NASA reps help pack party
MARS — Some of the children at the Mars New Year celebration Friday may grow up to work on a mission to the planet with the same name.
“The kids you see here today are the Mars explorers of tomorrow,” said David Steitz, public affairs officer with NASA.
Friday marked the second of three days of the inaugural Mars New Year celebration in the borough. Downtown Mars was packed with people who came for food vendors, beer tasting, arts and crafts activities, NASA presentations, Carnegie Science Center and University of Pittsburgh science exhibits, and a science fiction costume contest.
A year, or one trip around the sun, on Mars lasts about 22 Earth months. Friday marked the vernal equinox for the northern hemisphere of Mars, which was chosen by scientists as the beginning of the year there.
As NASA works toward a manned mission to an asteroid in 2025 and a manned mission to Mars in 2030, it also is working to get children interested in science and outer space.
The agency sends education specialists to schools and public events around the county to talk about what it's doing in the hope of inspire young people to become scientists, engineers and even astronauts, Steitz said.
NASA brought 14 scientists and engineers to the Mars New Year to do STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) demonstrations and exhibits.
Space travel and dinosaurs tend to be topics that capture the imaginations of children, Steitz said.
“It's so captivating to them. It's so alien. It's so 'why not,'” he said.
“Their imagination is running wild. They have no boundaries to their creativity at a young age.”
April Lanotte, a Mars native who works on aeronautics with NASA in Colorado, gave a demonstration of what would happen to a marshmallow Peep and a bottle of water in a vacuum.
Without air pressure, the marshmallow became swollen, while the water boiled.Lanotte said NASA likes to do educational outreach in small towns so people know what kind of work the agency is doing and how it might help people on Earth.“People don't often see NASA as something they are a part of. They see it as some random distant thing,” she said.Florence Tan, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said she works on SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars), a device on the Mars Curiosity rover that analyzes the planet's surface.Tan said she met a man from Western Pennsylvania on Friday who helped make the wheels for the rover.“This work is being done all over the U.S.,” she said. “Innovation is being done here; it's the spirit of cooperation.”Mayor Gregg Hartung said Friday he was pleased with the turnout at the event. In addition to vendors and exhibitors brought in for the celebration, many businesses were capitalizing on the event by selling food or T-shirts on the sidewalk.Any souvenirs with a flying saucer or the word “Mars” were particularly popular, he said.“It's a good esteem builder for our community,” he said.About 25 children and 10 adults competed in a science-fiction themed costume contest sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Mars.Contestants went up on the stage to be introduced by Miss Butler County Lyric Beth Ackelson. The top five in each age group received cash prizes.Amanda Beyer-Pullman of Mars said she brought her daughter, Ava, 6, who participated in the costume contest and who also enjoyed the NASA displays.
The event was fun and educational for her daughter, she said. “It definitely sparked some interest,” she said.Natalie Swaney of Saxonburg also participated in the costume contest and said she liked the theme of the celebration. “NASA being here, that is the coolest thing in the world,” she said.Friday events ended with fireworks.The celebration concludes Saturday afternoon.
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