Happy New Year’s Mars in Mars, PA with NASA

Happy New Year’s Mars! Every 687 days Mars goes around the Sun. Mars, Pennsylvania, celebrates this with a dinner and a breakfast close to the date and then a weekend New Year’s party in early summer, i.e. late May or early June.

Check out the Mars New Years Festival Schedule for cool items even if you miss the party. They have videos and links to NASA and information about Mars.

In 2019, Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s Chief Scientist, returned as the keynote speaker for the dinner and breakfast. Space is limited for these so sign up early and there is a fee for these. But the festival is free!

A weekend full of being able to touch equipment and chat with NASA personal who are actually working on projects about Mars. They have so much knowledge and information both the past steps and the future steps NASA is taking with Mars.

NASA brings all kinds of exhibits like Mars virtual reality, 3D panorama of Mars, Mars rover wheels, and so much more. Plus the local school has students exhibit science projects. Normally, I would not review student projects unless the children were some how related to me or friends of the family but these were very interesting.

On Friday night, a SCI-FI costume contest. Costumes should be family friendly with categories including most unique, most humorous, and best alien. Dogs are the cutest dressed up but they don’t get the cash award.

A Firefly Drone Show Friday night with bands both Friday and Saturday evenings. Almost every hour through out the weekend, NASA personal have a presentation on things like “What We Need to Get to Mars”, Mars 2020 Rover Mission, Drone Demonstrations, and more.

This is the greatest event for children with lots of things to do and touch. Dogs are welcome. Plus Saturday night is Brew Fest!!! And the greatest of all, the festival is Free to the public and you get to talk to people that work at NASA!!!!