Star Trek Voyager star Robert Picardo will promote the Mars Millennium Project in a public service announcement which will air during an episode of the series on Wednesday, May 5. The Mars Millennium Project - a national education initiative - is an official project of the White House Millennium Council Youth Initiative.
"I had the idea to do the PSA because of the striking connection between this important educational challenge for kids and one of our upcoming Voyager episodes," said Picardo. "The Planetary Society is helping to promote the project and I'm on their advisory council."
The announcement was filmed on the last shooting day for this Voyager season. In the May 5th episode, "11:59," Kate Mulgrew plays an ancestor of Captain Kathryn Janeway who helped build the Millennium Gate on Earth. The episode is set on New Year's Eve 1999 as another of Janeway's ancestors resists the creation of a massive Millennium Gate, a model for the first colony on Mars.
Among the sponsors for the Mars Millennium Project are the U.S. Department of Education, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the National Endowment for the Arts. More information is available at www.mars2030.net or by calling (800) 969-MARS.
