Author: Michael Stoltz

Posts by Michael Stoltz

Why We Do It (@MDRS)

An excellent report by Clément Plagne, journalist for Crew 223 (Supaero II) currently stationed at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, explaining why he and his team participate in the MDRS analog program. If you’re reading this, it probably means that you’re either a family member or friend of ours, interested in science and the exploration of Mars or both. From your point of view, being out in the desert and being like astronauts for some time… READ MORE >

Calling All Martian Redditors!

The Mars Society invites you to join its subreddit page (r/MarsSociety) to learn more about the organization and its efforts to advocate for human Mars exploration, as well as current news about planning for a human mission to the Red Planet. Our direct link is: https://www.reddit.com/r/MarsSociety/new. With almost 2,000 members, the Mars Society’s subreddit account is growing fast and having a major impact on the Reddit space community. Leading group representatives, including its president, Dr. Robert Zubrin, are participating in chats to… READ MORE >

Elon Musk’s Plan to Settle Mars [R.Zubrin]

By Dr. Robert Zubrin, National Review, 02.22.20 Last week my wife Hope and I traveled to Boca Chica, Texas, to meet with Elon Musk. While we talked inside the SpaceX onsite headquarters, a mariachi band played outside, providing entertainment for long lines of people queued up to apply for multiple categories of jobs building craft to take humans to Mars. Hundreds were already hired and at work in the complex. Soon there will be thousands. Musk calls his design the “Starship.”… READ MORE >

Mars City State Design Competition Announced

The Mars Society is pleased to announce the holding of an international contest for the best design plan of a Mars city state of 1,000,000 people. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth. In addition, the top 20 papers will be published in a new book “Mars City States: New Societies for a New World.” The city state should be self-supporting to the maximum… READ MORE >

Musk & Zubrin Meet in Texas

Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin visited Boca Chica, Texas yesterday to meet with SpaceX Founder & CEO Elon Musk. During their meeting, Mr. Musk explained his company’s extraordinary plan to begin the human settlement of the planet Mars, which was very much in evidence as hundreds of people were lined up outside the facility to join his team to build Starships. Dr. Zubrin asked Mr. Musk what the Mars Society could do to help his Mars effort and was… READ MORE >

Announcing Publication of “Mars Colonies: Plans for Settling the Red Planet”

In October 2018, the Mars Society announced that it was holding a special international contest called “The Mars Colony Prize” for designing the best plan for a Mars colony of 1,000 people. There would be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second and $2,500 for third. In addition, the top 20 papers would be published in a new book – “Mars Colonies: Plans for Settling the Red Planet.” This is that book. The 580 page grey-scale softcover… READ MORE >

Cyprus Joins Mars Society Family

The Mars Society is very pleased to announce that a new group has been added to its international network of chapters, with the recent establishment of Mars Society Cyprus. Set up in coordination with the Cyprus Space Exploration Organization (CSEO), the new Cypriot chapter will seek to promote the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet and help drive Mars-related research locally and in cooperation with other countries. “Welcome to Mars! We look forward to all the exciting things our… READ MORE >

MDRS Hosting Historic Dual Habitat Simulation

The Mars Society’s MDRS – Mars Desert Research Station, the world’s largest and longest-running Mars analog program, welcomed a special Mars Academy USA (MAU) crew to its campus last week to begin an historic dual habitat simulation lasting two weeks. During this mission, one crew is operating at MDRS, while a second crew works out of the MAU habitat, which consists of a series of interlocking geometric tents that house crew quarters and a research area. The crew is made up… READ MORE >

Mars Society Online!

Hi Friends. We all know how important social media is to public outreach these days. As part of this, the Mars Society maintains an active social media presence, focusing primarily on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Linkedin. I want to encourage each of you to visit and connect with our social media platforms, if you haven’t done so already, in order to learn more about our organization and mission. Also share with your friends and contacts our online presence. Please… READ MORE >

Happy 90th Birthday, Buzz!

On behalf of myself and the Mars Society, I’d like to take the occasion of Buzz Aldrin’s 90th birthday to thank him for his heroic role in piloting the first human landing on the Moon and for all the work he has done since then to make sure that occasion wasn’t only the epic achievement of its time, but indeed, “a giant leap for all mankind.” Happy birthday Buzz! We look forward to honoring your 100th with the first “small… READ MORE >

The Naysayers Are Wrong – We Should Go to Mars

By Dr. Robert Zubrin, National Review, 01.09.20 Fears that water-consuming microbes from the Red Planet would desiccate Earth are absurd. In a special issue, the last of 2019, the web magazine Quillette deals with the exploration and settlement of Mars. The issue includes contributions from Michael Shermer, Cathy Young, and Michael Solana, all of whom address the question of future governance on the Red Planet. The topic might seem to some to be far-fetched, but it nevertheless provides these able conservative and libertarian writers ample scope… READ MORE >

Donate to the Mars Society via AmazonSmile

Support the Mars Society while getting your last minute holiday shopping done. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Mars Society. To learn more, visit: https://amzn.to/2YVaZir. Thanks and happy holidays!… READ MORE >

Mars Society Analog in Utah Hosts NASA-Funded All-Teacher Crew

A unique team of educators, designated as Crew 217, completed its one-week crew simulation yesterday at the Mars Society’s Utah-based Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), the largest and longest-running Mars analog facility in the world. Funded by the Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium, the NASA Spaceward Bound Utah program serves as a workshop for K-12 teachers to conduct field science under astronaut simulation conditions. This inaugural crew consisted of middle school teachers from Utah, Colorado and Connecticut and was led… READ MORE >

