groundcontrol, Author at The Mars Generation®

7 Reasons You Should #TrainLikeAMartian April 18-24

March 9, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

Get ready to Train Like a Martian! From April 18-24, The Mars Generation is sponsoring a week of activities that will encourage individuals to see physical activity, STEM education and space exploration in a whole new way.

You can click here to get updates for the event.

Interested in possibly hosting a local community #TrainLikeAMartian event on April 24? Click here for more information!

Want to get entered in prize drawings right away. Click here to learn how.

On April 24th, 2016 European Space Agency Astronaut Tim Peake of the UK will make his mark as the second astronaut to run a marathon in space. Peake will be running the 2016 London Marathon from the International Space Station.

Join The Mars Generation help cheer on Tim Peake by participating in our Train Like a Martian fitness challenge the week leading up to the London Marathon.

Here’s 7 reasons why you should get ready to Train Like a Martian:

1. Connect with others locally and worldwide

You don’t have to Train Like a Martian alone, grab a friend at school, a group of co-workers or find someone across the world on social media. This event will give opportunities to connect with people of similar interests all across the world. Whether you find someone in your area or someone on Twitter in a different country, get together for a fun week of joining together as a community and pushing each other to be better.

2. Encourage health and fitness

Whether you’re continuing on a regular fitness path or starting for the first time, this week will help encourage health and fitness across the globe. Share fitness tips, challenges and triumphs during this event. Those participating will share the benefits of living healthy, balanced lifestyle while helping to encourage those observing the event to do the same. Join us in making fitness a trending topic leading up to the London Marathon.

3. Rally for space exploration

If you believe in space exploration and want others to do the same, this event is the perfect way to start the conversation. Through your participation and progress during this week-long event, those who are unaware or uneducated in space exploration will have the opportunity to connect and ask questions. This is a huge step in adding a rally behind space exploration to support current and future missions.

4. Inspire STEM education

Those who are already in STEM related fields can probably remember a time in their life when they chose that path. Let’s join in and make this event one of those moments for someone. Through promotion and participation of this event, together we can encourage young children and students to join the STEM team. If you can help inspire one person to have an interest in STEM education, then we are on the way to inspiring a whole generation.

5. Support The Mars Generation mission

Behind this week-long event is an even greater long-term mission. TMG mission is to excite those young and old about space, STEM education and an understanding of the importance of those two elements to the future of humankind. The goal of TMG is to advance public interest in human space exploration and advocate for NASA’s journey to Mars. Get a taste of TMG community during this week-long event and you’ll see why the mission is so important.

6. Fun, friendly competition

Challenge yourself and challenge others through fun and friendly fitness competition. You don’t have to run faster than the person next to you, just work harder. Everyone will have the opportunity to enter their workouts into TMG tracking spreadsheet to show their progress and see how they compare with other participants.

7. Opportunities to win prizes

Did someone say free stuff? You heard it right. Combining friendly competition with fundraising, the individual who raises the most will be awarded a TMG sweatshirt and up to five TMG t-shirts will be awarded to the group will the most funds raised. Individuals who raise $100 or more will be entered into a drawing for patches, space books, TMG t-shirts, among much more. Those individuals who raise $500 or more will be entered into a premium drawing with a grand prize of a Google Hangout session with Astronaut Abby and perhaps a few more surprise guests! Tweet with the #TrainLikeAMartian hashtag to share your activities and successes and to be entered into a daily drawing for additional prizes and notoriety mentions on April 25th. You can be entered for prize drawings that are happening now each week. Click here to learn more!

Now that we’ve convinced you to be a part of the event, here’s a few ways you can join in on the fun!

#TrainLikeAMartian: Help Spread The Word And Win Prizes!

March 7, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We just announced our new signature event, the Train Like a Martian Challenge, a one of a kind worldwide event. It’s purpose…well first to have some fun…then to raise awareness of the importance of physical fitness and tie that into awareness of the importance of STEM education and human space exploration to our future!

