High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mars Direct is a proposal for a manned mission to Mars. Proponents of the scheme have claimed it to be both cost-effective and that it can be conducted with current technology. It was originally detailed in a research paper by NASA engineers Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990, and later expanded upon in Zubrin`s 1996 book The Case for Mars. It now serves as a staple of Zubrin`s speaking engagements and general advocacy as head of the Mars Society, an organization devoted to the colonization of Mars.