Our Vision (Where are we going?)

Vision: We want to see our childhood dreams fulfilled and not forgotten. We want to see humanity conquer the final frontier. We want to see human settlements on Mars. And we will achieve our dreams by organizing like no one has ever organized, and by collaborating like no one has ever collaborated.

When creating our vision, we have asked ourselves what is stopping humanity from conquering this final frontier. Almost all of us have dreamed about going into space at some point in our life and currently the necessity to do so more than presents itself, so what is stopping us?

• If you donate money to any other organization for this cause, where does your money go? How is it spent?

• From an economist's perspective, is the money spent efficiently? Will the spending make a true impact? If so, how much?

• From an auditor's perspective, people donate money for a specific purpose. Most people do not even know the impact of their donations. How do the donor's ensure that their money will go towards the very purpose of their donation?

• From the perspective of a forensic accountant, with fraud being such a significant risk in today's day and age, how will the donors be sure that ther money will not be squandered and used in unauthorized ways? How can the donors be sure that statements represented as fact are truly facts? Does independence exist between the management team and the donors?

• From the prospective of an individual donating money for this cause, why would one donate money to any other organization other than The Mars Initiative (TMI)? All other organizations spend your money on yearly operating expenses. Many other organizations spend your money on endless Research and Development (R&D). Do any organizations exist that do not do all that?

The Mars Initiative (TMI) has focused on not only being completely different from every other Space Advocacy Group out there, but it also focused on directly addressing all of the above listed questions head-on when defining the Operating Principles that dictate how the organization will conduct itself.

Our Mission (Why do we exist?)

As set forth in the Certificate of Formation, the primary objective of The Mars Initiative is to safely get humans to Mars so they can explore and create the very first human settlement. How else will the questions of the unknown ever get answered?

We hope to leverage the power of people and the power of numbers to organize a movement where everyone is motivated by their very own passion for space and space exploration (forgotten or unforgotten).

People have dreams. People have passions. People have skills. By collectively and collaboratively taking on needed responsibilities, we can all get this mission accomplished and we do not need to wait around for another lifetime for the givernment to act. Through all of our efforts, we can raise enough money to privately fund the very first human mission to Mars and begin the development of the first human Mars settlement.

Mission: To safely get humans to Mars so they can explore and create the very first human settlement.

For thousands of years, humanity has gazed up into the dark sky to ponder the many questions of the unknown. To this day, many of us still seek answers, while others seem to have forgotten about their childhood dreams for one reason or another.

It appears as though public sentiment overwhelmingly believes that an individual cannot take part in space ventures because they believe the quest is too expensive in that only large governments and multinational corporations can afford to partake. Fortunately, with the efforts of the private space industry, and the organization of The Mars Initiative, this is no longer the case.

Why do we exist?

• We exist, because you want to see humans venture into deep space to colonize Mars.
• We exist, because we address a large-scale market inefficiency that leaves you, as an individual, with no true voice, and no way to pool your resources for the common goal.
• We exist, because we give you, as an individual, a platform to standup, with all the other likeminded individuals out there to collectively act to transform your dreams into reality.
• We exist, because no other organization operates the way we do - we are unique. After an examination of how all the other space advocacy groups operate, we formed as a true nonprofit, and we made it a point to be completely different so we can actually see humans on Mars in our lifetime.

Why send humans on a crazy venture into deep space to colonize Mars?

• To Fulfill Our Dreams & to Find Answers to the Unknown - Growing up, almost all of us dreamed about going into space at some point of our lives. Even today, many of us still would like to see humanity expand its reach into the universe to explore, to see what is out there, and to find answers to the questions of the unknown. What happened to those dreams and how do we transform those desires into reality? It sounds like a problem that is larger than life; however, until recently, humanity has relied on government to fund and organize such missions. As the private space industry continues to develop, humanity is getting the appropriate technology to get humanity into space and beyond--to become truly self-suffucient. The current focus--low Earth orbit. Technologies are being perfected, and while that happens, The Mars Initiative will be raising the funds and mapping private vendors to the master plan. We are planning the next big mission that will take humanity to Mars with proven technologies (No Research & Development) to begin the settlement efforts that we have all dreamed about and have oh so long to become a reality.

