The Mars Society
Formation13 August 1998 (1998-08-13)
FounderRobert Zubrin
Legal statusNonprofit organization, 501(c)(3) eligible
FocusAdvocacy for Mars exploration and colonization
Region
Worldwide, with a focus at United States
Websitewww.marssociety.org

The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human Mars exploration and colonization. It was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and its principles are based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human mission to Mars as lightweight and feasible as possible. The Mars Society aims to generate interest in the Mars program by garnering support from the public and through lobbying. Many Mars Society members and former members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk.

Since its founding, the Mars Society has been active with a series of events and research activities. It has hosted its annual International Mars Society Convention and operated research projects such as the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station and the Mars Desert Research Station, both using Mars analog habitats. Both of the stations are placed in remote locations and aim to replicate a true Mars mission for research. Crew members in the stations must perform mock extravehicular activities, do research assignments and live on strictly rationed supplies. The organization also hosts robotics challenges with competing universities, called the University Rover Challenge and the European Rover Challenge.

Structure

The Mars Society is a 501(c)(3)-eligible nonprofit organization that is funded by donations[1] and operated by volunteers.[2] Membership to the Mars Society is available for all with a small fee.[3]: xvi  The society's aims are garnering public support for human Mars missions, lobbying government and space agencies, and researching the effects on Martian crews via Mars analog habitats.[3]: xv–xvi [TMS 1]

The Mars Society's founder and current president is Robert Zubrin, and notable members and former members of the organization include Buzz Aldrin,[4] Elon Musk,[5] Gregory Benford,[4] and Peter Smith.[TMS 2] The society is a member of the Alliance for Space Development[6] and has chapters in Canada, Australia, Japan, Europe, etc.[3]: xv–xvi  Since its foundation in 1998, the society organizes the annual International Mars Society Convention, with presentations primarily about Mars exploration and colonization.[7]: 273 

Philosophy and propositions

The Mars Society's founding conference emphasizes its focus on the Mars Direct plan and efforts of lobbying the government,[8] holding that there is no technical reason that would prevent a human mission to Mars within a decade.[9] On the second day of the conference, there was an intense debate about the ethics of Mars terraforming, which science writer Oliver Morton described as 'rancorous'. The terms 'Lebensraum' and 'manifest destiny' used by the audience in the debate were prohibited in later conventions.[7]: 309–311 

Many of the Mars Society's members believe that a human mission to Mars is within reach in a decade (as laid out in Zubrin's Mars Direct)[10] and such a mission would lay the foundation for the colonization of Mars.[11]: 10–11  The Mars Direct philosophy has permeated through the society's lobbying efforts. During a testimony to the 2009 Augustine Commission, a panel made by the Obama administration to outline the future of the U.S. space program, Zubrin advocated initiating a lean human Mars program in a similar manner to Mars Direct. The testimony seems to not have influenced the committee; in the final report, the commission concluded that such a mission would "demand decades of investment and carry considerable safety risk to humans".[12]

Oliver Morton commented in 2003 that Mars Society is a fundamentally "utopian and escapist organization". He observed that many Mars Society convention participants were unhappy with government space programs. As a consequence, they favored alternatives that are often impractical, such as sponsorship deals, private philanthropy, and Martian bonds (on the basis of future resources and profits).[13]: 267–272, 309–311 

At the Mars Society's 2015 convention, a debate was organized between two representatives of Mars One (CEO Bas Lansdorp and Barry Finger) and two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sydney Do and Andrew Owens).[14] Mars One, a now-defunct non-profit organization founded in 2011, aimed to establish a human settlement on Mars through a one-way mission called Mars to Stay. The MIT researchers criticized the plan as infeasible and suicidal.[15] According to Dwayne A. Day from The Space Review, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team won the debate by making specific and realistic arguments. He also noted that the popularity of Mars One had dwarfed the one of Mars Society and that the perceived absurdness of former's plan by the public was potentially detrimental to the later's reputation.[14]

Background and founding

The forerunner of the Mars Society was a small network of space enthusiasts colloquially known as the Mars Underground, which emerged around 1978. The members of this network were frustrated by the U.S. administration's lack of attention to Mars exploration. In April 1981, the Mars Underground organized the first Case for Mars conference about Mars exploration at the University of Colorado. The Case for Mars conferences were held every three years[16]: 25–27  until the sixth and final one in 1996.[17]

