U R GO 4 MARS
Remember the engineers who saved the day in "Apollo 13" by making a filter out of spare parts and duct tape? Or Mark Watney from "The Martian" who scienced his way across Mars? We'll need people like that if we are going to make it to Mars and U R GO 4 MARS can help develop the skills needed while having fun doing it. U R Go 4 Mars is really three different things: The Competition, The Show and The Game. The Competition will be run like existing high school robotics competitions but teams will face challenges similar to the NASA training simulations and will have to come up with solutions from detailed technical information. The Show will be a weekly scripted series about the first Mars mission but will include technical challenges that viewers can solve in time for the solution to be integrated into the following week's episode. The Game will be like The Competition but in standard video game format.
To make all three happen will take experience in TV production, script writing, space flight simulations, video game programming, raising funds, access to technical knowledge, and many more skills and contacts. Way too much for someone who threw together this ridiculously bad website and who has no experience in any of these areas. Seriously, hand sketches?
So how will all of this happen? Venture capital? Find a foundation? Crowdsource? Hire experts? Build a Company? All too slow and risky.
The solution in two words: Tom Hanks. Yes, Tom Hanks: star of television and film including "Apollo 13"; multiple Academy Award winner; producer of "From the Earth to the Moon" miniseries about the Apollo program; National Space Society Board Member; and all around good guy. Just get him to do it. He could probably run the whole thing without breaking a sweat. He has a passion for space flight and has all the right connections.
One problem. I don't know Tom Hanks and can't discuss this brilliant idea with him but he's a really busy guy and he probably has a hard time keeping track of all the things he's working on so next time YOU are talking to him just mention how much you like his U R GO 4 MARS project and encourage him to make it happen. Talk about Tom's great idea on social media, film/televison web sites, space related sites, talk radio, anything. If he hears this from enough people he may assume he just forgot about it so he'll just start working on it and then BAM that Hanks magic makes it happen!
To make all three happen will take experience in TV production, script writing, space flight simulations, video game programming, raising funds, access to technical knowledge, and many more skills and contacts. Way too much for someone who threw together this ridiculously bad website and who has no experience in any of these areas. Seriously, hand sketches?
So how will all of this happen? Venture capital? Find a foundation? Crowdsource? Hire experts? Build a Company? All too slow and risky.
The solution in two words: Tom Hanks. Yes, Tom Hanks: star of television and film including "Apollo 13"; multiple Academy Award winner; producer of "From the Earth to the Moon" miniseries about the Apollo program; National Space Society Board Member; and all around good guy. Just get him to do it. He could probably run the whole thing without breaking a sweat. He has a passion for space flight and has all the right connections.
One problem. I don't know Tom Hanks and can't discuss this brilliant idea with him but he's a really busy guy and he probably has a hard time keeping track of all the things he's working on so next time YOU are talking to him just mention how much you like his U R GO 4 MARS project and encourage him to make it happen. Talk about Tom's great idea on social media, film/televison web sites, space related sites, talk radio, anything. If he hears this from enough people he may assume he just forgot about it so he'll just start working on it and then BAM that Hanks magic makes it happen!