Mars Society Projects

The Mars Analog Research Stations

In order to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making sensuous the vision of human exploration of Mars, the Mars Society initiated the Mars Analog Research Station (MARS) project. A global program of Mars exploration operations research, the MARS project currently includes two operating Mars base-like habitats located in deserts of the Canadian Arctic (Devon Island) and the American southwest (Utah) . In these Mars-like environments the Mars Society has launched a program of extensive long-duration geology and biology field exploration conducted in the same style and under many of the same constraints as those that exist on Mars.

Each station serves as a field base to teams of four to six crew members: geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics, physicians and others, who live for weeks to months at a time in relative isolation in a Mars analog environment.

The Stations are serving as an effective test bed for field operations studies in preparation for human missions to Mars. They are helping to develop and allow tests of key habitat design features, field exploration strategies, tools, technologies and crew selection protocols that will enable and help optimize the productive exploration of Mars by humans. Each Station must be a realistic and adaptable habitat.

The Stations also serve as useful field research facilities at selected Mars analog sites on Earth, ones that help further our understanding of the geology, biology and environmental conditions on the Earth and on Mars. Each Station must provide safe shelter and be an effective field laboratory.

The Stations have generated public support for sending humans to Mars. They inform and inspire audiences around the world. As the Mars Society’s flagship Program, the MARS project is serving as the foundation of a series of bold steps that will pave the way to the eventual human exploration of Mars.

Mars Analog Research Stations are operated by Mars Society researchers and are made available to NASA and selected scientists, engineers and other professionals from a variety of institutions worldwide to support science investigations and exploration research at Mars analog sites.

As an operations test bed, the stations serve as a central element in support of parallel studies of the technologies, strategies, architectural design and human factors involved in human missions to Mars. The facilities also bring to the field compact laboratories in which in-depth data analysis can begin before scientists leave the field site and return to their home institutions.

The Stations help develop the capabilities needed on mars to allow productive field research during the long months of a human sojourn. The facilities will evolve through time to achieve increasing levels of realism and fidelity with the ultimate goal of supporting the actual training of Mars-bound astronauts

To learn more about the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), on Devon Island, visit the FMARS 2009 website at http://www.fmars2009.org/ OR…. read a fascinating history of the building of the FMARS station in the book “Mars On Earth” – available in the McMurdo library, or Amazon.com

To learn more about the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) visit the Mars Society website and click on the MDRS link.

Copyright 2002 The Mars Society (http://MarsSociety.org ). All rights reserved.