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As you read this sentence, six grown adults are spending their waking and sleeping hours pretending they are on Mars. For several weeks they will live in a two-story mockup of a spaceship parked in the Utah desert, don spacesuits to explore the territory around the base, and labor under the apparent delusion that they are 150 million miles away.
But this make-believe is more than just a diversion, it’s a serious simulation to help teach scientists and engineers how to explore Mars. Because Mars is very very cold and has almost no atmosphere, humans cannot survive without the constant protection of pressurized habitats and spacesuits. Granted, the Apollo astronauts had these same constraints but they were in space for one week, and NASA is currently planning to send astronauts to Mars on two-year-long missions.
The group of volunteers in Utah isn’t the first, and the Utah station isn’t the only one. The Mars Society owns and operates two such stations with donated funds and volunteer “Marsnauts”. The Utah station is called the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), and has been in operation since 2001. The other, the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic and was built in 2000 on the rim of an ancient meteorite impact crater. That is where I got the chance to spend four weeks during the summer of 2005 as part of the 10th FMARS crew.
The two sites were chosen because they are scientifically interesting, remote, and as Mars-like as possible here on Earth. These factors combine to increase the reality of the simulation; the Marsnauts can’t use their cellphones to call home, water and supplies must be driven or flown in at the beginning of the mission, and the beautiful unspoiled views appear untouched by human civilization.
Volunteer crews are composed of diverse groups of scientists, engineers, businessfolk, artists, journalists, and even homemakers that share one common goal: to get humans to Mars as soon as possible. While in their mock spaceships and spacesuits, the crews conduct science, engineering, and exploration just as true astronauts would on the Martian surface. Helmets cannot be taken off, for instance, if the Marsnuat wants to scratch their nose. On Mars that would be a fatal mistake. Also, the stations each have airlocks for the crew to stand and undergo simulated depressurization prior to entering and leaving, just as they would on Mars.
The Mars Society is always looking for volunteers for future crews, but even if you aren’t feeling particularly qualified you may still be in luck. A small startup called Red Planet Expeditions has built a 120-acre resort where anyone can be a “SimNaut.” Themed as small Mars settlement in the year 2035, but with all the comforts of home, the resort is conveniently located halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Welcome to the Dude Ranch of the 21st century!
People who will never get the chance to see Mars can now contribute to humanity’s effort to set foot on the red planet. In 2003 the first two field seasons at FMARS were the subject of a documentary on the Discovery Channel that exposed hundreds of thousands of viewers to the idea of humans once again exploring new worlds. For those who get the chance to participate in simulated Martian exploration, Mars will never have felt so close though their feet are still firmly on the ground.
Read More:
Mars Society FMARS website
Mars Society MDRS website
Red Planet Expeditions website
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Truly damn interesting i had heard of these ideas but i never realized the idea was already in use.
I feel sorry for the person with an itchy nose i think that would drive me nuts.
I have also heard of plans to some what teraform mars by poluting the atmosphere and causing the planet to heat up to a livable temprature also melting ice caps that are aparently on the planet witch would cause the air to be breathable i don’t know if there is much truth behind this but it would be a damn interesting story.
I’d be dubious of most terraforming ideas just because of Mars’ lack of a magnetic field. Without our magnetic field Earth’s atmosphere would have been ripped away long ago by the solar wind. Just heating up Mars won’t prevent that.
I’d heard that terraforming Mars was also not possible because it does not have a gravitational field strong enough to hold onto a thick enough atmosphere for human use. Looks like we’d have to live in those giant bubble cities sci-fi is so fond of.
I bet conspiracy nuts will use this as proof that the mars landing is fake.
I’m assuming you meant moon, because any rumored mars landing is definately fake.
I meant in the future. :)
Speaking of Mars landings conspiracies, if you haven’t seen Capricorn One, check it out. It’s from like 1982 or so. It’s all about a fake Mars landing, and how NASA officials are swindling the American people. It’s alot of fun to watch.
Interesting stuff! There is an anthropologically-based Mars Settlement Simulation MUD run as a class by an Anthro professor at Northern Arizona University – I’m sure they’d be very interested in this article and your experiences. They might even be interested in having you talk to the class; is that something you’d be willing to do?