At the now-defunct aerospace company Martin Marietta, Robert Zubrin – who had attended the third Case for Mars conference in 1987 – and engineer David Baker developed the human Mars mission plan, titled Mars Direct.[7]: 260  They published their plan to NASA and the public around early 1990.[18] The core tenet of the Mars Direct plan is to use existing technologies and eliminate the need for dangerous space rendezvous or an expensive space station. A modified Mars Direct plan (called NASA Design Reference Mission 3.0) was budgeted by NASA at $20 billion;[16]: 117  one-twentieth the cost[16]: 117  of the Mars mission plan in NASA's Space Exploration Initiative ($250–$500 billion).[17]

In 1996, Zubrin published The Case For Mars, the same year as the sixth and last Case for Mars conference took place.[8] The book criticized prior Mars exploration mission proposals for being too costly and complicated, proposed an alternative mission plan based on the Mars Direct plan, gave philosophical arguments for it and rebutted criticisms of the plan.[19]

The Mars Society was founded by Zubrin on 13 August 1998[TMS 3] during the Mars Society's first conference in Boulder, Colorado,[8] the same place where the first Case for Mars conference had happened 17 years earlier.[7]: 259–260  With a duration of four days, the conference was attended by 750 persons[8] and can be seen as a spiritual successor to the prior Case for Mars conferences.[16]: 27  Some of the invited were from the Mars Underground and those who had written to Zubrin about The Case For Mars.

Earlier activities

People pulling the panels up to position
Construction of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, July 2000
Musk standing at a wooden podium talking at the 2006 Mars Society Conference
Musk giving details about Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft at the 2006 Mars Society conference

After the first convention, the Mars Society decided to construct a Mars analog facility named Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island. The FMARS is the second Mars analog facility in the world; the first one is the Haughton–Mars Project. Construction cost for FMARS is jointly shared by the Mars Society and the Haughton–Mars Project team.[20] Part of the funding also came from commercial sponsorship such as the Discovery Channel.[21] FMARS was first occupied in July and August 2000[22]: 98–99  and began its first simulated mission around 2001.[21] The money that had been donated by Elon Musk was spent on the next Mars analog habitat, called the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).[23] In December 2001, the habitat's construction near Hanksville, Utah[24]: 4  was completed.[20]

From 2001 to 2005, Mars mission simulations in FMARS were around 2–8 weeks long and consisted of ten rotated crews. The first four-month-long mock mission was done in 2007, which revealed cultural conflicts and inadequate coping strategies. Shorter missions were done in 2009 and 2013, before another long-duration mission called Mars 160 was conducted in 2017, in collaboration with the MDRS. The crew would stay for eighty days in MDRS before being transferred to FMARS, rotating the crew every month.[22]: 99, 101  As of April 2020, the MDRS had hosted nineteen field seasons totaling 236 crews,with each crew consisting of 6 to 7 members.[22]: 101 

The society also formulated plans to launch space-based experiments, which were never materialised though. In 2001, after a discussion between Zubrin, Musk and the board members, the Mars Society announced the Translife Mission, later renamed to Mars Gravity Biosatellite.[5]: 99–100  The mission aimed to study the effect of Martian-level gravity on mice, with satellite construction supported by students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech.[TMS 4] In August 2008, the Mars Society announced the project TEMPO3 after a preliminary selection of proposals. TEMPO3 was conceived as a system of two CubeSats attached to a tether and spun with carbon dioxide-powered thrusters, aimed to demonstrate rotationary artificial gravity system in space.[TMS 5] Both of these proposals were never built: Mars Gravity Biosatellite was canceled in June 2009 due to a lack of funding[TMS 4] and no further development on TEMPO3 has been done since the initial proposal.

