{"id":705,"date":"2021-04-17T10:03:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T16:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomic-temporary-59915401.wpcomstaging.com\/?p=705"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:51:56","slug":"home-sweet-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huffhimself.com\/blog\/home-sweet-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Sweet Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"705\" class=\"elementor elementor-705\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-55838df8 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"55838df8\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6b2d62e elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"6b2d62e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/huffhimself.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Gemini_Generated_Image_41xq9341xq9341xq-1.jpg\" title=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7b74a449 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7b74a449\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>I stood on the tarmac watching the Stella Rose flip and begin its graceful arc on her way to the surface. It never ceases to amaze me, the beauty of a well engineered rocket designed to traverse the space between Earth and Mars, stop, unload, load, refuel, repeat. SpaceX had grown into the most powerful and wealthy company in the solar system by the simple virtue of being the first to perfect the process. They are not the only show in town. Bezos pulled off his own version and has given Musk a run for his money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for me, today is not about rockets, except this one, the Stella Rose and not because she is a thing of beauty, something not only a space engineer could appreciate. No, this rocket is beautiful because within her bowels is my family, whom I haven\u2019t seen in a decade. I could have made the return trip, but my work here is critical. I am in charge of Operation Green Mars. And today, all that hard work has paid off for me personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The issue that has been kicked around and argued about for decades wasn\u2019t about whether or not we could terraform Mars, but a question about how long it would take. We understood the process fairly well, but change takes time, as they say. But Musk, in one of his usual cavalier and ingenious moves, decided it was a question of scale. He decided that if you simply increase the inputs on a massive scale, you could speed up the process of converting the Martian atmosphere into a true atmosphere, one that humans can breathe in freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I stand on the tarmac, without a spacesuit. I drove my Tesla here with the windows down. I do have an oxygen breather, developed by the folks at AlphaSpace. It is clipped to my belt, and consists of a plastic tube that terminates with a nasal insert clipped to my nose. Inside the small device on my belt are oxygen tablets the size of chlorine tablets used in swimming pools. It is really just an oxygen-enricher designed to make up for the thinner Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around me, the sides of Jazero rise in the distance, behind the Stella Rose as she touches down gracefully. They are covered this morning with ice and the green of lichens and moss. We are not there yet, but we have worked a miracle in the 25 years since our first manned&nbsp; mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I move forward as a crowd begins to form by the gated fence designed to keep us all a safe distance from the rockets. It doesn\u2019t happen often, and it hasn\u2019t happened now in over 12 years, but sometimes things go wrong and a rocket will explode after touching down. This one does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon Marie and the kids will be making their way down the gangway and we will be a family again\u2014a Martian family! Welcome, I think, to home sweet Mars!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I stood on the tarmac watching the Stella Rose flip and begin its graceful arc on her way to the surface. It never ceases to amaze me, the beauty of a well engineered rocket designed to traverse the space between Earth and Mars, stop, unload, load, refuel, repeat. SpaceX had grown into the most powerful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[17,30,48,50,52,53],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prompted-writing","category-snippet","tag-amwriting","tag-lovewriting","tag-vignettes","tag-writersofinstagram","tag-writingsprint","tag-writingsprintchallenge"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Home Sweet Mars - Huff Himself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/huffhimself.com\/blog\/home-sweet-mars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home Sweet Mars - Huff Himself\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I stood on the tarmac watching the Stella Rose flip and begin its graceful arc on her way to the surface. 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