A simple indulgence, no less or, no more useful than a pyramid. Repair/Replace Hubble first. Feed the starved, provide clean water, shelter from the dry dust laden wind. Helium 3, by the mega-tonne is, right this moment, sitting on the surface of the moon, and that is the only place we can justify being beyond where we are this morning. (It is always morning)
This is pretty interesting errr sorry damn interesting. The movie Capricorn 1 was actually released in 1978 starring James Brolin amongst others. This article sounds like more fuel for those conspiracy theorists to toss around. It’s good that there is a Canadian connection even if it is only a land one.
psyOtic: nose-itch or any other itch for that matter.
I’ld be curious to know of any nose itches and other discomforts space and moon walkers have had to endure and how it was dealt with. What about sneezing? Imagine ruining the beautiful view with nose-produce. All those years of training shattered by one hefty sneeze. Dang, that would tick me off!
indra c: What a fantastic question, a question that should be obvious. I think one could base an entire space opera around the fulcrum of an asteroid miner with an itchy bottom. Or a view obscured by snot. My mind is whirling with ideas here. Thanks I have a big smile right now. Arthur C Clarke: “My God its full of nose-produce”
Human kind has not matured enough to colonize other planets. I think we should invest in saving our own planet before going elsewhere. Here are a few suggestions: clean up the environment, feed the hungry so they have a chance at making a living, resolve all world conflicts, oh wow i just named three things that are impossible to accomplish in a democratic capitalistic society that is the West. Anyway, I believe that a few billion dollars could be spent on more “useful” things, no? Damn interesting, nonetheless.
SPAM – deleted
Scratching your nose isn’t a big deal. This was recognized as a potential problem even in Apollo times and was taken care of by the presence of a “valsalva device” inside of the helmet. Normally used to block one nostril so that you can clear the other one, this rubber nub is shown here:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/helmet.jpg
It had an alternate use: scratching your nose.
Somewhere there is a somewhat unflattering photo of one of the astronauts rubbing their nose with this device.
some titles for RandomAction’s afore proposed space opera –
“Houston, I have an itch”
“Houston, we have an icky situation”
“Jesus Christ Houston!! Why didn’t you IDIOTS think about this before-hand!!”
lateralus98 said: “Human kind has not matured enough to colonize other planets. I think we should invest in saving our own planet before going elsewhere. Here are a few suggestions: clean up the environment, feed the hungry so they have a chance at making a living, resolve all world conflicts, oh wow i just named three things that are impossible to accomplish in a democratic capitalistic society that is the West. Anyway, I believe that a few billion dollars could be spent on more “useful” things, no? Damn interesting, nonetheless.”
I totally agree with this, I understand the need to advance and move on with mankind, but we need to get our priorities straight before we look else where to live. I mean, they are training homemakers? journalists? Lots of people need training for Earth before we send them to other parts of our galaxy.
Has anyone asked themselves “why should we go to mars?” Wouldn’t it be as big a waste of money (meaning low scientific yield) as the ISS? And if the response is “it’s human nature to explore” let private corporations put forth the trillion dollars it would take to get us there.
Im not a conspircy theorist or anything but have you noticed that all of the movies depict a red plant. I mean unless we went there how would we know it was red. Just putting it out there people. I mean think about people did the corruptive porn addicated satin (bill clinton) make thousand of poor black katrina refugees make a craft and take us to mars. If that didn’t happen how do we know what the color red is. Also katrina hit years ago and the government has been covering it up and mayor ray of new orleans is a martian.
God of Biscuits, what (illegal substance) are you on?
i would like to suggestion,,,
let ONLY american people can going to mars and return home safe on earth,,,
let ussr russian people can going to venus and never come here on earth,,,
i hope a venus can cooking BBQ ussr russian people to death and become ash their body,,,
i never never want ussr russia come with america to mars,,,NO WAY,,,
let america go first to mars,,,ussr russia go to venus,,,no america with russia,,,no way,,,
BACK OFF RUSSIA,,,BACK OFF RUSSIA,,,
I have one word for this experiment…USELESS. I mean, we don’t know what mars is going to be like when someone finally does land on it. How do we know that these are the places that are most like mars one earth…this is stupid! When someone finally does get to explore mars…the real mars that is…it’s going to be 100% different than these areas and if they’re depending on these experiences to tell them what to be prepare for…they’re going to be very unprepared…WASTE OF MONEY!
