KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 21, 2026 \u2013 Traveling to Mars has been a major human aspiration for the last half century. In the last three decades, aerospace scientists and engineers have taken significant steps in exploring the fourth planet from the sun with several rover landings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, why is it a must for humans to be sent to Mars in this lifetime? Robert Zubrin<\/a>, who founded the Mars Society\u2014an international organization dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of Mars by public and private means\u2014will explain why in his fall Honors Colloquium lecture at the University of Rhode Island on Tuesday, Sept. 29<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this lecture, titled \u201cMars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet Within a Decade<\/a>,\u201d Zubrin will delve into how humans can travel to Mars, and why it is vitally important to do so\u2014and soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosted by the Honors Program, URI\u2019s premier lecture series examines the science of outer space. Zubrin will speak at 5:30 p.m. at Edwards Hall on the Kingston Campus as part of the fall colloquium series, \u201cInterstellar Exploration: Journey Beyond Your Limits<\/a>.\u201d Zubrin\u2019s talk will also be livestreamed on the colloquium\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Registration is required<\/a> to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with leading the Mars Society, Zubrin has developed several concepts for space propulsion and exploration, and authored more than 200 technical and non-technical papers and books. Zubrin\u2019s architectural concepts for human exploration was the inspiration of Andy Weir\u2019s novel and film, \u201cThe Martian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zubrin\u2019s lecture will be followed on Oct. 6 by Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist and fellow at the Outer Space Institute. A full roster of colloquium speakers and sponsors can be found on the Honors Colloquium website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s URI Honors Colloquium is led by the Department of Physics<\/a>, bringing forth thought-provoking conversations that bridges cutting-edge science and the boundless imagination of science fiction. The series concludes in December with a lecture on achieving the impossible with outer space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosted by the University\u2019s Honors Program, the annual URI Honors Colloquium is free and open to the public. To see recordings of this year\u2019s speakers, or past colloquiums, visit the Honors Colloquium <\/em>Archives<\/em><\/a>. Sign up <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> for more information and reminders for colloquium events or by emailing <\/em>urihonors@etal.uri.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 21, 2026 \u2013 Traveling to Mars has been a major human aspiration for the last half century. In the last three decades, aerospace scientists and engineers have taken significant steps in exploring the fourth planet from the sun with several rover landings. So, why is it a must for humans to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":110870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1913,1905,1912],"class_list":["post-110869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-public-engagement","tag-research","tag-special-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110871,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110869\/revisions\/110871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}