Related News & Announcements

38 Teams Advance to 2026 University Rover Challenge Finals!

After an incredibly competitive System Acceptance Review, 38 teams from 11 countries will compete at the 2026 University Rover Challenge Finals, being held May 27-30, 2026 at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah! A record 116 teams from 18 countries (!) began the year competing for a coveted invitation to the URC2026 Finals. Teams submitted both written reports as well as video demonstrations of their rovers, which were scored by URC’s panel of judges. The URC, led… READ MORE >

High School Students: Design Your Own Mission to Mars This Summer

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 >

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 >