John Christian takes soil samples

A six-member Georgia Tech aerospace engineering crew spent two weeks in April exploring a Martian landscape without ever leaving Mother Earth.

Outfitted in space suits and bubble helmets to stalk a barren Utah desert that looked strikingly similar to images sent back from previous explorations of the red planet were mission commander Jan Osburg, MS AE 96, a research engineer in the aerospace engineering program; Heidi Anderson, AE 05; Kyle Brewer, AE 05; John Christian, AE 05; Rebecca Fink, AE 05; and senior aerospace major Douglas Martin.

"We did everything we could to make the experience more real," Osburg said. "We lived in an 8-by-8 yard space pod and wore space suits with the bubble helmets whenever we entered or exited through a simulated air lock."

Fink said, "It was a direct simulation of life on Mars because we were able to experience a little bit of what a crew would experience."

The project was a joint effort with the Mars Society, an international association of engineers, scientists and ordinary people who are interested in advancing human exploration of Mars. The society owns and operates simulated bases in Utah and above the Arctic Circle.

Osburg, a crew member on a 2003 project, said the society used to select crews randomly from a list of applicants.

"We were the first crew ever chosen from one organization," Osburg said. "That allowed us to train together for seven months. It gave us a chance to show the Mars Society that you get a better-trained crew than when randomly choosing six people and letting them meet for the first time at the airport."

After each experiment, reports were compiled detailing equipment success or failure and what equipment should be retooled for astronauts working in space. The reports were transmitted to mission control on the Tech campus and made available to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for use in future mission planning.

President George W. Bush called for human exploration of Mars in a January 2004 speech, but putting the plan into action may prove to be NASA’s biggest test yet. Bush’s plan calls for a return flight to the moon by 2018 and then using the same equipment to make a seven-month, 80 million-mile flight to Mars.

Several of the earthbound space explorers said they would like to be part of the real thing.

On May 1, Brewer took a big step toward making his dream of becoming a flight director a reality when he began working at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"Maybe I’ll get the first flight to Mars," he said.

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