Stop and Smell the Roses Pre-Plee for Martian Metanoia
Disclaimer: Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Themes: Dinner, Networking, Mars, Space Travel, Fundraising, Community, Seniors Center, Technology, Landing Rovers
These will be the notes from the banquet dinner on the 2nd night I attended. The end was such an epic speech and exactly the type of reason I ended up joining for a lifetime membership haha. I love passionate enthusiasm for innovation, teamwork, better lives for all - I’ll get into it more (and to clarify, do I agree with it all, idk!! I’m not a EXPERT OF MARSSS!!!hahaha. no idea). So, don’t think I’m going in here saying these are my ideas. Or words. These speeches/this event was very unique, interesting, amazing, and vlauable to attend. So, I’m grateful for it. And the food was yummy AND THEY PUT OUT TO-GO BOXES at the end like BALLERS, so my trip is like, nonstop cost-efficient. I have spent less than $75 outside of my ticket and hostel. And my ticket was like $100 round trip, and the hostel is $40/night. So… what a freakin’ good deal. Learning and living!! THen back to the hometown… then maybe moving here one day.
Why Attend: I wanted to get the quasi-full experience (but also get back to my home with enough of the weekend left to be a present mother + educator into the next week. So, attending this dinner seemed it’d be really fun. Last year it was so epic, with lots of food, music/singing of the Mars National Anthem and a number of other memorable things. So, I was excited to blog about this one. Let’s see what’s in store. Cause, yeah - hahahah. At one point of this banquet, I just literally took out my laptop and started typing. It was that vibe - and i love it hahahah.
Overall Event Review: Venue 2.9/5, Food 5/5, Speaker Content 3.9/5, Networking 4/5, Likeliness to Return (?????)
PHOTO COLLAGE AND COMMENTARY:
Notes -
Amazing dinner, good turnout.
Whenever this a challenge, we can always rise to the challenge. NExt is the special guest for tonight, speaking at this event. The introduction is talking about July 4th... no one has been on moon since he was born, but in 97, in college at University of Florida. and he was glued to the TV because we had landed on Mars. ANd he just thought it was the coolest thing and now he could pinch himself for how cool this is. This guy on stage says he remembers that night too (so I think he was a part of some sorta something, but I don't know what he's talking bout) I guess he was part of the mars landing on July 4th? Is that what it is.
Okary so he has a PPT and he's showing pitures of "his road to mars". There's an image of a robot on the mars land.
He ssays the cool thing is the whiplash he has... thinking things are supposed to be this way, that's not right - its over here...then its over there. So the experience of constantly learning and always being surprised.
It's hard to be right, I'll ahve to tell ya.
Another boring day at the offie? He used to work on spaceships.
And he says he can't tell us a full story, but he said - do you se the red white and blue flag behind me? I wanted to make the nasa logo with a meatall. HE couldn't get a copy. He had a hard enough making a flag. So one of the guys said we have orange tape. So we just put tape down. WHat about the lue stars/
We don't have any blue... get blue aluminum and cut holes init.
Then someone found a laser cutter that can make little holes-> grat, we have stars. The flag was made by hand, basically with thermal tape. THat's what you do.
In that environment (idk where?)
He then has a pic with him and a by. He says its an experiment shrinking bpeople down...just kidding. This is my daughter, she's 27 now. And that rover is now at the aerospace museum. Then they have lots of pics of him celebrating taking picutres and.
He sys there are lots of tension when you lead these teams but it is great releaf when t finally happens.
I'm watching a guy in the audiences use his app to listen to everthing d hen translate it into the language he speaks.
SOmeone looks at his pics and says,"you s must be happy?" he says, no... not happy. Releived.There a difference. You have PTSD for weeks, thiking you forgot to test things. BUt hten you realize it's over.
The audience is laughing a lot
He was on lots of billboards for a while. He said he was one of the strange experiences... he wasin front of the camera. He's talking to a remote controlled camera to the world "very creepy" cause only the roobt was there, no man was there.
How much are these things built on each other? The community isn't all that big, who makes this stuff. So we try to communicate this sense of wonder that each mission writes its own chapter. It's like thy are alive.
It starts off, check this out--- the different maps over the years. We have not made a lot of progress over the first many decades of mars capturing.
THe mariner 4 took this first picture, some of you recognize this picture --- suddenly he realized he didn't even look at the camera once this whole time.
The image processing took so long,so they took out digital line printers. THy would pump out data in tunk, tunk,tunk with scissors.Each number was representative of a pixel shade. All they had was black and white. THey taped together... and the first digital picture of Mars was actually done... with... crayon and colored pencils.
