Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 7:30 p.m.

Delve into the ancient love affair between Earth and our mysterious neighbour, Mars. In this fast-paced presentation, filmmaker and space historian Michael Lennick takes us on a journey from the high desert observatory of an imaginative 19th century astronomer - whose ideas inspired the development of space rocketry and the science-fiction boom of the 20th century – to our later missions to the Red Planet through both science and fiction. We’ll see how well Hollywood has kept pace with NASA over the years, and what challenges face the first generation of explorers now preparing for future manned landings. We’ll even explore the idea that the Martians might already be right here on earth - and we may be them.   

The speaker:
Filmmaker Michael Lennick has written and directed numerous award-winning documentary series and specials for PBS and The Discovery Channel detailing our history in space, as well as the underlying science behind science-fiction. He’s authored books and articles, lectures regularly about space technology, and in an earlier career supervised visual effects for movies and television, including the TV series “War of the Worlds.”

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