Editing Mars Society (section)

==Past activities==
[[File:Elon_Musk_at_MSC_2006.jpg|alt=Musk standing at a wooden podium talking at the 2006 Mars Society Conference|thumb|Musk giving details about [[Falcon 9]] and [[SpaceX Dragon|Dragon spacecraft]] at the 2006 Mars Society convention]]

In mid-2001, the Mars Society received a {{Usd|5000}} check from Elon Musk at a fundraiser event.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=99–100}} After briefly researching Mars concepts and missions, Musk joined the Mars Society's board of directors and gave it {{Usd|100,000}}.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|page=112}} In August 2001, Musk left the Mars Society after a meeting with its members and established a temporary foundation for his publicity projects,<ref>{{Cite web |last=McKnight |first=John Carter |date=2001-09-25 |title=MarsNow 1.9 Profile: Elon Musk, Life to Mars Foundation |url=https://spaceref.com/status-report/marsnow-19-profile-elon-musk-life-to-mars-foundation/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=SpaceRef |language=en-US}}</ref> despite pleas for collaboration from Zubrin.<ref name=":17" /> In a public presentation at the 4th Mars Society convention, Musk stated that the Mars Society might have a purpose in his efforts.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |last=Cowing |first=Keith |date=2001-08-30 |title=Millionaires and billionaires: the secret to sending humans to Mars? |url=https://spaceref.com/uncategorized/millionaires-and-billionaires-the-secret-to-sending-humans-to-mars/ |access-date=2024-04-07 |website=SpaceRef |language=en-US}}</ref> 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 at Mars Society-sponsored trips.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=|page=112}} In the following years, Musk kept in contact with the Mars Society, as is evident in his presentation of the [[Falcon 1]] rocket in 2008,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foust |first=Jeff |date=September 8, 2008 |title=Looking (far) ahead |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1207/1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103135259/https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1207/1 |archive-date=3 January 2023 |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=[[The Space Review]]}}</ref> his acceptance of the Mars Pioneer Award from the society in 2012<ref group="TMS">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK0kTcJFnVk |title="Mars Pioneer Award" Acceptance Speech – 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention |date=August 10, 2012 |last=Musk |first=Elon |type=Videotape |language=en |publisher=The Mars Society |access-date=9 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209143321/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK0kTcJFnVk |archive-date=9 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> and his presentation at the society's 2020 convention.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mack |first=Eric |date=October 16, 2020 |title=Elon Musk will share his latest moon and Mars plans with all Earthlings today |url=https://www.cnet.com/science/elon-musk-to-share-latest-moon-and-mars-plans-with-earthlings-today/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=[[CNET]] |language=en |archive-date=1 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240401175528/https://www.cnet.com/science/elon-musk-to-share-latest-moon-and-mars-plans-with-earthlings-today/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

After the first convention, the Mars Society decided to construct a Mars analog facility named [[Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station]] (FMARS) on [[Devon Island]], [[Nunavut]], Canada. The FMARS is the second Mars analog facility in the world; the first one is the [[Haughton–Mars Project]]. Some of FMARS's construction cost was paid by the Mars Society and the Haughton–Mars Project team.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Bishop |first=Sheryl L. |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4411.pdf |title=Psychology of Space Exploration |publisher=[[NASA]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-16-088358-3 |editor-last=Vakoch |editor-first=Douglas A. |editor-link=Douglas Vakoch |pages=47–77 |chapter=From Earth Analogs to Space: Getting There from Here |access-date=19 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807080022/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4411.pdf |archive-date=7 August 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=74–75}} Other funding came from commercial sponsorship, such as with the [[Discovery Channel]].<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Hall |first=James |date=8 March 2002 |title=Finding Mars on Earth |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/finding-mars-earth |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719112733/https://www.science.org/content/article/finding-mars-earth |archive-date=19 July 2022 |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=[[Science (magazine)|Science]]}}</ref> FMARS was first occupied during a test run in July and August 2000.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=98–99}} It began the first simulated mission around 2001.<ref name=":8" /> The money donated by Elon Musk was spent on the next Mars analog habitat, called the [[Mars Desert Research Station]] (MDRS).<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Messeri |first=Lisa |title=Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds |date=September 9, 2016 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-6187-9 |at=p. 200, note 19 |oclc=926821450}}</ref> In December 2001,<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|pages=74–75}} the habitat's construction near [[Hanksville, Utah]],<ref name=":4" />{{Rp|page=4}} was completed.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|pages=74–75}}