THe acutal processed piure many days later is really blurry.
Everyone had these views that Mars may have some life, or soething.
THe scientifici community as spilt on what mars is all about. But when you look at some of these pictures, you think,"oh my gosh, I think we went to the moon. Wrong desitnation"- many people thought it'd have a thick atmosphere, a very different place.
Now he's showing a lot of the same pictures which we saw in another speech. Lots of Mars media from the 50's.
Now he is talking about a spaceship that flew past Mars an dthen would send information back to earth. ANd the density's information
Mariner's radio occulted (artist rendering) - it's not a great start to a cmartian counter.
THen he says there is a tiny thing veil...
ANd mars pre 1960... well the vision is actually changing.
In the 60's, 80's (he is showing a picture of a globe earth next to mars next to it and different images of mars over the years).
Then in 1990 the mars topography was able to use a laser. It bounced a laser off the surface and every football field or so it made an altitude measurement.
Suddenly the color map became the chronolical way of thinking about the topography of Mars.
You can see the island, lots - the fantastic slice of a crater.
By the 1970's, Mars was more likeable than Earth, just someone decided to paint it Red. At the time, it was ambiguous detections being found by the data.
THer was complex chemisty on Mars. And Mars is a terrible place to raise your kids. IT's dry, radiation, cold... it's not a good place.
So the enthusiasm for Mars started to plummet. But check out those water marks. Those are hug estretchers.SOmething floated to the surface. It looks like water. If someone says there were oceans on mars, you'd get some major eye rolls. But proposing stuf like this can sound really outlandish. There are some good reasons. It's hard to think about adding atmosphere last... what happened to it? Where did the water go? How did it change so drastically over time?
After viking, it was interesting, it landed in 1976 in august (another guy yells out July) from the audience. Then they say July 20th in teh audience,anohter guy yells out the exact date.
- he says, oh, okay. I was in high school, just graduated. Excited about this. And then nothing happened for 20 years.
- I didn't dream that 20 years later I'd be involved in a Mars mission.
Who are experts in learning of landing on Mars? They're gone, retired, or dead.
But we were asked to go and focus on landing. We actually went to old attics looking for data on this. They had good data and did a good job adapting missions. This was good, we could rely on them. THey were there to help us, they were our guys.
SO we were able to land this mission with a little rover that explored mars.
We were able to test it, sandbox... and see.
What did we learn? Nothing striking. We didn't have good science instruments, but the biggest thing is that when you're exploring mars with a small rover, rocks that are big are really scary.
So we did a fixed cost, 150m... 275M total, that was a bargin back then. And we did learn a lot aout how to do this, how to mention it. It kinda broke the ice about going back to politics and costs.
In the winter place, where water had spread and quickly flowed, we were expecting to see rocks flow down from the hill to the highlands. It was all there, all lava rock. We realized lava had been flowing at least briefly, but we figured we could do more missions. In 1997, NASA landed and explored for 3 months. And then later after the infamous orbiter. , i can tell you more about that sometime. Very fascinating.
Where are the places on mars with the biggest high resolution coverage? Well, its the center of mars. We've been taking pictures there for years now. The lander vanished.
Cancelled ideas were aborted. Some they started and dropped and then starte up again.
Invented the idea of an orbiting cache of sample coes (eventually in separate tools)
- we figured out how to invest and put a little ball into orbit. That's about it.
Yeah some of this guy's speech is really like, if you're lost then you dont' know exactly what he's talking about. He's just talking about different rovers he's worked to build and ones that were sent to mars I guess.
But he's just telling a lot of stories and I'm lost with what he's talking about.
He says stuff like a phone call he's on, talking about how he's out of town and only has 3 years to develop rovers that do what a pathfinder couldn't do. A roverdeck was suppose dto go somewhere but instead the rovers were doing what we wanted them to do . IF you want to test for water altered rock, have water altered rock... put a rock in your bathtub for like 2 million years, it will metamophie into different rocks. Rocks that had been altered for very long.
They found water ice and water holds. Thanks to the Mars Odyssey GRS.
They found glaciers near the Hellas Basin.
THe glaciers were spray paitned red. YOu couldn't tell they were glaciers until you look carefully.
We sent phoenix and it landed on ice. Salty grainy ice. It took us a while too dig trhoguh it.IT as hard to scratch through it.
WHo would ave though ice was right there. Scientiest didn't think ice could e right there - but it turned into gas and blew away.
