By Mike Wall, Space.com, Sept. 27, 2016 Now we know how Elon Musk plans to get 1 million people to Mars. At a conference in Mexico today (Sept. 27), the SpaceX founder and CEO unveiled the company’s Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), which will combine the most powerful rocket ever built with a spaceship designed to carry at least 100 people to the Red Planet per flight. If all goes according to plan, the reusable ITS will help humanity establish a… READ MORE >
News & Announcements
Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to Address IAC Tuesday, Sept. 27th, 14:30-15:30 ET SpaceX Founder, CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk will discuss the long-term technical challenges that need to be solved to support the creation of a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars. The technical presentation will focus on potential architectures for sustaining humans on the Red Planet that industry, government and the scientific community can collaborate on in the years ahead. Watch it live… READ MORE >
Each year for the past decade, student engineering teams from around the world have been preparing themselves for 12 months of designing and building the next generation of Mars rovers. These enthusiastic student teams compete in an annual competition called the University Rover Competition (URC), held at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah. The journey of URC for engineering students is an extremely difficult task but out of it, they receive valuable experience with very rewarding… READ MORE >
MARS 160 Mission – TODAY’S THE DAY! A beautiful morning outside of the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah. Our Mars 160 crew is in final prep for the beginning of their unique 160-day dual desert-Arctic simulation mission scheduled to start this evening. The first half of the extended analog will consist of 80-days in sim at the MDRS, while the second phase will include an additional 80-day stint in sim at our Flashline Mars Arctic… READ MORE >
The Mars Society has officially relaunched its Red Planet Radio podcast, now a weekly interview series, at: http://radio.marssociety.org. Listen to discussions with Dr. Robert Zubrin, President and founder of the Mars Society, Thomas Myers, a prominent science blogger at “The Physics of SpaceX,” Lucinda Offer, Executive Director of the Mars Society and Dr. Andrew Rader, Mission Manager at SpaceX and a social media celebrity. Sharing co-hosting responsibilities for Red Planet Radio will be Bill Hargenrader, founder of Facebook’s popular I… READ MORE >
Live Streaming of Convention Plenaries, Debates & Panels Available The Mars Society will be convening its 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. September 22-25, just weeks prior to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections. Leading scientists, government officials, commercial space representatives, policymakers and space advocates will address the four-day conference on the latest updates about Mars exploration, planning for a human mission to the Red Planet and other major space news…. READ MORE >
The Mars Society wishes to congratulate all of the student teams that participated in the 2016 European Rover Challenge (ERC). It was a hard and grueling contest, with participants giving it their all. From dozens of teams involved in the international conteste, the top three winners were: + 1st Place – Raptor (Poland, Lodzkie University of Technology) + 2nd Place – Impuls (Poland, Swietokrzyskie University of Technology) + 3rd Place – McGill Robotics (Canada) We also want to extend our… READ MORE >
Mars Society Australia, led by Dr. Jonathan Clarke, helped coordinate a NASA Spaceward Bound expedition to Ladakh in northwestern India last month. The mission carried out astrobiology, astrogeology and human factors research along with educational and public outreach events. There were over 30 participants from India, Australia, the U.S., Azerbaijan, the U.K., Spain and Sweden, with organizations representing MSA, NASA, JPL, Blue Marble, ESA, IISER, BMIS and BSIP. Support was provided by Tata Motors and Inspired Journeys…. READ MORE >
The Mars Society will be re-launching its popular online podcast, Red Planet Radio, beginning Monday, September 19th, three days before the start of the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, being held this year at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Upcoming episodes of the new broadcast will feature interviews with Dr. Robert Zubrin, President and founder of the Mars Society, Thomas Myers, a prominent science blogger at The Physics of SpaceX, Lucinda Offer, Executive Director of the Mars Society and… READ MORE >
NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection is intended to “promote the responsible exploration of the solar system by implementing and developing efforts that protect the science, explored environments and Earth.” This has been a long-standing policy within the agency, but some are beginning to question the need for such confining guidelines when pursuing planetary exploration and, in particular, the search for life on the planet Mars. Critics of planetary protection view NASA’s current policies, intended to safeguard Mars against biological contamination… READ MORE >
The Mars Society unveiled today the official crew patch for its Mars 160 mission, a twin desert-Arctic analog project using both of the organization’s field research stations – the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) located in southern Utah and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island in northern Canada. Mars 160 is an extended Mars surface simulation involving a unique program of field exploration, using the same crew to carry out similar science operations for the same… READ MORE >
More than 300 young engineers from around the world are scheduled to participate in the Third Annual European Rover Challenge (ERC), a major international Mars rover contest powered by the Mars Society and held in Podkarpackie, Poland. ERC is Europe’s largest rover-robotics competition that brings together students to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers. Along with the ERC, the first ever European Robotics Congress will be convened September 10-13, 2016 at the Exhibition & Congress Center of… READ MORE >