In mid-2001, the Mars Society received a $5000 check from Elon Musk for a fundraiser event. After briefly researching Mars concepts and missions, Musk joined the Mars Society's board of directors and gave it $100,000.[5]: 99–100  In August 2001, Musk left the Mars Society after a meeting with its members and established a temporary foundation for his publicity projects.[25] However, by April 2002, Musk had abandoned the temporary foundation entirely; instead, he founded SpaceX to build a low-cost rocket and invited aerospace engineers whom he had met beforehand at Mars Society-sponsored trips.[5]: 112  Since then, Musk occasionally kept contact with the Mars Society, as evident by his presentation of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2008,[26] his acceptance of the Mars Pioneer Award from the society in 2012[TMS 6] and his presentation at the society's 2020 convention.[27]

Current projects

A small mock Mars base with reinforcements
The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, July 2009

The Mars Society's premier project is the Mars Analog Research Station Program. The program aims to further the understanding of Mars missions' technical and human factors via its two Mars analog habitats: the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) and the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).[28] The FMARS is located on Devon Island in Canada and near the Haughton impact crater,[22]: 98, 101  above the 75th parallel north where the island is not inhabited and vegetated. The MDRS is located near Hanksville, Utah, where the habitat is isolated from civilization. Both stations' locations are chosen for the landscape similarities with Mars.[24]: 4  Because these stations are meant for research, both FMARS and MDRS are closed to public visits.[9]

The Mars Society has plans to build additional analog stations. The Euro-MARS, operated by the Mars Society's European chapter, was intended to have three decks and more extensive facilities. Unfortunately, during transport from the United Kingdom to Krafla, Iceland, where it was to be deployed, the Euro-MARS sustained damage. As of 2017, it is back in the planning phase.[29]

The Mars Society is also planning to build another Mars analog station in Arkaroola, Australia, as of October 2022.[TMS 7] The station would replicate a spacecraft launching directly from the Earth's surface, featuring a mock propulsion module, heat shield and landing engines.[29]

A challenge in University Rover Challenge where rovers have to pour fuel into a generator

Aside from research, the Mars Society organizes the Rover Challenge Series, a group of annual student university competitions for making mock Martian rovers. Around May and June each year, the three-day University Rover Challenge takes place in Utah's desert near the MDRS where teams compete in exploration tasks. The rover's operators must only use sensor data for navigation, similar to actual Martian rovers. Similar regional competitions that belong to the Rover Challenge Series include the European Rover Challenge, the Canadian International Rover Challenge and the Indian Rover Challenge.[30]

MarsVR Project aims to simulate living at the MDRS with real terrain data of one square mile around the base. In collaboration with a local virtual reality company,[31] MarsVR is used to train MDRS's crews by simulating the use of spacesuits, airlocks, rovers and activities such as cooking. The software can also simulate playing sports on Mars such as soccer and mountaineering.[31] The exploration portion of MarsVR is free to download on Steam, however the training part has an attached cost for the public.[32]

In 2023, the Mars Society established the non-profit Mars Technology Institute and the corresponding C corporation Mars Technology Lab to research solutions for labor, agriculture, and energy problems in the colonization of Mars. Initially, the Institute plans to outsource research to universities. Once funding have been established, the Institute will then build its own campus.[33]

See also

References

Primary sources

  1. ↑ "About the Mars Society". Mars Society. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "Steering Committee – 2022". Mars Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  3. ↑ The Mars Society members (1999). Zubrin, Robert M.; Zubrin, Maggie (eds.). Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Mars Society: held August 13-16, 1998, Boulder, Colorado. Univelt. Citation at the title. ISBN 9780912183121. OCLC 47665501.
  4. 1 2 Cowing, Keith (24 June 2009). "The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program Is Closing Down". SpaceRef. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Hill, Tom; Kirk, Alex (25 August 2008). "The Space Review: TEMPO^3: the Mars Society's newest project". The Space Review. Archived from the original on 20 November 2023. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Elon Musk "Mars Pioneer Award" Acceptance Speech - 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention (Videotape). The Mars Society. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  7. ↑ Stoltz, Michael (29 October 2022). "Building a Mars Analog "Down Under"". The Mars Society. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.

