If mankind ever lands on the planet Mars, it will be because of the time and efforts of devoted visionaries like Paul Graham.
The 37-year-old Oxford resident is a member of the Mars Society and serves as its Engineering Team Coordinator and Chief Engineering Officer for Mission Support.
Founded in 1998 by Robert Zubrin, an astronautical engineer and author of The Case for Mars, the Mars Society (www.marssociety.org) is an international effort dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet through broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering Mars; mobilizing support for more aggressive government-funded Mars exploration; and conducting Mars exploration on a private basis.
To prepare for the eventual human exploration of the Red Planet, the Mars Society has constructed research stations or ‘habitat modules? (‘Habs? for short) on Devon Island in the Canadian Artic and in the Utah desert.
The Habs are cylindrical in shape with an 8-meter diameter and two decks. The stations are used in mission simulations to teach people how to ‘explore in a remote, hostile environment? and what it ‘feels like to work and live in a confined environment,? according to Graham, who graduated from Oxford High School in 1985, is a physicist by training and works as a certified computer technician for Alpine Systems, a Colorado-based networking and consulting company.
Each station serves as field base to teams consisting of four-to-six crew members (geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics, physicians and others) who live for weeks or months at a time in relative isolation in Mars analog environments.
Mars analogs are defined as locations on Earth were some environmental conditions, geologic features, biological attributes or combinations thereof may approximate in some specific way those thought to be encountered on Mars.
During these mission simulations, Graham and his team provide what is termed ‘Mission Support? as opposed to the traditional ‘Mission Control.?
The difference between ‘support? and ‘control? is a matter of time and distance.
On Mars, it would take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes between the time a radio message is sent and the time a reply is received, according to Graham.
‘How do you control something under those conditions? You don’t,? Graham said. ‘You send up explorers who can take care of themselves, who are intelligent enough to make their own decisions.?
What ‘Mission Support? does is read all the engineering reports sent back from the habitat module’s crew engineer and work with that person to ‘figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it with the tools and materials available.?
‘When things break, I’m the guy they call to figure out how to fix them remotely using the crew’s engineer as our eyes and hands,? Graham said.
Graham is able to provide Mission Support to these simulations from virtually anywhere.
‘I’ve run it from the woods using my cell phone and my laptop,? he said. ‘I’ve done Mission Support work in Oxford using my wireless network while sitting on my back deck, watching the water skiers go by.?
Graham and the engineering team are preparing to do a ‘major refit? of the Utah station. He said the interior of the hab will be ‘gutted,? so new heating, plumbing and electrical systems can be installed along with additional communications equipment, web cameras and telemetry equipment.
The telemetry equipment will allow the engineering team to ‘see what’s going on in the hab? from remote locations. Graham said they will be able to monitor things such as electrical current flows, voltages of batteries, temperature inside the hab, etc.
The telemetry equipment will also allow the engineering team to ‘adjust some things by remote? such as the temperature inside the hab and turning off defective equipment before it can do any harm, Graham said.
Graham said the engineering team has also been asked to design the interior of the Euro-Mars hab, a research station planned for construction in Iceland.
When asked why he joined the Mars Society nearly five years ago, Graham said he’s ‘dedicated to the human exploration of space? and landing the planet Mars for ‘a bunch of reasons.?
‘For me, the biggest reason to do it is for the advancement of the human race,? he said. ‘If you look through our history, the only times that mankind has ever has any great growth as a species is when we were involved in significant exploration operations.?
‘Why is the U.S. as great as it is? Because we were developed during a time of one of the greatest expansions that we’ve ever know,? Graham said. ‘When was the Roman Empire at its height? When it was growing and growing dramatically. When they conquered all there was to conquer and they settled in and started living, that’s when they declined and fell. That’s what I’m afraid is happening to the human race. We’re becoming stagnant. We’re dying.?
‘Human kind need to explore. Human kind needs to grow.?
Graham believes a manned exploration of Mars could accomplish more in much less time than the robotic equipment being sent.
‘What the (Mars) rovers did is neat, but a trained crew could have done it in three days. Everything (the rovers) have done in the last three months, a trained crew could have done it in three days.?
Graham believes traveling to Mars would also result in technological advances arising from building the equipment necessary to travel to and from, live on, explore and research the Red Planet.
‘Look how much of our everyday technology has come as a direct result of the space program,? he said.
Expanding the scope of our scientific knowledge ‘down to the very core of the nature of life? is another reason mankind must visit Mars, according to Graham.
‘I’m pretty convinced there is or has been (life on Mars),? he said. ‘I’m actually pretty convinced there still is microbial life.?
‘We see examples of all sorts of microbial life that could live in Mars? environment here on Earth,? said Graham, noting there’s ‘pretty solid evidence? there’s frozen and liquid water on Mars. From the deep ocean to Antarctic desert, ‘we see life in the most unusual places.?
Graham believes mankind currently has the technology to go to Mars, it’s just a matter of money.
‘It’s all about the money,? he said. ‘If someone were to write a $10 billion check right now, it would take about 10 years and we could be on Mars.?
‘For what we’re spending for 30 days operations in Iraq, we could actually put men on Mars.?
‘We are better capable of going to Mars now than we were (of) going to the Moon when Kennedy pledged we would,? Graham said. ‘We’re in a better position as far as the technology, as far as what we know, the money available.?
‘Let’s stop wasting money and efforts on silly little shuttle missions, and by that I mean just going back and forth (into space),? he said. ‘Let’s do something. The time has long since come. We should have been (on Mars) in the 1970s.?