World Space Week celebrates ‘Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth’

Good news, everyone! NASA websites may be offline due to the shutdown, depriving us of our fix of the latest news and images from space, but today is the first day of World Space Week, and the theme this year is 'Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth'!

World Space Week is an international celebration of the science and technology that allows us to observe and explore the universe around us. It started in 1999 and happens every year now, between October 4th and October 10th, which mark two important dates in space history — the launch of Sputnik on Oct 4th, 1957 and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty on Oct 10th, 1967.

This year, the week is dedicated to the planet Mars, but with a special twist. With all our plans to explore the Red Planet and eventually even live there, what can these plans teach us about how we can live here on Earth. All plans for living on Mars would include how to deal with limited resources without depleting them, and how to build environments that can sustain us without damaging those environments. So, can these ideas help us to live here on Earth while preserving the resources and environment of the planet?

The highlight of this year's celebration is the 2013 World Wide WSW Mars Simulation. Events are being planned all around the world to show off the different technologies in development that will someday either explore the Red Planet for us, or help us to do it ourselves. Perhaps the biggest events will be the public demonstrations at the Mars Desert Research Station, in Utah, but other demonstrations will be held to show off the newest ideas for robot rovers and to show off the spacesuits that Mars explorers may wear someday. All of these events will be available to watch online, live as they happen. The schedule is available here, along with links to watch live.

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Here in Canada, there are a few events going on that the public can participate in.

Maker Kids, near Dundas and Bloor in Toronto, holds weekly events for kids and adults alike and as these are being included in the WSW, the usual tinkering will likely take on a more of a Mars and space focus than usual. The Shaftesbury High Altitude Robotics Project (SHARP), in Winnipeg, will be testing their technologies on October 4th and 6th, and the public is welcome to come and watch.

We've come a long way, and gone a long way out into space, in the years since Sputnik first launched into orbit. So, take some time this week to celebrate those accomplishments, as well as all the efforts to push our explorations even further for the future!

(Image courtesy: World Science Week)

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