NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: MARS

  ** A Geek Daddy received the featured product for free to review**

Are you ready to blast off on a space adventure to Mars?  National Geographic's six-part television series MARS immerses you into a realistic representation of a futuristic mission to the red planet.  Academy Award-winning producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard merge a sci-fi drama with an educational documentary by interspersing interviews with real life astronauts, engineers, scientists, and other space experts within a scripted fictional story about a journey to Mars. It's really well done!

If you missed watching MARS when it first aired on the National Geographic Channel last year, the series is now available to purchase on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download.  This show filled with incredibly informative segments about astronomy and space travel as well as a suspense filled adventurous tale really captured my family's imagination and was very entertaining to view.  Plus the home video edition also includes features such as a bonus episode (Before Mars: A Prequel), a behind-the-scenes documentary (Making Mars), and interviews with the cast and crew.

What would life be like on the first human colony on the fourth planet from the sun?  It would obviously be much different than life is here on Earth. Ask your kids what they think it would be like, share with them this informative fact sheet, and have some fun giving them a chance to fill out the form below where they can list what they would pack for their adventure.





Watch MARS together as a family and compare the astronauts experience in the show to what your kids though it would be like.  Since we saw the show, my kids have been interested in going outside to gaze for Mars in the night sky through a telescope and have wanted to learn more about how someone can actually become an astronaut.  If this National Geographic television series sparks the same interest about space travel in your kids as it has mine, you'll want to visit, makemarshome.com, which allows people to see if they have what it takes to be an astronaut for a Mars mission through an interactive online experience.

The television series, based upon the book How We'll Live On Mars (2015) by Stephen Petranek, tells the story of a multi-national effort to send astronauts to explore Mars set in 2037.  It revolves around the crew of the Daedalus, which includes mission commander Ben Sawyer (American), systems engineer Hana Seung (American), physician Amelie Durand (French), roboticist Robert Foucault (Nigerian), geochemist Javier Delgado (Spanish), and geologist Marta Kamen (Russian), who will be the first people to set foot on Mars.  As they engage in their adventure, viewers are shown flashbacks of the characters preparing for the mission from four years before lift off.  Interview segments with actual modern day experts are also incorporated into the fictional story explaining how today's technology will be utilized or enhanced to make such a mission feasible in the future.

In the first episode, as the Daedalus prepares to land on Mars a critical system on the space ship malfunctions.  Attempting to avert a disaster, the mission commander is critically injured.  While Commander Sawyer's efforts get his crew's boots on the ground, they find themselves 75 kilometers away from where automated rockets from Earth had previously dropped supplies waiting for them.  How will they survive with limited resources and no easy way to get to their planned landing site where all their vital supplies are stored?  And how do they treat Sawyer's serious injuries when the closest hospital is more than 200 million kilometers away?  You'll have to start watching to find out!  Be aware though that there are life and death situations impacting the crew of the Daedalus so parents should take some discretion about whether the show is suitable for their children to watch based upon that.  It was fine for my 8 year old twins to watch but every child is unique.

If you want to learn even more about Mars, National Geographic has also published a companion book to the television series.  MARS -- OUR FUTURE ON THE RED PLANET is a wonderful 288 page hardcover book filled with 200 color illustrations and photographs.  The book combines science, technology, photography, and art to illuminate how Mars is the next frontier in space exploration.

Thanks to National Geographic you can now explore Mars without the hassle of traveling a million miles to get there.  Let MARS spark your family's imagination and curiosity about space exploration, science, and technology.

 
For more information about the television series, visit: channel.nationalgeographic.com/mars

Welcomes to Mars

NASA has an established goal of landing human explorers on the planet Mars by 2030.  Wow! based upon that timeline first graders now like my son and daughter would be the ideal age to serve as the crew for that space mission when it launched.  What would it be like for them to travel through space and land on the red planet?

