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List of Mars analogs


This is list of Mars analogs, which simulate aspects of the conditions human beings could experience during a future mission to Mars, or different aspects of Mars such as its materials or conditions. This is often used for testing aspects of spacecraft missions to that planet


Some examples of analog tests with people include NASA conducting a 120-day study in Hawaii to test a space food diet (HI-SEAS), and equipment tests inside Austrian mountain caves in 2012. A future Mars base has been compared to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, because relatively small groups must survive in extreme conditions there.

Mars analogs are sometimes chosen for their location, for example, Devon island is at 75°N latitude which provides solar radiance similar to the Martian Equator. Similarly, high altitudes can provide an equivalent to the low pressure of the Mars atmosphere

Mars regolith has been attempted to be replicated by Mars regolith simulant

Among these are:


At about 28 miles (45 km, 150 thousand feet ) Earth altitude the pressure starts to be equivalent to Mars surface pressure. However, the major component of Mars air, CO2 gas, is denser than Earth air for a given pressure.

The gravity of Mars is about 38% of Earth's gravity at the surface, about 3.7 meters per second2. This can be simulated for short time by an aircraft following a flight profile that causes this type of acceleration. This technique (using a variation on free-fall) has allowed the gait of people in Mars gravity to be studied.

The Russians conducted the Bios-3 study in the 60s and 70s which had 315 cubic meters of space, and a later confinement study was Mars 500.



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