he Mars Society's live podcast, RedPlanetLive interviews the people instrumental to settling and exploring Mars. In this episode Ashton Zeth interviews James Burk, the Executive Director of the Mars Society. James Burk, Executive Director, The Mars Society James Burk is the Executive Director of the Mars Society, which is the largest and most active Mars advocacy group in the world. He has volunteered with the Mars Society for over 25 years and has occupied the role as Executive Director for the past year and a half. James is also a member of the organization's steering committee and served as Director of Information Technology from 2011 through 2022. As part of this, he helped create the group's MarsVR project, a digital twin VR environment of Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah.

In addition, James is a veteran analog astronaut, having served on multiple crew missions at MDRS and is currently commanding Crew 261 at the facility until May 13th, so he'll be providing us with a firsthand account of and taking your questions about his recent visit "to Mars" during our May 16th podcast.