Salts can keep water from evaporating.
So by 2010 we had the conclusion that Mars did have persistent water on its surface, 3.5 billion years ago and it still has a lot of water ice near its surface. It must also have had an atmosphere MSR planning with premature, we need to learn mor,e. BUt was the water habitable? We needed a mobile lab to do experiments.
THese photographers have hte brightest flashes. There are so many photographers here. Just a lot for this small crowd
So if there are elevations on earth, the highest is the land, the lowest is sea levels. Mars is the same way .Lots of high land and low land. That's telling.
ANd interesting enough, our vehicles have all landed below sea level... and uh, I say why is that? CUase there is air there. We need air to slow down. We've not been able to land high up. Not clear if we ever will, not anytime soon.
SO there are some places on mars that we think are practically unatabinable,'s n black (that's lifk 50% of the map that he shows).
THen of course we wanted, we've got the rovers. We've got hte soldier in there to show we could do it. Spirit and opportunity show that water is present. That is cool... now the next thing is to find a way to measure... well, we gave up on the sample return data. So, what we needed was a rolling chemistry lab that can do chemistry. THe surface,where it was habitable for life. Not habited, but past life.
And its officially been 12+ hours of talk about mars today (minus a few breaks). Thats a lot.
If it was the bbbyq/gamestop meeting,okay i could do that. this is difference .
To see if it was OKAY for life. It's hard to loko for life. Note to self. We learned.
Just taking dirt, feeing it, smelling it - it may be life.
Life is hard to see.
BTW there is a painting of a yoga astronaut with liek a meditative pose and strong pec muscles at hte front. Like meditating on the ground of mars.
Now imagein wherethis is going. THe next rover will be really big, well it wont' be a rover, but you get the idea.
You're not making rovers just for hte heck of it - its to carry a science halo and equiptment that weigh. I tell ya, its too big. So, we need something a lot bigger. We need new way to slow down.
So they tested with different tests. IT was not encouraging.
THey did stress tests on the paracuhutes. MAny didn't work. Many stress tests ddn't work. Once parachutes was 4 times stronger and you can see what a difference it makes. BUt still the parachutes break. THey tried it way up high. These are up in the sky? Or simjlations? They --- i don't get it. They said they finally tested it propely.THe arachtes ere too big and they wanted to extend capability but failed.
I wanna go get more lemonade and tea to drink.
I got more... now he's talking about how CHiense are doing innovative engineering. And bro, the museum across the street from where we are now. the museum looks just like one I saw in china. So now we are copying China, okay?
There are lots of tricks to landing...
okay i'll tell you the truth, this speech is so long. This presentation is just like a million stories about all of his rovers and him showing picures. It's like a family vacation photo slideshow. And he keeps getting enthusiastic about a lot voer nad over again. Telling lots of jokes which get various degrees of reactions from the crowd. If it was not extremely impolite, i'd totally stand up and get fresh air outside. I'd like to right now hahah. but. I think he presentation still has a lot more. I feel he's been talking for a long time.
Now he's showing a video of real footage from the rover looking at the land on mars. Yeah, i'm gonna pay attention to something else for a bit.
CLOSING REMARKS BY THE LEADER/FOUNDER OF THIS
- we are in the great age of exploration. This is gigantic (he lists many rangers and rovers, surveryers)
Etc. etc. THis has astonished wthe world. This with the space telescope program. A bunch of clowns with names like "big balls" have decided to shut this down. He gets upset
Points his finger at the crowd.
This is not a mistake. This is a crime. It is, it is a crime against Science. America which prides itself on a pioneer spirit.
Do we let a bunch of kids, big balls shut it down? Idiots, okay? Come into office and say, "um, you know.6B cut. Directed to this part of NASA. Space/science, the ost productive part of NASA" You know, look. Founders of our country believed in science. THey did,okay? They they were part of an international movement, the enlightenment which believed the highest cause of humanity is to search for truth and reason. There is justice which stands above the laws, all men are created equal. And judges governance by that standard. ANd goverens opinion by that, there is truth. And that freedom is the highest ideal of our society. Freedom of thought, inquiry, this hing called science.
THe search for justice is the search for conscious. This concept.
SO we accelerated this and thats what is on the line right here right now.
This is a wrecking operation. They are thinking of turning off spacecraft that is operating, Perfectly functional. they want to shut it down and deorbit it so no one can ever turn it back on. this is just destruction against hte most productive part of nasa which then will dejustify agency overall. We can't have it, we just can't. We've got to take a stand. Look - this is not impossible.