Donate to the Mars Society on #GivingTuesday

Donate to the Mars Society on #GivingTuesday Each year on Giving Tuesday, non-profit organizations rally their supporters for a day of maximum impact. Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday provides an opportunity for people around the world to support what matters most to them and share that cause with their social media networks. The Mars Society relies on the generous contributions of members and friends like you to sustain and expand our programs, including the long-running Mars Desert Research Station in Utah,… READ MORE >

AMA Reddit with Mars Society’s Robert Zubrin

Hi space fans! We invite you to ask Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin questions about Mars and space exploration. The event will take place in its own dedicated thread this Saturday! What: AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Dr. Zubrin Where: reddit, r/SpaceX, u/DrRobertZubrin When: Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 12:00 pm PT (20:00 UTC) Why: Let’s go to Mars! For details, visit: https://bit.ly/35jRIsX. Thank you!… READ MORE >

Wanted! Mission Support Officers for MDRS

We’re looking for Mission Support (CapCom) staff who are willing to volunteer remotely, giving their time and commitment to assist crews participating in analog missions at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Apart from the personal reward you will gain from having helped to contribute to space exploration and humanity’s great future achievement of reaching the Red Planet, additional benefits include: * Scholarships for future involvement in a MDRS crew. * Free signed copies of Dr Zubrin’s… READ MORE >

NASA Funded Opportunity for Teachers at MDRS – Sign Up Today

ATTENTION EDUCATORS! NASA Funded Opportunity for Teachers in Utah: Spaceward Bound Utah crew to be held at MDRS (Dec. 9-13, 2019) Spaceward Bound is a program to train K-12 teachers in how to engage their students in activities that will inspire careers in the space sciences by taking teachers into the field with scientists who are working on space-related research in a given location. First instituted by scientists and researchers at NASA Ames, today researchers involved in that early project… READ MORE >

Mars Society Founder Makes Case for ‘Mars Direct’ Path to the Red Planet

By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com, 11.06.19 WASHINGTON — Both SpaceX and NASA have ideas about how to get humans to the Red Planet, but the founder of the Mars Society says there’s a better way to do it.  In a colorful talk here at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) on Oct. 23, Robert Zubrin made the case for his long-standing “Mars Direct” plan. Mars Direct, Zubrin argued, makes more sense than SpaceX’s current Starship architecture and the plans of NASA, which may use… READ MORE >

Join Us at European Mars Conference 2019 (Nov. 4-6)

Mars Society UK invites you to join us next week at the European Mars Conference 2019 in England.  The three-day science event will take place from Monday, 4th November to Wednesday, 6th November at the Institute of Physics in London. As the pre-eminent forum on Mars, the theme of this year’s European Mars Conference will be ‘Arrive, Survive and Thrive.’ Leading industry figures, thinkers, academics and engineers will be presenting their work, as well as their proposed paths to the planet Mars. … READ MORE >

2019-20 MDRS Field Season Arrives

The Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) program, led by Dr. Shannon Rupert, is pleased to welcome our new crews to the Utah campus for the 2019-20 field season. During the course of the year, these dedicated crew members will be participating in important Mars analog research to help prepare human explorers for the challenges of visiting the Red Planet in the not too distant future. The following is the MDRS program itinerary for the coming year: Crew 214… READ MORE >

Many Thanks!

The Mars Society, led by Dr. Robert Zubrin, would like to take a moment to thank everyone who came to the 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention in Los Angeles last week. With 350 (+) people attending the convention’s daily sessions, as well as the 300 who came to our sold-out Saturday evening banquet, this year’s international conference was one of the most successful to date. In addition, we would like to express our appreciation to all of the speakers… READ MORE >

SEA Dates for 2020 Legislative Blitz on Capitol Hill

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the dates for the Space Exploration Alliance’s 2020 Legislative Blitz in Washington, D.C. will be Sunday, February 23rd through Tuesday, February 25th. The SEA consists of leading U.S. space advocacy groups, including National Space Society, Explore Mars, Moon Society, Federation of Galaxy Explorers, National Society of Black Engineers, Buzz Aldrin’s Human Spaceflight Institute, Students for the Exploration & Development of Space and the Mars Society. Established in 2004, the annual SEA Legislative… READ MORE >

Watch Mars Society Convention via Live Webcast

The 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for October 17-20 at the University of Southern California, will be broadcast via live webcast. This will include all major plenary talks, panel discussions and public debates over the course of the four-day conference in Los Angeles. Those unable to attend the international forum are kindly invited to watch any and all sessions at: http://webcast.marssociety.org. To view the conference’s program itinerary, please click here. For additional details about the Mars Society convention,… READ MORE >

Rick Tumlinson to Discuss Global Space Movement at Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Rick Tumlinson, Founding Partner of Space Fund and Founder of Earth Light Foundation, Space Frontier Foundation and the New World Institute, will address the 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention on Thursday, October 17th at 7:30 pm at the University of Southern California (in Los Angeles). Mr. Tumlinson’s talk – “Reality Check – Taking the Fiction Out of the Space Frontier” – will take a hard core look at some of the… READ MORE >