Mars Society

The Mars Society is a Lakewood, Colorado-based nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by aerospace engineer and author Dr. Robert Zubrin, dedicated to advocating for and enabling the human exploration and eventual settlement of Mars. Zubrin developed the Mars Direct mission architecture — a lean, cost-effective approach to human Mars missions using in-situ propellant production on Mars (manufacturing methane/oxygen rocket propellant from the Martian atmosphere and subsurface water ice) to eliminate the need for large orbital assembly or Earth-departure stages, dramatically reducing mission mass and cost. The Mars Society operates two analog research stations that simulate Martian surface conditions for field crew rotations: the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the Utah desert (operational year-round) and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic (the world's largest uninhabited island, geologically Mars-like). Crew rotations at these stations conduct scientific research in geology, astrobiology, robotics, and human factors while living in simulated Mars habitat conditions including simulated EVA spacesuit operations. The organization hosts an annual International Mars Society Convention and has influenced commercial Mars ambitions — Elon Musk was an early Mars Society participant whose engagement with Zubrin's ideas contributed to SpaceX's eventual Starship/Mars architecture direction.