Utah test site might as well be on Mars
FHANKSVILLE, Utah
our people wearing space helmets and square backpacks emerge from a circular structure resembling a water tank and step onto a reddish, barren landscape.
One hikes up a hill to take magnetic readings of the ground with a rectangular apparatus that looks like a large leveling tool. Another pushes a wheelbarrow equipped with sensors arrayed in a zig-zag pattern.
For a group of six Belgian college students, it’s just another simulated day on Mars.
This rocky corner of Utah bears such a resemblance to the red planet that it has become a hot spot for scientists and engineers to run imaginary missions to Earth’s neighbor. They’ve been coming here for more than a decade, hoping their research someday helps put humans on the Martian surface. This site and others that allow crews to mimic interplanetary missions are helping to raise buzz about Mars to an all-time high as advancements in science and engineering convince space enthusiasts that the 140-million-mile trip is a realistic possibility in this century.
The research center is run by the nonprofit Mars Society, an advocacy group that believes getting people to Mars to be the great challenge of our time. The group is not affiliated with NASA or the federal government.
“What we are doing on Mars is beginning humanity’s career as a space-faring species, a multi-planet species,” said Robert Zubrin, Mars Society director. “This is about extending the human reach from one world to many worlds.”
On Tuesday, the third annual Humans to Mars Summit kicks off in Washington, D.C., with about 800 attendees expected and as many as a quarter million more watching webcasts, said Chris Carberry, executive director of the organization that puts on the summit, Explore Mars Inc.
“There’s never been so much support for sending humans to Mars,” said Mr. Carberry, who remembers congressional staffers rolling their eyes when he pitched the idea in the late 1990s while working for the Mars Society.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden said recently in a congressional hearing that the space agency’s plan is to get people to Mars in the 2030s.
Private companies are trying to beat NASA. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, plans to unveil concepts for Mars colonization later this year. Richard Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, has also discussed a trip to Mars.
The Belgian students are the 153rd group in the last 14 years to travel to this outpost for a two-week mission. Like other groups, each person fills a role that the Mars Society believes will be integral to a real mission. There is a commander, sub-commander, astronomer, geologist, biologist, journalist and engineer mechanic.
The teams hold close to the most important rule of the mission: Simulate everything as authentically as possible. For example, they never go outside without space helmets. None of the six is interested in going to Mars without a guarantee of a safe return.
“I could die for science, but at 70 years old and not at 30,” said Romain Compere, now 23. “I don’t want to die without oxygen and thousands of kilometers from my home with no one to love me.”