A structure for EuroMARS was built, but placed in storage for several years due to lack of funding to ship to the Society's UK headquarters, and from there on to Iceland. During storage and shipping the structure was damaged beyond repair, so now the European chapters of the Mars Society are seeking funding to build a new habitat. The unit was primarily funded by the United Kingdom, with the Euro-MARS science programme operated by a consortium of European Mars Society Chapters comprising the UK, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Spain. The purpose of the facility is to enable scientists and engineers to conduct geological and biological exploration under constraints similar to those found on Mars, to develop field tactics based on those explorations, to test habitat design features and tools, and to assess crew selection protocols.
As with the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station and the Mars Desert Research Station, which were chosen for their physical similarity to Mars, Euro-MARS will be set up on Krafla, a volcanic rift in north-east Iceland, which bears strong resemblance to volcanically-produced features on the surface of Mars. A relative dry region, Krafla also demonstrates land features that have been produced by water action which are visually similar to those found in certain regions of Mars. Unlike the previous stations, Euro-MARS offers extensive opportunities for in-situ extremophile biology research of the kind that may be carried out during future human missions to Mars. This is because the Krafla region has extensive rifts and fumaroles which are home to anaerobic (non-oxygen breathing) microbes. Any life evidenced on Mars will also be anaerobic in nature, so developing field study techniques in Krafla will help define protocols and procedure that will be employed on Mars.
Euro-MARS was scheduled to commence field operations sometime in 2007, and represents the most advanced of the three habitats established by the Mars Society to date. It directly benefits from lessons learnt at the first two stations, and offers greatly improved living and research facilities, with the operational space inside the habitat spread across three decks rather than just the two decks common to the earlier stations. This design greatly improves the amount of living space available to the crew and provides an improved separation of living and working space.
The Mars Society is a U.S. registered non-profit organization that leads a worldwide movement, with dozens of chapters, to educate and inform the general public, members of the media, and government representatives about the importance of Mars exploration and the establishment of a permanent human presence on the Red Planet. Inspired by "The Case for Mars" conferences, which were hosted by The Mars Underground at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Mars Society was established by Robert Zubrin and others in 1998 with the goal of educating the public, the media and government on the benefits of exploring Mars, the importance of planning for a humans-to-Mars mission in the coming decades and the need to create a long-term human presence on the Red Planet.
Mars Direct is a proposal for a human mission to Mars which purports to be both cost-effective and possible with current technology. It was originally detailed in a research paper by Martin Marietta engineers Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990, and later expanded upon in Zubrin's 1996 book The Case for Mars. It now serves as a staple of Zubrin's speaking engagements and general advocacy as head of the Mars Society, an organization devoted to the colonization of Mars.
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is the largest and longest-running Mars surface simulation facility in the world, and is one of two simulated Mars analog habitats owned and operated by the Mars Society.
Mývatn is a shallow lake situated in an area of active volcanism in the north of Iceland, not far from Krafla volcano. It has a high amount of biological activity. The lake and the surrounding wetlands provides a habitat for a number of waterbirds, especially ducks. The lake was created by a large basaltic lava eruption 2300 years ago, and the surrounding landscape is dominated by volcanic landforms, including lava pillars and rootless vents (pseudocraters). The effluent river Laxá[ˈlaksˌauː] is known for its rich fishing for brown trout and Atlantic salmon.
The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is the first of two simulated Mars habitats located on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, which is owned and operated by the Mars Society. The station is a member of the EU-INTERACT, circumarctic network of currently 89 terrestrial field bases located in northern Europe, Russia, US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Scotland as well as stations in northern alpine areas.
Australia Mars Analogue Research Station (MARS-Oz) is a station in Australia where the Mars Society will conduct geological exploration under constraints similar to those found on Mars. In 1998, the United States Mars Society agreed to work with Mars Society Australia, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the eventual human settlement on the Red Planet, which allowed this project to be administrated in Australia. Led by project manager David Willson, this will be the fourth Mars Analogue Research Station Program. The three previous stations were built in Devon Island in Arctic Canada in July 2000, a desert near Hanksville, Utah, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. The main objective behind the research is to anticipate and resolve conflicts that will arise on a Martian exploration by having a group of scientists and engineers work together and live in an analogue Mars environment.