Other sources

  1. ↑ Bichell, Rae Ellen (6 July 2017). "To Prepare For Mars Settlement, Simulated Missions Explore Utah's Desert". NPR. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  2. ↑ McGrath, Dianne (9 April 2020). "What a simulated Mars mission taught me about food waste". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Pletser, Vladimir (2018). On To Mars!: Chronicles of Martian Simulations. Springer Nature. Bibcode:2018otm..book.....P. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-7030-3. ISBN 978-981-10-7030-3. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  4. 1 2 Goodyear, Dana (19 October 2009). "Man of Extremes". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Vance, Ashlee (2015). Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-230123-9. OCLC 881436803.
  6. ↑ Foust, Jeff (26 February 2015). "New Alliance to Promote Space Development and Settlement". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Morton, Oliver (2003). Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World. Picador. ISBN 978-0312422615.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Blakeslee, Sandra (18 August 1998). "Society Organizes to Make a Case for Humans on Mars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  9. 1 2 Conroy, J Oliver (17 February 2022). "Life on 'Mars': the strangers pretending to colonize the planet – in Utah". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  10. ↑ Blakeslee, Sandra (18 August 1998). "Society Organizes to Make a Case for Humans on Mars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  11. ↑ Rapp, Donald (2016). Human Missions to Mars: Enabling Technologies for Exploring the Red Planet (2nd ed.). Cham: Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 978-3-319-22249-3. OCLC 927404673.
  12. ↑ Benson, Eric; Nobel, Justin (9 January 2010). "Mars or Bust". Guernica. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Morton, Oliver (2003). Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World. Picador. ISBN 978-0312422615.
  14. 1 2 Day, Dwayne (17 August 2015). "Red planet rumble". The Space Review. Archived from the original on 12 June 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  15. ↑ Grush, Loren (18 August 2015). "Mars One debates MIT: CEO Bas Lansdorp still doesn't have a plan to reach the planet". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Hogan, Thor (May 2007). "Mars Wars – The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative" (PDF). NASA (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  17. 1 2 S. F. Portree, David (March 2000). "The Road to Mars..." Air & Space/Smithsonian. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  18. ↑ Portree, David S. F. (15 April 2013). "Mars Direct: Humans to Mars in 1999! (1990)". Wired. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  19. ↑ Spitzmiller, Ted (1 November 2007). "Book Review: The Case for Mars". National Space Society. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  20. 1 2 Bishop, Sheryl L. (2011). "From Earth Analogs to Space: Getting There from Here". In Vakoch, Douglas A. (ed.). Psychology of Space Exploration (PDF). Washington, DC: NASA. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-16-088358-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  21. 1 2 Hall, James (8 March 2002). "Finding Mars on Earth". Science. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Häuplik-Meusburger, Sandra; Bishop, Sheryl; O’Leary, Beth (2021). Vakoch, Douglas A. (ed.). Space Habitats and Habitability: Designing for Isolated and Confined Environments on Earth and in Space (1st ed.). Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 978-3030697396.
  23. ↑ Messeri, Lisa (9 September 2016). Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 200, note 19. ISBN 978-0-8223-6187-9. OCLC 926821450.
  24. 1 2 Cusack, Stacy L. (1 January 2010). Observations of Crew Dynamics during Mars Analog Simulations (PDF). NASA Project Management Challenge 2010. Galveston, Texas. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 July 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2022 – via NASA Technical Reports Server.
  25. ↑ McKnight, John Carter (25 September 2001). "MarsNow 1.9 Profile: Elon Musk, Life to Mars Foundation". SpaceRef. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  26. ↑ Foust, Jeff (8 September 2008). "Looking (far) ahead". The Space Review. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  27. ↑ Mack, Eric (16 October 2020). "Elon Musk will share his latest moon and Mars plans with all Earthlings today". CNET. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  28. ↑ Weinersmith, Kelly; Weinersmith, Zach (27 December 2023). "The Beautiful Desolation of Life on Mars — On Earth". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  29. 1 2 Vargas-Cuentas, Natalia I.; Roman-Gonzalez, Avid (June 2017). The 'Salar de Uyuni' as a simulated Mars base habitat in South America. Global Space Exploration Conference. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2022 – via HAL (open archive).
  30. ↑ Wieczorek, Luiza; Piech, Wiktor; Cybulski, Bartłomiej; Kujawiński, Mateusz; Węgierska, Agnieszka (30 December 2018). "Participation in international robotics competitions as a new form of student travel". Turyzm (Tourism). 28 (2): 63–72. doi:10.2478/tour-2018-0016. hdl:11089/27873. ISSN 2080-6922. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  31. 1 2 Murphy, Jen (1 July 2022). "Why Sports in Space Could Be the Next Big Thing". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 18 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  32. ↑ Rayome, Alison DeNisco (3 March 2020). "The future of Mars colonization begins with VR and video games". CNET. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  33. ↑ Boyle, Alan (7 September 2023). "Mars Society unveils its plan to establish technology institute, perhaps in Seattle". GeekWire. Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
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