BSU students attend NASA conference

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

March 30, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Imagine it. Five days of more than 1,000 scientists and graduate students debating whether or not there is life on Mars.

It was almost like the Lite beer commercial -- you know ... the "Less filling/Tastes great" debate -- for seven Bemidji State University space studies students who attended the five-day National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 17-21.

Only NASA could have marketed its annual conference as the "Yes there is/No there's not" debate.

The 28th annual conference was devoted to the subject of debating the existence of life on Mars, and was predicated by two scientists who say they have found fossilized evidence of bacterial life in a Mars meteorite, said John Annexstad, a BSU professor of space studies, among other things.

The seven students, a mixed bag of sophomores, juniors and seniors, got more than they had bargained for when they registered for the conference, though. It turned out they were the only undergraduate-level students to attend the event -- out of more than an estimated 1,500 people who registered -- Annexstad said.

However, it is probably not surprising considering BSU offers the only undergraduate-level space studies minor in the nation -- a fact that made it possible for these want-to-be space travelers to attend the conference.

The conference is the premiere space informational exchange in the world, Annexstad said Thursday, sitting on a desk in a Sattgast Hall classroom -- five of the seven students surrounding him -- and BSU was represented.

"There is a certain controversy over this meteorite, called ALH840001. Some people don't believe there's evidence to support the theory that there's life on Mars, and others do," Annexstad said. "But the students knew at this conference both sides would be discussed. Because of their interest in the subject the students wanted to go. They were hearing from the top minds in the word."

Alvin Aus, an industrial technology/graphic design major and space studies minor, explained that being at the conference was like being present when Gens. Norman Schwartzkopf and Colin Powell and other Gulf War coalition leaders were conducting the Gulf War.

"Getting the inside scuttlebutt about the Gulf War ... that's how far up, comparably, some of these scientists we were listening to," Aus said. "It's not enough to say they're the top minds in the field."

The five days were complete with presentations from 8:30 a.m. until late into the night when "poster sessions" were held. There were four main conference rooms, each hosting 20 to 30 presentations a day. The evening poster sessions were times in which scientists would present their information one-on-one to interested parties.

So what do the top scientific space minds think of the BSU students crashing their yearly party?

"Even being undergraduates we were treated with dignity and respect and even at times awe. They did not believe that undergraduates would go to this level of a conference to hear their work," Aus said. "We showed them that the public -- even though we didn't represent the general public, per se -- is interested in what they do. They don't see very much of the average public. We were as close as they probably see."

Brandy Toft, a senior space studies minor, said she was most impressed with the level of scholarship presented.

"There was so much coming at us that we couldn't digest it all," she said. "However, we even occasionally understood something."

And on which side of the life on Mars debate do Annexstad and the students fall?

Annexstad, a former NASA employee who was even recognized at the conference for helping to develop NASA's curating system probably falls somewhere in between the "yes there is" and the "no there is not" schools of thought.

"The two scientists who say they have discovered the fossilized bacterial evidence are very close friends of mine, so I knew about the discovery before everybody in the press and even the president knew," he said. "I believe in their evidence -- let's put it that way. I'm not one of their detractors, but there is enough evidence on the other side that I say we need more research."

As for the students ... they probably fall into that third category as well ... their minds are open to any possibility after being at the Johnson Space Center.