Living Martian Style
Crew Wins Gold
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Georgia Tech's men's light four-plus crew scored a gold medal in the Dad Vail regatta — the national championships of collegiate rowing — held May 13-14 on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. This is the third consecutive year that a Tech team has brought home a gold medal. Tech rowers Cameron Troxel, Brian Waters, Shane Bechler, John Kaptyn and coxswain Theresa Mara jumped out to an early lead over Fordham, University of California-Santa Barbara and Army, then pulled away to defeat Fordham by two full seconds.
Tech rowers just missed winning gold in the men's novice light eight race, falling to a strong St. Joseph University team by a boat length. "This is a great result for these guys," head coach Rob Canavan said. "We're looking forward to rolling that talent into a fast light eight team next year."
The Tech women defeated 20 other teams to qualify two boats, light four and pair, in the finals. Both teams finished fifth in the finals.
Living Martian Style
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A six-member Georgia Tech aerospace engineering crew spent two weeks in April exploring a Martian landscape without ever leaving Mother Earth. Outfitted in space suits and bubble helmets to stalk a barren Utah desert that looked strikingly similar to the red planet were mission commander Jan Osburg, MS AE 96, a research engineer in aerospace engineering; Heidi Anderson, AE 05; Kyle Brewer, AE 05; John Christian, AE 05; Rebecca Fink, AE 05; and senior aerospace major Douglas Martin.
Explains Osburg, "We lived in an 8-by-8-yard space pod and wore space suits with the bubble helmets whenever we entered or exited through a simulated air lock."
The project was sponsored by the Mars Society, an international association that seeks to advance human exploration of Mars.
"We were the first crew ever chosen from one organization," Osburg says. "That allowed us to train together for seven months."
Reports detailing equipment success or failure were transmitted to mission control on the Tech campus and made available to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for use in future mission planning.
Several of the earthbound space explorers say they would like to be part of the real thing. On May 1, Brewer took a step toward his goal of becoming a flight director when he began working at the Johnson Space Center.
"Maybe I'll get the first flight to Mars," he says.
©2005 Georgia Tech Alumni Association
