7 Reasons You Should #TrainLikeAMartian April 18-24

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Train Like An Astronaut MartianGet 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!

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Train-Like-a-Martian-

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!

Sign up here now to get updates and qualify for prizes!

The Mars Generation Patch

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:

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

*Limit 5 contest entries per day

The Mars Generation AstronautSome tips on sharing and promoting :

  1. Be genuine when you share – tell people why they should participate. Invite them to join you in the fun!
  2. 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.
  3. 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

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Train Like Martian We Want You
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.

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 BrowderBecca 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.