Register Today! The 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention October 14-17, 2021 (A Virtual Event) The Mars Society was founded more than two decades ago to further the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. The International Mars Society Convention presents a unique opportunity for those interested in the planet Mars to come together and discuss the science, technology, social implications, philosophy and a multitude of other aspects of Mars exploration. Last year, in the face of the COVID epidemic,… READ MORE >
News & Announcements
By Dr. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society President, Scientific American, 03.25.21 The triumphant landing of the Perseverance rover has inspired all Americans, and indeed much of the world. President Biden should follow it up by launching a program to send humans to Mars. While robotic rovers are wonderful, they cannot resolve the fundamental scientific question that Mars poses to humanity, which relate to the potential prevalence and diversity of life in the universe. The early Mars was very much like the… READ MORE >
By Evan Plant-Weir For the past few weeks, an article has been circulating throughout the Mars science and exploration community that serves as a sharp reminder of how much work remains to be done in educating the public (and apparently journalists) on the subject of the red planet. ‘Mars Is a Hellhole’ seemingly aims to characterize the objective of a long term human presence on Mars as folly. By couching scary-sounding Mars factoids within a blatantly ad hominem swipe at… READ MORE >
The Mars Society’s MarsVR team are beginning a new Indiegogo Update series that will feature one of our partners each week for the duration of our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and beyond! The first partner to be mentioned in detail is Pyramid Games. It’s a game development studio currently working on an open-world Mars survival game: Occupy Mars. They have been hard at work on this project for a couple of years. Starting today, if you select our “Place a Name” pledge level for… READ MORE >
Greetings MarsVR Backers & Crowdexplorers! As part of the promotion of our ongoing MarsVR crowdfunding campaign, the Mars Society is releasing new 3-D models of its Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah that have been captured by our team as part of the MarsVR project. We are releasing the first new model, which is an annotated view of the entire MDRS campus exterior. This is now live on Sketchfab, a 3-D modelling site, and we plan to make it available… READ MORE >
Spaceward Bound Utah to be held at MDRS Analog Spaceward Bound is a NASA-funded program to train K-12 educators 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 researchers at NASA Ames, today scientists involved in that early project are still organizing Spaceward Bound field expeditions around the world. Spaceward Bound Utah… READ MORE >
The MarsVR team has released their first Video Update for the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. In this video, James Burk (Director/IT, Mars Society) and Jeff Rainer (CEO MXTReality) talk about the goals for the project and answer some of the questions that have come in. We have passed four thousand dollars through the support of 46 backers who have pledged at one of the available donation levels. MarsVR will deliver a stunning experience to schools, museums, the public and our future… READ MORE >
By Evan Plant-Weir, Red Planet Bound Blog 02.24.21 Humanity has some unfinished business with the Moon. The lunar surface has fallen back into the realm of the remote and unfamiliar for too long. The Apollo landings kindled a dream of an expansive, space-faring future for our species, and that vision continues to inspire us nearly a half century later. Though we have sustained an ember of that dream through crewed missions to the International Space Station, it diminishes a little… READ MORE >
The Mars Society, the world’s largest space advocacy organization dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars, is pleased to announce its new Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for our Mars Virtual Reality (MarsVR) project. Project Goals Our project will deliver a stunning Mars experience to schools, museums, the public and our future space explorers. The goals of the project are to create a high-quality virtual reality simulation of future human exploration of the Red Planet, as a tool… READ MORE >
The Mars Society will be hosting a virtual Facebook Watch Party for the upcoming landing of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on the surface of the planet Mars. Launched on June 30, 2020, “Percy” is scheduled to set down on February 18th inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, where it will then begin its mission to explore the nearby area in search of signs of past and present life. We invite you to mark the arrival of the latest Mars rover by joining our live Facebook… READ MORE >
As part of its effort to promote public understanding about the importance of exploring the planet Mars and the need to establish a permanent human presence there, the Mars Society is pleased to announce the launch of a new monthly blog called “Red Planet Bound”. Hosted on the Mars Society’s web site, the new online column is being written by Evan Plant-Weir HBSc, co-founder of The Mars Society of Canada. A passionate and long-time advocate of space exploration, Evan is… READ MORE >
Challenge Democratize access to scientific education on a global stage For the last several years, the people of planet Earth have been navigating a Fourth Industrial Revolution, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The idea is that humanity is experiencing a, “fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.” Within this context, there’s a natural social pressure to increase the pace and scale of STEAM education (science and technology, interpreted through engineering and the arts, based… READ MORE >
Dear Friend, As many of you know, the theme of the 2020 International Mars Society Convention, held virtually over the course of four days in October, was “Rising Together.” We felt that “Rising Together” was a very poignant call to action as we navigate this global pandemic. We believe that humanity can work together on issues of great importance, especially those that impact our long-term future and survival. The Mars Society strongly believes that becoming multiplanetary is a critically important… READ MORE >
