Get ready, Mars enthusiasts! The 2025 International Mars Society Convention is set for Thursday-Saturday, October 9–11 at USC (University of Southern California) in Los Angeles—its 28th year as the premier global conference on Mars exploration, human settlement planning, and cutting-edge space technologies. As the U.S. government announces its intention to make a near-term human mission to Mars the central goal of America’s space program, the convention’s theme “Mars: The Time has Come” will be right on target. Join leading scientists,… READ MORE >
Topic Area: Virtual Event
The Mars Society is excited to announce that prominent space author, journalist, and historian Rod Pyle will join the next episode of Red Planet Live, hosted by Ashton Zeth, on Tuesday, December 17th, at 5 PM PST. Author of 18 books on space history and exploration, including Space 2.0, First on the Moon, and Blueprint for a Battlestar, Mr. Pyle has made significant contributions to the world of space studies and development. As Editor-in-Chief of the National Space Society’s quarterly magazine, Ad Astra, he is… READ MORE >
Get ready for an exciting episode of Red Planet Live! On Tuesday, August 6th (5pm PT / 8pm ET), join us for an in-depth look into the Mars Society’s Ambassador Program, led by its newly appointed director and RPL host Ashton Zeth. This 60-minute live broadcast will feature a panel of esteemed guests including James Melton, the founder of the program and Chief Ambassador Emeritus, along with international program representatives Nasir Rizwan (Pakistan), Jonathan Adler (Australia), and Emmanuel Kyei Twumasi… READ MORE >
The Annual International Mars Society Convention features plenary talks and panel discussions with top experts in Mars and space exploration, the commercial space industry, technological development, and space advocacy. To give more enthusiastic professional & non-professional speakers a chance to participate, the Mars Society also includes 30-minute track talk presentations during afternoon sessions. This year’s event will showcase several dozen track talk speakers, such as: – Angelina Tsuboi: Architecting Marsnet: Interplanetary Internet Design for Mars and Beyond – Jay Garg:… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is excited to announce that a major panel discussion on NASA’s current and future Mars exploration plans will take place (virtually) on Friday, August 9th at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET as part of the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention. Amid the growing complexities of Mars exploration, NASA is concentrating on several key areas: deploying robotic exploratory systems (rovers, landers, and orbiters), returning Martian rock and soil samples to Earth, and designing infrastructure for… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is excited to announce that Dr. Agnieszka Wendland, an Assistant Professor at Warsaw University of Technology, will be delivering a (virtual) plenary talk at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention this August. Her presentation, titled “The First Tree on Mars,” is part of a new multi-authored research project led by NASA’s Dr. Chris McKay. The project explores the possibility of warming the Red Planet by increasing its CO2 density and introducing greenhouse gases like perfluorocarbons (PFCs),… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Jeremiah Pate, Founder and CEO of Lunasonde, will deliver a plenary address on “Mining Space Rocks” at the 27th International Mars Society Convention this August at the University of Washington in Seattle. An entrepreneur and visionary in space resource exploration, Mr. Pate and his team are pioneering ways to secure critical minerals for humanity while preserving our planet from the impacts of traditional mining. Lunasonde is paving a new path for accessing… READ MORE >
Grant Bonin, Co-Founder and CEO of gravityLab, a Seattle-based company specializing in artificial gravity satellites for research and manufacturing in low Earth orbit by government, academia, and commercial businesses, will give a plenary talk at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention. The event is scheduled for August 8-11 at the University of Washington (Seattle). Mr. Bonin is an aerospace engineer with expertise in space mission design, spacecraft systems engineering, project management, and business development. He has contributed to over… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. David Catling, Professor in the Earth & Space Sciences Department and the Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington (Seattle), will be a plenary speaker at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention this August. Dr. Catling’s presentation, “Live Fast, Die Young, and Leave a Red Corpse: The Environmental Evolution of Mars,” will explore the changes in Mars’ environment over its geological history and discuss the potential for life on the… READ MORE >
Joining us at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention is Dr. Vandi Verma, JPL Principal Engineer & Deputy Section Manager for NASA JPL’s Mobility & Robotics division. She’ll delve into the current missions of the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers on the Martian surface. Happening from August 8-11, 2024, at the University of Washington in Seattle, this global conference promises insights into cutting-edge space exploration. Dr. Verma serves as Chief Engineer of Robotic Operations for Mars 2020 and has an… READ MORE >
Anna Wadhwa, a MD student at Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. candidate at MIT’s Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, will give a presentation at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention at the University of Washington (Seattle) this August, with the title of her address being “You Spin Me ‘Right Round’: The Latest Research on Artificial Gravity by Centrifugation and Its Implications for Human Space Exploration.” Interested in enabling human space exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond, Ms…. READ MORE >
