Mars Initiative
The Mars Initiative (MI) is a nonprofit organization centered around accelerating humanity's journey to Mars through raising funds for a variety of space-related causes. The most prominent category of the MI's work is the Mars Prize Fund, which is a reward which will be paid to the first entity that successfully lands humans on Mars. Other categories include education grants for teachers who want to teach the next generation of humans the science of space exploration, along with innovation grants for inventors who develop new technologies that can help humanity get to Mars.[2]
Contents
Initiatives:
The Mars Prize Fund
The Mars Prize Fund (MPF) is the long-term purpose of the Mars Initiative.
The organization aims to propel private spaceflight into development quickly by incentivizing aerospace companies, spacecraft manufacturers, and other private enterprises to collaborate and focus on the delivery of a comprehensive human mission to Mars by offering them a generous subsidy for reaching all stated objectives.[3]
Education Microgrants
Teachers who need funds to have a space-related project in their classroom can apply for up to $200 through MI's Education Microgrant (EM) program.
While the MPF is a long-term project, EM is one way that MI can make a tangible difference with more immediate results. Not only do students and teachers benefit from the happy experience of having space education, but the EM's help to inspire the future innovators and explorers who will be playing a role in making humanity a multi-planetary species.[4]
(COMING SOON!) Innovation Microgrants
In addition to helping teachers inspire students with the EM, MI is starting to also offer the Innovation Microgrant (IM) to startups and inventors who are creating new technologies to enable that first manned trip to the Red Planet.
