The year 2015 was a very good one for NASA's solar-system exploration program. The New Horizons mission swept past Pluto, revealing a much more complex and varied world than had been expected. The Dawn spacecraft orbited the dwarf planet Ceres, revealing a number of enigmatic bright spots whose nature is still being debated. And the Curiosity rover continued its trek across Mars, its explorations culminating in the announcement, in late September, of evidence that liquid water flows on Mars today, though that particular finding has since been disputed.

Each of these events, which were extensively covered in the press, aroused great public interest on social media. The Red Planet has stayed in the public eye, thanks largely to the popularity of The Martian, which—although a fictional movie—included a lot of input from NASA.

The Martian: Real Science Becomes Reel Science

The announcement of water on Mars happened to coincide with the release of The Martian, a science-fiction movie strongly grounded in real science, which has grossed more than $593 million worldwide. If you didn't catch it in theaters, it's now available for digital download, and will be released on DVD this month.

In early December, I attended an event at NASA's Johnson Space Center as a guest of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, distributors of The Martian. The event highlighted NASA's advisory work on the film, the attention to scientific detail, and the NASA technologies that may one day take astronauts on a real journey to Mars, many of which appeared in the movie. For example, I got to ride in a Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), the prototype for a rover that astronauts could drive across the Moon or Mars. The event also included panel and roundtable discussions with astronaut Drew Feustel and The Martian producer Aditya Sood of Genre Films, with Jim Green, Director of NASA's Planetary Science division, calling in on Skype.

The Martian's director, Ridley Scott, and its creative staff consulted extensively with NASA to ensure the scientific accuracy of the film, and Dr. Green was a chief contact. One surprising thing about The Martian is that the movie, as well as the book on which it was based, found broad appeal among the general public despite its heavy reliance on real science as a tool for solving problems. Said Sood, "I gave the book to my wife, who you could not pay enough money to read a science-fiction book, and I think she read the book faster than I did."

In an email, Jason Kendall, an astronomer at William Paterson University, reflected on the film's popularity extending beyond science-fiction fans. "The audience is much broader because the story is very broad," he wrote. "Standard run-of-the-mill sci-fi doesn't have mass appeal because the stories are not necessarily universal. People want stories about people. The Martian gives that, and, interestingly, shows it in the context of smart people in teams working together as they really would be doing."

It doubtless helped that The Martian is set in the near future, just 20 years from now. "Science fiction is incredibly important part of our culture," Jim Green said. "It allows us to dream…. to think ahead. A key aspect of The Martian is that it's just around the corner. Indeed, the realities seen in the movie and in the book are accessible to us."

The Martian is based on the book of the same name by Andy Weir. "I discovered Andy's book when it was still a self-published ebook on Amazon and I fell in love with it," Sood said. "I immediately called the studio and said 'you have to option this right away before anyone else reads it.'"

Current interest by the entertainment industry in Mars goes beyond The Martian, and will likely expand due to the film's success. On Dec. 7, Spike TV announced that it has contracted to bring Red Mars, a 10-episode adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars trilogy of novels, to TV. The novels chronicle the exploration (starting in 2026), colonization, and eventual terraforming of Mars (making its climate more Earth-like).

NASA's Road to Mars

In 2010, NASA announced its intention for a manned mission to Mars, and recently fleshed the plan out with more details. It is currently in the first of three phases: "Earth Reliant," in which NASA uses the International Space Station (ISS) to study the effects of long-term space travel on the human body. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are most of the way through the Year in Space study, in which they are spending more than 11 months aboard the ISS. When the mission is over, the two countries will share their data. Other studies such as 3D printing and communications systems tests are a part of this phase.

The second phase, "Proving Ground," will feature tests of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift vehicle coupled with the Orion capsule, construction of a new deep space habitat, and an unmanned mission to retrieve a small asteroid and bring it to lunar orbit, where it can be studied. Much of the activity in this phase will take place in cislunar space (the vicinity of the Moon). There may well also be missions to the lunar surface to test technologies for use on Mars.

The third phase, "Earth Independent," will feature human missions to Mars, perhaps first to Martian orbit and to its moons, followed by landings on the planet itself. This would happen in the 2030s.

It's great to have long-term roadmap to Mars, but keeping it on track is the real challenge. NASA's InSight Mars lander, which had been scheduled to launch next March, has been delayed until 2018 due to a defective seismometer. Along with technological issues are political and economic considerations. A long-term space mission plan must survive several Presidential administrations and Congresses, and varying budget climates. Congressional support is crucial, and so is public support of NASA's mission and plans.