Pascal Lee is co-founder and chairman of the Mars Institute, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, and the Principal Investigator of the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He holds an ME in geology and geophysics from the University of Paris, and a PhD in astronomy and space sciences from Cornell University.
Mars Society Australia (MSA) is an Australian space advocacy organisation, which was formed in 1998.
The Lab-on-a-Chip Applications Development (LOCAD) element is a set of related lab-on-a-chip projects at NASA. The projects develop integrated lab-on-a-chip products in three areas related to space exploration: Environmental Control and Life Systems Support (ECLSS), Medical Systems, and Remote Exploration. NASA conducts activities related to these projects both at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Charles Cockell is a British astrobiologist who is professor of astrobiology in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh and co-director of the UK Centre for Astrobiology.
The Mars Analog Research Station Program (MARS) is an international effort initiated and spearheaded by The Mars Society to establish a network of prototype research centers where scientists and engineers can live and work as if they were on Mars, to develop the protocols and procedures that will be required for human operations on Mars, and to test equipment that may be carried and used by human missions to the Red Planet.
Human analog missions are activities undertaken on Earth in various environments to simulate aspects of human missions to other worlds, including the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. These remote field tests are performed in locations that are identified based on their physical similarities to the extreme space environments of a target mission. Such activities are undertaken to test hardware and operational concepts in relevant environments.
Terrestrial analogue sites are places on Earth with assumed past or present geological, environmental or biological conditions of a celestial body such as the Moon or Mars. Analogue sites are used in the frame of space exploration to either study geological or biological processes observed on other planets, or to prepare astronauts for surface extra-vehicular activity.
Mars Station may refer to:
The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) is an analog habitat for human spaceflight to Mars. HI-SEAS is located in an isolated position on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii. The area has Mars-like features and an elevation of approximately 8,200 feet (2,500 m) above sea level. The first HI-SEAS study was in 2013 and NASA's Human Research Program continues to fund and sponsor follow-up studies. The missions are of extended duration from four months to a year. Its missions place HI-SEAS in the company of a small group of analogs that are capable of operating very long duration missions in isolated and confined environments, such as Mars500, Concordia, and the International Space Station.
A Mars analog habitat is one of several historical, existing or proposed research stations designed to simulate the physical and psychological environment of a Martian exploration mission. These habitats are used to study the equipment and techniques that will be used to analyze the surface of Mars during a future crewed mission, and the simulated isolation of the volunteer inhabitants allows scientists to study the medical and psychosocial effects of long-term space missions. They are often constructed in support of extensive Mars analogs. However, sometimes existing natural places are also valued as Mars analogs. Crewed Mars habitats are featured in most human Mars missions; an alternative may be terraforming or telepresence.
International Lunar Exploration Working Group(ILEWG) is a public forum sponsored by the world's space agencies to support "international cooperation towards a world strategy for the exploration and utilization of the Moon - our natural satellite".
Darlene Sze Shien Lim is a NASA geobiologist and exobiologist preparing astronauts for the scientific exploration of the Moon, Deep Space and Mars. Her expertise involves Mars human analog missions, in which extreme landscapes like volcanoes and Arctic deserts serve as physical or operational substitutes for various planetary bodies. She has become a leading public figure for Mars exploration, having presented her missions publicly at academic institutions and public events around the world. She has also discussed her work for various media groups such as NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
The UK Centre for Astrobiology was set up at the University of Edinburgh in 2011 by Charles Cockell. It was set up as a UK node, formally affiliated as an international partner with the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) alongside other national nodes until the NAI's dissolution in 2019. It was established as a virtual centre to sit at the interdisciplinary boundary of planetary sciences/astronomy and biological/earth sciences investigating numerous aspects of life in the universe, specifically 'how habitable worlds form in the Universe and how life emerges, proliferates and leaves traces on these worlds' as well as engaging in work on the robotic and human exploration of space and in space ethics, philosophy and governance.
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