The event is scheduled for the week of April 18-24 – please help us spread the word to get more people to sign up and join us!

The brand new TMG patch! Only available as a prize by participating in the #TrainLikeAMartian Challenge

Help Us Spread The Word For A Chance To Win Prizes

Every time you talk about the event following the procedure below you will entered into our weekly drawing to win a TMG prizes including including the new TMG patches, TMG t-shirts and TMG coffee. Drawings will be every Monday from March 14 – April 11 leading up to event.

Gain a contest entry every time you share the event on your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and include:

Event hashtag: #TrainLikeAMartian
Event URL: themarsgeneration.org/train-like-a-martian
Tag The Mars Generation using @TheMarsGen on Twitter – @TheMarsGeneration on Instagram – @The Mars Generation on Facebook
Sign up here for updates and to qualify for prizes.

*Limit 5 contest entries per day

Some tips on sharing and promoting :

Be genuine when you share – tell people why they should participate. Invite them to join you in the fun!
Use our pre-written social media posts and personalize them. You can find the pre-written messages in our event dropbox here with the photos.
Use photos when possible:
- You can find a series of fun #TrainLikeAMartian event photos right here on in our event dropbox.
- Share photos of yourself preparing for the #TrainLikeAMartian challenge – running, lifting some extra weight (your cat, kid, a can of soup), walking to the store, skipping downtime block – whatever – have some fun and share some selfies to motivate others!

*By sharing photos of yourself using the #TrainLikeAMartian hashtag you are giving The Mars Generation permission to use your photos for TMG TLAM social media posts and promotions.

Everyone wins!

While being selected in the prize drawings and winning a patch is exciting – you also win by knowing that you are spreading the word and helping to promote something that really is changing lives. This event brings awareness to these important issues and will also serve as a funding source for our 3 core programs – you make it possible for The Mars Generation to keep working towards our mission. You win! We win! Everyone Wins!

Thank you for joining us and helping us spread the word!

*NASA is not affiliated with The Mars Generation

#TrainLikeAMartian: 8 Ways You Can Get Involved

March 3, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

Have you grown up dreaming of blasting into space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft? Do you obsessively follow the progress of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon capsules and picture yourself going to Mars in them? Do you spend a significant chunk of your paycheck on space-themed items? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then keep reading.

One of the major challenges facing space travelers today is keeping their bodies in shape in microgravity, which tends to cause muscles to decay and bones to lose density, making the return to Earth’s gravity painful. While living on the International Space Station, astronauts spend two hours each day exercising to keep themselves healthy. In that spirit, Tim Peake of ESA plans to become the second astronaut to complete a marathon in space when he uses the COLBERT to participate in the London Marathon on April 24.

.@LondonMarathon only 10 miles on the treadmill but I ran for 26000 miles around the planet…does that count?

— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) February 29, 2016

Even if you weren’t one of the more than 18,000 applicants to NASA’s next astronaut class, staying healthy has been proven to lift your mood, lower the risk of certain cancers, and prolong life. Whether you’re competing with coworkers for steps, getting back into a fitness plan, or looking to do something different, The Mars Generation’s Train Like a Martian (TLM) event is a great way to have fun while promoting space.

Here are eight ways you can be involved with the Train Like a Martian Challenge

1. Join the challenge

Sign up for the event as an individual or bring together a group and follow along each day with our chosen TLM activities as we post them. You can log your activity on our Google spreadsheet (this is public, so please use only your first name and last initial) and see how people around the world stack up against you. Share photos and use the #TrainLikeAMartian hashtag to tell others about the event. You can do as few or as many of the activities each day as you want. Get into the challenge and feel the burn!

2. Be a part of the ground support crew

Don’t want to commit to participating each day? You can still join the ground support crew to get updates, share the event on your social media channels, and cheer us on the week of the event.

