The Mars Society will officially open its 26th annual international convention two weeks from today 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 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 during the course of the conference. 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 upcoming convention include:
- Tiffany Morgan, Deputy Director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA
- Shannon Nagle, Co-Founder & CEO, Circe
- Dr. Wolfgang Fink, Assoc. Prof. and Inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair of Microelectronics, University of Arizona
- Roberto Carlino, HERA Analog Astronaut & Aerospace Engineer, NASA Ames Research Center
- Dr. Than Putzig, Associate Director, Planetary Science Institute (Colorado)
- Dr. Shawna Pandya, Director, Medical Research, Orbital Assembly Corporation
- Dr. Sara Walker, Astrobiologist & Theoretical Physicist, ASU
- Dr. Robert Zubrin, Founder & President, The Mars Society
- Panel – Mars Technology Institute – How We Can Make This Work
- Panel – Insitu Exploration vs. Sample Return
- Panel – How to Search for Life on Mars
- Panel – 2023 FMARS Analog Mission to Canada
- Panel – 2022-23 MDRS Field Season & Research
- 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 International Mars Society Convention, including online registration, full program itinerary, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities, recommended hotel accommodations, and more, please visit: www.marssociety.org. If you have a question about the convention, please contact us at: convention-staff@marssociety.org.
