The Mars Society will officially open its 26th annual international convention on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe October 5-8, serving once again as the world’s largest multi-day forum on Mars exploration, planning for human settlement, and cutting-edge topics related to space exploration, science, and technology.
As always, the four-day Mars Society conference will convene a wide range of scientists, engineers, aerospace executives, government policymakers, analog astronauts, and space advocates to discuss and analyze the latest news about humanity’s plans for exploring Mars in the coming decade.
This year’s event will center on the theme “Mars for All.” With growing global interest in and public support for humans-to-Mars, advocates for this endeavor, including the Mars Society, have developed a series of initiatives allowing members of the general public to learn about and even experience the idea of human settlement of the Red Planet.
Several of these state-of-the-art projects will be showcased at the convention, allowing a sizable number of people with the opportunity to experience how humans can reside and work on the planet Mars. This includes a live demonstration of MarsVR, the Mars Society’s open-source virtual reality platform that can be used for serious research and training towards the goal of sending humans to Mars.
Convention organizers will also use the successful format of combining both in-person and virtual plenary talks, panel discussions, and public debates over the course of the forum. Those attending remotely will be able to use online tools to view each session, submit questions to speakers in real time, and conduct professional networking with other participants.
A sample of speakers and events scheduled for the convention include:
- Tiffany Morgan, Deputy Director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA
- Roberto Carlino, HERA Mars Analog Astronaut, NASA
- Dr. Kris Zacny, Senior Vice President, Honeybee Robotics
- Dean Cheng, China Expert & Senior Researcher, U.S. Institute of Peace
- Dr. Carol Stoker, Planetary Scientist, NASA
- Rick Tumlinson, Founding Partner, SpaceFund
- Dr. David Poston, CTO, Space Nuclear Power Corp.
- Dr. Robert Zubrin, Founder & President, The Mars Society
- Panel – How to Search for Life on Mars
- Panel – Insitu Exploration vs. Sample Return
- Panel – 2023 FMARS Analog Mission to Canada
- Panel – MARS-V Mongolian Analog & Chapter Update
- Panel – 2023 Mission to Mars High School Summer Program
- Student Debate – Mars or Bust? (organized by Debate to Educate)
For additional details about the 2023 convention, including the program itinerary and online registration for virtual or in-person attendance, please visit: www.marssociety.org.
Please note that there are special ticket rates for seniors and students. Also ASU students can attend on campus free of charge (although registration is required). If you have a question about the convention, contact us at: convention-staff@marssociety.org.