• Diversity of Humanity's Habitat - Mother Earth can simply sneeze and wipe us all out. Living on Earth, with overpopulation as a significantly growing problem, we see disaster just over the horizon. We have shortages of food, shortages of clean water, shortages of natural resources, and the list of problems continues to grow beyond belief. As we attempt to only survive, we are drastically changing our environment for the worse and it is not getting any better. We have threats of natural disasters that are real and becoming more of a global threat year by year. Major earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, wild fires, widespread climate changes, and even the threat of the next Ice Age are all very likely possibilities. And when we think it cannot get any worse, we have even more to worry about that are literally "out of this world". Asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs; they could wipe us out too. Solar flares from the Sun, when the solar storm is strong enough, can wiped out electrical grids even worse than they did in the 90s. The fact of the matter is that humanity is hanging on a very thin wire. The threats are real and are backed by real science. Historically, we have always developed necessary technologies to adapt to our environment in order to survive. Space, as a final frontier, is awaiting our arrival. Mars has what humanity needs to survive and is also awaiting our arrival. Humanity's continued existence relies upon pioneers and explorers to act already. We all need to act now and The Mars Initiative provides an opportunity of a lifetime that no other organization currently provides.

• To Help Humanity Discover New Technologies - Through our history, we have made significant technological advancements as citizens of Earth. The power of free markets and capitalistic societies have stretched and exploited Earth's resources further than a reasonable being would think is even possible. However, this has all been done within a very limited scope (Earth). As such, we are almost 100% positive that something else must be missing. Imagine competitive societies that live in space and the technologies that they will create. Being on Earth limits the types of problems that must be solved. If we expand such limits, we will be solving a new generation of problems that are out of this world- literally. Just imagine the technological opportunity to discover that is just over the horizon; it is endless! There is much more to life than we can even imagine here on this pale blue dot that we call "Earth". There is so much more room for humanity to grow and develop as a civilization. The very definition of economics is the allocation of scarce resources, but what would life be like if resources were not scarce (or not as scarce)? If we put humanity into deep space, we are bound to unlock our true potential. We would find these folks using and developing new technologies that promote true self-sufficient living and true resource generation. This would more than benefit humans who live on Earth--it would completely revolutionize our way of life here at home and our dependency on "money" just might finally go away. As an example, imagine a 3D printer; it is now a reality (Google 3D printer and wrench). When a specific resources is needed, it can now be printed with a 3D printer. Rather than taking all tools necessary that might be needed on a space mission (very heavy) or relying on resupply ships (very expensive), why not simply print a functioning wrench (or whatever is needed at that time) where and when the tool is needed? Then re-dissolve the tool back to its original material state until it is time to create the next tool. Deep space missions will create such new technologies. A Mars civilization will create new technologies greater and more important than even the best writer of your favorite science fiction writer could imagine. Such technologies, if we stayed here on Earth, would almost never be discovered. As such, we must do it!

• We should also do it just because it is a challenge. We should do it because it has bever been done before. We should do it because we, as humans, by nature are pioneers and explorers. We should do it because so many people have a passion to ensure that we see such progress in our lifetime. We should do this because our children need a better future. We should do it because our children need something to look forward to for inspiration, drive, and a sense of real purpose. We must do it for humanity's continued existance. We must do it for so many reasons that are too many to list here and that should be reason enough. We have spent more money on wars. We have spent more money on stuff that doesn't really matter. We have spent more money on stuff that gave us no true utility and had no real impact. The benefits of such a mission are endless and they surely outweigh the cost and that is all that matters so on to Mars already!!