3. Raise funds for The Mars Generation

Help support our programs including the Student Space Ambassadors and the Space Camp Scholarship. You can also sign up as a team with friends and fundraise together. There will be prizes for the top individual fundraiser and the top team fundraiser. Sign up here to stay in the loop.

4. Host a local community event on April 24

It’s fun and easy to plan and host a local Train Like a Martian event. Get your friends, neighbors and community out for this fun activity here’s a simple how to guide.

Are you a student or a teacher? You can get your school involved too!

5. Plan a school-wide event

Host a field day, rocket run, fitness carnival or anything else you can think of that excites both kids and adults to exercise and have fun.

6. Participate during our daily challenge

These are easy challenges that can be done on the playground, gymnasium, in the hallway or even in the classroom. Get your class or even your whole school involved!

7. Promote the event

Express your creativity and love of space through your school newsletters and social media challenges and encourage families to participate at home after school.

8. Organize a competition

Challenge classrooms, schools or the district to participate each day and see who gets the most exercise recorded.

We hope you join us for this exciting event! To show your stuff or submit your own ideas about getting in shape, use the hashtag #TrainLikeAMartian. Here’s to a healthier life and more ways to advocate for space exploration! You can qualify to win prizes now – click here to find out how!

Sign up here to receive Train Like A Martian updates!

Becca Browder is a blog editor and writer at The Mars Generation. She earned her Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma and works as a space policy intern in DC at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

Seventeen Magazine Selects TMG Founder As 2016 Power Teen

February 16, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce that our founder and spokesperson Abigail Harrison, Astronaut Abby, has been selected as one of Seventeen Magazine’s 17 Power Teens for 2016. Abigail was featured with young women that include several activists, a politician, a professional skateboarder and many other amazing teens.

The article is featured in the March 2016 issue of Seventeen Magazine. Not only does the article take about Abby’s own dreams to be the first person to Mars but also her outreach work and her founding of The Mars Generation including a mention of our website address and our mission. A great shout out to our organization that will hopefully inspire more girls and young women to get involved with STEM and The Mars Generation.

We are thrilled to see a pop culture magazine such as Seventeen feature smart, strong, ambitious young women as role models and hope to see the trend continue. Thank you Abby for your great representation of our organization and Seventeen for choosing Abby as one of your 2016 Power Teens!

TMG Founder to Speak at Humans To Mars Summit 2016

February 16, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are excited to announce that our founder and spokesperson, Astronaut Abby, will be speaking at the 2016 Humans to Mars Summit. This annual Explore Mars premiere event is being help May 17-19, 2016 at the George Washington University in Washington D.C.

The speakers lineup on the first day of the event includes Astronaut Abby, Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye, Andy Weir, Dava Newman, Charles Bolden, Ellen St0fan, James Green and many other esteemed professionals in the space and science community. The event is expected to exceed past events with an estimate of over 1,000 attendees and one million viewers online.

We are proud to announce that The Mars Generation is partnering with Explore Mars (the event organizers) and through this partnership we are providing a special discount code for 15% off of Humans to Mars 2016 conference tickets for our community members. The discount code is TMGMars and can be used on all full event tickets. For more information and registration please visit the Human To Mars Summit website.

We could not be prouder to have Astronaut Abby represent The Mars Generation at the summit and we hope those who are able will join us. Together we can change the world!

PBS SCITECH NOW: Dr. Phil Metzger Talks About The Mars Generation

January 24, 2016 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are so excited to share this clip of the PBS show SCITECH NOW with our Advisory Board member Dr. Phil Metzger being interviewed by SCITECH NOW reporter Andrea Vasquez. Dr. Metzger talks about The Mars Generation and the future of human space exploration as well as what young people can look forward to in the 2030’s when we send humans to Mars. You can watch Dr. Metzger’s entire SCITECH NOW interview by clicking here.

