Mars Society
Overview
"The Purpose of the Mars Society: To further the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. This will be done by:
- Broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering Mars.
- Support of ever more aggressive government funded Mars exploration programs around the world.
- Conducting Mars exploration on a private basis.
- Starting small, with hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions, we intend to use the credibility that such activity will engender to mobilize larger resources that will enable stand-alone private robotic missions and ultimately human exploration."
The Founding Declaration
In August 1998 the Founding Declaration of the Mars Society was ratified by the 700 attendees of the founding convention at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.
The full wording of the declaration is found here
Seven powerful reasons for going to Mars are described.
- We must go for the knowledge of Mars
- We must go for the knowledge of Earth
- We must go for the challenge
- We must go for the youth
- We must go for the opportunity
- We must go for our humanity
- We must go for the future
The Founding Declaration concludes with:
"Believing therefore that the exploration and settlement of Mars is one of the greatest human endeavors possible in our time, we have gathered to found this Mars Society, understanding that even the best ideas for human action are never inevitable, but must be planned, advocated, and achieved by hard work. We call upon all other individuals and organizations of like-minded people to join with us in furthering this great enterprise. No nobler cause has ever been. We shall not rest until it succeeds."
Mars Analog Research Stations
In its first decade the Mars Society established two research stations - the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) and the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).
