The Mars Society announced today that Flashline.com had agreed to donate $175,000 towards the cost of constructing and operating the Society’s Mars Arctic Research Station (M.A.R.S.) – which will now be referred to as the Flashline Arctic Research Station. The approach being taken by the Mars Society is not at all new. Indeed, some of the more exciting and memorable research projects of the last century were done by a synergistic mixture of scientific and commercial interests.