Mars on earth: simulation tests held in remote desert of Oman

Mars on earth: simulation tests held in remote desert of Oman

Two scientists in spacesuits, stark white against the auburn terrain of desolate plains and dunes, test a geo-radar built to map Mars by dragging the flat box across the rocky sand.

Context:

• The desolate desert in southern Oman, near the borders of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, resembles Mars so much that more than 200 scientists from 25 nations chose it as their location for the next four weeks, to field-test technology for a manned mission to Mars.

The Dhofar Desert:

• On the eastern edge of Dhofar Desert is the Oman Mars Base.
• It is a giant 2.4-ton inflated habitat surrounded by shipping containers turned into labs and crew quarters.

Base of Dhofar Desert:

• Seen from space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown expanse.
• Few animals or plants survive in the desert expanses of the Arabian Peninsula, where temperatures can top 51 degrees Celsius.
• The desert’s surface resembles Mars so much, it’s hard to tell the difference because the types of geomorphology, all the structures, the salt domes, the riverbeds, the wadis, it parallels a lot of what can be seen on Mars.

AMADEE-18:

• The Omani government offered to host the Austrian Space Forum’s next Mars simulation during a meeting of the UN’s Committee On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
• Scientists from across the world sent ideas for experiments and the mission, named AMADEE-18, quickly grew to 16 scientific experiments.

A walk on Mars:

• SpaceX founder Elon Musk declared humans would walk on Mars in a few decades.
• New challengers like China are joining the U.S. and Russia in space with an ambitious Mars program.
• Aerospace corporations like BlueOrigin have published schematics of future bases, ships and suits.

Personal spaceship:

• The cutting-edge spacesuit, weighing about 50 kg, is called a “personal spaceship” because one can breathe, eat and do hard science inside it.
• The suit’s visor displays maps, communications and sensor data.

Next step to Mars:

• The next step to Mars, is to tackle non-engineering problems like medical emergency responses and isolation.
• While cosmonauts and astronauts are learning valuable spacefaring skills on the International Space Station and
• The U.S. is using virtual reality to train scientists, the majority of work to prepare for interplanetary expeditions is being done on Earth.