Red Planet

Was there ever life on Mars? Its arid zones seem carved by floods. Its gorges are of red rock; all its states are Arizonas. look barren. Our rovers find no bones just iron compounds for Martian forges. seem carved by floods, violent and gorgeous. Lynn Levin Lynn Levin (Iamblel@aol.com) is the author of two collections of poems, "A Few Questions about Paradise" and "Imaginarium. " She teaches at Drexel University.

A better title for "Red Planet" would have been "Mission to Moss. " Actress Carrie-Ann Moss, who single-handedly ignited a leather trend in "The Matrix," is the center of attention here, in command of a spaceship full of guys headed to Mars. Most of the time she's alone, standing around in blue-tinted rooms, flicking switches and narrating her little movements. "Acquiring orbit. Commencing ignition sequence for Mars return," she says, leaving out the most important part: "and taking off my shirt.

At 5:51 tomorrow morning , the planet Mars will come closer to Earth than it has been in about 60,000 years. Derrick Pitts, senior scientist, chief astronomer, and planetarium programs director at the Franklin Institute, spoke to The Inquirer about what is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event. Inquirer: What is so special about Mars coming this close? Derrick Pitts: It depends which side of the fence you're on. If you're a professional scientist, what's exciting is that Mars is coming within about 35 million miles from Earth, which is really close.

Along with the Mars Polar Lander, more than 930,000 people also landed on Mars yesterday. At least their names did. In 1998, NASA let Internet users sign up to have their names put on a CD-ROM that would ride to Mars on the lander. NASA and the Planetary Society, a group of space enthusiasts, have done this for other missions, including the Stardust spacecraft, which will try to snag debris from a comet in 2004 and return it to Earth. Stardust is carrying more than a million names on two microchips.

Mars hasn't been good to the movies lately. Over the last year, we've had the snoozy sci-fier Mission to Mars and the not-much-better Red Planet. Now John Carpenter, the genre auteur whose Halloween and Escape from New York are considered hallmarks of low-budget filmmaking, plops down on the ominous orb with Ghosts of Mars (official title: John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars). And while this cheesy, heavy-metal melange of horror, space hooey and cowboy shoot-'em-ups isn't exactly dull, it isn't anything to write home about, either.

This Friday night, you might see the mysterious Martian pyramids of Cydonia, but you will definitely see the red planet on its closest approach to Earth in more than 59,000 years at StarFest 2003, a free evening of star-viewing sponsored by the Chesmont Astronomical Society. Mars is approaching what astronomers call a perihelic opposition on Aug. 28, when the planet not only will lie on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun but also will be extraordinarily close to Earth, said Harry Augensen, a Wallingford resident and Widener University professor of physics and astronomy.

The problem, in a nutshell, was presented to Sarah Gavit three years ago. "The idea was to design an inexpensive spacecraft that could be sent to Mars, but there would be no room for parachutes or any kind of landing system," she explained, smiling mischievously. "We don't land, we crash. " Gavit is project manager for NASA's Mars Microprobe Mission, two grapefruit-size spacecraft that will ride piggyback on the Surveyor Polar Lander, which is scheduled to depart for the Red Planet in January.

NASA kicked off an intensive search for evidence of life on other worlds yesterday, launching the first of 13 Earth-to-Mars spaceships scheduled for the next 10 years. After a day's delay because of high winds, the Mars Global Surveyor blasted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 50 seconds after noon, lugging six scientific instruments to explore the Martian environment. "It's the beginning of a long sequence of missions . . . whose goal must be to determine whether or not life was ever on Mars or even perhaps exists now," said Wesley Huntress Jr., chief of space science for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

It may be a few years before space tourism becomes affordable, but in 2002 visitors to the Franklin Institute will be able to take a simulated trip to Mars, thanks to a $1.5 million grant from NASA announced yesterday. The Mars trip will be part of a 4,000-square-foot exhibit to be called "Journey Through Space" that the institute will create in collaboration with the space agency. NASA will help to bring cutting-edge pictures and information into the exhibit, according to Jeff Guaracino, a spokesman for the Franklin Institute.

