Utah, the New Red Planet

tsornin writes "The Philadelphia Inquirer reports in this article that Mars Society crews have chosen Wayne County, Utah as an effective simulant for the Red Planet. Although Mars exploration is hardly a high priority on any government's list at the moment, Robert Zubrin and other Mars Society members hope that through their research in Wayne County and in the even more remote northern Canadian location, they can show world governments that a mission to Mars is viable."

Comments

Re:ROTFLMAO

[Dinosaur Neil]

Actually, in his book (A Case for Mars) Dr. Zubrin plans on taking along a small nuclear plant (100 kWe) to provide the power needed, and the stoichiometry of producing methane from water and carbon dioxide yields two moles of O2 for every mole of methane produced...

Re:but how do they simulate..

[Dinosaur Neil]

Actually, the Mars Society is also sponsoring a seperate study called Translife that will involve putting mice in orbit, then spinning up their craft to simulate a 1/3 g environment and see what (if any) effects prolonged low-gravity exposure will have on small furry mammals. A later step will involve a larger orbit and more direct exposure to the sort of radiation levels that Mars-bound astronauts will encounter. The research stations (the first up in the Canadian Arctic, the second in Utah, with Europe and Australia in the works) are just intended to simulate the actual operational side of Mars exploration...