The Mars Society is excited to announce the Fifth Annual International Mission to Mars Engineering Design Competition, a dynamic virtual summer program open to high school students ages 13–19 worldwide. The program will run June 8 through July 10, 2026, offering students an immersive opportunity to tackle real-world challenges related to human exploration of the Red Planet. During this five-week competition, students will think and work like aerospace engineers and mission planners by designing a comprehensive human mission to Mars… READ MORE >
News & Announcements
March 5th, 2026
Musk Is Enticed by the Lunar Siren [R.Zubrin Op-Ed]
By Dr. Robert Zubrin, Quillette, 03.05.26 On 8 February, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted: For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars … That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing… READ MORE >
February 27th, 2026
Aligning Amongst the Stars: A Guide to the Feb. 28th, 2026 Planetary Parade [RPB Blog]
By Bill Maloney, Guest Writer, Red Planet Bound On Saturday evening, earthlings can look into the stars and see a planetary parade of six of our fellow planets in the solar system. A planetary parade occurs when planets appear to line up along the ecliptic, an invisible path the Earth takes in its orbit around the Sun. This path is so named because it is when the Moon intersects it that an eclipse happens. Every planet more or less travels… READ MORE >
February 19th, 2026
The Redundancy Requirement: Why Mars Missions Need Equipment Consistency [RPB Blog]
By Lou Farrell, Senior Writer, Red Planet Bound Blog Space exploration requires immense effort and some of the most advanced technologies humans have ever engineered. While the moon was first explored decades ago, Mars and other planetary bodies remain beyond human contact. To make this dream a reality, organizations must prioritize aerospace equipment consistency and safety redundancies if they want to stand a chance against the endless vacuum. The Importance of Aerospace Equipment Consistency Those interested in seeing humans reach… READ MORE >
February 17th, 2026
From Ladakh to Mars – The HOPE Analog Mission [RPL Podcast]
Join us today (February 17th, 5:00 pm PST) for a new Red Planet Live podcast episode featuring an in-depth look at HOPE in Ladakh, India — the newest addition to the global Mars analog community and an exciting step forward in international space research. As a project partner, the Mars Society is proud to support this important initiative advancing analog science and collaboration in northern India. Host Ashton Zeth speaks with Dr. Siddarth Pandey of Protoplanet as well as Dr. Annalea Beattie and Dr…. READ MORE >
February 17th, 2026
Alpha School Collaboration & Community Crowdfunding Enhance MDRS in Utah
The Mars Society would like to extend its sincere thanks to Alpha School, an AI-powered private K–12 school network operating in Texas, Florida, Arizona, California and several other states, for its recent collaboration at our Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. As part of a filming project by Limitless Productions at MDRS featuring three Alpha School students, the production company made significant updates to the interior of the habitat to create a more immersive, Mars-like environment. These enhancements included… READ MORE >
February 11th, 2026
Abandoning Mars Could be Elon Musk’s Biggest Mistake [R.Zubrin Op-Ed]
By Dr. Robert Zubrin, UnHerd, 02.10.26 Earlier this week, Elon Musk posted online that his company SpaceX has “shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon”, and that his work on Mars would be a longer-term project. For years, reaching Mars had been a plan for the South African multi-billionaire. Having advocated for the advanced colonisation of the planet since at least 2001, Musk had long stated a goal to settle humans there. SpaceX has consistently been involved in plans… READ MORE >
February 8th, 2026
Aerospace Engineer Braves the Arctic to Support the Next Chapter of Space Exploration
By The Aerospace Corporation, January 29, 2026 Space is an unforgiving, hostile environment — defined by vacuum, radiation and extreme temperatures — making human spaceflight an inherently challenging and high-risk endeavor where even small failures can have catastrophic consequences. To confront those realities before launch, researchers conduct astronaut analogs: simulated missions run in extreme Earth environments that mirror the operational and environmental challenges of other worlds. One such mission recently sent Aerospace engineering specialist Trevor Jahn to the [Flashline] Mars… READ MORE >