Mars, the Red Planet, is really Butterscotch. After an exhaustive review of 17,050 images from 1997's Mars Pathfinder mission, astronomers are no longer seeing red in the planet next door. "The red planet is not red but indeed yellowish brown" scientists concluded in a report yesterday summarizing the results of the Mars Pathfinder mission. The sky is yellowish brown. So is the dirt. "Colorwise, Mars is rather a drab place," said Peter H. Smith, University of Arizona senior scientist and coauthor of the study published as a special edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Although Andrew Stanton , Oscar-winning director of Finding Nemo and Wall-E , has been thinking about the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter books for decades - he was 12 when he first encountered them - it wasn't until relatively recently that it became clear that he was going to be the guy bringing the pulp classics to the screen. "To be honest, it's been a project that I wanted to see done for a long time," explains Stanton, who makes his live-action debut with Disney's John Carter . "I never knew I would be the person doing it. . . . I always just planned to get in line and see it. " A fantastical adventure about a two-fisted Civil War veteran who finds himself transported to Mars, becomes buddies with a towering green guy, and falls in love with a red-tattooed warrior princess, John Carter was first optioned in the 1980s by Disney, but nobody could figure out how to bring this intergalactic swashbuckler, with its elaborate flying ships and Zodangan villains, to the screen.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - As big as a car and as well-equipped as a laboratory, NASA's newest Mars rover blows away its predecessors in size and skill. Nicknamed Curiosity and scheduled for launch Saturday, the rover has a 7-foot arm tipped with a jackhammer and a laser to break through the Martian red rock. What really makes it stand out: It can analyze rocks and soil with unprecedented accuracy. "This is a Mars scientist's dream machine," said NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Ashwin Vasavada, the deputy project scientist.

EDWARD TUNSTEL was on duty at NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project in January 2004 when the rover "Spirit" suddenly went silent 17 days after landing on the Red Planet. "We had just finished using the time, had gotten data back," Tunstel said earlier this week. "That went successfully. Then . . . the rover sort of just went to sleep. " A controlled panic erupted among some of the engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, part of the California Institute of Technology. After two tense days - during which the scientists rebooted Spirit's computer again and again - the rover was finally up and running.

Venus was the goddess of love, but Mars is the big cosmic tease. No, the Red Planet will not appear as big as the full moon on Aug. 27. Not even close. Unless your flying saucer is parked a sun's diameter or two from its fourth planet. Sillier still, Mars will not even be visible at night on that date. So do not, NASA advises, believe "The Confusing-Email-About-Mars-You-Should-Delete-and-Not-Forward-to-Anyone-Except-Your-In-Laws. " Really, that was NASA's term.

The new Imax feature, Roving Mars, is like the Super Bowl for science geeks. It chronicles the monumental efforts of a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design, build and ultimately transport a pair of data-collecting robots to the Red Planet in 2003. The film is certainly an impressive testament to man's intelligence, perseverance and ingenuity. And it contains the best rocket launch sequence (digitally animated) ever committed to film, as the various stages of boosters exhaust themselves and fall away.

With a green light from Congress, NASA is moving swiftly to carry out President Bush's plan to return robots and humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. The United States is also seeking foreign partners for the hugely expensive project, hoping to save money and avoid wasteful duplication. Space officials from 17 countries, including China, Russia, Japan and much of Europe, participated in a planning workshop in Washington last week. Representatives from each nation said they intended to participate in at least the planning phase.

Forget about ancient traces of water on Mars. There's a little white bunny up there. And stone tools. And dinosaur fossils. Plants, art, even letters of the alphabet. While NASA scientists pore over the latest Red Planet images for shreds of evidence that it might have supported algae or pond scum, thousands of earnest civilians are scanning the same pictures and pointing out all sorts of things the professionals missed or haven't acknowledged. Ever since the robot rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January, NASA has been flooded with hundreds of daily calls and e-mails from people eager to share their own dramatic discoveries.

Some people look at Mars and see boulders and dust. Others see stuff that isn't there. Not yet, anyway. Colonies. Raccoons and maple trees. Astronauts chatting to robot assistants in sign language. Vegetable gardens, rabbit herds and fish farming made possible by, of all things, global warming. Can a Wal-Mart outside the Gusav Crater Gated Community be far behind? "The possibilities are endless," said Kevin Sloan, 22, president of the Mars Society chapter on the Pennsylvania State University campus.

Was there ever life on Mars? Its arid zones seem carved by floods. Its gorges are of red rock; all its states are Arizonas. look barren. Our rovers find no bones just iron compounds for Martian forges. seem carved by floods, violent and gorgeous. Lynn Levin Lynn Levin (Iamblel@aol.com) is the author of two collections of poems, "A Few Questions about Paradise" and "Imaginarium. " She teaches at Drexel University.

Do you toss and turn at night, trying to sleep after watching the evening news' litany of accidents, fires, robberies and shootings? Has angst perched itself on your shoulder? Maybe you need to find relief, something to ease your mind and relax your body. Find a comfy lawn chair or, even better, a chaise longue. Go out on a clear night, have a seat, and look up at the expanse of sky around you. There's a lot to see, it's quiet, and there are no commercials. You might even spot bright, shimmering Mars, which, as many people know by now, is virtually rubbing elbows with Earth on its closest pass in about 60,000 years.