Highlights from the 2025 International Mars Society Convention

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Image (Credit): Sci-fi panel discussion at the International Mars Society Convention. (Mars Society)

If you were unable to attend the 2025 International Mars Society Convention earlier this month in California, you can still get a taste of the event. The Mars Society has posted a one-hour video with highlights from the various presentations listed below:

  • Dr. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society Founder & President – An abbreviated version of his stirring Day 1 keynote talk, setting the tone for humanity’s journey to Mars.
  • Conference Introduction – An overview of the weekend’s groundbreaking discussions, from science and technology to policy and advocacy.
  • Hoppy Price (NASA JPL) – Concepts for Future Robotic Mars Exploration Missions, including an engaging Q&A on Mars Sample Return and next-generation rover systems.
  • David Malott, Founder & CEO, SpaceFactory.AI – Inside the award-winning Mars habitat design and its real-world implications for sustainable living beyond Earth.
  • Dr. Erika DeBenedictis, Pioneer Labs – A Path to Green Mars, exploring how synthetic biology and systems thinking can transform the Red Planet into a thriving, self-sustaining ecosystem.
  • Dr. Vicky Hamilton, MEPAG Chair – The Future of Mars Exploration, connecting today’s missions to tomorrow’s scientific frontiers.
  • Dr. Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist, NASA’s Curiosity Rover – Mars Through the Eyes of Curiosity: 13 Years of Adventure, reflecting on discoveries from Gale Crater and what’s next.

It certainly isn’t the same as being there, but it gives you some background on what was discussed. You can also view the program guide for the convention at this link.

And should you want to hear more, try this video from another conference that Dr. Robert Zubrin recently attended -the 2025 New Worlds Conference in Austin. Dr. Zubrin spoke about the drive to explore and settle space.

Space Stories: Space Observatory in Need of Rescue, Alien Comet Activates Earth Defense, and Japan Sends Cargo to the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: swift.sonoma.edu/.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—KJZZ Phoenix: “Flagstaff-based Company Wins $30M Contract for NASA Space Rescue Mission“

A Flagstaff-based space company has won a $30 million contract to raise the orbit of a space-based NASA observatory next year before it can drop uncontrolled back into Earth’s atmosphere. NASA officials say they are in a race against time as the agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and its three-telescope system studying gamma rays from space needs a rescue.

—Space Coast Daily: “NASA Activates Earth Defense Over Possible Alien Comet in Our Solar System“

NASA has activated a global planetary defense group to study a massive interstellar object exhibiting strange, possibly artificial characteristics—fueling speculation that it could be an alien probe operating within our solar system. The object, designated 3I/ATLAS, is approximately the size of Manhattan and was first captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on July 21. It has been selected as the first-ever official target of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN)—a NASA-backed coalition of global agencies and astronomers tasked with identifying and tracking potential threats to Earth.

—ABC News: “Japan Successfully Launches New Cargo Spacecraft to Deliver Supplies to ISS“

Japan’s space agency successfully launched Sunday its most powerful flagship H3 rocket, carrying a newly developed unmanned cargo spacecraft for its first mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the HTV-X1 spacecraft successfully lifted off atop the No. 7 H3 rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center in the country’s south and confirmed it entered targeted orbit 14 minutes after liftoff. The spacecraft was separated and placed into a planned orbit, JAXA said. If everything goes smoothly, it is expected to arrive at the ISS in a few days to deliver supplies. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, currently at the ISS, is set to catch the craft with a robot arm in the early hours of Thursday.

RIP: June Lockhart, Actress

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): June Lockhart in the television series Lost in Space. (20th Century Fox Television)

Actress June Lockhart passed away last Thursday at the age of 100. She had a storied career in both movies and television, including the 1960s television shows Lassie and Lost in Space.

Lost in Space was a somewhat silly story about the Robinson family migrating from an overpopulated Earth to a exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri. Of course, just like the story in Gilligan’s Island, the five-and-a-half year tour turned into a new adventure among the stars.

The show was best known for the robot always spouting “Danger, Will Robinson!” in reference to the son whose mother was played by June Lockhart. Of course, Star Trek premiered during that same period with some of the same silliness. It seems we did not achieve our darker sentiments about humans in space until somewhat later.

With regard to her time with Lost in Space, Ms. Lockhart stated to Fox News:

I was over the moon – pun intended. … I have been told that my contribution inspired many astronauts to pursue a career in space science and exploration … it is lovely to know that I touched so many people by doing things that interested me!

The 1998 movie Lost in Space did little to revive interest in the series (or space from what I can tell), but the Neflix television series of the same name did a nice job bringing the Robinson family back to life. If you are looking for a great updated adventure story about a boy and his robot traveling through space, you might want to start with the Netflix version.

You can read more on Ms. Lockhart’s life and career at these sites:

BBC
CBS News
The New York Times

Rest in peace.

Image (Credit): Poster for the 1998 movie Lost in Space. (New Line Cinema)
Image (Credit): Poster for the 2018 television series Lost in Space. (Netflix)

Space Quote: Don’t Damage Discovery

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Image (Credit): Space shuttle Discovery in the Smithsonian Institution’s Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. (National Air and Space Museum)

”The Smithsonian estimates that transporting Discovery from Virginia to Houston could cost more than $50 million, with another $325 million needed for planning, exhibit reconstruction, and new facilities. These costs far exceed the $85 million appropriated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, P.L. 119-21. Dedicating hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to move an artifact that is already housed, displayed, and preserved in a world-class facility is both inefficient and unjustifiable.”

-Statement in an October 23, 2025 bipartisan letter from the US Senate Committee on Appropriations. In addition to the cost, the letter also highlights potential damage to the shuttle, stating:

Moving the shuttle would inevitably and irreparably compromise the artifact and render it unusable as a museum-quality collection item, permanently diminishing its historical and cultural value for future generations.