Scientists live like Martians in this Utah desert – and you can watch them

The Mars Society’s Utah Desert Training Outpost

Utah’s red rocks hide a slice of Mars just seven miles from Hanksville.

The Mars Society built their Desert Research Station there in December 2001, picking the spot for its Mars-like terrain.

Since then, over 1,000 people have lived in the two-story cylinder, wearing mock spacesuits as they step outside.

The site also hosts a NASA teacher program and a yearly contest where students from 11 countries race rovers across the desert.

Crews stay for weeks, testing gear and studying bacteria that might live on Mars too. This otherworldly outpost offers a glimpse into the Mars Project.

Mars Society Founders Dreamed Up a Desert Research Station

Robert Zubrin and Pascal Lee started the Mars Society in 1998 with dreams of sending humans to Mars.

They knew astronauts needed practice before making the real journey, so they planned Earth-based training stations.

At their first meeting, members voted to build places where people could act like they were on Mars.

They built their first station in 2000 on Devon Island in Canada’s Arctic, a cold, empty spot that looked like Mars.

They soon picked Utah’s red rocks for their second training ground.

The Red Rocks of Utah Became Home to Mars Explorers

The Mars Society chose a spot seven miles from tiny Hanksville, Utah to build their second Mars station in 2001.

They picked this area on the San Rafael Swell because the rocky, dusty land looked like pictures from Mars.

Workers finished the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in December 2001. The main building was a two-story cylinder that housed six people.

Elon Musk helped pay for it, along with money from Mars Society members who believed in the mission.

Volunteers Suited Up for Their First Mars Missions

As soon as the station opened in 2001, teams of six people began living there for two to three weeks at a time.

These volunteers followed strict rules, just like real astronauts would on Mars.

They wore bulky spacesuits whenever they went outside and used an airlock instead of just opening the door.

The early teams tested the living space and created rules for future crews. The Utah station became only the second Mars practice facility in the world.

The Campus Grew Beyond a Single Building

The Mars Society added more buildings over time. They built an observatory with a powerful 14-inch telescope for studying the night sky.

They added a greenhouse, called the GreenHab, where crews tested growing food like future Mars settlers.

They put up an engineering shed for generators and equipment. Crews used special all-terrain vehicles to get around the rocky land.

The buildings connected through tunnels so people wouldn’t need to go outside without spacesuits.

Scientists Flocked to Utah’s Fake Mars Base

More than 1,000 people have worked as crew members since the station opened. Scientists studied tiny bacteria that live in harsh desert conditions.

Others tested how well people worked in clumsy spacesuits or while living in tight spaces with teammates for weeks.

Geology teams mapped the area and collected rocks as if they were really on Mars. Each crew arrived with specific science goals to complete during their stay.

College Students Built Mars Robots for a New Contest

The Mars Society started an exciting competition called the University Rover Challenge on June 2, 2007.

They first announced the contest in 2006, and four American college teams joined the first event. The challenge was to build a rover robot that could help astronauts explore Mars.

These student-built machines needed to drive over rocks, pick up tools, and work without constant human control.

The contest gave young engineers a chance to solve real problems that NASA faces.

Teams From Around the World Joined the Robot Race

What started as a small American contest quickly grew bigger. The number of students in the challenge grew from dozens to hundreds each year.

By 2010, teams from Canada, India, Bangladesh, Poland, and Egypt came to Utah with their homemade Mars rovers.

Contest organizers made the tasks harder, asking rovers to fix broken equipment, find their way around alone, and test soil samples.

The Mars station became known as the best place on Earth to test Mars robots.

Teachers Got Their Turn to Play Astronaut

The Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium saw the value of the Mars station and funded a program called Spaceward Bound Utah.

This program brought K-12 teachers from Utah, Colorado, and Connecticut to live and work at the station. The teachers did real science experiments while acting like Mars astronauts.

They learned what space exploration feels like, then created classroom lessons based on what they did. This approach brought Mars science to thousands of students across many states.

School Teachers Completed Their First Mission in 2019

December 2019 marked a big moment when the first crew made up only of teachers arrived at the Mars station.

Known as Crew 217, these middle school teachers spent a week living the astronaut life. Dr. Shannon Rupert and Hope Jennings Zubrin led the team through daily Mars activities.

The teachers did research projects that matched what they taught in their classrooms back home. The Mars Society decided to run more teacher programs after this.

The Facility Got Better With Age

Over the years, the Mars station received several upgrades.

They added the Musk Mars Desert Observatory with telescopes that scientists can control from anywhere in the world.

After a fire in 2014, they built a better Science Dome. The power system grew to include 15 kilowatts of solar panels with backup batteries.

They found an old helicopter part and turned it into a repair workshop called the RAMM (Repair and Maintenance Module).

The single building grew into six connected structures forming a mini Mars colony.

Twenty Years of Practice Made Perfect Mars Training

The Mars Desert Research Station has hosted nearly 300 missions spanning more than 20 seasons of operation.

The University Rover Challenge grew to include 38 teams from 11 different countries by 2025, with Missouri University of Science and Technology taking home the championship that year.

The station has completed over 2,730 simulated Mars days of operations. The Utah facility continues to serve as the premier training ground.

Universities including Michigan, West Virginia, Brigham Young, and Poland’s AGH University of Krakow have won rover competitions over the years.

Visiting Hanksville, Utah

The Mars Desert Research Station is a private research facility that you can’t tour, but you can view it from the road.

Drive 7.23 miles northwest of Hanksville via Cow Dung Road from UT-24 west and park respectfully along the roadside.

The best time to visit is during the annual University Rover Challenge from May 28-31, when spectators might be allowed to follow the student robotics competition at the judges’ discretion.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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