Video: Crew 64, where are you?
When Frank Sinatra first sang "Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars," he wasn't speaking literally.
But when Jim Secosky of Manchester tells you what it's like on the Red Planet, he's speaking from experience - sort of.
"It was a small area ... kind of cramped," he said of his virtual Martian home. "In the middle of nowhere."
He tells of tunnels under engineering bays, using generators to produce electricity, and having to carry water 500 feet while wearing - you guessed it - space suits.
President Bush proposed in January 2004 that the United States return to the moon and use the mission as a springboard to send people to Mars.
A moon mission is in the works. However, Bush's enthusiasm for the project seems to have waned and he hasn't increased federal funding for space exploration.
<object width="425" height="355">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KI6afiqq83s&rel=1" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />width="425" height="355" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KI6afiqq83srel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed></object> In the 39 years since man first stepped on the moon, a pair of space shuttle disasters and spending priorities here on Earth have dimmed what was once a bright future for American space exploration. Still, there are pockets of enthusiasts who continue to look toward the stars. Deep inside one of those pockets is Secosky. <object width="425" height="355"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cjMWHcudo0Y&rel=1" name="movie" /><param value="transparent" name="wmode" /><embed width="425" height="355" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cjMWHcudo0Y&rel=1"></embed></object> In January, Secosky took part in a 16-day Mars simulation sponsored by the Mars Society, a privately funded group that advocates for Mars research, exploration and eventual settlement on the fourth rock from the sun. The society sends crews of six to the lab several times a year. Their simulation laboratory in Utah is about the size of a one-bedroom house, looks a little like a spaceship from an old science-fiction movie and is designed to show what life is like on Mars. From space suits to food-growing in a tiny greenhouse to recycled toilet water, Secosky said it's the closest thing Americans have right now to human exploration of Mars. "This would be like a house you have on Mars," he said. "We had so many plumbing and power problems. ... The same thing would happen on Mars. You would have things breaking down." The studies Secosky's crew - Crew 64 - performed while in the lab included identifying all plants in the area, surveying bacteria and fungi found in the lab, finding ways to exercise in the small space, testing the use of safety lines while outside in space suits, and researching how emotions affect crew morale, leadership and cohesion under stress. Secosky's crew members included martial-arts experts, an Australian who ran simulated space shuttle missions, a Jamaican who could identify almost any plant he saw and a Canadian military officer. Secosky, a retired Bloomfield science teacher, was the oldest crew member, just shy of the 60-year cutoff. "I thought 'Well, I've got to do it or forget about it,'" he said. "This might be the last chance in my life to do this." Are we there yet? Getting to Mars would take about eight months in flight. Then, once astronauts landed, they would have to spend about a year and a half on the Martian surface, waiting for when Mars and Earth are again on the same side of the sun, passing each other. Eight more months for a return trip would equal a three-year mission. As for unmanned flight, the track record isn't perfect. Five Soviet attempts and one American attempt failed from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, Mariner 4 did a flyby and provided the first close-up images of Mars. Other flybys followed, and in 1971, the Soviets' Mars 3 was the first successful landing. But its electronic system failed after only 20 seconds of video data. America's Viking 1 and 2 proved successful in July 1976. The orbiter and lander provided detailed color panoramic views of the Martian terrain and monitored weather. The orbiter mapped the planet's surface, acquiring over 52,000 images. The Viking spacecraft continued to operate for six years after first reaching Mars. Russia tried again in November 1996 with Mars '96, consisting of an orbiter, two landers and two soil penetrators that were to reach the planet in September 1997. The rocket lifted off successfully, but as it entered orbit it ignited prematurely and sent the probe into a tumble. It crashed into the ocean and the spacecraft sank. But success returned in 1997 with the Mars Pathfinder's stationary lander and surface rover. The rover, named Sojourner, explored the area near the lander. The mission's main objective was to demonstrate low-cost landings on the Martian surface. The mission ended in November 1997 when NASA ended daily communications. For now, the closest thing to Americans on Mars are two rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, that landed on the surface in January 2004 and have been taking pictures and exploring the surface ever since. But the two rovers are showing signs of wear and tear. Last August, the Phoenix Mars lander was launched and is scheduled to land on Mars in June. Phoenix, unlike Spirit and Opportunity, is stationary. The lander will be used for soil and ice analysis and imaging. Jim Bell, director of graduate studies in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University - home to a large group of researchers working on Spirit and Opportunity - said with the "right motivation and alignment of national priorities," Americans could be heading to Mars in 15 to 20 years. "I'm certain it's going to happen," he said. "The specific timeline is such a strong function of how much leadership and motivation there is at the top, at the administration level." Bell said people in the Mars Society are strong advocates of human exploration and sending people to Mars. Their work is sponsored by private and corporate donations, unlike NASA, which has a budget determined by the government. Bell said the technology and means of getting to Mars may be available, but the money is not - at least at the federal level. "NASA has a lot on its plate and a limited budget," he said. "No one has made a really good estimate of what it would cost to send people to Mars, but it's probably in the hundreds of billions of dollars." Despite the cost, Secosky said Americans have to head to Mars sometime. "We have to go eventually because at some point something will happen on our planet, and we'll have to move elsewhere," he said. Secosky has long been intrigued by space. In 1992, he became the first amateur astronomer to use the Hubble telescope. He unsuccessfully applied for the teacher-in-space program in the mid-1980s and developed a course at the Rochester Museum of Science on how to fly a space shuttle. He's so into space flight that he named his son Neil Armstrong Secosky. "You wonder sometimes whether it's reincarnation," he said. "I was some old Russian space scientist that got reincarnated. I always had a tremendous curiosity since the time I was born." So when he stumbled onto a link to apply to be on one of the Mars simulation crews, it was a no-brainer. "This was like playing in the Super Bowl for me," he said. "I had a good chance to maybe rub shoulders with the people walking on Mars some day." <em> Contact Stephanie Bergeron at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 255, or at sbergeron@mpnewspapers.com.