Time 10:30am EST, Friday February 20th, 2026

Presenting Live via Zoom

For the Love of Mars: Our Changing View of the Red Planet

Mars and its secrets have fascinated and mystified humans since ancient times. Because of its vivid color and bright visibility, virtually every culture and period has made Mars their own. Today, due to its geologic kinship with Earth, and potential as our best hope for settlement, Mars embodies everything that inspires us about space and exploration. For the Love of Mars surveys the red planet's place in the human imagination, beginning with ancient astrologers and skywatchers and ending in our present moment of exploration and virtual engagement.

Matthew Shindell is a historian of science and technology whose work focuses on the exploration of the Earth and planets and the research programs that make this exploration possible. He is a Space History Curator at the National Air and Space Museum, and the co-host of the Museum's podcast, AirSpace. Shindell holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego's History Department and Science Studies Program. He also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. He curated the Museum’s permanent exhibition, Exploring the Planets, and is lead curator of the new Futures in Space exhibition. Shindell is the author of For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet (2023) and The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey (2019), co-author of Spaceships (2023), Our Future in Space (2023), and Discerning Experts (2019), editor of Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter (2024), and co-editor of Smithsonian American Women (2019).