Space Buffs’ Mission: to Thrill to Images of Mars at Planetfest

The pull of the event and the promised images were too strong for Russ Melching to stay home any longer--even on the Fourth of July.

Moments after news came Friday morning that the Pathfinder spacecraft was on its final approach to Mars, the 54-year-old San Dimas schoolteacher hopped into his car and drove to Pasadena to join fellow space enthusiasts in an afternoon vigil, awaiting the first images from the Red Planet.

“I was really excited when they said the thing had landed,” Melching said. “Somebody said they’d get the first visuals at 5 o’clock, so I decided to come out here.”

About a thousand people joined Melching at the Pasadena Convention Center for Planetfest ‘97, watching a live feed from Mission Control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Throughout most of the day, the standing-room-only audience was able to watch images on a 25-foot television screen, oohing and ahhing as the Pathfinder team announced success after success.

The event was organized by the Planetary Society, a nonprofit group dedicated to the exploration of the solar system. Planetfest ‘97, which ends today, also offers programs featuring astronauts and scientists, displays of space technology, science fiction authors, special programs in Spanish, educators workshops and a host of interactive exhibits for children and adults. And more live images will be broadcast there today as they are transmitted from the planet’s surface

“We’re starting a new era of space exploration,” said Bruce Murray, president of the society. Murray was director of JPL during the pioneering years of planetary exploration in the 1970s. “Now the public is involved more and more,” he said.

Besides following the events on television and at Planetfest, enthusiasts can turn to JPL Internet sites dedicated to the mission, which have received more than 40 million hits.

Planetary Society member Verla Ashton, a science teacher, brought her family to the Convention Center from Anderson, Ind., just to be as close to the action as she could when the images came in.

“It’s very tense, and it’s hopeful,” Ashton said as she watched the television feed with her son Vincent and daughter Laura. “I wanted my children to witness this, to explain what happened to future generations.”

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The tech-savvy audience applauded such Mission Control announcements as “The signal is 2 dbs stronger than anticipated,” and “We have imaging data.” And when the first grainy black-and-white images came in, the crowd gave out a loud roar.

“All right, excellent, it’s getting bigger!” shouted Tom Hanna, a Planetary Society member from Portland, Ore. “Fantastic! Look at that landscape!”

Like others, Hanna said he was impressed by the complex technology of the mission, which involved landing a set of sensitive instruments inside an air-bag-encased craft that bounced onto the surface of Mars. “Everything worked 100% all the way,” he said. “There hasn’t been one flaw.”

There were several engineers among the crowd, including Gregory Glenn, who worked on a team that designed solar panels for the mission. Before coming to Planetfest, Glenn had joined some of his fellow engineers at JPL.

“Everyone was so pleased it went smoothly and that everything worked as planned,” he said of Pathfinder’s landing. “It didn’t bounce as long as they thought it would.”

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As the crowd grew, filling the auditorium and spilling outside despite a $25 admission fee, Planetary Society Executive Director Louis Friedman announced that more screens would be set up in other parts of the auditorium.

“We still have people outside buying tickets,” he said.

John Wright, a 24-year-old member of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, said he was happy to see so many children in the audience.

“The kids were just mesmerized” when the pictures came in, he said. The message to future generations from Pathfinder’s success is clear, he said. “Space is out there, you can go there, it is real.” Just before 2 p.m., about three hours before the first images came in, the audience heard from Pathfinder project manager Anthony Spear, who made the short drive from JPL to address the crowd. “We may have landed upright, which is unbelievable,” Spear told the audience. His gray hair frazzled, he looked at once tired and giddy.

“The damn thing works!”

As Spear left the podium to return to JPL, the audience gave him a standing ovation.