In 2005, a bean counter wanted to destroy the space telescope and justified it was unsafe. But this is not a crime against science, this is a crime against courage.
He lied and said its more dangerous to go to hubble than the space station. But its not true, you can fly over the carribeans. I mean, its true. ANd not only that, he attempted to ram this through. There were people in NASA who did an internal study that showed it was safer but he said these are not helpful for us. Can it. But some of this made its way to the Wall street journal (Through us) and we put pressure on congress. And this guy is trying to ramp through getting funding.
He wouldn't even... it wasn't even a question, he just wanted to sing it. Just like these characters want to sink it. Just like they want to sink it.
We can't let these people win, we can't let them do this.
It's not just about the science, it's not just about that - though its important. But its more than that. This administration is attacking science. An incredible attack on science. The center of disease control, promoting nonsense in place of science.
And then the national oceanic administration and so forth. ANd we,we,kay. While space science is only part of science, its sorta the most spectacular demonstration of science. And therefore it is the symbol, the banner of science. THe way we, okay? Science, okay. KNowldge irregularities cost-effects of nature. If you recognize them you can make tech that puts that understanding into action. Cure a disease or talk to someone on the other side of the world, it shows all of this is true.
If people believe that science has capabilities, no is provable. It proves the value of free people. Science is he child of freedom.
Technology is the child of science and anyone can use technology.
Science itself is the child of freedom. It is a demonstration of the value of freedom. That's what it is.
THe space/science program is a celebration of that. It is for our civilization today, the modern civilization. The civilization that values human freedom. It is to us what the gothic cathedrials re n the middle ages. Our celebration is the search for truth through science and freedom. This is our gothic cathedrial.
If 500 years from now we survive, this time will be remebered because excelled. THe great art of our time, its the the photographs taken by hte public. REally,that's what it is.
THis is the banner of our time, the flag of our ideals
And what these people are doing is burning our flag. It can not be allowed. So we turned around that thing with hubble. We'll have to launch a campaign. Yes we joined with the planateers,with people running around capital hill. We need people visiting in home offices. And that BTW is a much more powerful message.
THe Washington people get visited by a lot of us all the time. Lots of us deal with lobbiest that are paid to visit them. TEHy're ot real. A lot of people in Washington don't know if you're real. But in your home office, tehy now you're real. A representative of the people they are supposed to preport to. THe people who voted them in.
This theory being promoted that the republicans must follow republicans, well that is not so. Dividing powers between the congress, judges, states, families understand don't put all the power in one place.
ANyone graduating high school in this country s supposed to know that. These congressmen presumably graduated high school, perhaps there was a misunderstanding. But tehy gotta listen to you, not to big balls. We gotta do his, conduct this campaign, nation wide. And seek alliances with other people. He planetary society.
In addition, we got to do all the other things. Run the stations, run the university rover challenge. 35 teams, university students bring them to the desert, compete with the planetory explorations.
This stuff is amazing, kids going out there, they built rovers which are autonomous, 3km trecks,1m drops, climb up sanddunes,ts amazing. Some have gone to start robotic companies. And tehy come from all over the world. Bangladesh, Poland. Everywhre. We do this.
SO this is a thing we're doing. THe activities and stations, high school engineering design contests ( i hope it spreads beyond us, how this works, it can be part of curriculum). It changes their relationship to knowledge.
In conventional education,knowledge s the burden, "how much do we need to know for the test" but it should we: what do we need to know to make this work, to understand, to design well.
Knowldge is tool, people should love knowledge, not hate knowledge. SO to get to the bottom line here, we need money. IT takes money to do all of this kinda of stuff. It's important. So they put up a QR code.
Here's the thing, okay look - we need money, serious money.
Who here is ready to give 1k. LIke four people raise their hands. Raise your hand, keep them up and we'll walk around.
Anyone else willing to give $1000. Two people here?
After that, I left. It was fun to travel home - just so beautiful at night, and I’m starting to hardly know my way around.
will I return tomorrow!??!?! I have no idea. I’m just writing writing writing trying to catch up with all of this while livign it too… i mean, a million blogs in just a few hours only did one thing on my checklist of 8 that i planned to do this whole trip hahaha.
So… I’ll sleep - wake up, and then follow the wind. Either back, out of the diretion of the airport to the event (cause my OG hostel was gonna be over there) but now i’m just by the skatepark, so maybe I go watch and skip the rest of the event since I’m up working till almost 3am anyway!! hahaha. omg. let’s see what the cookie crumbles, huh? XOXO - KT
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
