Women among pioneers to set foot on Mars

Men walked on the Moon, but women will be among the pioneering explorers who will someday set foot on Mars, said a gathering of top female space experts this week.

Plenty has changed since Neil Armstrong and 11 male successors left their footprints on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, but lingering stereotypes still harm young girls and not enough women reach the upper levels of planetary science, they said.

Some of the leading women at NASA, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and other organizations came together for a two-day meeting in the nation's capital to discuss their work, how they made it and how the next generation can, too.

"We should tell more girls that this is not a male world," said organizer Artemis Westenberg, president of the education and lobbying group Explore Mars.

There are 350 women in the United States with advanced doctoral degrees in planetary science, but only 39 of them are employed at NASA, according to Susan Niebur, a US space agency mission consultant and founder of Women in Planetary Science.

"I wonder, where are the other women and what amazing science explorations might they have proposed?" she said. "We are still losing a lot of women in the pipeline."

Some women have made it onto the management teams of recent Mars projects, but in small numbers, according an analysis presented by Linda Billings, a research professor at George Washington University.

Those who have made it have faced obstacles, ranging from trying to maneuver in spacesuits designed for six-foot-tall (1.8 meter) men to facing blunt cultural biases about the role of women.

"People would say 'How does it feel to be away from your son during all this time? And part of me wants to say, 'Do you ask the guys these questions?' Because they actually don't and it is wrong for two reasons:

"One, the guys miss their kids and their spouses just as much; and two, we are doing this because we think the work that we do is important," said Astronaut Cady Coleman.

"We have to encourage our girls to work really hard. This is hard stuff and you have got to be prepared," said Sandy Coleman, director NASA exploration programs.

Since Mars is 150 times further away from the Earth than the Moon, any trip there and back is likely to take a full year and a half.

The first human exploration mission, perhaps to one of Mars' two moons, may happen by 2033, said Linda Karanian, Lockheed Martin director of human space flight operations, though the crew is far from being selected yet.

"Eleven and twelve year olds are probably where you want to start capturing the interest and the enthusiasm," said Karanian. "There is going to be a select few."