Mars Society Conventions Chronology

The chronology of Mars Society Conventions since its founding in 1998 is given in the tale below. The Convention location and a few highlights of each convention are listed. Links to speaker schedules, and poster art included in the table. While the pdf files are not directly viewable in Marspedia, the link allows the downloading of the pdf files for viewing on most devices.

Table of the Chronology of the Conventions of TMS (The Mars Society)

Year	No.	Site	Location	Cover Art	Schedule pdf	Highlights
1998	First	U. Colorado	Boulder, CO		1998 TMSC	Robert Zubrin introduces the Founding Declaration of TMS signed by all attendees. 4 day Convention format established with Plenary talks in the morning, Parallel Sessions in the afternoon, Panel discussions in the evening, Banquet on Saturday eve. Proceedings published as a three volume book.
1999	Second	U. of Colorado	Boulder, CO		1999 TMSC	Plans for Mars Arctic Research station announced by Pascal Lee. Talks by Buzz Aldrin, James Cameron, Kim Stanley Robinson, Chris McKay.
2000	Third	Ryerson Polytechnic U.	Toronto, ON, Canada		2000 TMSC	Panels on Evidence of water and life on Mars. Reports on the first season at Flashline Arctic Research Station (FMARS), Devon Island, Canada.
2001	Fourth	Stanford U.	Stanford, CA		2001 TMSC	Plenary talks by Elon Musk, Mike Griffin, Eileen Collins- Shuttle Commander. Martian Genesis Panel. FMARS Crew Panel and Mission Support Panel. Banquet under stars and Mars light.
2002	Fifth	U. of Colorado	Boulder, CO		2002 TMSC	Sci Fi writers panel. Mars Art gallery Plenary talks by Penelope Boston, Vint Cerf Reports Panel discussions on first season at Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), Hanksville, UT
2003	Sixth	Hilton Hotel	Eugene, OR		2003 TMSC	Family Day at TMS Conv. John Grunsfeld - Hubble repair astronaut. William Hartman and his Traveler’s Guide to Mars. Carol Stocker - Drilling for Life on Mars. Elon Musk - The Falcon Launch Vehicle
2004	Seventh	Parker House Hilton	Chicago, IL		2004 TMSC	Steven Squyres - Spirit and Opportunity Rovers. Bill Clancey - Human-Robot exploration teams. Bruce Mackenzie - The Mars Home Project. 2nd Rouget de Lisle Mars Song Contest The Why Mars Essay Contest.
2005	Eighth	U. of Colorado	Boulder, CO		2005 TMSC	Plenary talks by Stanley Borowski - Nuclear Thermal Rockets, and Scott Horowitz - Hubble repair astronaut. Reports on the Mars Homestead Project. Spacesuit Symposium. The Mars Underground documentary. Mars in the Movies.
2006	Ninth	L’Enfant Plaza Hotel	Washington, DC		2006 TMSC	Political Action and The Mars Blitz on Capitol Hill. Martian Film Festival. Track talks on MDRS 2006 field season, Colonization and Resource Utilization, Life on Mars and Mars to Life, Outreach and Education.
2007	Tenth	UCLA	Los Angeles, CA		2007 TMSC	Plenary talks by Peter Diamandis -The X-Prize, Louis Friedman - The Planetary Soc., Chris McKay and Melissa Battler - FMARS Xtreme - 4 month mission, Track talks on FMARS - 4 month mission, ISRU and industrialization of Mars.
2008	11th	U. of Colorado	Boulder, CO		2008 TMSC	Plenary talks by Carol Stoker - CoPI Phoenix Lander, Carol Porco -Cassini Mission Imaging lead, George Whitesides - NSS, Elon Musk -CEO/CTO SpaceX, Michael Carroll - Science Journalist and Artist. Super Track on Religion and Space
2009	12th	U. of Maryland	College Park, MD		2009 TMSC	Mars Blitz of Capitol Hill. Town Hall and election of new Steering Committee members. Panel on Reporting Space News and another on The Art of Space. Mars banquet with Carol Porco - featured speaker.
2010	13th	Dayton Mariott	Dayton, OH		2010 TMSC	Plenary talks by Geoffrey Landis - Mars Exploration Rovers, Charles Doarn - Telerobotic Surgery in Extreme Environments, Kevin Sloan - The University Rover Challenge. Mars Camp - promoting STEM education
2011	14th	Embassy Suites, Grapevine	Dallas, TX		2011 TMSC	Plenary talks by Everett Gibson - Allan Hills Meteorite, Rev. James Heiser -Spiritual and Theological Issues, Nataniel Owen-Going, Melanie Correll, and Jean Hunter - on various aspects of Martian Agriculture. Panel on Initial Challenges for a Mars Colony.
2012	15th	Pasadena Convention Center	Pasadena, CA		2012 TMSC	Plenary talks by John Grotzinger - Gale Crater habitable environments, Paolo Bellutta - Rover driver. Panels on Space Law, The Commercial Road to Opening Space. Elon Musk accepts the Mars Pioneer Award. Watching the live landing coverage of Curiosity.
2013	16th	U. of Colorado	Boulder, CO		2013 TMSC	Panel on University Rover Challenge. Track on MDRS astronomy, spacesuit simulation and data acquisition. Banquet with Steve Squyres as featured speaker - Mars Exploration Rovers.
2014	17th	South Shore Harbour Resort	League City, TX		2014 TMSC	Plenary talk by Gerald Sanders- ISRU on Mars,, Track talk  by Anthony Muscatello - Mars propellant production. Mars Student Design Contest. Banquet speaker Dennis Tito - Inspiration Mars.
2015	18th	Catholic U. of America	Washington, DC		2015 TMSC	Plenary talk by Geronimo Villanueva - Discovery of ancient Ocean on Mars, Panels on STEM education and on Space & Public Advocacy. Banquet guest of honor via Skype - Andy Weir
2016	19th	Catholic U. of America	Washington, DC		2016 TMSC	Plenary talks by Vadim Gushchin -Biomedical Problems (via Skype), Jack Mustard - Mars Geology, Kevin Sloan - The 2016 University Rover Challenge. Banquet speaker Pete Worden - The Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
2017	20th	UC Irvine	Irvine, CA		2017 TMSC	Plenary talks by Dava Newman - Mechanical Counter-pressure Spacesuits, The Mars 160 crew members, Greg Benford - Sci Fi author and astrophysicist. Banquet speaker Anousheh Ansari - A tourist journey to ISS Rise to Mars anthem.
2018	21st	Pasadena Convention Center	Pasadena, CA		2018 TMSC	Plenary talks by Rick Tumlinson- Human Rights,   Jeffrey Plaut -Subsurface Ice at Mars mid-latitudes, David Poston - Kilopower fission reactors, Paul Wooster - SpaceX’s plans for Mars. Terraforming Mars Game demo.. Panel and demo on Mars VR Program.
2019	22nd	U. Southern California	Los Angeles, CA		2019 TMSC	Plenary talks by Robert Zubrin -“The Case for Space”, Tom Hoffman - Mars Insight Mission, Bryan Versteeg - Mars habitat designs. Mars Rocks! Benefit Concert. The Mars Colony Contest finalists presentations.
2020	23rd	The Global Internet	Hundreds of  world sites		2020 TMSC	Virtual congress with over 10 000 registrations. Elon Musk interview by Robert Zubrin. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Mars City-State Contest finalists presentation.
2021	24th	The Global Internet	Hundreds of  world sites		2021 TMSC	Virtual congress with over 5 000 registrations. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Operations Manager. 4 full days. Record amount of content.