Red Planet: 25 Years of Practising for Mars in Australia and peering into what the next decade might uncover

Red Planet: 25 Years of Practicing for Mars in Australia and peering into what the next decade might uncover.

Australia has been a rehearsal stage for Mars exploration for decades.

The Pilbara region preserves the oldest convincing evidence of life on Earth. Australia’s arid interior evokes the terrain and geology of Mars, while its remoteness demands the kind of self-reliance that will be essential for the first crews on another world. Outback Australia is one of the best places on Earth to learn the art of living on another planet.

Since 2001, Mars Society Australia (MSA) has conducted an ongoing series of projects and expeditions exploring Australia’s unique Mars analogue environments. These have ranged from the Jarntimarra-1 site-selection expedition and the MARS-Oz habitat concept to four generations of MarsSkin mechanical counter-pressure suits and the Arkaroola rover challenges. MSA has also participated in NASA’s Spaceward Bound expeditions in Australia and overseas, along with international crewed simulations such as Mars 160.

In recent years, MSA has continued its analogue field research, including the successful Rock Wallaby 1 expedition in August 2026. This brought together students, experienced researchers, academics and keen amateurs to explore the rugged and scientifically intriguing country north of Arkaroola in South Australia. MSA also played an important role in the Himalayan Outpost for Planetary Exploration (HOPE), India’s first full-scale crewed Mars analogue station.

Marking the 25th anniversary of both Mars Society Australia and the Australian Space Research Conference, the 2026 David Cooper Memorial Lecture will be presented by MSA president and director Earl White. It will explore why Australia is such an important destination for Mars analogue research, look back over MSA’s active history in Australia and and beyond, as well as touching on what the MSA's next chapter might reveal.

Your host for the evening:

Earl White was scared witless by the 1953 film The War of the Worlds as a small child and has been fascinated by Mars, astronomy and B-grade movies ever since.

A lifelong astronomer and a member of Mars Society Australia since 2016, Earl originally studied computer science at university before embarking on a decades-long career in the Australian IT industry. After progressing from frontline hardware customer service and technical support into management, he moved into sales and marketing during the 1990s, just as the internet was becoming part of everyday life. Earl was heavily involved in running a number of leading US and Australian software companies specialising in CRM, business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce, cloud and enterprise resource planning.

He continued his studies across several fields and obtained postgraduate qualifications in astronomy from Swinburne University of Technology. Since 2020, he has been Customer Communications Manager at the Binocular and Telescope Shop (BINTEL) in Sydney, which is the southern hemisphere’s largest supplier of astronomical equipment. Part of his role involves producing BINTEL’s weekly e-newsletter, which is read by tens of thousands of astronomy and nature enthusiasts.

Earl spends his few remaining moments of spare time planning additions to his collection of space and sci-fi themed tattoos and wrangling his three Chihuahuas.