National Space Society’s Educational Supplement for Mission to Mars the new Human Space Exploration movie from Touchstone Pictures
CONTACT:
Anne Pierce
202-543-1900 x 83
Washington, DC, The National Space Society has produced an educational supplement for MISSION TO
MARS, about the first human missions to Mars. The new movie from Touchstone Pictures opens nationwide, March
10. The NSS supplement, which will be included in 35 newspapers and magazines nationwide during the coming week,
is designed to provide background on the movie and factual information about Mars exploration. The National Space
Society is extremely grateful to Lockheed Martin for sponsorship of this NSS public education program.
The supplement includes a timeline of Mars exploration and information on space travel and living conditions in space,
a description of Mars dust storms, and links to online resources. It provides a synopsis of the movie, behind-the-scenes
information about how the film was made, and short biographies of the stars and their characters. The educational
supplement will be included in the March/April issue of the National Space Society’s award-winning magazine, AD
ASTRA, and is available at the NSS web site http://www.nss.org and at NSS’s America Online Space Exploration
Forum (Keyword: NSS).
MISSION TO MARS is about the dream of exploring the next frontier. When the first human mission to Mars meets
with a mysterious disaster, a rescue mission is launched to investigate the catastrophe and bring back any survivors.
Former astronaut Story Musgrave worked with the cast, relaying the physical and emotional transformation of the
spaceflight experience. Musgrave choreographed the actors’ stunt work in an artificial gravity environment simulator.
He describes the set as defining the future. His objective for the film was to make spaceflight into art.
The NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY hopes that the educational supplement will stimulate discussions about human
space exploration around the family dinner table and lead educators to pursue a multidisciplinary approach to the study
of Mars exploration. Teachers or organizations who would like to receive 100 or more copies of the supplement should
contact 202-543-1900 x 83 or email nsshq@aol.com.
THE NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY, founded in 1974, is an independent, nonprofit space advocacy organization
headquartered in Washington, DC. It’s 20,000 members and 75 chapters around the world actively promote a
spacefaring civilization. For more information on NSS and its programs, call 202-543-1900 or visit http://www.nss.org.