In September 2015, the Mars Society announced plans for the International Gemini Mars Student Design Competition in an effort to encourage a serious humans-to-Mars initiative. The new contest invited U.S. and international engineering students to create a detailed plan for a two-person Mars flyby mission proposal that could be placed on the desk of the new President in January 2017 and completed by the end of his/her second term in office. Following the announcement, 19 student teams from around the… READ MORE >
As part of its 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, the Mars Society will be hosting a special banquet on Saturday, September 24th from 7:00-11:00pm at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Considered the highlight of the annual four-day Mars Society conference, the evening dinner will involve a number of exciting and timely events, talks and presentations, including: + A live update from the crew of the Mars Desert 80 mission (via Skype) from the Mars Desert Research… READ MORE >
ONE MONTH until 2016 International Mars Society Convention Major Speakers to Discuss Humans-to-Mars in Washington, D.C. The Mars Society will be convening its 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. September 22-25, just weeks prior to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections. Leading scientists, government officials, commercial space representatives, policymakers and space advocates will address the four day conference on the latest updates about Mars exploration, planning for a human mission to… READ MORE >
Two senior representatives of Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s leading aerospace and global security companies, will participate in the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for September 22-25, 2016 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. With the recent announcement of Lockheed Martin’s Mars Base Camp plan, which would transport astronauts from Earth to a Mars-orbiting science laboratory by 2028, Tim Cichan, a Space Exploration Architect for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, will discuss the new… READ MORE >
University Rover Challenge Comes to the UK The new Mars Society United Kingdom chapter recently took on a major challenge during its first year of activity by planning and convening the United Kingdom University Rover Challenge (UKURC), its own version of the U.S. Mars Society’s highly-successful University Rover Challenge (URC), held annually at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. The new UK branch is based out of Manchester, England, but its members also come from the areas of… READ MORE >
The number of senior NASA officials and scientists confirmed to speak at the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention continues to grow. Recognized as the world’s premier conference on Mars exploration and humans-to-Mars planning, the International Mars Society Convention is scheduled for September 22-25 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. NASA representatives to “talk Mars” at our 2016 convention will include: Jim Green – Director, NASA Planetary Science Division: Mars & International Cooperation Jim Watzin – Director,… READ MORE >
The full program itinerary for the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for September 22-25 at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., has been posted on our organization’s web site. Please take a few minutes to look over our list of plenary and track talk speakers, as well as our planned panel discussions and public debates on issues that will have a major impact on human Mars exploration in the years to come. Join us this September to hear… READ MORE >
Since its founding, the Mars Society has consistently been a major advocate of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, viewing this as a critical need if humanity is ever to begin seriously exploring the solar system, including the planet Mars, and moving in the direction of becoming a multi-planetary species. As part of this, the Mars Society has organized a special panel discussion on the subject of “STEM Education & the Pathway to the Human Exploration & Settlement of… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that another chapter has been added to the growing ranks of its world-wide network dedicated to the cause of humans to Mars. Late last week, a group of university students belonging to the Engineering Students Association of Bangladesh (ESAB) held an inaugural meeting of the Bangladeshi chapter of the Mars Society at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, the country’s capital. The U.S. Embassy organized a reception to host the new international Mars Society… READ MORE >
The Mars Society (US) would like to thank the student teams from Canada, Poland, India, Egypt and our generous host country, the United Kingdom, that participated in the inaugural 2016 UK University Rover Challenge (UKURC) in Manchester, England this past weekend. The Top 3 Winning Student Teams: 1st place – The Elite (Misr University for Science & Technology, Egypt) 2nd place – Nex Robotics (Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland) 3rd place – The University of Warsaw Rover Team (Uniwersytet Warszawski,… READ MORE >
Chris Carberry, CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, will give a plenary talk on “Creating a unified campaign for Mars” at the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for September 22-25 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In his role with Explore Mars, Mr. Carberry has led successful international conferences including the ISS & Mars Conference in Washington, D.C. and Strasbourg, France, and the Women & Mars Conference also in the U.S. capitol. He is considered… READ MORE >
Major Speakers to Discuss Humans-to-Mars in Washington, D.C. The Mars Society will be convening the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. September 22-25, just weeks prior to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections. Leading scientists, government officials, policymakers and space advocates will address the four day conference on the latest updates about Mars exploration, planning for a human mission to the Red Planet and other major space news. Some of the… READ MORE >
Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin spoke at TEDx Moscow during a trip to Russia in June, detailing the potential for the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. To watch the complete TEDx talk by Dr. Zubrin, please click here. … READ MORE >