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Public Programs of TPS/J in 2001

Interfaces of TPS/J with the public can further be expanded this year through the following programs.

1. National Space Art Contest
This event was executed as part of the International Space Art Contest sponsored by The Planetary Society. Totally, 25 entrants competed to get qualified for the final selection on July 16 in Pasadena, California, U.S.A.
Click here to take a look at winning entries.

2. Nature Science
The first issue of the new science monthly, Nature Science, was published on 26, July 2001. TPS/J has agreed to provide Nature Science with the right to reproduce translated texts of The Planetary Report. TPS/J members will get free magazines every month.

3. Students' Tour to Major Facilities of NASA and The Planetary Society
20 students aged from 10 to 18 years old will leave Tokyo mid-August for a week-long tour, including NASA's major facilities; the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Jet Propulsion Institute (JPL) in Pasadena.

This educational program began last summer. Global Youth Bureau, a travel agency specializing in quality tour programs, manages this program with support by Newton Press Inc., the publisher of the science monthly of Newton and TPS/J.

Students were tremendously impressed with what were going on in these two space-related facilities. TPS that contributed to the realization of students' visit JPL was the last leg of the tour where they had an opportunity to have discussions with Dr.Friedman.

All the students wrote their impressions on the tour to JSC, JPL and TPS, Some of them were posted on website of TPS/J.

4. ISAS Open House on Saturday, August 25
TPS/J will jointly participate in ISAS Open House together with The Planetary Society and the Young Astronauts Club Japan. ISAS, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, has been opening its facilities to the public one day in August for the past five years. About 20,000 people swarms to the sagamihara campus of the Japanese space agency responsible for robotic exploration, located 30 kilometer northwest of Tokyo in order to view a large array of exhibits on Japanese space science and technology.

Following are the event programs of TPS/J:

-	Exhibit of winning entries plus several uniquely distinctive works, selected both at the international and national contests. Totally, thirty works will be displayed.
-	Red Rover, Red Rover Project. Three units of Red Rovers will be deployed on the two-meter-diameter simulated Mars terrain. Visitors can operate the computer controlled-toy-vehicles via interfaces set beside the terrain.
-	SETI@home project. Mr. Shinji Yamane, the Japanese precursor of this SETI@home project, will be responsible for this program. He will demonstrate how to deal with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence to provide people with hands-on experience.
-	Solar Sail Watch. Video taken during its test flight on July 19, will be shown.

5.Sagamihara Robofesta from October 6 through 14
This event is one of the four major robotic events, Robofesta Kanagawa, to be held for nine days in the four big cities of Kanagawa Prefecture. 89,000 people, including 20,000 elementary and junior-high students, are estimated to visit Sagamihara event site.

The following are the four major zones comprising the event site.

-	The Future Zone
-	The Making-Fun Zone
-	The Living Zone
-	The Space Zone

TPS/J will share the 7m x 7m lot with ISAS within the Space Zone; 5m x 5m for ISAS and 2m x 2m for TPS/J. ISAS will exhibit five units of micro-rovers on the simulated lunar terrain and TPS/J three units of Red Rovers on the simulated Mars terrain.

Red Rover program will be executed in the same manner as it is done at ISAS Open House. In addition to the Red Rover program, winning entrants at the space art contest will be exhibited.

ISAS will allot the last day for a rover contest under the name of Rover Olympic. Dr. Takashi Kubota of ISAS is in charge of managing the event.

6. Chiba Mars Rover Contest on Sunday, October 25
This three-year-old event is intended to enhance interest of elementary and junior high school students in Mars and Mars exploration. Participants are required to come up with Mars rovers of their own making with maximum length of 40 x 40cms and less than 5kgs.

Rovers have to go through a 40-meter-long and red-colored path with rocks, fractures and slopes in store of them before they get to the destination, the 7m x 7m simulated Mars surface where major features such as Olympus Mons, Tharsis Ridge, Valles Marineris and Valles Ares are built in a small scale.

Winning contestants are selected based on the overall evaluation; the time rovers have consumed, functional performances and uniqueness of design.

There were 24 units of rovers competed in the contest last year with 100 students participated.

Another 100 students participated in the mock-up design contest of the rovers. Totally, 29 designed were submitted.

The event is sponsored by the education council of Chiba City along with support by ISAS, NASDA, the National Observatory and local media corporations. Our Red Rover project will be a part of the program.

7. The Television Program, "Mars Is Our Planet"
The 140-minute program will be aired through the largest television network of NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation around the end of this year or within the first three days of New Year, one of the periods of the year when most Japanese people sit back and get relaxed, enjoying television programs. Many special programs exclusively for this period are aired every year.

The program is composed of the following three parts:

1.	Overview of Mars exploration in 21st century with Mr. Arthur Clarke as a host
2.	Terraforming of Mars with Dr. Bruce Murray as a host
3.	Mars now and a century later, an animated version based on winning entries of the Space Art Contest. Mr. Reiji Matsumoto will visualize how a certain Martian site will change in 100 years later.