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 took place in 2007, which revealed [[cultural conflict]]s and inadequate coping strategies. Shorter missions were carried out in 2009 and 2013, before another long-duration mission called Mars 160 was conducted in 2017, in collaboration with the MDRS. The crew stayed in MDRS for eighty days before being transferred to FMARS, rotating the crew every month.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=99,101}} As of April 2020, the MDRS had hosted nineteen field seasons (one per year) totaling 236 crews, with each crew consisting of six or seven members.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=|page=101}}

The society also formulated plans to launch space-based experiments, which never materialized. In 2001, after a discussion between Zubrin, Musk and the board members, the Mars Society announced the Translife Mission, later renamed to the [[Mars Gravity Biosatellite]].<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|pages=99–100}} The mission aimed to study the effect of Martian-level gravity on mice, with satellite construction supported by students from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) and [[Georgia Tech]].<ref name="closing" group="TMS">{{cite web |last=Cowing |first=Keith |date=24 June 2009 |title=The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program Is Closing Down |url=https://spaceref.com/status-report/the-mars-gravity-biosatellite-program-is-closing-down/ |accessdate=22 August 2015 |website=SpaceRef |archive-date=1 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240401175535/https://spaceref.com/status-report/the-mars-gravity-biosatellite-program-is-closing-down/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In August 2008, the Mars Society announced the project [[TEMPO3|TEMPO<sup>3</sup>]] after a preliminary selection of proposals. TEMPO<sup>3</sup> was conceived as a system of two [[CubeSat|CubeSats]] attached to a tether and spun with [[carbon dioxide]]-powered thrusters, aimed to demonstrate rotational [[artificial gravity]] system in space.<ref group="TMS">{{Cite web |last1=Hill |first1=Tom |last2=Kirk |first2=Alex |date=August 25, 2008 |title=The Space Review: TEMPO^3: the Mars Society's newest project |url=https://thespacereview.com/article/1194/1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120003525/https://thespacereview.com/article/1194/1 |archive-date=20 November 2023 |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=[[The Space Review]]}}</ref> Neither of these proposals were built: the Mars Gravity Biosatellite was canceled in June 2009 due to a lack of funding<ref name="closing" group="TMS" /> and no further development of TEMPO<sup>3</sup> has been reported since the initial proposal.

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 MIT (Sydney Do and Andrew Owens).<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |last=Day |first=Dwayne |author-link=Dwayne A. Day |date=August 17, 2015 |title=Red planet rumble |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/2809/1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612102545/http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2809/1 |archive-date=12 June 2019 |access-date=2023-01-02 |website=[[The Space Review]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grush |first=Loren |date=2015-08-18 |title=Mars One debates MIT: CEO Bas Lansdorp still doesn't have a plan to reach the planet |url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9166697/mars-one-plan-mit-debate-ceo-bas-lansdorp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102070232/https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/18/9166697/mars-one-plan-mit-debate-ceo-bas-lansdorp |archive-date=2 January 2023 |access-date=2023-01-02 |website=[[The Verge]] |language=en-US}}</ref> According to [[Dwayne A. Day]] from ''[[The Space Review]]'', the MIT team won the debate by making specific and realistic arguments. He also noted that the popularity of Mars One had dwarfed that of the Mars Society, stating that the perceived absurdness of Mars One may potentially be detrimental to the Mars Society's reputation.<ref name=":16" />

In 2021, around a week before the [[Blue Origin NS-16|first crewed New Shepard mission]], [[Blue Origin]] donated US$1 million to the Mars Society and 18 other space-related organizations. The donation money came from a seat auction in that New Shepard flight. The donation vastly exceeded the Mars Society annual revenue, which was reported to be less than $400,000 in a filing with the Internal Revenue Service.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foust |first=Jeff |date=2021-07-15 |title=Blue Origin donates New Shepard auction proceeds to space nonprofit groups |url=https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-donates-new-shepard-auction-proceeds-to-space-nonprofit-groups/ |access-date=2024-04-07 |website=[[SpaceNews]] |language=en-US}}</ref>