ExploreMarsNow.org wins Webby and Scientific American awards, considered the two most prestigious for science websites

In the space of little more than a week, the web site ExploreMarsNow.org won the two most prestigious awards for science websites: a Webby Award for best in Science and a Sci/Tech Web Award from Scientific American.

BOULDER, COLORADO (PRWEB) June 13, 2003 --­ In the space of little more than a week, the web site ExploreMarsNow.org won the two most prestigious awards for science websites: a Webby Award for best in Science and a Sci/Tech Web Award from Scientific American. Designed to demonstrate the feasibility of humans exploring Mars with present day technology, ExploreMarsNow.org provides viewers with a photo-realistic walk-though of the first Mars Base. Over a 100 images and many animations depict a habitat, greenhouse, Mars car and robot rovers. The current site is the first phase of an educational, online simulation of a complete Mars mission, named Diomedes.

"It's great to be recognized for our work, but more than anything we hope these awards will help make a human mission to Mars a reality," says Dr. Ray McCall, Executive Director of Nexterra and a professor of planning and design at the University of Colorado. "The web can generate interest in science, technology, and design. We hope ExploreMarsNow.org will inspire people the world over to learn about and to support Mars exploration."

    The Webby Awards, hailed as the "online Oscars" by Time Magazine, are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a global organization that includes over 420 members such as internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, and "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening. Nominees were from 24 nations around the world.

    ScientificAmerican.com, the online component of Scientific American Magazine, selects the five best web resources in each of ten categories for science and technology. Scientific American editors reviewed over 1,000 web sites and selected the 50 they deemed most valuable.

    Nexterra, Inc., the creator of ExploreMarsNow.org, is an educational non-profit based in Boulder, Colorado. One of Nexterra's founders is Kurt Micheels, designer of the Mars Arctic Research Station ­ built by the Mars Society in the Canadian Arctic. Others include John Ciciora, 25-year veteran of NASA contract work and current Chair of Industrial Design at the Art Institute of Colorado (AIC); Dane Spangler, graphic artist for ExploreMarsNow.org and instructor at AIC; designer Sonya Holmes; public relations manager Marina Asbury; and Dr McCall.

    In addition to creating educational websites for the public, Nexterra builds online collections of information for professional designers of space habitats. The company also designs, constructs and analyzes earth-based analogs of space habitats.

Contact:

Dr. Raymond McCall, Executive Director
raym@exploremarsnow.org
303 564 2536

Dane Spangler, Creative Director
danes@exploremarsnow.org
303 447 2674