Day one of the 11th Annual Mars Society convention in Boulder is now over.

So... I came here to find out a couple of things but mostly I wanted to see if the Mars Society was a "for real" group with a plan or if instead the excellent Robert Zubrin book The Case For Mars had simply grown a fan club of anything-spacey folks.

I don't mind fan clubs, I believe that they are fantastic for rock bands and tv shows and entertainment.  However,  in my experience fan clubs are seen by the people working those bands and shows as only a necessary evil, at best some ego boosters and at worst (and, I think, at most) as a bunch of nuts who would never be accepted into the real "program."

I have to give my "anything spacey" disclaimer.  I am a member of the Mars Society, and the NSS and the BIS and the Planetary society  I can justify it as being because I wanted to get a lot of information quickly, so I can't down anyone else who joins them all too, they have their justifications.

Point though, of all of these organizations, the Mars Society is the only one with a specific and single target:  Mars. 

So if it turned out that the members were less focused on Mars and more, um, like me, then could anything actually be done by this group to get space policy and patterns changed to actually get a Mars Direct mission on the real horizon?

I wanted to find out that Mars was the only thing on anyone's mind, I wanted to be convinced that Mars Direct was the only focus and that there was a plan of attack aimed at a known set of political/commercial/whatever targets and that after the decade of this organization there was a hope for it doing things that the other"anything space" groups were too scattered to attain.

It's just day one, so there's still time to be bowled over, but it didn't happen today.  Or did it?

Right into the gate it looked like maybe a couple hundred people in total.   (I actually hesitated telling you that, it was such a bummer.)

And all day I heard the voice of Jerry Garcia saying "We really only have 16 thousand fans, but they follow us everywhere".   And I wished for just a thousand.

So there weren't a lot of people, even less than a SUN or Apple convention. However, that can be a good thing because that means lots of hats open for wearing. 

But... are they worth wearing if the sheer mass is simply useless against The Machine?

Oh, I didn't tell you about "The Machine"? Sorry, let me lay that out for you.

In the introduction to the new edition of O'Neill's High Frontier there's this story about there being two NASAs, one called "The Paper NASA" that loves well written papers concerning far-off ideas like O'Neills (and Zubrins?) and will string the creators and the public along with artists conceptions but will never actually get any of it done because the *other* NASA, the "Real" NASA is the one that has the real money. 

In High Frontier, because of it's original release date, that other NASA was called "The Shuttle NASA", meaning the NASA that had a plan good or bad and they are going to stick with it forever and just pretend that the Paper NASA and all of those silly ideas get patted on the head and pulled out for the kindergarten tours but go absoutely nowhere.

While the Two NASA concept was stuck in my head like a bad song, I came upon resources from years ago and recently that added up to what the Real NASA is truly about, and I think that the High Frontier had it wrong, or at least had it too narrow. 

In the news lately is the big push on Constellation and the Return to the Moon.  New space suits and new ICBM boosters with bigger Apollo shapes all shooting out to new Lunar bases.  It ain't new, and it's even worse than some people think because it's EXACTLY what Schmitt wrote about in "Return to the Moon", but it is also EXACTLY the first scenario outlined in the 1980's NASA SP509 report "Space Resources" (even the dates are the same!).  But wait, there's more.  This is also EXACTLY the scenario from Werner Von Braun's Project Mars novel (WVB was great at spinning his real plans into digestible understandable prose - and Disney shows).

So, is it possible that the "other" NASA wasn't really "The Shuttle NASA", the Shuttle NASA was just a waypoint in the bigger Von Braun plan.

Werner Von Braun is not dead, his legacy lives on, his long term plan IS the NASA rulebook, spanning generations and not deviating.

That is "The Machine".  A nearly unstoppable force. 

Nearly.

Now, it could be altered IF it were exposed and if  smarter, cooler ideas were on the table. Mars Direct is the best idea I've seen.  Even non-nuts all over year after year appear to be genuinely interested in a Human mission to Mars.

But The Machine knows this and they don't care about it being exposed to Mars Society nuts. They know that a few thousand (hundred?) fanboys can be waited out.  Given enough time of Mars Drect not happening it will appear like a silly old idea and gain the mass perception of "it must not be a good idea or NASA would have done it".

