More Mars are good and different

    Probably everyone knows about the Cosmos pavilion at VDNH. And many heard about his difficult fate after the collapse of the USSR. From the embodiment of Soviet triumph in space, it turned into a faceless hangar used for warehouses and sale of garden-trench tools. Only in the depths, near the far wall of the pavilion, was a portrait of Yuri Gagarin bashfully hanging from a canvas.

    However, in 2012, the left wing of the pavilion was rented by an organization under the faceless name “Development Parks”. But they began to build what they later called the Interactive Mars Terraforming.




    Unlike Mars One, they do not promise to fly to Mars by 202 ... but they offer to play it. During the year, they erected in the pavilion a model of the first scientific inhabited base, which, according to the plot of the game, should appear on Mars in 2050. In this, Mars-Tefo is more like a stationMDRS Martian Community USA.

    The design of the base at VDNH was created in collaboration with Russian scientists, and it is equipped with almost all the necessary elements: a scientific compartment for analyzing collected Martian samples; command unit for communication with the Earth, remote control of rovers and communication with the artificial intelligence of the base. For power supply of the station, a reactor block and a solar panel are provided. The base is supplemented by a diorama of the Martian surface, a “teleport” and an “orbital station”.



    The nuclear reactor is modeled very realistically, you can manually replace the spent fuel elements, which requires you to put on a spacesuit. But the pride of Mars-Tefo is software that allows you to power the entire Martian station or bring the reactor to a nuclear explosion. Of course, there are no radioactive materials there, but the energy supply to the inside of the base directly depends on the reactor settings and the power system control.



    There are solar panels only on the monitor, but the energy of the base also depends on their management.

    In the scientific compartment there is a remote control panel for unmanned probes, which conduct geological exploration and deliver samples to the base for analysis. The devices are also virtual, but geological samples are delivered in kind. Unfortunately, not from real Mars, and not even meteorites, but the rocks were selected related to the fact that they found real rovers. Samples are delivered in airtight containers, and open only in a chemical cabinet with “sleeves” known from numerous science fiction films about viruses.



    Communication with the Earth, as expected, is carried out with a delay, and in real mode, you can talk with artificial intelligence, and try to straighten his brains when he has a roof. This AI disease has been known since the Space Odyssey of 2001 and haunts almost all science fiction works.

    A separate adventure is taxiing by a rover. You can sit at the helm of Curiosity only at Mars Tefo.



    Unfortunately, no one has created a virtual model of domestic off-road rovers. But this is a question of the availability of drawings of devices necessary for 3D-modeling.

    You can play Marsonauts for three hours, and tours of the station are provided, combined with popular science lectures and master classes. On excursions, you can not only walk around the station, but also get acquainted with the details of the study of Mars over the past centuries, learn about the spacecraft that studied and study the Red Planet, and the latest scientific data that come from there.



    In appearance, according to the description, “Mars-Tefo” is another attraction, of which there are many at VDNH, and an attempt to make money on the now fashionable Martian theme. But really, making money in Russia by popularizing science is very difficult. As a positive example, one can probably only cite the Moscow Planetarium, which, however, is the property of Moscow and cannot go bankrupt in principle. The example of the closure of St. Petersburg "Umnikum" shows that the popularization of science and knowledge of the world does not promise super-profits, and even reaching self-sufficiency is an outstanding achievement.

    Mars-Tefo was created not only as a business startup, but also pursued more ambitious and noble goals. Those who finance and pull this project are guided by the ideas of inspiration by Mars of a new generation of Russian space explorers.



    The previous generation, which began space exploration, grew up on science fiction books, but now they have strong competition from computer games and films. Therefore, "Mars-Tefo" offers to play Mars not at a computer, but in conditions close to reality. Unlike space museums, where you can only watch and not touch, the new word "interactorium" means that you can touch, steer, load, adjust, save, in other words, play.



    True, the games in Mars-Tefo resemble the plot of the movie Gravity: everything constantly breaks down, explodes, artificial intelligence goes crazy, alien viruses make their way to the base, meteorites fall, the reactor overheats ... But this is a feature of the genre if there is no continuous force major, it will become boring. Only the list of incidents varies depending on the age of the players. "Improvisation" is carefully prepared in advance by game technicians. They say that both children and adults have already managed to play Marsonauts.



    Of course, the one and only “Mars” that hides in the depths of VDNH is physically unable to cover even a significant percentage of even Moscow youth. Therefore, the interactive project initially provided for the "cloning of Mars" throughout the country on a franchise basis. And recently, a significant event for Mars-Tefo took place - the opening of a new Martian base in Nefteyugansk. Here, the local authorities took up the space formation of the younger generation, so self-government took a direct part in the creation of the station. The landing of Moscow "Martians" landed in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, established a base, trained local game technicians and held demonstration classes.



    Now they are ready to expand the network of Martian bases in Russia, waiting only for orders from private investors or regional authorities.

    I hope there are such people in the country, and the goals of Mars Tefo in nurturing the new Korolevs, Gagarins, Armstrongs and Masks will be realized.



    Site " Mars Tefo " group Vkontakte .

    Dauria Aerospace, as far as possible, supports the popularization of astronautics. For example, the company is a co-organizer of the school scientific and technical competition " CanSat in Russia ", we’ll somehow tell you more about it.

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