Life on Mars gets a test run in the Utah desert By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2019 Hang a right a few miles past the Dirty Devil River, bump down Cow Dung Road, and the barren, red landscape beyond morphs from mere desert into something, well, otherworldly. Men and women in spacesuits and oxygen tanks pick their way around boulders. One collects soil samples. Another launches a drone. The aircraft hovers then drops. Whirring blades thwack the… READ MORE >
News & Announcements
June 12th, 2019
Call for Papers (2019 Mars Society Convention)
Presentations for the 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention (October 17-20, University of Southern California) are invited, dealing with all matters associated with the human exploration and settlement of Mars, including science, technology, engineering, politics, economics and public policy. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent by August 31st, 2019 (please note new date) to ensure scheduling of sessions and inclusion in our printed conference materials. After this date we cannot guarantee that your session will be… READ MORE >
June 12th, 2019
[National Review Op-Ed] Zubrin Critique of NASA’s Vendor-Driven Artemis Program
At Today’s NASA, Success Is Not an Option By Robert Zubrin National Review, 06.12.19 The Trump administration has proposed a bold new initiative, dubbed the Artemis Program, that will send astronauts to the Moon by 2024 and Mars by 2033. As detailed by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine in a presentation on May 23, the program will include some 37 launches by 2028, kicked off by the maiden launch of the agency’s new Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift booster in October 2020…. READ MORE >
June 2nd, 2019
2019 University Rover Challenge Crowns New Champion
The University Rover Challenge (URC) awarded the title of World’s Top Mars Rover to the IMPULS team from Kielce University of Technology in Poland on June 1. The 2019 rendition of URC hosted 34 rovers and more than 500 students from ten countries at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah. URC is an annual competition which asks college students to design and build the world’s best Mars rover. The win for the IMPULS team, their first ever,… READ MORE >
May 29th, 2019
Mars Society President Publishes “The Case for Space”
Mars Society president Dr. Robert Zubrin has published a new book. Entitled “The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Unlimited Possibility,” the book has received rave reviews in USA Today and Forbes. According to Glenn Reynolds, writing in USA Today: “In his new book …The Case For Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility, famed astronautical engineer Bob Zubrin talks about the how and the why of… READ MORE >
May 26th, 2019
Semi-Finalists Selected for Mars Colony Prize Competition
25 teams, including entrants from the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Poland, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and Israel, have been selected out of a field of 100 competitors as semi-finalists in the Mars Society’s Mars Colony Prize design contest. The Mars Colony Prize design contest challenged people from all walks of life anywhere in the world to design a 1,000 person Mars colony, with design criteria including technical merit (40 points), economic viability (30 points) and social, political, and aesthetic considerations… READ MORE >
