By Dr. Robert Zubrin, SpaceNews, 04.07.21 The key is developing a 10-ton lander 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 the program to send humans to Mars. While robotic rovers are wonderful, they cannot resolve the fundamental scientific questions 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… READ MORE >
News & Announcements
April 6th, 2021
2021 Mars Society Convention – Dates, Registration & Abstracts
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 >
March 25th, 2021
President Biden Should Push for the Human Exploration of Mars [Zubrin]
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 >
March 20th, 2021
No, Mars is not a Hellhole [Blog]
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 Elon Musk, it… READ MORE >
March 17th, 2021
MarsVR & Occupy Mars Game Announce New Partnership
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 >
March 15th, 2021
New Sketchfab Model of MDRS Campus for MarsVR
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 >
March 13th, 2021
NASA-Funded STEM Opportunity for Teachers in Utah
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 >
March 1st, 2021
MarsVR Video Update 1
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 >