I disagree with all of those people that say that exploring Mars is a waste of money. It’s true that this planet has it’s problems but I think that that should be the number one deciding factor TO go to Mars. What if the world really is going to end? Then we would all turn to our government and ask them what they’re going to do about it and if they don’t have a back up plan then everyone is going to be pretty pissed. Plus this world is far too over-populated and no one knows what we can do about it except explore other planets and hope that we can find one that is habitable. I, personally, think that space exploration and such is very important.
Well, the interesting thing about these comments is that most of them seem to be based around the spending of money that isnt theirs to spend. If you don’t like how it is spent, you are kind’ve not doing much to stop it from being spent, so it can’t be that big of a priority to take the moral high ground and say it can be better spent on other stuff.
I hate seeing every exploration effort be nixed simply because people are hungry somewhere in the world. Until every person starts to buy a tv 2 sizes smaller, and cars instead of tanks, I see the whole argument as hypocrytical. Every cent of the budget isnt going into exploration, it just looks that way because you dont make trillions a year. Better to look at percentages instead of mean value.
That aside, it must be important to enough of the right people if so much money goes in that direction. If any of you really oppose such spending, you should be explaining your reasoning to them.
As for overpopulation… what? Look at japan then look at middle-of-nowhere, USA. There are populated and unpopulated areas. We could just as easily shut ourselves into selfsufficient single building cities that either tower or burrow (or both). There are lots of expansion options (see sky city, japan). Cities can remade to perform better, and replace personal transport with more space efficient mass transit systems. Traffic can become layered between tiers in the city. Buildings can weave into each other promoting foot traffic without requiring access between other levels unneccessarily. We dont need Mars to spread out or save ourselves.
Honestly, going to Mars would be neat. People living there would be interesting. However, when it comes down to it, I really dont care if we do go there or not. I wouldnt move there unless I had to. I like earth too much.
It won’t end if we disappear. It could be the best thing that happens to it. This rock will be flying around the Sun long after we destroy all our resources and make it inhabitable for ourselves and a number of other species who are adapted to current conditions. We’re faced with the choice presented to all species in times of drastic change: Adapt or Die. For a long while we’ve cheated this choice by changing our environment rather than our behaviour but it won’t work forever.
I read an article on these guys in Discover magazine a few months ago. It basically mocked them as “nerds” and equated their activities with dressing up as Klingons at Star Trek conventions. It was really disappointing reporting from a magazine I usually enjoy.
I always wondered why astronauts were chosen largely from a pool of pilots. For long space trips, wouldn’t submariners be a better choice? They often go months in confined spaces and work with a large variety of hi-tech equipment. In fact, isn’t a submarine a pretty good example of a space ship designed for a long trip? They often share the same tiny bunk…can’t get much closer than that! (no, not at the same time you silly rabbits.)
I have never heard this idea mentioned in print (although it is so obvious it must have been considered.) At the least, couldn’t they stick a potential space crew on an active sub for a long cruise and see how well they do?
First! Jk. A year since the last comment but I have to say something. I’d love to explore new worlds. One of the biggest reasons is to get away from all you nut jobs :D But who am I kidding? Whoever pays for the settlement of the “new world” would certainly be in charge until we had our own Mars Tea party, etc.
I’ve daydreamed about settling in the ocean as well. I think it would be really cool. Cars that convert into personal submarines. Settle just outside the international waters border, etc. :D
Anyway, I am definately romanticizing the idea. I agree that we need to fix our policies on the environment HERE before we go and ruin another planet. Also, i think mars would be a great place to live underground. We can cover the entire planet in solar arrays and have a pretty good amount of electricity to live on :D I think I’m right, but the non atmosphere would let a lot more energy from solar radiation to bombard the planet which can then be harvested to power the underground cities.