With COVID-19, more and more people are obviously shopping online. Support the Mars Society while doing your holiday shopping on Amazon.com. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of Amazon Smile purchases to your favorite non-profit organization, the Mars Society. Help the Mars Society to maintain and expand its programs, including its two Mars analog stations in Utah and Canada, by doing your shopping via Amazon. To learn more, please visit: https://smile.amazon.com (and remember to select the Mars Society as… READ MORE >
It’s #GivingTuesday (December 1st), an international day of charitable gifting occurring on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. As the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy group dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, the Mars Society is leading the way in educating the public, the media and the government on the benefits of exploring Mars and creating a permanent human presence there. Help us continue with and expand on this important work by making a one-time or recurring… READ MORE >
Due to the current surge in COVID-19 cases around the world and, in particular, in the United States and Utah, a decision has been made to delay the beginning of the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station field season until February 2021. According to experts, the next three months are expected to be the hardest of the pandemic, and MDRS management, led by Dr. Shannon Rupert, wants to ensure that all crew members stay safe and well throughout that time…. READ MORE >
By Dr. Robert Zubrin, President, The Mars SocietyNational Review, 11.14.20 In October 2020, NASA’s Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey committee received a manifesto from its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (EDIWG). Written by NASA Ames Research Center public-communications specialist Frank Tavares — along with a group of eleven co-authors including noted activists drawn from the fields of anthropology, ethics, philosophy, decolonial theory, and women’s studies — and supported by a list of 109 signatories, “Ethical Exploration and the Role of Planetary… READ MORE >
The Mars Society concluded its four-day 2020 Virtual Mars Society Convention on October 18th, setting a new event record with over 10,000 registered attendees for the online forum, together with 150 speakers. Worldwide viewership of the conference was well over 100,000 people, being watched on YouTube and Facebook. Attendify, one of the leading U.S. tech companies involved in digital and event marketing, recently applauded the Mars Society’s virtual event, commenting in an online post, “We’re so honored to have such… READ MORE >
The Mars Society, the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy group dedicated to human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, has dozens of chapters in the U.S. and around the globe. These chapters are involved in a variety of space advocacy and educational outreach projects, including convening public events, hosting Mars sci-fi movies, actively promoting humans-to-Mars on their social media platforms, organizing STEM initiatives and much more. To learn more about Mars Society chapters and their activities around… READ MORE >
The Mars Society announced the winners of its international dual design contest for creating a special logo for a patch and t-shirt to be used by crew members at the Utah-based Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), the largest and longest-running Mars analog program in the world. The winner of the competition to create an official MDRS crew patch is Ognian Ivanov of Bulgaria, while the winner of the contest to design a logo for an official MDRS crew t-shirt is… READ MORE >
During the recent 2020 International Mars Society Convention, the first, second, third, fourth and fifth place winners of the Mars City State Design Competition were chosen following a highly competitive final round involving ten teams from around the world. Announced in February by the Mars Society, the contest received a total of 175 team applications from over a dozen countries, requiring several down-select rounds to eventually reach the semi-finals and finals. The top five winning teams (by name, points and… READ MORE >
The Mars Society, the world’s largest space advocacy group dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, concluded its 23rd Annual International Mars Society Convention on Sunday, setting a new event record with over 10,000 registered attendees for the online forum, which ran from October 15-18. The organization’s first virtual conference, held due to COVID-19, created a large public surge of interest among Mars and space advocates around the world, as leading members of the space community… READ MORE >
Dr. Alan Stern, NASA’s Principal Investigator for its New Horizons mission that successfully explored Pluto and its moons and is currently navigating the Kuiper Belt, will be giving the keynote address at the 2020 International Mars Society Convention’s virtual banquet on Saturday, October 17th at 7:30 pm PDT (10:30 pm EDT). A respected planetary scientist and author, Dr. Stern serves as Associate Vice President at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. His academic research has focused on the Kuiper… READ MORE >
There’s no better way to kick-off Day 1 of the 2020 International Mars Society Convention than with a big announcement: SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk will be joining us virtually tomorrow (Friday, October 16th) at 3:00 pm PDT (6:00 pm EDT) [PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME] to provide our global audience with a special update about SpaceX and its plans for the Moon and Mars. As a world leader in advocating for humanity to become a multi-planetary species, Mr. Musk… READ MORE >
The 23rd Annual International Mars Society Convention, an online virtual event involving some of the world’s top leaders and experts on Mars and space exploration, begins tomorrow (Oct. 15th) and runs through Sunday (Oct. 18th). With 150 speakers and over 5,000 people registered to attend, the four day global conference will bring together key scientists, commercial space executives, government policymakers and space advocates to discuss the latest scientific developments and challenges related to the exploration of Mars and the eventual… READ MORE >