About Me

Hi, my name is Nathan Patterson. And I want to colonize Mars.

Although I have been interested in space and technology since I was little, I never really did anything toward that until relatively recently.

It started when I came across the program The Mars Underground, which detailed Dr. Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct plan and his struggles with NASA over whether or not we should head for Mars. I wanted to start a mission.

But how could some teenager ever hope of starting a mission to Mars?

And what about Earth? We have many environmental problems here on Earth.

Then it dawned on me. Mars could be the answer to the problems here on Earth. Terraforming Mars would require building an entire ecosystem from scratch; imagine what we could learn from that!

Also, after watching The Mars Underground again I heard something in the program that got me thinking. Dr. Zubrin talked about how the discovery, exploration and colonization of the Americas caused a wave of innovation and change for not just America but the world. Columbus left in 1492, the Renaissance began in the early 1500s, around 10 years later. Coincidence? I think not.

The same could happen with the exploration and colonization of Mars.

Of course I still had the problem of actually starting a mission.

That's when I found the Google Science Fair. I realized this could provide me the opportunity to get my idea out there.

So here I am.