By Dr. Robert Zubrin, President, The Mars Society, Space.com, 09.08.22 We can reverse the conventional relationship of students to scientific knowledge. Around the world, in all the best university engineering programs, students encounter at some point a class different from all the others. This is the engineering design class, within which, instead of being tested as individuals on their mastery of lectures and texts, the class is challenged to work as a team to design a complex engineering system capable… READ MORE >
Topic Area: Education
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Jan Millsapps, a veteran filmmaker and Professor Emeritus of Cinema at San Francisco State University, will give a presentation during the 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention (October 20-23, 2022 at ASU in Tempe) about Model Mars, a unique, interdisciplinary STEAM learning platform that invites young people from around the world to create their own futures as virtual settlers living in simulated communities on Mars. Launched in early 2022 by Dr. Millsapps and co-developers… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is convening its 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention October 20-23, 2022 at Arizona State University. It’ll be the organization’s first in-person convention since 2019 due to the pandemic, with hundreds of people expected to attend and thousands to watch the four-day event via livestreaming. Convention planners would like to remind everyone of two important convention deadlines coming up on Wednesday, August 31st (5:00 pm MT). The first involves our call for papers, inviting members of the… READ MORE >
After two weeks of lectures and two weeks of intensive design work, the Mars Society’s International Mission to Mars Design Class & Competition for high school students is now moving towards its final stage, with the five teams of approximately seven students each – one from Asia, one from Europe and Africa and three from the Americas – now writing up their design reports in preparation for the concluding contest beginning next week. The final shootout will occur in three… READ MORE >
This summer, the Mars Society has been conducting a truly groundbreaking educational program for 40 high school students from around the world, modeled on the approach taken in engineering design courses at some of the best universities in the world. With this six-week virtual program, which began on July 5th and will conclude in mid-August, the Mars Society looks to make educational history by demonstrating the value of a new and much more creative way to teach science and engineering… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce the high school students selected to be part of the first all-high school crew participating in a full analog mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. Spaceward Bound is part of the Mars Society’s growing K-12 STEM initiative at MDRS, which involves U.S. and international students. The student team was chosen for their personal skills and interests, as well as their ability to fit into a team of Martian explorers…. READ MORE >
Dr. Shannon Rupert, field ecologist and long-time director of the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, was notified recently that she has been accepted into Cohort 3 of NASA’s STAR (Spaceflight Technology, Applications and Research) program, beginning in September 2022. A highly competitive 5-month course, STAR is a virtual NASA program for space biosciences training, with annual courses involving principal investigators, senior research scientists, and postdoctoral scholars. The goal of STAR is to facilitate each participant’s entry… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the Michigan Mars Rover Team (University of Michigan) has won the 2022 University Rover Challenge, the world’s premier Mars robotics competition for college students, with 388.97 points! Way to go, Wolverines! Coming in second place was the Monash Nova Rover (Monash University, Australia) with 380.55 points, and third place was taken by the Mars Rover Design Team (Missouri University of Science & Technology) with 370.71 points. All 36 student teams did a… READ MORE >
With the 2021-22 field season at the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah winding down in the coming days, MDRS management, led by its director, Dr. Shannon Rupert, is pleased to announce the crew itinerary* for the 2022-23 field season at MDRS. Congratulations to the crews on being selected, and we look forward to hosting them “on Mars”! 2022 October 1 – 16: MDRS Work Party October 20 – 23: [Off-Site] The 25th Annual International Mars Society… READ MORE >
The Mars Society will hold an international high school student Mars Mission Design Class & Competition this summer. The virtual class will be a unique experience, allowing high school students from around the world to take part in an educational activity modelled on the design course now practiced by the best world-wide university engineering departments. A university design class differs greatly from a typical college class. Instead of being taught some material by a professor and then being tested on… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium has approved a $5,000 grant request to fund an educational project called “Spaceward Bound Classroom: Bringing Mars to Utah Students,” which focuses on developing a series of labs in a box with engaging science experiments that can be shipped to Utah classrooms when visiting the organization’s Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah is not an option for students. Led by MDRS Director Dr. Shannon Rupert,… READ MORE >
Spaceward Bound is a joint NASA-Mars Society program to train K-12 teachers 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 scientists and researchers at NASA Ames, today researchers involved in that early project are still holding Spaceward Bound field expeditions all over the world. Spaceward Bound Utah is a 5-day workshop… READ MORE >
