MARVEL's plans for development in 2018

MARVEL is about to undergo a refocusing of its scope and scale. Active members of the MARVEL community will discuss over the next several months about the most effective ways to bring Mars science to class and to teachers, while expanding MARVEL's engagement beyond school classroom to universities, citizen scientists, and generally anybody in the community who thinks it is important to interact with scientists, experience first hand how scientists explore the solar system, and understand how it works.

This broadening of directions will provide also an expansion of MARVEL's research interests to include all available solar system mission data and new discoveries about planets (including Earth) and their natural satellites, asteroids, comets and other objects in our solar system. It will also include forging new links and collaborations, as well as new approaches to reach partners and supporters.

The new and expanded content and areas of research interest are brought about by the experience accumulated in 2016 and 2017: during this time, the members of the MARVEL collective have visited schools and advised on space school projects, contributed public talks for learned societies, guest lectured at universities, participated in conferences where they presented their scientific research, and overall engaged with stakeholders and the general public both directly and through media (radio interviews, documentaries, articles, commentaries). Some of these experiences (but not all) were reported in these pages.

The MARVEL team will rely on the knowledge and information acquired through its extensive interaction with other scientists, students and teachers, and members of the public, to plan a way ahead for MARVEL in 2018. We will periodically communicate about our progress in these pages, which will also undergo a gradual overhaul to make them more suitable to the new content and scope. Exciting times are ahead!