The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA) has become a major sponsor of the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station projects. Commenting on UA General President Martin J. Maddaloni’s decision to sponsor the project, UA Director of Training George Bliss said; “We’re doing this to make clear to young people that you don’t have to be a fighter pilot to be a space pioneer. Members of the building trades built the great cities of this country, and when it comes time to build cities on Mars, we are the ones who are going to build them.”