The only way to stop the Machine is with outrageous, loud, and massive public outcry. A couple hundred "zappa fanatics" aren't going to get anything done.

The Mars Society wants this but the question is the age old one:  How?  Is it just money?

Funny thing that Space Money.  We all say that NASA needs more money but fact is they have a LOT more money than the Mars Society and they don't want the Mars Society ideas to happen.  Catch 22, NASA is the enemy but only NASA can do what needs to be done.

Hmmm.  Over the years it seems the Mars Society at the national and local chapter levels has done a significant amount of political outreach.  They appear to have had some successes at the staff levels.  But while that should be applauded, it obviously has not been enough.

What they need is a big player, a jump start on getting that MASSIVE voice. A shit load of passionate individuals united as one that "The Machine" can't as easily ignore.

Again, the Mars Society people are not stupid so they know this... why hasn't it happened?

Maybe they aren't going after the right outside group.  Maybe teaming up the the 12,000 member NSS isn't going to get you any farther.

So who then?

One of the all-hands sessions on this first day of the convention was the Society Town Hall meeting.  An open mic forum to bring up ideas and questions about the Society with a hope that points raised could be discussed for the future benefit of the Big Goal.

A couple of member points struck me.  The first was the question about a perceived anti-Science feeling among the general population and a mention was made that 'some religious types' are against Science and so against Space. 

The other point was brought up very eloquently by a young guy who said, with apologies, that most everyone in theroom was Old and that us old people only were interested because we got the spark back when Apollo was going on but that young people dont see it and so don't generally care on the same personal level and so won't generally get involved.

Hmmmm.

Let's take the first point:  an Anti-Science bent among mainly religious people.  On this one, I see things differently.  I think that instead of the knee-jerk reaction of assuming that religious people are an enemy there is potential in working With them.  Religion is on the rise, has been for years.  I think it's scary to see new huge mega churches going up all over the supposedly "intellectual" Seattle Eastside and scarier still to see that once up every one ofthem seems to have overflowing parking lots. 

On the other hand, what if all of those cars had a "I'm going to Heaven ... in 2015" bumpersticker stuck right next to their Jesus fish?  Think about it.  While a 'Christians for Space' initiative would appear to be impossible, and is sometimes ruled out because of the idea that space travel is seen as another evil Tower of Babel human-ego endeavor, I think that played right and using other biblical stories just might work to create a solid momentum.  Consider that Jacob's Ladder is just as powerful an image as the nasty tower and Jacob's ladder could be argued as calling for a human to make the effort to climb step by step Up To God.  It could be read as a plea, as a desire of the Divine for humans to work their way up the steps to meet their maker... that God is in fact waiting for us to take those steps.

I'd buy that... andI'd sell it too if it paid back with correct Space Policy changes. :)

Christians are perfect for a concept of Hope and Faith - and dedication.  Three things that Mars Direct needs.  And there are a LOT of those folks out there.  Perhaps even enough to make The Machine have a harder time keeping the Von Braun plan chugging so merrily along.

And what of that other point, the one about Space zealots being Old?  The kid was right, absolutely.  No question.  My wife and I joked about it when 60 Minutes did that 'We're goin' back to da Moon!' segment, how the old guys are the ones with the excitement about the idea. 

And in that weakness lies another strength.  A strength of a lot of voices.  A strength that potentially could be easier to grab than unifying bunch of churches one at a time, because Old People already have a very loud voice that makes Washington and others cringe in fear.  

It's the AARP. 

Whoah, talk about a big kahuna full of crotchety people who are convinced they're getting screwed and they don't like it one bit.

Consider the power of that  big, bad organized mass of old people who likely don't want to be told that they are going to die and their dreams of Space will die with them. 

I say we tell them, and we tell them that they should turn on their unionized juice to make things right.

If such masses of mainstream people aren't part of the attack then the Mars Society will fail and if it is to fail then it should stop right now.

Christians and old people.  Two sets of hard-core bulldogs.  Yeah, that might do the trick.