When I spoke to Andy Weir, he was pessimistic about a human Mars mission happening by the 2030s, as was the case in his book. He said it may be closer to 2050, citing a lack of faith in Congress's will to fund such a mission. Ironically, I had barely gotten off the phone with him when it was announced that in the 2016 budget, Congress was allocating more money to NASA than the Obama Administration had requested, and more than in the previous year, the bulk of it going to manned spaceflight initiatives that will help lay the groundwork for a mission to Mars. Congress has mandated that NASA develop a prototype deep-space habitat by 2018. But Weir's concern is warranted, as sustaining the funding and government support for space missions is far from guaranteed. Missions and programs have been canceled before, most notably the final 3 Apollo Moon flights and the Constellation program to return to the Moon.

Public enthusiasm is important to help maintain Congressional backing for NASA's mission, and people, young and old, are actively working to promote public interest in travel to Mars. One of the participants at our Johnson Space Center event was Abigail Harrison, an 18-year-old Wellesley student better known by her social media handle "Astronaut Abby," who wants to be the first person to set foot on Mars.

She befriended astronaut Luca Parmintano, who invited her to attend his launch from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS in 2013. In order to fund her trip, she turned to the Internet for donations, but determined that some of her proceeds would go to speaking publicly of her experiences, inspiring others to follow their dreams, and furthering her own dream to go to Mars. Out of this grew The Mars Generation, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about the importance of deep-space exploration and inspiring young people to get involved in space and STEM. It provides scholarships to Space Camp to science-minded young people who can't afford to go on their own, and encourages young people to sign up as Student Space Ambassadors to share their love of space with their communities.

I asked Abby how individuals, and America as a nation, can work to maintain focus on a Mars mission as a worthy objective, regardless of the political and budgetary climate. "It is vital that we find a way to maintain public interest, and therefore funding and support," she responded. "It will take a shift of cultural values to create long-term excitement about Mars exploration. This is why the work of nonprofits like The Mars Generation or Buzz Aldrin's ShareSpace Foundation is so important. By exciting, educating, and inspiring today's youth about human space exploration, we are creating a generation that understands the importance of (and values) space exploration and the benefits it brings to society."

Still going strong at 85, Buzz Aldrin—the second man to walk on the Moon—has been a vocal proponent of the colonization of Mars. He has devised a plan for humans to colonize Mars by 2039 (detailed in his 2013 book Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration. The plan involves two spacecraft called cyclers continuously shuttling back and forth between Earth and Mars while transporting people and equipment. Aldrin presented his Mars colonization plan to Congress in early 2015. His ShareSpace Foundation works to get young people involved in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, medicine, and the arts: Buzz is a strong supporter of incorporating "arts" into the classic STEM equation), and Mars is a particular topic of enthusiasm.

NASA's Embrace of Social Media

For its part, NASA has done a masterful job in using the Web, and social media, to inform the public of its programs and progress. Nearly all of its facilities, programs, missions, and astronauts have at least one and often multiple social media feeds, primarily Facebook and Twitter but also YouTube, Google+, Flickr, and more. It's a rare day that I don't see at least one NASA-related story trending on Facebook and/or Twitter.

I asked John Yembrick, NASA's Social Media Manager, what the agency's social media goals were. "Our social media goal is simple: Make people care about space exploration," he said. "Every day we work to not only post the most compelling discoveries coming out from NASA, but also do it in a way that is relatable to the public. We feel that NASA can connect with everyone on the planet. It's a matter of getting the agency's content in front of people."

NASA also invites members of the public, chosen by lottery, to attend launches and other space-related events. Participants in these "NASA Socials" are encouraged to share their experiences on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

"When we host in-personal social media events, such as a NASA Social, or an interactive engagement event with NASA astronauts, engineers and scientists, we help turned casual followers into space enthusiasts," said Yembrick. "These 'NASA ambassadors' help tell our story for us to their own friends and followers, and this can have a powerful impact on awareness of what NASA is up to."

Other Mars Initiatives

NASA isn't the only one with an eye on the Red Planet. China and the European Space Agency (ESA) have expressed a long-term intent to send humans to Mars, with the ESA perhaps teaming with Russia. India has put an unmanned spacecraft in orbit around Mars.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX (formally, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) as well as Tesla Motors has long stated that his ultimate goal is to establish a human colony on Mars. In January 2015, SpaceX opened a Seattle-area office to build communication satellites. Musk has suggested that the experience and revenues from this initiative could be used to further his plans to colonize Mars.

