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Voyager Space CEO Dylan Taylor to Discuss Future of Space Industry at Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dylan Taylor, Chairman & CEO of Voyager Space, a multi-national space holding firm that acquires and integrates leading space exploration enterprises globally, will give a plenary talk on October 20th (11:00 am MST) about how the commercial space industry will likely evolve over the next five years during the 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention at Arizona State University (Tempe). As an early-stage investor in more than 50 emerging ventures, including Accion, Kepler, York,… READ MORE >

Mars Society Concludes its “International Mission to Mars” Design Class & Competition for High School Students

The Mars Society, the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to sending humans to Mars, has recently concluded its first cohort of a groundbreaking educational program “International Mission to Mars”, an engineering design competition for high school students.  The program is modeled on the approach taken in engineering design courses at some of the leading universities in the world. In conducting this program, the Mars Society sought to demonstrate the value of a new and much more creative way to teach… READ MORE >

NASA Deputy Admin. Pamela Melroy to Address 2022 Int’l Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is very pleased to announce that NASA Deputy Administrator Pamela Melroy will give a keynote talk titled “The Human-Machine Teaming Path to Get Us There” during the 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention at Arizona State University on Friday, October 21st (11:00 am local time).   As Deputy Administrator, Ms. Melroy performs the duties and exercises the powers delegated by the Administrator, assists the Administrator in making final agency decisions, and acts for the Administrator in his… READ MORE >

Join Us at Star Trek Las Vegas Aug. 25-28!

The Mars Society will have for the first time its own booth/display at The 56-Year Mission Las Vegas (previously Star Trek Las Vegas), scheduled for August 25-28 at Bally’s Hotel & Casino. Organized and managed by Creation Entertainment, the Las Vegas-based annual Star Trek convention will include a line-up of approximately 100 actors, such as William Shatner (“Captain Kirk”), involved in the historic science fiction television and film series. Supervised by Mars Society staff and volunteers, the organization will manage its own… READ MORE >

NASA Assoc. Admin. Bhavya Lal to discuss Mars nuclear propulsion at Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Bhavya Lal, NASA Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy, will give a plenary talk about the strategic and policy challenges related to nuclear propulsion for a human mission to Mars during the 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for October 20-23, 2022 at Arizona State University. Dr. Lal is responsible for providing evidence-driven advice to NASA leadership on internal and external policy issues, strategic planning, and technology investments. She… READ MORE >

Finalists Chosen in Mars Society’s Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that six finalists have been chosen in the Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition (TMEDC), an international contest announced in January which asked the entrants to design the best set of robotic exploration hardware using a 10-ton payload Mars lander. The finalists include teams from the U.S., Canada, and Europe and are listed below: MIFECO Proposal – Robert Mills United States (Michigan) Carl Greenbaum United States (South Dakota) Moran_TMEDC_Team United States (Virginia) Innspace Team… READ MORE >

Mars Society Conducting “International Mission to Mars” Design Course & Competition for High School Age Students

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 >

Space Nomads: Why Mongolians are Destined to Go to Mars

By Dr. Robert Zubrin, The Cosmopolitan Globalist, 07.13.22 While I earn my living as president of a small aerospace R&D company, Pioneer Astronautics, I also lead the Mars Society, a non-profit that promotes the exploration and settlement of Mars. Founded in 1998, the Mars Society has chapters in 40 countries. Our activities include public outreach to spread our vision, securing support for government Mars programs, and projects of our own—most notably, establishing Mars analog research stations in deserts around the… READ MORE >

Opening a Korean New Space Era

By Dr. Robert Zubrin, The Cosmopolitan Globalist, 07.10.22 The Republic of Korea is a remarkable country. In 1960, seven years after the Korean War ceasefire, it was a corrupt dictatorship with a per capita GDP of US$82, about US$400 in 2022 money—less than Haiti. Today, through incredible drive, it has transformed itself into vibrant modern democracy with a per capita GDP of $30,000, roughly equal to the EU average, and a total GDP greater than Russia’s. This is an absolutely unique… READ MORE >

MDRS Director Shannon Rupert Selected for NASA STAR Program

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 >

SpaceX’s Starlink Comms System Now Used by Crews at Mars Society’s MDRS in Utah

The Mars Society announced that its Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) management team has installed SpaceX’s Starlink system at its remote campus in southern Utah to help dramatically improve the facility’s communications network used by analog crews involved in on-site simulation training and field studies.  Starlink is a global satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing internet access coverage to dozens of countries around the world, and frequently used in areas where wifi connectivity is typically unreliable or completely unavailable. … READ MORE >

U of Michigan Wins URC Competition!

