I Love Mars, and I Vote

Oct. 10, 2007 — -- It's barely 8 a.m. as Chris Carberry stands in the middle of a field in the early morning sunlight, shivering slightly. He's waiting for Barack Obama, who is due to speak in about two hours. Obama volunteers are wary. Could Carberry be a researcher from the Clinton campaign? Or a dangerous nut? No, Carberry is a motivated man determined to see through his mission: to find out where each of the presidential candidates stands on Mars.

Carberry is the political director of the Mars Society, a nonprofit group that pushes relentlessly for human exploration and settlement of the red planet. He's the point man for Operation President 2008, in which Mars Society members lie in wait for presidential candidates at campaign stops in the early primary states, then leap out to pop the question: As president, would you send a man to Mars?

With a day job in Boston, Carberry is well positioned for jaunts up to New Hampshire. In the last two presidential election cycles, he says he met every major candidate. He took a short stroll with John McCain, and got kicked out of an event by Al Gore's secret service contingent. He got a surprisingly eager response from Alan Keyes, a blank stare from Bill Bradley, and a vague thumbs-up from Dick Gephardt. Now, with the 2008 primary campaign well under way, he's on the trail again.

"This is an exceptional situation that happens every four years," says Robert Zubrin, founder and president of the Mars Society. "The one time the presidential candidates are actually in contact with the American people is in the primary season. As the fields narrow, it becomes harder and harder to get close to them."

As the sun crept across the field, Carberry joined the line forming at the gate. He has made good progress already this year, he says, and rattles off candidates' responses to his overtures. "I know McCain is very enthusiastic about space -- he is a fan of space, of exploration," Carberry says. "Romney and Giuliani both said they're not sure, they haven't fully investigated the issue."