Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, July 6, 2019

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Mountain View News Saturday, July 6, 2019 

NASA to Hold Mars 2020 ‘Name the Rover’ Contest

Metro to Hold North 
Hollywood to Pasadena 
Transit Corridor Meetings

 NASA is seeking volunteers to help with judging

 

 NASA has selected two partner organizations to run a 
nationwide contest giving K-12 students in U.S. schools a chance 
to make history by naming the Mars 2020 rover. An application 
to become contest judge also is now available online.

 Battelle Education, of Columbus, Ohio, and Future Engineers, 
of Burbank, California, will collaborate with NASA on the Mars 
2020 “Name the Rover” contest, which will be open to students 
in the fall of 2019. The student contest is part of NASA’s efforts to 
engage the public in its missions to the Moon and Mars.

 The currently unnamed rover is a robotic scientist weighing 
more than 2,300 pounds (1,000 kilograms). It will search for 
signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet’s climate and 
geology, collect samples for future return to Earth and pave the 
way for human exploration of the Red Planet. The spacecraft is 
targeted for a July 2020 launch and is expected to touch down on 
Mars in February 2021.

 “We’re very excited about this exceptional partnership,” said 
George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive in NASA’s Planetary 
Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. 
“Contests like this present excellent opportunities to invite young 
students and educators to be a part of this journey to understand 
the possibilities for life beyond Earth and to advance new 
capabilities in exploration technology.”

 By focusing the Mars 2020 “Name the Rover” contest on K-12 
entries, NASA seeks to engage U.S. students in the engineering 
and scientific work that makes Mars exploration possible. The 
contest also supports national goals to stimulate interest in 
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and 
help create the next generation of STEM leaders.

 Battelle will connect students to the Mars 2020 mission through 
its portfolio of STEM networks. It will help recruit judges and 
students and also curate resources for teachers.

 Future Engineers is an education technology company that 
engages K-12 students with innovation contests and challenges. 
The Mars 2020 “Name the Rover” contest will be hosted on 
Future Engineers’ web platform, which will serve as the online 
portal for entry submission and judging.

Judges Needed

 K-12 students are not the only ones able to participate in the 
contest. NASA also is seeking volunteers to help judge the 
thousands of contest entries anticipated to pour in from around 
the country. U.S. residents interested in offering approximately 
five hours of their time to review student-submitted rover names 
may visit the futureengineers.org website and register to be a 
judge.


Senator Rubio Secures Funding for Key Priority, Home

 
Metro authorities announced five scoping meetings will 
be held, including Pasadena, throughout July to receive 
public comments for the North Hollywood to Pasadena 
Bus Rapid Transit Corridor (NoHo to Pasadena BRT). The 
project extends approximately 18 miles and is a key regional 
connection between the San Fernando and San Gabriel 
Valleys with connections to the Metro Red, Orange and 
Gold Lines, as well as Metrolink and other municipal bus 
lines they said.

 Five public scoping meetings will be held on the following 
dates and times:

North Hollywood 

Tuesday, July 9, 5:30–7:30pm 

Lankershim Arts Center 

5108 Lankershim Bl, Los Angeles 91601

Pasadena 

Wednesday, July 10, 6–8pm 

Pasadena Senior Center 

85 E Holly St, Pasadena 91103

Eagle Rock 

Saturday, July 13, 1–3pm 

Eagle Rock Plaza 

2700 Colorado Bl, Suite 236, Los Angeles 90041

Burbank 

Monday, July 15, 6–8pm 

Buena Vista Branch Library 

300 N Buena Vista St, Burbank 91505

Glendale 

Wednesday, July 17, 5:30–7:30pm 

Glendale Downtown Central Library 

222 E Harvard St, Glendale 91205

 The scope of the Draft EIR, including the goals and 
objectives, project area, project description, and the 
environmental impacts to be evaluated will be presented at 
the public scoping meetings.

 In addition to oral and written comments accepted at the 
scoping meetings, written comments on the scope of the 
Draft EIR will be accepted through Wednesday, July 31.

Ways to Provide Comments

 Call (213) 418-3228 and record your formal comment on 
the North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT Corridor Project 
hotline number.

Mail written comments to:

Mr. Scott Hartwell 

Project Manager 

Metro 

One Gateway Plaza 

Mail Stop 99-22-6 

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Or email comments to: nohopasbrt@metro.net


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

“FREEDOM” AND ITS MANY CONSIDERATIONS

While celebrating the new American country’s 
independence from Great Britain is still fresh in 
our minds, it’s also worthwhile now to consider 
how societies go into decline, fail, and even disappear 
in many cases. Yes, it’s correct that most 
of us don’t believe that could ever happen to us. 
But no one is ever immune to the larger forces 
that compel the flow of societies.

According to archaeologist Joseph Tainter, author of The Collapse 
of Complex Societies, there are eight definable reasons why civilizations 
fall.

1. Resource Depletion

2. New Resources

3. Catastrophes

4. Insufficient Response to Circumstances

5. Other Complex Societies

6. Intruders

7. Mismanagement

8. Economic Explanations

Examples of Tainter’s observations are found each day in the daily 
newspapers. Survival is not an academic, intellectual idea. This is 
the reason we have all endeavored to learn and to practice everyday 
survival skills.

DARK AGES AHEAD?

According to social critic Jane Jacobs, author of Dark Age Ahead, 
we are following the same cultural decline that occurred with the 
Roman Empire. She begins her book by telling us that dark ages are 
a lot more common than we may think, and she identifies many of 
the weak spots in our contemporary lifestyle.

Her list of weak areas includes: taxes, family, community, education, 
science, technology, the lack of self-policing, and moral/ethical 
insanity.

Jacobs believes that these weak areas are the foundation of all the 
other often-cited problems, such as the environment, crime, and 
the discrepancy between rich and poor.

Jacobs points out that modern families are “rigged to fail” due to 
rising housing prices, suburban sprawl (with a reduced sense of 
community), and the automobile. She believes the automobile 
is the chief destroyer not only of communities but of the idea of 
community.

The hopeful part is that Jacobs does not see dark ages as inevitable. 
For one thing, we all need to get involved and be a part of the solution. 
Jacobs points out that the millions of details of a complex, living 
culture are not transmitted via writing 
or pictorially, but by (1) living examples 
and (2) by word of mouth. Jacobs goes on 
to say that though “the end” may be near, 
there are things we can do. What are those 
actions?

We need to think.

We need to model solutions.

We need to teach, to lecture, and to write.

The stereotypical survivalist who hides out 
in a cave or cabin with his beans and shotgun 
is the antithesis of survival. He is not 
engaged in society in any meaningful way 
and is therefore not a part of any meaningful 
solution.

SOME “MUST READ” BOOKS

The Twilight of American Culture by Morris 
Berman. Berman details what is actually 
happening to us, and provides a solution on an individual level.

Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa. This is the the 
book for “how to think.” If you’ve not read and studied it, get it 
today from a used book store.

The Art of Loving by Eric Fromme. In the classic book on the 
problems facing all of humanity, Fromme describes the science of 
love. This book teaches you “how to love.”

True Believer by Eric Hoffer. The quintessential book on mass 
movements and cults teaches you “how to believe.”

Democracy Is Self-Government by Harold W. Percival. A “must-
read” if you are to grasp what’s wrong with modern politics. The 
author demonstrates that individual self-government is the only 
path to real democracy.


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