Introduction

The MPC submission and judging periods have concluded with the selection of TEMPO^3. The MPC site is preserved as a historical archive of the tremendous ideas that were submitted to The Mars Society. Thank you to all those who helped forge this new direction for our organization!

The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, Mars Desert Research Station, as well as the other stations still planned are in the order of $1M each. The German Chapter is already undertaking a bold Mars project of its own for a robotic mission to Mars (Archimedes), and the Transilfe project has its roots in an idea generated by The Mars Society.

Part of the Society's stated purpose is: "Starting small, with hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions, we intend to use the credibility that such activity will engender to mobilize larger resources that will enable stand-alone private robotic missions and ultimately human exploration." We are now ready to progress towards that purpose. We are looking for a bold and inspiring project in the $10M range.

Submitted ideas now available for viewing

Now that the submission deadline has passed, we have made all submissions viewable by our paid members. Our panel of judges, which will be announced shortly, will select ten finalists, in accordance with the timeline below.

Timeline

The submissions phase of the challenge closed on 25 May 2008, coinciding with the landing date of the Phoenix Mars Mission. Finalists will be chosen and notified in time for them to prepare for and present their ideas at our 11th annual convention in Boulder, 14-17 Aug 2008. The final winner(s) will be announced at the convention.

Historical details...

Looking for ideas

This challenge is giving our members the world over the opportunity to suggest what our next project should be. The project can be technical or otherwise, it can be from the Earth's surface all the way to Mars itself.  We are looking for ideas in the $10M range, but especially if your idea includes funding sources, we can consider higher order costs. We will be especially interested in ideas that, as our Mars analog stations do so well, allow direct participation of the membership.

We are very much interested in your ideas, and we will choose finalists and winners from them, however the project that we ultimately choose to undertake may come from this challenge or elsewhere, or both.

Submission guidelines

Your submissions must be made through this web site, and must contain an executive summary and Quad Chart. Further guidelines as to the format and information we require is provided here.

Only current paid members of the Mars Society will be allowed to submit ideas. You can submit one or multiple separate ideas. Our verification method is that you need to log in in order to submit your idea(s).  If you are a Mars Society member in your country but are not recognized as such on this web site, talk to your country's Mars Society management about updating their member list, and let us know as well. We will fix the issue promptly. If you have any other problem logging in or being recognized as a member, let us know. If you are not a member, or have let your membership lapse, you can register or renew here. If you forgot your login name or password, you can fix this here.

Submit your idea!

Submitting your idea is easy. Click the button below, and fill and submit the form. You will still be able to edit your entry until your submission is acknowledged, at which time you will not be able to make further changes. Your idea will remain private and only visible to Mars Society staff. You will be notified by email of reception of your idea (be sure to check that your email is current in your preferences). Once submitted, we may reject your idea and notify you by email if it doesn't follow the required format or for other technical reasons, in which case you will have the opportunity to fix the problems and resubmit.

Rules and Submission Guidelines