Testing Mars Equipment in Utah

Six wannabe Martians are are taking life on Mars for a test drive here on Earth. In a small cylindrical building in the Utah desert, the would-be space explorers live every moment as if they were the first human outpost on the red planet.

The group is sponsored by the privately-funded Mars Society, a non-profit whose main goal is to send humans to Mars as soon as possible. NASA is still figuring out when and how the first Martian envoys will get there — Obama's latest vision would get humans into Mars orbit around 2035, relying on private aerospace companies to do the heavy lifting.

But the Mars society doesn't want to wait that long. The organization runs two Mars Analog Research Stations, one in the Canadian arctic and one in Utah, and has plans for a third in Iceland.

See Wired Top Stories for links to further info.

Also see the Mars Analogue Research Station Program.