Donna Shirley

When she was a kid, she desperately wanted to go to Mars. Her rocket fuel came in the form of books such as Arthur C. Clarke's "Sands of Mars." But she quickly surmised that she didn't have a chance of being an astronaut. "Originally, you had to be a fighter pilot, have great eyesight, perfect health and be male," she said with a laugh. Now, she figures she's too old. People won't get there--if they get there--for 20 years, she says, and she's 55. "I think 75 is a little old."

When she was a kid, she desperately wanted to go to Mars. Her rocket fuel came in the form of books such as Arthur C. Clarke's "Sands of Mars." But she quickly surmised that she didn't have a chance of being an astronaut. "Originally, you had to be a fighter pilot, have great eyesight, perfect health and be male," she said with a laugh. Now, she figures she's too old. People won't get there--if they get there--for 20 years, she says, and she's 55. "I think 75 is a little old."

Her phone number spells MARS, her car is a Saturn, and her home is the closest you can get to a cabin in the sky. Donna Shirley isn't your ordinary Earthbound mortal. In fact, for 30 years she has spent eight to 18 hours a day planning how to get out of this world and onto other planets. As director of the Mars program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, she has overseen much of America's speeded-up travel agenda to Earth's neighbor planet.

Her phone number spells MARS, her car is a Saturn, and her home is the closest you can get to a cabin in the sky. Donna Shirley isn't your ordinary Earthbound mortal. In fact, for 30 years she has spent eight to 18 hours a day planning how to get out of this world and onto other planets. As director of the Mars program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, she has overseen much of America's speeded-up travel agenda to Earth's neighbor planet.

Author and aerospace engineer Donna Shirley, who served as a manager on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Exploration program, will speak Wednesday at Girls Inc. of Orange County's annual luncheon. Before her recent retirement, Shirley amassed 30 years of experience in private and civil service. While at JPL in Pasadena, she led teams that worked on the Pathfinder's Mars landing and the Sojourner rover's exploration of the planet's surface.

The allure of life on the planet next door has tugged at Earth's imagination for centuries. And yet, admits Donna Shirley, manager of NASA's Mars program, "we know very little about Mars." Earthlike in some ways but truly otherworldly in others, Mars is small, with less than half the gravitational attraction of Earth. It has no atmospheric blanket to trap the heat, so the surface gets icy cold. It has no ozone umbrella to block ultraviolet solar energy.

The hottest sport utility vehicle on the market today is not a Suburban, Expedition or Explorer. Nope. It's a Hot Wheels. Though it's a 164th-scale model, its big brother can put those high-priced, leather-lined urban assault vehicles to shame. And, while the 23-pound Sojourner tears up Mars like a Baja 1000 champion, the Hot Wheels JPL Sojourner Mars Rover is tearing up the mall. These Chinese-made replicas of the six-wheeled wonder are sold out at all 684 Toys R Us stores.

A prolonged standing ovation greeted former astronaut Buzz Aldrin at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night. The American hero, who made history with Neil Armstrong in their 1969 Apollo 11 moon walk, was the star VIP in "From the Bowl to the Moon--and Beyond!," the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra's celebration of the men and women who have boldly gone where no one has gone before.

The hottest sport utility vehicle on the market today is not a Suburban, Expedition or Explorer. Nope. It's a Hot Wheels. Though it's a 164th-scale model, its big brother can put those high-priced, leather-lined urban assault vehicles to shame. And, while the 23-pound Sojourner tears up Mars like a Baja 1000 champion, the Hot Wheels JPL Sojourner Mars Rover is tearing up the mall. These Chinese-made copies of the six-wheeled wonder are sold out at all 684 Toys R Us stores.

Science teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on Wednesday presented their latest progeny, a feisty 1-foot-tall Mars rover, to a group of white-suited reporters, photographers and NASA officials in a JPL "clean room." The latest addition to JPL's family of planetary voyagers will soon undergo final testing in preparation for its trip to Mars later this year. The six-wheeled, 25-pound rover will be the first of a number of Mars missions scheduled over the next decade.

Wrapping up Pathfinder's primary 30-day mission, NASA scientists Friday declared the space agency's return to the Red Planet after 20 years a "100 % success." Calling the six-wheeled Sojourner "the most excellent rover imaginable," project scientist Matthew Golombek said the performance of both rover and lander "gives us tremendous confidence" about the ability to explore Mars cheaply and efficiently with small rovers.

Here's the rundown on guests and topics for the weekend's public-affairs programs: Today "Today": Food safety; treatments for addiction; actors Tim Robbins, Martin Lawrence; motherhood; tango dancing, 6 a.m. (4)(36). "Evans & Novak": Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), 2:30 p.m., repeats Sunday, 7 a.m. CNN. "Tony Brown's Journal": Money on the Web. Business and the Internet, 3:30 p.m. (28). "Inside Politics Weekend": Turmoil among House Republicans, 3:30 p.m.; repeats midnight, CNN.