The idea of sending man to Mars has captivated human minds since the early 1950s. A plan for NASA to conduct a Mars program was rejected in the late 1960s in favor of building the space shuttle. The Mars exploration idea was revived as part of President George H. W. Bush's Space Exploration Initiative in 1989 but died soon after at the hands of Congress and President Bill Clinton. When President Barack Obama cancelled President W. Bush's Vision for Space Exploration program, the "humans to Mars" initiative was all that survived. According to current time lines, NASA envisions astronauts setting foot on the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s.
But with the impending release of Ridley Scott's film version of the bestseller book "The Martian," starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, a group is calling on space advocates to capitalize on the widely anticipated movie to call for political action to support NASA's humans to Mars program.
The movement is being spearheaded by an organization called Explore Mars. "If space advocates are successful in harnessing the excitement surrounding The Martian-showing that this type of mission is an achievable goal in the next two decades-it can have a real impact on advancing this goal," Rick Zucker, Director of Political Outreach and Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, said in a statement, according to The Examiner.
"Indeed, the movie will be released at a very fortuitous time, because it will be when Presidential candidates are developing their policy stances," he added. "We shouldn't expect a new 'Kennedy moment' from the next President, but we do need a supportive President who is willing and able to put her/his mark on this future. This is also one of the few issues that is not embroiled in partisan politics, nor is it a budget buster. It would, instead, be an enormous opportunity for the next President and the next Congress, on both sides of the political aisle, to work together for the common good."
The duo wants to extend that excitement to the general population and to engage broad public support for sending human missions to Mars in the near future. They have provided a list on how the space community can utilize "The Martian" as part of a highly effective campaign to advance human exploration on Mars in an article in The Space Review.
"Given the chronic inability for the space advocacy community to gain any real traction for their 'space exploration aspirations' it is quite clear that whatever they have been doing for decades is really not working," says a skeptical Keith Cowing of NASA Watch. "Nor is it going to start working any time soon. If all anyone in the space advocacy community can think of doing involves adoring lame PR Mars mission stunts and grabbing the coat tails of sci-fi flicks in hope of sniffing the fumes of the film's success, then I fear there is very little of true substance for space advocates to actually be advocating."
