Good Evening. It's a great pleasure to be here today, participating in your ceremony. When Mr. Hale invited me to speak, I thought long and hard about what to say. I remembered my own eighth grade graduation ceremony, back in 1966, and what was on my mind that night. I had recently transferred from another school and had difficulties with the new classes, so I wasn't receiving any awards. I felt bad about that. But there were more important things, like wishing I could walk on my hands like that guy in gym class. Or having the courage to sing outloud on a sunny June afternoon, "What a day for a day dreamin' boy." I wasn't thinking much about my career, not yet.
But I do remember one class, when we drew a picture of a rocket ship and pretended we were on a voyage to Mars. And I always got extra credit in eighth grade science, answering quiz questions about the latest Gemini two-person launches, getting us ready for the first trip to the moon in three years. I used to read these stories in the New York Times--absorbing every word. And of course when Star Trek began on TV in September, I watched the first episode and haven't missed any in 36 years.
So space travel was on my mind as I sat at MY eighth grade graduation, and it's probably no coincidence that I work for NASA today. Once again I am drawing pictures of space vehicles on Mars, but now I'm living inside them, and actually pretending we are ON Mars. I've done that in the High Arctic of Canada on Devon Island and more recently in the Utah desert, where I was the Station Commander for two weeks....... I know it changed me a lot, because afterwards all my friends were saying, "Heh, you're not the commander anymore."
So what does Star Trek and Mars have to do with you? And what can we learn from my experience since eighth grade?
The future has a way of catching up with us, like an incoming tide. You're raised up and pushed along with the swell. Suddenly, although it seems you've been waiting forever, there are new possibilities.
For thirty years we've waited to carry space exploration forward. We're in a transition zone, what I like to call "Standing on Columbus' dock." We're watching the great ships being prepared for launch, and responding in different ways. "It's a great adventure!" some say. Other people reply: "You'll be destroyed by ocean storms and die. And there's no place to live when you arrive. The snowy winters will kill you." And probably others complained, "We have poor people here in Europe, let's spend the money to help them first" But Columbus and his supporters won the day: "It's human nature to explore," they said, "we MUST move on to discover other lands."
That was just 500 years ago. In a land lit only by fire.
Today we are called by adventure to another land. And unlike the daring seafaring captains of Columbus' time, we actually know where we are going! We have detailed photographs--huge canyons and towering volcanoes, deeper and higher than anything on Earth. Wide open plains with sand dunes covered in frost. Global wind storms swirling dust. Long winding rilles and ravines, etched by water.
It's OUR new land, a new frontier. We're going to Mars.
And like a tidal swell, the Martian adventure is gaining momentum. In 1975 and finally again in '97 we sent robotic machines, operated remotely from Earth. Next spring, in 2003, two large robotic platforms will arrive a few weeks apart. Over three months, they will be controlled from Pasadena, to go hundreds of meters taking pictures and sampling. Tonight we have two satellites orbiting Mars; the Global Surveyor has been sending photos for several years, amazing photos, showing us a land we can walk on and know like your own backyard. Or maybe it's more like the desert southwest.... If you like Utah and Arizona, you're going to love Mars.
And just last week scientists reported the first analyses of data returned by our second satellite, orbiting since October, the spacecraft we call Odyssey. This satellite has sensors for detecting hydrogen, and that means water. We have discovered huge reservoirs of ice, barely three feet below the surface, over much of the planet, especially in the colder latitudes. It is enough water, we believe, to cover the entire surface of Mars to a depth of fifteen hundred feet. That's one thousand, five hundred. As much water as three Lake Michigans. Plenty of water to sustain a colony. Even cities. Ice that can be melted and converted by electrolysis into hydrogen and oxygen, which we can use to breath and fuel our rovers and spacecraft.
So, we are going to Mars. But when? Robert Zubrin, the President of the Mars Society says, "When we have an American president who would like to be remembered in 500 years," like Queen Isabella of Spain who supported Columbus.
More practically, we're going within 20 years. Some of you could be walking on Mars before you are forty years old. You just have to believe. Your...attitude...matters. You must believe in discovery and adventure. If you let other people say "it can't be done," I can promise you, you will be 50 years old like me one day, and we will STILL be sending tin cans around the Earth, round and round going nowhere.
Star Trek was first called "Wagon Train to the Stars" and that's what we're talking about--a long line of people, moving out to settle a new land, a second planet. Of course it seems strange, but the idea of leaving Europe to sail across the Atlantic seemed strange, and scary and maybe crazy. But I can tell you, it's inevitable, it's logical, and it will give new meaning and value to human life.
500 years from now, your ancestors will be living in Martian cities, and looking back at Earth--just as we sit in North America today and look back at Europe. Martians will find it odd that anybody doubted. That anybody hesitated. What was the big deal in the 21st century, our grandchildren's grandchildren will wonder. What was better to do? What could have been more exciting? Did they lack courage? Or imagination? Or were they so comfortable watching TV and movies, they lost the urge to explore? Did they doubt their own abilities? Were there no leaders? Did no one speak up to rally them on?
Well, I promised to keep my story short, so I had better wrap up. Here's the point. I'm standing here in the second half of my career, with the prospect that my dream is coming true. I still watch Star Trek, but now I am part..of..the..space..program--and a NEW ADVENTURE is beginning, something bigger and more momentous for the human race than our first baby steps to the moon. You're sitting here, poised to begin your professional education--for high school is where you will begin your career. You're ready to find a cause you can believe in, an idea to which you can devote your life. What choices will you make? What will give your life meaning?
Here's a suggestion: Join me, join humanity's next adventure. Millions of people will be involved. There's a place for everyone. If science or computers speak to your heart, listen, develop your skills, make things, and meet people, get a PhD. We'll need photographers and artists, too. Web designers to inform the public. Social scientists and psychologists to select and train the astronauts. Engineers and managers to build our spacecraft and new organizations. Or, if you're going to be part of mission support, the cheering team back home, follow our adventure, enjoy the story, and wish us well.
And then, we will ALL say, "On, to Mars!"
Copyright © 2002 William J. Clancey. All Rights Reserved.