surveyor or – biter, where they became the first members of the public to ever command a NASA mission. The next set of eight students was selected from thousands of applicants who had to write a journal saying how they would use a rover to explore a hypothetical site on Mars. Aged eleven to seventeen, they came to JPL in Pasadena in 2002 to simulate two days of exploring Mars with a prototype of an advanced rover called Fido. They experienced the same train­ing given to mission team scientists.

All this led to the selection of sixteen “Student Astronauts” from another international essay contest, sponsored by the Planetary Society. The eight boys and eight girls, ages thirteen to seventeen, came to JPL in early 2004 and were the first group of kids ever to participate in the daily operations of an ongoing Mars mis­sion. They were in the thick of things as Spirit and Opportunity made some of their most interesting discoveries. Snippets from the children’s online diaries give a sense of their experience. Courtney Dressing from the United States said, “Today was definitely the best day of my life! Spirit landed on Mars!” Saatvik Agarwal from India said, “It’s really amazing how scientists just stop with what­ever they are doing and explain it to us without feeling irritated!” Kristyn Rodzinyak from Canada commented, “Today has been a very exciting sol! I can’t wait to start working on new images for these sols and on the other rover!” Camillia Zedan from Great Britain: “The overall message from all meetings is one of enthu­siasm; just keep on truckin’. I must admit that I still can’t believe that I’m actually here.”33

A follow-up of these young people five years after the rovers landed showed that almost all of them are pursuing science degrees and heading for careers in science or the aerospace industry. Their passion for space is undiminished. Their dreams of other worlds were nurtured profoundly. They of course were lucky enough to have a singular experience, but the Mars rovers have also reached into the lives of a much larger number of people.