Mars One is a controversial initiative by a Dutch nonprofit to send a series of crews on a one-way journey to Mars to colonize that world. The number of candidates has been reduced from at least several thousand (more than 200,000 people had expressed interest, if not formally applied, through the Mars One website) to 100, with a further cut down to 24 (six crews of four astronauts each) yet to be made. The date for the first crewed landing has been pushed back from 2023, the date given when the project was announced in 2012, to 2027. The manned landings—expected to be made in SpaceX Falcon Heavy rockets with Dragon capsules—would be preceded by several unmanned missions, to deploy a communications satellite, test a Mars lander, find a spot for the colony, and deliver supplies in advance of the first landing.

Mars One would be partially funded by reality TV-style coverage of the mission. Critics have charged that the plan is financially unfeasible and the timetable is far too optimistic. An MIT study suggested that were the crew to grow crops within their habitat, as they planned, the plants' oxygen production would exceed fire safety limits, necessitating the continuous introduction of nitrogen. When the nitrogen—which is also needed to maintain air pressure in habitable areas and compensate for inevitable leakage—ran out, the habitat would slowly depressurize and the astronauts would eventually die. Alternatives, such as sending all needed food from Earth, may be more promising.

The Age-Old Lure of Mars

Throughout history, humanity has been fascinated by the planet Mars. Glowing a deep orange, Mars rises from obscurity every 2.2 years to become one of the brightest objects in the sky. Due to its fiery color—which has earned Mars its nickname the Red Planet—numerous cultures have named Mars after their god of war, or associated Mars with fire and war. (It actually owes its ruddy color to iron oxide in its soil; essentially, the planet is slowly rusting.)

During Mars's relatively close passage to Earth in 1888, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli made drawings of Mars that showed narrow, straight lines, which he deemed canali, or channels. It was widely mistranslated as canals. Other astronomers also started seeing these lines and incorporating them in their drawings. One of them, Percival Lowell, built the observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona that bears his name, and at which Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930.

The so-called canals spawned a mythos of a dying, increasingly desert-like Martian civilization channeling water from the poles to green areas that were believed to be vegetation. Fed by the notion that Mars could be a habitat for intelligent life, it became a popular subject in science fiction. H.G. Wells's 1898 novel of a Martian invasion of Earth, The War of the Worlds, caused a public panic when it was turned into a radio play by Orson Welles in 1938 and some listeners thought that we were really being attacked by Mars. Stories of Mars were a staple of the golden age of pulp science fiction magazines in the 1920s and 1930s.

When Mariner 4 flew by Mars in 1965, its pictures revealed a cratered wasteland with no trace of canals. Subsequent spacecraft have shown a complex and varied world, with huge shield volcanoes (Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system), deep gashes such as Vallis Marineris, and evidence of ancient water flow. The first successful Mars landers (Viking 1 and 2) touched down in 1976, and they have been followed by rovers, with Curiosity detecting signs of ancient seas and rivers.

Science fiction novels and movies continue to be made about Mars, though the focus has largely shifted from finding intelligent alien life to survival on a harsh desert world.

The Red Planet Beckons

NASA is gearing up for the push to Mars by bringing on more astronauts. The space agency recently put out the word that it would be seeking astronaut applicants, its first such call in 4 years. "This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement accompanying the announcement.

I asked astronaut Drew Feustel, veteran of two Space Shuttle missions including the final Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, where on Mars he would want to go, especially considering he was trained as a geologist. Rather than name a specific location, he described some of the attributes "The ideal place to land is somewhere that you get a broad range of the geological spectra. Craters, gouges, or gorges usually expose a lot of different layering. Somewhere that looks like it might be structurally or tectonically active is important as well, just to have a feel for the processes. On Mars, I think we would be interested in landing where we think there are sources of water, or moisture, or resources. You'd really want an area that would expose a lot of rock, have those potential sources of water, and maybe have some evidence for potential past life, so maybe rivers or streambeds."

When it is that we actually get to Mars, and where we explore, is an open question. Many steps still lie ahead, but we are developing the technology to get there, and for now at least, we have the will. The continuing support of Congress as well as the general public is key to America sticking to that objective. As long as NASA continues to effectively relate its findings and goals to the public, nonprofits help to inspire our youth, and writers and filmmakers envision a future that seems almost with reach, I'm confident that I'll be around to witness and blog about at least the first wave of human exploration of the Red Planet.