The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) at NASA launched an online idea forum using IdeaScale technology to engage the public in Mars exploration and the upcoming Curiosity rover landing. Over 1,300 citizens signed up and submitted 559 ideas and questions in just three months. The public expressed strong interest in human exploration of Mars. The forum generated discussions, new content like answer pages and videos from Mars experts. MPPG hopes to further engage the public in future Mars missions through activities like data analysis and coding. The forum allowed the public to participate in and excite imagination about future Mars exploration.

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NASA’s Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) had a driving purpose: to develop options for a
program- level architecture for robotic exploration of Mars that is consistent with the President's
challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the decade of the 2030s, yet remain responsive to the
primary scientific goals of the 2011 NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science. This means investing
in a number of different initiatives including spaceflight, ground-based investigations, key
technologies and more.
But the MPPG also wanted a way to engage and inform the public about the progress of Mars
exploration, so as the program proceeded and the landing of the Curiosity Rover drew near, the
MPPG launched an idea forum using IdeaScale technology where users could ask questions and
share ideas related to Mars exploration.
The level of engagement on the new Mars Forum was impressive:
• Nearly 1,300 ci2zens signed up to ask questions and share ideas, resulting in a total 559
submissions in just three months.
• A key learning was that the public expects humans to explore Mars in the future (4 of the top
10 ideas related to a human presence on Mars including questions about a permanent settlement
and terraforming opportunities).
• Not only did visitors make suggestions, they asked and answered ques2ons, generating ongoing
conversations.
• The Mars Forum responded by generating some new, rich content of its own for users, including
a highly-developed 30-question-deep answer page based on Mars Forum content.
• Addi2onally, the MPPG generated a new video page in which Mars experts weighed in on
Mars Forum hot topics in twelve original videos, to further enrich and evolve the conversation.
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NASA
The Mars Program Planning Group’s Evolving Conversation

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In the future, the MPPG hopes to engage the public even more deeply in Mars exploration (possibly
in data analysis, brainstorming, coding, and more). That means future missions will continue to
engage and encourage the crowd’s participation in even more defined ways.
“Millions of people tuned in to watch Curiosity land, and IdeaScale gave them a way to be a part of
the future explora2on of Mars,” said Rocky Lind, Information and Communications Coordinator at
NASA, “More than simply gathering ideas, we want to excite the imagination and encourage
engagement. IdeaScale allowed visitors to our site to do that in a number of different ways. It helps
us decide what content to put on our site and what questions we ask in the future.”
To learn more about the Mars Program Planning Group, visit www.nasa.gov/marsplanning.
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