Members of the public are invited to meet with analogue astronauts and mission specialists at the Conference on Human Analogue Space Missions (CHASM) on Sunday, April 3rd (14:30-18:00 BST) at the Lucy Cavendish College on the Cambridge University campus. Organized by Mars Society UK, one of the Mars Society’s global chapters, CHASM involves talks by UK and international analogue space mission crews and staff about their missions and goals. One of the key speakers will be Dr. Shannon Rupert, Director of the Mars… READ MORE >
We invite you to watch a video report by James L Burk, our new Executive Director, about his first full month in the role. The five-minute video lists a number of key accomplishments achieved since January 1st, such as the announcement of our Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition (TMEDC). James also outlines plans and initiatives for next month, including the official public release of our Mars VR Virtual Reality project. To watch the new video report, please click here. This… READ MORE >
Estamos muy emocionados de anunciar que en enero del 2023 realizaremos nuestras primeras misiones análogas completamente en español en el Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) en Utah. Todas las posiciones para las dos tripulaciones están abiertas. Los aplicantes deben tener fluidez en español hablado y escrito. Además, deben tener, como mínimo, habilidades de conversación en inglés. También estamos buscando personal de apoyo remoto para la misión como Oficial de Comunicación o CapCom. Comuníquese con Atila Meszaros, Director Asistente de MDRS,… READ MORE >
The Mars Society recently established the MDRS-FMARS Alumni Group on LinkedIn to serve as a place of contact for former crew members who served at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah or the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in Canada. The new LinkedIn platform will allow former crew members to network professionally, discuss career progress and opportunities, post research and presentations about analog work and related studies, add articles about and photos from past crew missions, and… READ MORE >
Next week is Giving Tuesday, an international day of charitable gifting that occurs on the Tuesday after the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving. As the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy group dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, the Mars Society leads the way in educating and informing the public, the media, and the government about the importance of exploring Mars and planning for an eventual permanent human presence there. Included in the Mars Society’s mission are: Mars… READ MORE >
The Mars Society will be convening (virtually) its 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention October 14-17, 2021. Leading experts from the global space community will be discussing the latest news about exploring Mars and plans for a human mission to the Red Planet. We’re looking for a few tech-savvy volunteers to help us with managing aspects of the online four-day conference. If you’re interested in helping out, please contact Carie (cfay@marssociety.org). Thanks!… READ MORE >
Do you have a strong interest in pursuing a career in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) related field? Are you a young adult following a traditional path and getting ready to take your first step at the university level or perhaps you’re already well on your way? Maybe you are a more seasoned adult looking to pivot to STEM after already pursuing other career choices? Red Planet Live is going to explore both options, although much of the… READ MORE >
Today, the Mars Society was selected to receive a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s Club for the Future. This generous grant will allow us to expand all of our activities, including conferences, publications, STEM outreach, engineering competitions, and student participation as crew members at our Mars analog research stations, helping us to learn how best to explore the Red Planet by engaging in comparable field exploration in some of the most Mars-like environments on Earth. “Our recent auction for the first seat on… READ MORE >
The Mars Society invites you to join us this Thursday (July 15th) at 6pm PST / 9pm EST for the next episode of our Red Planet Live video podcast with an amazing discussion with Crew 245 about their recent two-week simulation at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. Participating in the show with our host, Ron Craig, will be the full team – Dylan Dickstein, Commander, Shayna Hume, Executive Officer (XO), Julio Hernandez, Crew Botanist, Shravan Hariharan, Crew… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that there are three volunteer internship opportunities available for the upcoming 2021-22 field season at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. Two are student positions which require a minimum month-long commitment on-site, and should be done in collaboration with the student’s academic institution as part of an independent study program. The first opportunity is designed for biology majors and requires the student to be on-site in December 2021 to do field… READ MORE >
Crew 235, Mars Desert Research Station The following is the final summary report of Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Crew 235. At the start of our mission, nine strangers came together with different hopes and expectations, all with the same end goal – come together with other like-minded individuals within the education community and emerge with new skills or ideas. Amazingly, every step of our journey together built the outcome that would meet and exceed everyone’s expectations. Many of the crew interactions… READ MORE >
Support Mars Advocacy & Show Us Your Creativity The Mars Society, the world’s largest space advocacy group dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, invites members, friends, students, space advocates, and the general public to submit a creative poster for consideration as part of its annual design competition. As always, the winning poster design will be used as the primary promotional graphic for the organization’s main event of the year – the 24th Annual International Mars… READ MORE >
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 >