Alumni’s mission to planet Earth
April 1993 marks a cataclysmic event in MSRC’s history. It marks the day when MSRC hosted Stony Brook alumni and their families for a mission to planet Earth. It marks the day when the President of the Alumni Association, Sheldon Cohen, called an emergency town meeting to announce that the group’s home planet-Stoneiper-was in the path of a large meteorite that would strike in two weeks. Another hospitable planet must be found. The only other planet known to have the conditions needed to support human life, Cohen explained, was Earth. Everyone would have to evacuate Stoneiper and depart on a mission to planet Earth. This was their only chance for survival.
The group from Stoneiper formed a plan. They would set their spaceship down in three locations-China, Africa and Long Island- and send out parties to obtain information on the natural and human resources of each place. The objective was to use this information to develop strategies that would allow them to live in greater harmony with the planet than present Earthlings.
Each person was issued a passport, complete with a photo ID and, after official processing, boarded the MSRC spaceship-the conference center that had been transformed into a spaceship, with sounds, lights, and control panels. On the trip to planet Earth, the crew was given descriptions of the Earth’s support systems, complete with satellite imagery. The realism was vivid. About 30 minutes into the trip one youngster exclaimed loudly, “Mommy, we really are in space! Look at the Earth!”
Once the spaceship landed, scouting parties were sent out to the three locations and youngsters were given the responsibility of gathering the critical information which was to be reported back to the full group at the end of the day. Classrooms had been transformed into Africa, China, and Long Island, complete with appropriate furnishings and plants. In each simulated country, MSRC faculty and their children, staff, and graduate students from the three areas dressed in their native clothes and served food of the region.
Everyone enjoyed the day and learned important lessons, which were reported by the youngsters when the group reassembled in the spaceship at the end of the day. All left determined to be better environmental stewards for Earth.
Photos from the event are available on Google Photos.
