Out-of-this-world event launched

Mars the borough is planning another celebration for the next New Year’s Day on Mars the planet, and students from high schools in the area are invited to take part.

The next New Year’s Day on the red planet will be May 4, 2017. The date is calculated based, in part, on the fact that one Martian year equals 687 Earth days.

Students in Butler County high schools as well as Hampton, North Allegheny and Pine-Richland in northern Allegheny County have been invited to participate in the MARS Challenge.

The borough held its first celebration of the Mars New Year in June 2015. At that time, officials from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory brought personnel and exhibitions on the planet Mars.

NASA would like to participate again in the May 4 event, but officials want it to be “more educational on a student level,” said Shelly Watson, head volunteer for the challenge who spoke to Mars Area school board members this month about the event.

The MARS Challenge asks students in grades 9-12 — individually or in groups up to five — to do a project on one aspect of 100 earthlings colonizing Mars, “the next great frontier,” she said.

There are four categories to choose from, each beginning with one of the letters in MARS: mechanical, agriculture, relationship and survival. Some areas would be biology, robotics, psychology, recreation, architecture, energy, food, engineering, technology and medicine.

“We are hoping that we get all the high school teachers on board, too,” Ms. Watson said.

Scholarships will be awarded to winners.

The inaugural Mars New Year celebration in 2015 drew several thousand visitors and, in addition to NASA’s participation, included exhibits from Carnegie Science Center and the University of Pittsburgh Mobile Science Lab. It also included a preview of the movie “The Martian.”

More details on the challenge can be found at: www.MarsNewYear.com.