In a huge crater in the sun-drenched Negev Desert in Israel, a team in spacesuits ventured on a mission to simulate conditions on Mars. The Austrian Space Forum and the Israeli Space Agency established a fake Mars base at Makhtesh Ramon, a 1,600-foot (500-meter) deep and 25-mile (40-kilometer) wide crater. The six so-called “simulated astronauts” will live in isolation in the virtual station until the end of the month.

“This is a dream come true,” 36-year-old Israeli Alon Tenzer told AFP. “This is something we have been working on for many years.” Participants-from Austria, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain-have to pass arduous physical and psychological tests. In their mission, they will conduct tests, including prototypes of drones that operate without GPS, as well as autonomous wind and solar mapping vehicles.

The mission will also aim to study human behavior and the impact of isolation on astronauts. Austrian mission director Gernot Groemer (Gernot Groemer) said: “Team cohesion and cooperation are essential for survival on Mars.” “It’s like marriage, except in marriage you can leave, but you can’t on Mars. The Austrian Space Forum is a private organization composed of aerospace experts and has organized 12 missions, the most recent being in Oman in 2018. The Israel project is part of the Amadee-20 mission, which was originally scheduled to start last year but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The forum cooperates with the Israeli research center D-MARS to build a solar energy base. German astronaut Anika Mehlis is the only woman in the team. She told AFP that she was very happy to participate in the project. “When I was young, my father took me to the Space Museum,” she said. “When I saw that the forum was looking for a simulated astronaut, I told myself I had to apply.” Mehlis is a well-trained microbiologist who will study scenarios where bacterial infections from Earth may be found in potential life forms on Mars, saying this “will be a big problem.” Visually, the surrounding desert resembles a red planet with its rocky wilderness and orange tones, but fortunately, this is not the case in terms of atmospheric conditions. “Here, our temperature is about 25-30 degrees Celsius, but on Mars, the temperature is negative 60 degrees Celsius, and the atmosphere is not suitable for breathing,” Gromer said.

The interior of the base is simple, with a kitchenette and bunk beds. Most of the space is reserved for scientific experiments. NASA predicts that the first human mission to Mars will be launched in 2030. “What we are doing here is preparing a large mission, which is the largest voyage in our society’s history, because Mars and the Earth are 380 million kilometers apart at extreme points,” Gromer said. “I believe that the first human to walk on Mars has been born, and we are shipbuilders to realize this journey.”

News Source : Gadgets 360