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 >

Relativity Space Becomes a URC Sponsor

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Relativity Space, a Los Angeles-based aerospace company, has joined the growing ranks of official sponsors of our University Rover Challenge (URC), the world’s premier Mars robotics competition for college students held annually at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Relativity is at the forefront of software-defined manufacturing, using 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous robotics to revolutionize how rockets are built and flown. The company intends to develop the world’s first entirely… READ MORE >

Sign Up for Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition

The Mars Society announced recently the launching of a new international contest to design a telerobotic Mars expedition. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth, and $500 for fifth. In addition, the best 20 papers submitted will be published in a new Mars Society book, “Telerobotic Mars Expeditions: Exploring the Red Planet with Platoons of Robots.” An essential requirement for any human Mars exploration mission is a system capable of… READ MORE >

Mars Society Peru & Spain Chapter Experiment to be Flown to Chinese Space Station

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) have selected a joint project by Mars Society Peru and Mars Society España, two of the Mars Society’s international chapters, as part of their Access To Space For All initiative. Organized by university students from both countries, the combined Peruvian and Spanish research project is intended to study the effect of microgravity on the growth and biofilm production of disease-causing bacteria. Thanks to UNOOSA… READ MORE >

Mars Society’s MarsVR Now Available for Public Beta on Steam Digital Platform

What you need to know: The first Early Access release of MarsVR, showcasing the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station, is now available to the general public. MarsVR is listed in the Steam directory of VR applications, the main VR content platform, and supports most major brands of VR headsets. This version of MarsVR is a guided tour of the campus and surrounding terrain.  Future versions will add building interiors including objects used in analog space missions as well as… READ MORE >

‘Coming Soon’ Trailer from MarsVR

The Mars Society’s MarsVR team has released a “Coming Soon” trailer for its MDRS Virtual Reality environment, to be hosted on Steam in the near future. The goal of the MDRS VR project is to create a special training environment for MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station) crew members and the general public in order to learn more about Mars analog science, technology, and procedures. The MarsVR team has been working since 2018 on a digital twin of the real-life MDRS facility located in southern… READ MORE >

Mars Society Announces Telerobotic Mars Expedition Design Competition

The Mars Society is pleased to announce the launching of a new global contest to design a telerobotic Mars expedition. There will be a prize of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth, and $500 for fifth. In addition, the best 20 papers will be published in a new Mars Society book “Telerobotic Mars Expeditions: Exploring the Red Planet with Platoons of Robots.” An essential requirement for any human Mars exploration mission is a… READ MORE >

Support the Mars Society on Giving Tuesday (Nov. 30th)

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 >

Mars Society Convention to Host 4 Scientists Involved in NASA Perseverance Mission

Since its landing in Jezero Crater on the planet Mars in February 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been racking up achievement after achievement, including driving 2.6 kilometers over rough Martian terrain, collecting and preparing rock samples for a return mission to Earth, and using the Ingenuity helicopter for aerial exploration.    To keep the global community up-to-date about Perseverance and its scientific results, the Mars Society has invited four leading NASA-JPL scientists to give virtual plenary talks about the mission,… READ MORE >

Former NASA Astronaut José Hernández to Discuss Future of Space Exploration at Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that José M. Hernández, former NASA astronaut and President & CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, LLC, will give a virtual address about “the Future of Space Exploration” during the 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention on Sunday, October 17th at 1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm ET.   Beginning in 2001, Mr. Hernández served for a decade with NASA, initially at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, working as a materials research engineer… READ MORE >

SpaceNukes’ David Poston to Discuss Mars Reactor Technology at Mars Society Convention

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. David Poston, Co-Founder of Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes), will discuss the company’s plans to evolve its reactor technology to 5-Mwe Mars surface power systems during the 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention, scheduled for October 14-17, 2021. SpaceNukes has developed a simple, stepwise evolutionary approach to high-power systems that is rooted in KRUSTY – the 1-kWe Kilopower system prototype that was successfully designed and developed in 2018, and was the… READ MORE >

Watch Red Planet Live Episode 4 on Sept. 14!

Come join our Red Planet Live video podcast on Tuesday, September 14th at 6:00 pm Pacific / 9:00 pm Eastern for an amazing look inside the awesome technology that the Mars Society is working on! During the first half of the show, Ron Craig will be interviewing James Burk, Mars Society IT Director, about some of the technology initiatives that he and his team are spearheading, including the MarsVR project, the innovative aspects of the organization’s virtual convention scheduled for… READ MORE >

Tune in This Week to Red Planet Live for a Discussion about Careers in STEM!

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 >

Helicity Space Co-Founder to Address Mars Society Convention about Fusion Drive Concept

The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Setthivoine You, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Helicity Space, will discuss his company’s Helicity Drive, a novel fusion drive concept, during the 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention, set for October 14-17, 2021. Helicity Space is developing an in-space fusion propulsion and power technology, critical to enabling humanity’s access to the solar system, with a Helicity Drive-powered flight to Mars expected to take two months, without planetary alignment. Dr. You received… READ MORE >