I just got back from the Mars Society Convention in Washington DC. At first I was anxious about my talk but it went fabulously. There was also an astronaut, NASA people, an author, and many others I got to talk with or ask questions during their panels. To put this in perspective, I would much rather be in a room with these people than a room with Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce. So these people are celebrities to me, and I really had a great time.
I got to witness some anti-NASA drama first hand, some severe Mars One criticism, talk to a McGill robotics team, witness a signed poster sell at auction for 2550 USD, made some great connections related to playful learning, and see a swarm of teens beg an astronaut for attention before he was able to leave. There are some Youtube videos in this post with the questions I asked various panellists.
My Talk
I've been told my talk went very well! I got some laughs, engaged the audience well, and I'm really happy with the material covered. Unfortunately, the tech people at the conference ran into a lot of trouble, including a complete failure to record my talk. Lucky for me, my darling partner Alexandra managed to record it. She did a great job considering she used a tablet - but tablets suck, and there are many video quality and audio sync issues. The footage is mostly repaired and you can watch it here. |
| Shy Shy Schullie striking a pose. |
Many people approached me after my talk to exchange contact info, and talk about 3D games and Mars. I look forward to see what might come of all that.
My Questions to Panellists
One of the best things about going to the convention is asking questions to panellists. Whereas normally when you watch a pre-recorded talk online, obviously you can't.Jim Watzin
Jim Watzin is the director of the Mars exploration program at NASA. Just before his talk, Robert Zubrin deeply criticized NASA. So when Jim took the stage, he started with "So... I'm from NASA..?" and got some laughs. After, for questions he was still getting heat because the Mars Society is generally disappointed with NASA. So I asked him what his favourite robot from fiction is, and his favourite robot from history. Here's his reply :)
Art Harman
Art Harman is an advocate for manned space flight. He works in public policy and specializes in national security, science, and foreign relations. Despite his international experience, Alex and I quickly recognized that he was deeply xenophobic. In his talks he made it clear that it was unacceptable for any nation but AMERICA to succeed in space. His strategy for international cooperation in space is summarized as "no". To him, space exploration is a matter of national security and not an international mission for mankind. He said so many fear-mongering and xenophobic things that I was briskly reminded I was not in Canada. The question I asked was designed to stoke the fires so he could bury himself further. It went something like this: "I'm from Canada and I don't care which nation goes to Mars first, so long as somebody does it soon. If it turns out NASA is too far behind, how can NASA best support other nations like China or Russia in going to Mars safer and faster?" Of course, he did not answer adequately because cooperation is not in his vocabulary. Alex tells me Robert Zubrin (founder of the Mars Society) was chuckling as I asked my question. (No video yet?)
A reporter at the convention told me later that Art's opinions were not common.
Space Doctors
Alex asked a space doctor if any astronauts had ever developed serious allergies while in space. Good question! and apparently not. She also asked a "Women and Mars" speaker about how her organization was reaching out internationally.
Harrison Schmitt, Casey Dreier, and Robert Zubrin
I was most nervous when I held the mic to ask a question to a panel of three. There was astronaut and former senator Harrison Schmitt, the Planetary Society director of advocacy Casey Dreier, and aerospace engineer and founder of the Mars Society Robert Zubrin. They had just had a debate on three different approaches on how to best get humans to Mars. I managed to ask this question before my brain fell onto the floor. Unfortunately I didn't get much of an answer, not that I noticed at the time.
Andy Weir
Finally, Andy Weir is the author of The Martian which is being adapted into a movie. He joined the convention through Skype (as he is scared of flying). I got to ask him a literary question about his book.
Weird People
I don't want to sound mean. But on the other side of the spectrum of guests we had a number of very weird people. I won't get too specific but:- Alex noticed that one person spoke like Data from Star Trek. Yep! They had good questions though.
- One person was awkwardly self promotional, spoke to themselves, and offered to sing to Alex and I while a speaker was on stage.
I don't mind getting specific on one guest because they were so rude... it was an overweight old man in a very dirty suit. He clamoured his way 15 minutes late into a small presentation, sat down noisily, and started playing cell phone games with the sound effects on. I asked him to stop.
But you know, part of the magic of this convention is that anyone could buy a ticket and attend. All Mars enthusiasts welcome.
Best Talks
I learned a lot from Holger Isenberg about how digital colour pictures are processed from Mars rovers. This will help me make Martian Agora more visually realistic.Andrew Geiszler talked about structural engineering on Mars in ways I hadn't thought of before (Earth engineering uses compression, Mars engineering must use tension). I also borrowed from his speaking style for my own talk (awkward, but casual and confident).
Gerald Black did an incredible job of tearing apart NASA's current strategies and projects. Part of the charm was seeing a very polite, older engineer just demolish NASA with facts and reports. I knew NASA was wasteful and misguided but he brought it to a whole new level. Incredible! This was my favourite talk.
Finally, Robert Clark had two talks on propulsion strategies. He had some very original ideas, and I enjoyed the criticism he got later in question period because I really couldn't tell who was in the right.
Mars One
There was this debate between MIT and Bas Lansdorp (founder of MarsOne). The topic was whether MarsOne is feasible. My impression from the debate was that the entirety of Bas' plan is this: "send humans on a one way mission to Mars as cheaply as possible." He has zero technical understanding of anything beyond that. He has zero care for technical details. He's not personally or emotionally invested in any technical decisions. But that doesn't make the plan infeasible, it just makes it ludicrously vague.The debate should have been: "is Mars One good for the cause of eventually, somehow, sending humans to Mars?" That I truly do not know and wish I had seen it argued. How does a popular but goofy plan like MarsOne impact public opinion?
Finally, Bas had a partner in the debate. He was supposed to offer technical arguments... but sadly he clearly took the opportunity to advertise for the consulting company he works for. He basically didn't mention MarsOne at all and merely spoke of how qualified his company was. Really sad.
A few MarsOne finalists spoke earlier in the event, including Oscar Matthews. He's a good public speaker. We briefly worked together on a Mars rover 3D model, so it was nice meeting him in person.
Survey and Youth
I couldn't help but notice the average age of attendees was... 60? I've reached out to the organizers to offer some ideas on how to engage a younger audience.Also, I've put together a survey about the convention for attendees. I'm hoping the organizers will get back to me soon and we can send it out to attendees to improve future conventions.