“Mars is the next major destination in space travel and it’s going to take a new generation of budding scientists to get us there. The Mars Generation is a nonprofit organization focused on educating and exciting kids and adults about deep space exploration. Joining me is Dr. Phil Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida Space Institute, former NASA scientist at the Kennedy Space Center and an Advisor for The Mars Generation.” States Reporter Andrea Vasquez, on a January 6, 2016 segment of the PBS show SCITECH NOW.

Welcome Nicole Chase! New Director of TMG Student Space Ambassador Program

December 23, 2015 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

It is with great excitement that we welcome a new and very important member of the The Mars Generation team. Beginning immediately Nicole Chase, currently seeking a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, will join The Mars Generation staff as our Student Space Ambassador Program Director (SSAPD). We are excited to have found a student who is dedicated not only to her own studies but is also committed to STEM education, mentoring, and the future of space exploration.

Our SSA program is a unique program which, in addition to providing a positive and supportive online community of teachers, parents and students through a private Facebook group, provides stories, resources and materials for students who want to make a difference in their communities. The program is ready for a leader like Chase to grow the vision to it’s full potential.

Prior to her graduate studies, Chase earned a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, with a minor in General Sciences, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, with a minor in Chemistry, from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. During her undergraduate years, Chase helped to organize, plan, and execute numerous events on BGSU’s campus, held six leadership positions, and attended many regional and national leadership conferences. She is very excited to bring her knowledge and experience to The Mars Generation as the Director of the Student Space Ambassador Program.

Please join us in welcoming Nicole to The Mars Generation leadership team. It is the dedication of time and knowledge of people like Nicole that will allow our program to grow and advance. Together, we can change the world!

What is the one thing spaceflight needs most?

December 19, 2015 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: NASA

Thank you to The Mars Generation advisory board member Nujoud Merancy for writing this guest post about the key to spaceflight.

Spaceflight is hard. This is a well known fact to the engineers, scientists and astronauts that contribute in this industry. Regardless of your background, if you’ve made it to these pages, you probably have some understanding of this inherent difficulty. The factors that make space hard are numerous: the environment, the complexity of the vehicles, the costs, the politics and the time all play a role. These are all interrelated factors–the need to save cost by using a smaller rocket demands a lighter perhaps more complex vehicle to survive the stresses of launch. Optimizing for the vehicle then takes more time, rather than just being able to slap some hardware together. Each spacecraft is built for specific purposes, and each demands new engineering. The trials of a program don’t end at launch where, in particular for exploration, the time and challenge of the flight increase with distance.

As an example, there was a tremendous response recently to the New Horizons recent flyby of Pluto. The pictures and data being returned mesmerized pop culture, Twitter and the media. The mission seemed instantaneous… that is, except to those behind it. NASA green-lighted the mission in 2002, designed and built it in four years on shoestring budget, and launched in January of 2006 before spending nine years traveling thorough the vastness of space to bring those images to us. In this time, children were born, started walking and are now in high school, and the spacecraft flies on. The construction of the International Space Station, something I am proud to have contributed to, took thirteen years without even considering the years before of design, political debate and development.

So what is the key to spaceflight in the face of these challenges?

Persistence.

For all levels of engineering, from university to program management, successful people are those that just keep going regardless of what is thrown at them. Engineering is notoriously the hardest general category of college degrees with the dropout rate reported as high as 60%. But the real secret is not that the 40% that stayed in were all magically smarter, but they did have persistence. They showed up, they just kept trying and eventually made it. That skill translates to the work environment where they take on the question of “how?” and make it real. Making real machines, solving real problems and producing real products takes persistence. Every engineer has stories of failed designs or tests they had to redo. Picking up and fixing it is hallmark of engineering.

Using this persistence is necessary to face programs that stretch for years, missions that last decades, and will be required facing the challenges inherent in the Journey to Mars. There are no shortcuts ahead. There will be much debate on which vehicle, which mission, or which contract mechanism to use, but there is one ingredient required in any scenario: Persistence.

