By Evan Plant-Weir The assertion “we need to protect Earth” is almost invariably met with heartfelt agreement. The fragility of our ecosystem, and the part we have to play in caring for it is well understood. Our efforts (or lack thereof) on that project are justifiably a matter of debate and political action. We have a great deal of work to do, and some of us still need convincing but for the most part we get it; it’s up to… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that George T. Whitesides, newly-appointed Chief Space Officer of Virgin Galactic, will give a virtual plenary talk at the 23rd Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for October 15-18, 2020. A ten-year veteran of Virgin Galactic, Mr. Whitesides currently spearheads the development of future technologies, including high speed point to point travel and orbital travel. In addition, he serves as the Chair of the Virgin Galactic’s Space Advisory Board. Prior to this, he… READ MORE >
Presentations are now online for all ten finalists in this year’s inaugural Mars Colony Design Contest, an international competition to design a thousand-person permanent settlement on Mars. The presentations were given during the recent International Mars Society Convention in Los Angeles on October 19, 2019. Several entries, including these ten, will be included in a special print book that the Mars Society is working to publish by late this year. Dr. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society President, announced that we will… READ MORE >
The Mars Society has awarded prizes to the top five winners in this year’s inaugural Mars Colony Design Contest, an international competition to design a thousand-person permanent settlement on Mars. Held during the recent 2019 Mars Society Convention in Los Angeles, the first place prize of $10,000 was awarded to the Star City team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a rendering of which you can see to the right. “We were blown away by the quality of the one… READ MORE >
The final convention schedule is now available online. For more details about the 2019 International Mars Society Convention, including registration for the four-day conference (October 17-20) and evening banquet, visit our convention information page…. READ MORE >
The Mars Society, the world’s largest non-profit dedicated to the human exploration of Mars, is pleased to announce that it is now able to accept Bitcoin and several other types of digital currencies as donations to further our goal of future human exploration and settlement of Mars. In addition, the organization is pleased to announce that it has received a large contribution of Marscoin, a digital currency similar to Bitcoin but focused on Mars. Additional donations of Bitcoin, Marscoin, Ethereum… READ MORE >
Commentary by Dr. Robert Zubrin, Founder and President of the Mars Society Originally published in SpaceNews’ Apollo at 50 digital edition On July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, President George H.W. Bush got up on the steps of the National Air and Space Museum flanked by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins and declared that in the tradition of their great feat, he was declaring that the United States would now set its… READ MORE >
To see the Red Planet up close you do not have to book an expensive flight into space. You just have to join almost 400 contestants from five continents who will come to Kielce in September to take part in the final of the international Mars robots competition, the European Rover Challenge. Apart from observing the teams’ struggles, visitors can expect a very attractive Science and Technological Show Zone as well as lectures and workshops both for younger and older… READ MORE >
Ten teams, including entrants from the USA, Russia, Poland, France, Switzerland and Sweden, have been selected out of a field of 100 competitors as finalists in the Mars Society’s Mars Colony Prize design contest. Here is the list including links to their presentations on YouTube: Team/Organization’s Name COUNTRY CrowdSpace Russia/USA Emerging Futures LLC USA Ideacity Poland Kent Nebergall USA LET IT BE France/Switzerland MIT – Star City USA Team Bubolaq USA Team Dvaraka Sweden Wesley Stine USA Wroclaw University of… READ MORE >
Today is the day! The Mars Society is launching its new official web site! After months of hard work by our technical volunteers led by our IT Director, James Burk, we are excited to roll out the new version of our organization’s main web site, located at: www.marssociety.org. As we are sure you will notice, visitors will have quicker and easier access to our web pages and content. To the point, navigating just got a lot simpler! In addition to… READ MORE >