Embark on a virtual tour of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah, organized by Mars Society Chicago, the national organization’s Chicagoland chapter! On Sunday, May 26th at 1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm ET, join Sergii Iakymov, the Director of MDRS and a seasoned analog astronaut, for an immersive online event. With extensive experience leading crew missions and serving as the Assistant Director of MDRS, Sergii offers invaluable insights into life and work in this very Mars-analog… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is excited to announce that Howard Hu, the Orion Program Director at NASA, will be a plenary speaker at the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention, taking place at the University of Washington from August 8-11, 2024. Hu will discuss “NASA’s Artemis plans for returning to the Moon and beyond”. As the leader of the Orion Program, Mr. Hu oversees the development of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is designed for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. He… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is excited to announce that Brig. General (Ret.) Dr. S. Pete Worden will give an address about “Life in the Universe and Private Sector Space Science Initiatives” during the 27th Annual International Mars Society Convention, held in August at the University of Washington (Seattle). Dr. Worden currently serves as Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and as Executive Director of the foundation’s “Breakthrough Initiatives,” a groundbreaking program launched in 2015 with the aim of searching for extraterrestrial… READ MORE >
The Mars Society will officially open its 26th annual international convention on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe October 5-8, serving once again as the world’s largest multi-day forum on Mars exploration, planning for human settlement, and cutting-edge topics related to space exploration, science, and technology. As always, the four-day Mars Society conference will convene a wide range of scientists, engineers, aerospace executives, government policymakers, analog astronauts, and space advocates to discuss and analyze the latest news about humanity’s plans for exploring Mars… READ MORE >
The Mars Society will officially open its 26th annual international convention two weeks from today on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe October 5-8, serving once again as the world’s largest multi-day forum on Mars exploration, planning for human settlement, and cutting-edge topics related to space exploration, science, and technology. As always, the four-day conference will convene a wide range of scientists, engineers, aerospace executives, government policymakers, analog astronauts, and space advocates to discuss and analyze the latest news… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Roberto Carlino, an aerospace engineer at NASA Ames Research Center and a former NASA HERA analog astronaut, will give a plenary address during the 26th Annual International Mars Society Convention this October at Arizona State University in Tempe. The title of Mr. Carlino’s talk will be “What I learned from 45 days in isolation with NASA’s HERA mission,” which took place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in early 2022 with… READ MORE >
During the 26th Annual International Mars Society Convention, set for October 5-8, 2023 at Arizona State University (Tempe), the Mars Society and Debate to Educate will be convening the final round of a special debate held virtually on the issue of “Mars or Bust?” involving middle school and high school students from around the world. Debate to Educate, a prominent non-profit group that organizes international educational debates, and the Mars Society have scheduled a series of online debates on whether… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Tiffany M. Morgan, Deputy Director of the Mars Exploration Program in NASA’s Science Directorate, will be giving a plenary address during the 26th Annual International Mars Society Convention at Arizona State University (Tempe), set for October 5-8, 2023. The title of her talk will be “Exploring Mars Together, DRAFT Plan for a Sustainable Future for Science at Mars”. In her current role at the agency, Ms. Morgan provides program leadership in exploring… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the 26th Annual International Mars Society Convention will be held once again on the picturesque campus of Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe on Thursday-Sunday, October 5-8, 2023. As in previous years, the international conference will bring together leading scientists, engineers, commercial space executives, government policymakers, members of the media, and prominent space advocates to discuss the latest news about current and future Mars exploration and planning for a human mission to the… READ MORE >
Presentations for the 26th Annual International Mars Society Convention, set for Thursday-Sunday, October 5-8, 2023 at Arizona State University in Tempe, are invited. This year’s four-day global forum will deal with all matters associated with the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, including science, technology, engineering, politics, public policy & advocacy, STEM education, economics, etc. Abstracts between 150-300 words can be uploaded on our Mars Society convention web site at: abstracts.marssociety.org. Please note that the deadline for submitting abstracts… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Sarah Milkovich of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be joining our one-hour Red Planet Live (RPL) video podcast with our new host Ashton Zeth on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 (5pm PST) to discuss current Mars robotic exploration as well as several Earth science projects she’s involved in for NASA. As a planetary geologist and systems engineer at JPL, Dr. Milkovich works on the Mars Perseverance Rover and with the Applied Earth Science Disasters program. She specializes in the science operations of robotic spacecraft,… READ MORE >
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Sarah Milkovich of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be joining our one-hour Red Planet Live (RPL) video podcast (hosted by Ashton Zeth) on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 (5pm PST) to discuss current Mars exploration as well as several Earth science projects she’s involved in for NASA. As a planetary geologist and systems engineer at JPL, Dr. Milkovich currently works on the Mars Perseverance Rover and with the Applied Earth Science Disasters… READ MORE >
With booming world-wide interest in NASA’s now operational James Webb Space Telescope, the Mars Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Marcia Rieke, Principal Investigator for the Webb’s near-infrared camera NICRam, will give an address – “The Webb Telescope’s First Months: A Treasure Trove of Results” – during the 25th Annual International Mars Society Convention October 20-23 at Arizona State University (Tempe). Currently a Regents Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, Dr. Rieke focuses her research activities on… READ MORE >
Join us this Friday & Saturday (July 8-9) for ‘Living in Space 2022’, a fascinating series of talks about analog research and development involving the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah. Hosted by Better Futures, in coordination with the Mars Society, the two-day virtual event will involve over a dozen speakers discussing various topics related to humanity living in space, including on the planet Mars. Among the many speakers participating are: Mars Society President Dr. Robert… READ MORE >