Utah, Apr 26: While robots have been scurrying around Mars for months, researchers here on Earth have been trying to make a little bit of Utah seem more like the Red Planet.
Six-member teams have spent weeks in a silo-shaped module here trying to simulate what astronauts might endure should they ever wander on Mars. Researchers even strap on air packs and 30-pound (13.5-kilogram) boots when they step outside.


The Mars Desert Research Station is one of two living laboratories operated by the Mars Society, an organisation dedicated to Mars exploration. The society's other operating habitat is in an equally remote section of Canada. Another is planned for Iceland, and more could be in the works.

The society locates the habitats in areas similar to Mars - both in climate and geography. The Hanksville station stands in a vivid red landscape of cracked dirt, loose soil, rolling hills and jutting cliffs - bearing a striking resemblance to the Mars photographs retrieved from NASA's rovers.

"It looks alien, and it's in a desert with infrequent rain," said Tony Muscatello, project manager of the desert habitat. "Some of the land forms there are remarkably similar in a lot of ways."


The goal of the habitats, participants say, is to stimulate public interest in manned Mars missions by replicating the potential experience on Earth. Bureau Report