Roger Ivie celebrated July Fourth in a nontraditional way: He stayed up all night watching NASA Select TV.
But as unusual as that was compared to the time-honored hot dogs and fireworks, his response to the holiday wasn't uncommon this year. Ivie was hit by an attack of Mars-mania that has captivated the country for more than a week now.On the Fourth, the Smithfield resident visited a friend who has a satellite hookup able to receive live broadcasts from NASA. They watched that day's Mars landing mission until it grew so late that his wife, Regina, got irritated about missing the local fireworks display.
"I've always been interested in space exploration," said Ivie, who works at Design Analysis Associates, Logan, a firm that does custom electronics and engineering.
All of his friends are interested in the landing, he said. "But you have to understand, for the most part, my friends are techies of one form or another."
With the landing of the Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars, and with the scientific banquet of images and data returned since then, millions of people have changed - at least temporarily - into techies. Ivie even uses a picture of the Mars rover, Sojourner, as "wallpaper" art on his computer.
Many Utahns and Americans seem to have fallen into a fit of Mars-mania.
In Sandy, a toy store has sold the new Hot Wheels "Sojourner Mars Rover Action Pack Set" as fast as the models arrive. The highly detailed reproduction of the rover, made by Mattel Inc., is manufactured under a licensing agreement with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena, Calif., which controls the landing mission for NASA.
"A lot of people have called and asked about the vehicle," said an employee of the toy store, who did not want either his name or the store's name identified.
Sara Rosales, spokeswoman for Mattel in El Segundo, Calif., said Thursday this is the first time the company has made an authentic replica of a space vehicle. "With the successful landing of the Mars Pathfinder, we have just seen a tremendous demand for this toy. It's been extremely popular," she said.
"And from what I understand, it's very, very difficult to find right now in all areas of the country."
A book club, attempting to interest former members in signing up again, mails solicitations with this lure: "Take the three volume MARS SET - a $95.95 value - for only $4.95 when you rejoin the Astronomy Book Club. The MARS SET explores the myths, mysteries and possibilities among the Red Planet . . . "
"Greetings from Mars," the latest Newsweek magazine cover says.
On the cover of this month's Astronomy Magazine, the fourth rock from the sun looms in all its orangish, pockmarked splendor. "The New Martian Chronicles," exclaims the cover headline.
Astronomy's editor, Bonnie Bilyeu Gordon, tries to explain the phenomenon in a note inside the magazine: "The great revival of interest in Mars began last year when a meteorite the size of a yam was linked to life," a reference to the Antarctica meteorite from Mars that NASA believes contains fossils of microscopic life.
"Certainly, among our readership, the interest has been very high," Astronomy Associate Editor Richard Talcott told the Deseret News. "But my feeling for the general public is that the interest has also been high."
In his area, Waukesha, Wis., the local newspaper has put Mars on the front page five days in a row, an unusual occurrence for space news. People have called Astronomy Magazine with questions about the landing, and television shows have been interviewing astronomers, he said.
The traces of the Mars microbes, if that's what they are, were laid down billions of years ago. At that time Mars is known to have had vast water resources. Since then the water disappeared, either frozen underground or boiled off into space. But for a time, according to the theory, Mars may have been wet and warm enough for life to develop.
The chance that the lander (now renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station) or its successors may discover proof of life on Mars is part of what has electrified the public. But many have experienced the thrill of exploring another world, regardless of whether signs of life are ever found there.
Rich Pavlovsky of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said project officials estimate that in the first five days of the surface research, In-ter-net Web sites carrying official NASA releases on the project took 265 million hits.
"Preliminary analysis of Mars Pathfinder Web sites show a steady stream of 45 million hits per day," Pavlovsky said in a news release issued Wednesday.
JPL had expected 25 million hits a day. The primary JPL site and 17 reflector sites around the world took such a pounding that transmissions slowed. Sometimes Mars fans couldn't get onto a site at all, it was so jammed, or found that the Web page took longer to download than the 10 minutes the signals take to get from Mars to Earth.
People seem turned on by the Mars landing more than they have been by other recent space spectaculars, said T. Benny Rushing, the outgoing dean of the College of Science at the University of Utah. "It's a very exciting development."
"I think it's a good thing for science because it piques people's interest. It's just very difficult not to appreciate what's gone on there." The public becomes more appreciative about science when it succeeds so splendidly, Rushing added.
Patrick Price definitely has Mars fever. A 1997 graduate of Judge Memorial High School who works at Hansen Planetarium this summer before he starts at the U. in electrical engineering this fall, Price has been eating up the news from Mars.
"It's really fascinating that we can get something like the rover on a planet" and operate it at such a distance, Price said. "It's been really exciting. I don't remember being this excited about Galileo."
Galileo is the probe orbiting Jupiter and returning photos from those distant deeps.
It isn't just that Pathfinder is his generation's version of the previous Mars landers, the two Viking spacecraft of 1976, he said. "I think it's better, because the Viking landings weren't mobile on the surface and this one is."
Children attending summer classes at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Utah County have been turned on about Mars, said center director Victor Williamson. A big-screen TV in the center, located at Central Elementary, Pleasant Grove, broadcasts NASA Select coverage of the Mars project.
"The kids are following everything that's happening both with Mir (the damaged Russian space station) and the Pathfinder," Williamson said. "They really like the little rover. It's like a little toy truck, almost, for kids."
Students use a computer CD-ROM set provided by JPL to maneuver a rover simulation. They learn how difficult it is to tell the little robot what to do with a time lag caused by the distance that radio waves must travel.
Adds Mark Daymont, an assistant teacher in the center, "They really like the fact that NASA's named these rocks. They get a kick out of the weird names they give them."
Student teams create their own Sojourners with construction sets, competing to build the most interesting vehicles. "I've seen some very creative kids, and I've also seen some kids who weren't too creative," Daymont said. "But they all enjoy doing that activity."
Patrick Wiggins, spokesman for the planetarium, 15 S. State, said the number of visitors who inquired about the Mars landings declined after July 4.
"I think people have found that they can get it (fast updates) on CNN," he said. The interest in the Mars landing may fade, Wiggins said. It is "temporarily kind of a pet rock, I guess."
As if to underscore his prediction, at Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Midvale, an employee hasn't noticed any surge in customers seeking Mars books. An employee in a Hammond toy store, which carries telescopes for everybody from the most casual to the most serious amateur astronomer, said no big sales push occurred.