So I invite you to join us. Bring your energy, be fierce, be kind, but most of all, be persistent.

Space Camp Scholarship Nominations Open Soon

December 15, 2015 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

We are thrilled to announce that we are awarding 10 full paid (transportation included) Space Camp Scholarships in the winter of 2016. This is a huge accomplishment given that The Mars Generation was launched just 3 months ago! We are able to award these scholarships because of the incredible dedication, hard work and support of our board, sponsors, volunteer staff and our incredible community!

The process for application starts with a teacher nomination of the student. Our scholarship committee will review nominations and email teacher with student application once nomination is accepted. The student application will include a two page essay.

The nomination forms will be made available December 21, 2015 and are due no later than February 1, 2016. Student applications will be accepted until March 1, 2016. All applicants will be notified by April 1, 2016 of their status.

Space Camp Scholarship Qualifications Include:

Age 13-16
Interested in STEM or STEAM subjects
Having satisfactory academic standing (must be passing all classes)
Demonstrating financial need – determined by student qualifying for the USDA free and reduced lunch program (student will need to provide proof in application)
Currently enrolled in a school in the United States
Having never attended Space Camp
Having parent permission

Please check back for nomination details soon! To receive email updates about scholarships now and in the future please sign up below.

Meet Student Space Ambassador Taylor Richardson

December 1, 2015 By groundcontrol Leave a Comment

It’s always great to see young people step out to change the world. We are building our Student Space Ambassador (SSA) program to support young people who want to change the world, while also spreading their love of space and human space exploration within their own communities. We are very excited to introduce one of our Student Space Ambassadors (SSA), Taylor Richardson (age 12). Taylor is a great example of what can be done as a TMG SSA.

“As a woman of color, Taylor rarely sees people who look like her in STEM fields, and we thought this would be an opportunity to show how people of color are working towards fields in STEM/space.” said Latonja Richardson, Taylor’s mom. “This program [The Mars Generation] has given Taylor a whole new family that sees her as just another person interested in STEM/space.”

Taylor and her mom recently participated in our Give To Mars Day Potato Challenge. Taylor’s participation
consisted of eating 3 meals of boiled potatoes with a bit of pepper and drinking lots of water. But more than that she worked before and after school with her mom to reach out via social media and email to help raise awareness and funds for The Mars Generation’s campaign.

“The challenge was important to us because we know how hard it is to acquire funds for your dreams,” said Latonja. “This program is trying to ensure that our youth, particularly those who want to be in the field of STEM/space, have an outlet and a resource to help them live out their dreams.”

In addition to her work with TMG, Taylor is actively involved in promoting and supporting several causes, including childhood literacy, the Unity Day anti-bullying campaign, a girls’ empowerment club, and clothing drives for women and children.

Taylor organized Take Flight with A Book, a program that works in conjunction with the United Way Reading Pals program. By February 2015, she had collected nearly 200 books and donated them to North Shore Elementary School, located in Jacksonville, Florida. She also visited North Shore to read to the Pre-K class, while wearing her astronaut suit.

“I feel every kid deserves a book,” said Taylor. “Books can take you to great places and those places can lead to great possibilities.”

In November 2015, ‘Take Flight’ partnered with the Ritz Theatre & Museum to be one of multiple drop-off sites for books. With this, Taylor hosted a children’s book reading while dressed as Astronaut Starbright to promote the Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight exhibit on loan from the Smithsonian Institute. Taylor collected over 500 book donations during the event.

As a TMG Student Space Ambassador, Taylor is inspiring others to dream big, act big, and go out to make a change in the world. By sharing her excitement and passion for space with others, she truly embodies the spirit of The Mars Generation and we couldn’t be prouder.

Thank you Taylor for being a great earthling, a budding “Martian” and an inspiration to many! We are thrilled to be a part of your journey!