Only a handful of people in Earth's history have ever traveled off our planet to walk on the moon.  Buzz Aldrin, who was the second person to walk on the moon following the footsteps of that famous first leap made by Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong just a few minutes later on July 20, 1969, has a few thoughts on how to get astronauts to Mars and what life would be like for the first pioneers to colonize that planet.  In his new book National Geographic Kids: Welcome To Mars, Aldrin provides his unique perspective to challenge curious kids to think about Mars as not just a faraway planet but rather as a possible home for Earthlings.  He makes the book relatable to children by exploring topics like what would you eat for breakfast on Mars (sweet potato pie made from yams grown in a green house); what would you do for fun (snowboarding down Martian gullies or zip lining across valleys); where would you live (imagine a combination of a college dormitory and a super-sized dirt igloo); and what would people wear (flexible, light weight space suits).  Plus the book includes some great hands-on science experiments that children can do at home to excite them about space exploration as well as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

If you have an elementary school or high school aged child in your life that may be imagining one day being an astronaut, A Geek Daddy has a great giveaway for you.  Courtesy of our friends at National Geographic Kids, one luck A Geek Daddy reader who follows the instructions below will receive a complimentary edition of Buzz Aldrin's Welcome To Mars book.  For a chance to win you  must be a U.S. or Canadian resident over 18 years old and submit one or all of the following entry methods to earn up to 4 entries prior to 11:59 pm EST on Sunday October 4, 2015. 

UPDATE (10/5/2015) Congrats to Joel from Northville, Michigan who won the Welcome to Mars book by Buzz Aldrin.

 EMAIL (1 Entry)  E-mail thegeekdaddy [at] yahoo [dot] com your name and mailing address.   Email subject line should be Welcome to Mars. 

FACEBOOK COMMENT (3 Entries) Visit A GEEK DADDY on Facebook and leave a comment on our contest post sharing which planet or moon in our solar system you'd like to visit and why.

All valid entries will be assigned a number in the order they are received and one number will be  selected to determine the winner using random.org.  E-mails will only be used to contact the winner and deleted following the selection of a winner.

Welcome to Mars is a 96 page hardcover book filled with 155 color illustrations that retails for $18.99.  It is recommended for readers 8 to 12 years old.  Inspires young readers to want to soar through the skies and reach for the stars like Buzz Aldrin by reading about this astronaut and rocket scientist in a book that explores his ideas about traveling through space and colonizing the red planet.  This is a great example to show children that a book about space travel doesn't have to be science fiction to be amazing and interesting to read.  It's time to inspire the generation that will one day be embarking on missions to Mars!

DISCLAIMER:  A Geek Daddy Blog will be responsible for selecting the winner of this contest and delivery of the prize.  By participating in this contest you waive any liability towards A Geek Daddy Blog or its publisher that may arise from your involvement with this promotion.  A Geek Daddy Blog did not receive any financial compensation but did receive the prize that is being awarded to one of our readers for this contest for free.  A Geek Daddy Blog is hosting this contest as a benefit to our readers. Any opinions in this post are my own.  #NGKINSIDER

Mission: Red Planet - Board Game Allows You to Role Play the Conquest of Mars

I've always enjoyed role playing and strategy games except for that they often take way too long to play out so I often pass on them because of time constraints.  An exception to that complaint is a great board game by Fantasy Flight Games called MISSION: RED PLANET that allows players to engage in the planetary exploration of Mars in a Victorian Steampunk universe that takes approximately 45 - 90 minutes to play out.  That's long enough to have plenty of fun but a short enough span that the game doesn't drag on too long.

In the game, you take control of mining corporations competing to occupy Mars and harvest its invaluable, newly discovered natural resources.  Players launch their astronauts into space, station them in the most profitable zones of the planet. and mine for minerals and ice, all the while cunningly undermining their competition. 

MISSION: RED PLANET was originally released in 2005, but Fantasy Flight has just announced that an updated, revised edition of the game is coming out this fall in collaboration with its original designers Bruno Faidutti and Bruno Cathala.  The new edition allows astronauts to land in a new zone, the moon Phobos, and now the Soldier can can convey astronauts from Phobos to anywhere on Mars.  Missions and Discoveries have been fine-tuned and new Action Cards join the Event deck.  The game's Victorian Steampunk aesthetic has also been refreshed with an all new graphic design for a more contemporary look. If you don't get the gist of these changes it is probably because you haven't experienced the original game yet but once you give MISSION: RED PLANET a shot you'll quickly get a grasp on the game play.  Trying to keep a family game night going once your kids have hit those teenage years? MISSION: RED PLANET is a great game for an evening of family fun!

MISSION: RED PLANET is suitable for ages 13 and older and can be played by two to six players. The updated version also will include special rules for a new two-player variant of the game. For more information, visit www.fantasyflightgames.com.