In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated US$100,000 to his Mars Society, joining its board of directors for a short time: 30–31  He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.

The Mars Oasis project aimed to send a small experimental greenhouse to Mars. The goal was to grow plants on the Martian surface, which would serve as a proof of concept for sustaining life and potentially support future human missions to Mars.