Universe Today

Red Centre: Next Stop Red Planet?
By Jennifer Laing
June 18, 2001

Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin recently announced that Australia could be the recipient of hardware to be used to build a Mars analogue research station in the outback. Jennifer Laing reports on proposals for Mars-Oz, which could complement existing Mars research facilities in Canada and the United States, and form the backbone of the Mars Society Australia's research program known as Operation Red Centre.

"Mars is undoubtedly a treasure-chest of knowledge of the way the Universe functions," says Jason Hoogland, Technical Director of the Mars Society Australia (MSA). To unlock it will require a great deal of research, including simulations to test mission planning and subject humans to the type of scenarios and challenges they will face when exploring Mars. Australia could play an important part in this research work, according to Hoogland.

As a first step towards sending humans to Mars, creating Mars-like analogue environments for carrying out research programs and training will be crucial. The aim of the Mars Society's Mars Analogue Research Station Project is to build four field bases around the world, which will be used as laboratories for learning how to live and work on Mars. The international Mars Society initiated this Project, which they say will "inspire the public by making sensuous the vision of human exploration of Mars."

"In these Mars-like environments, we will launch a program of extensive long-duration geology and biology field exploration operations, conducted in the same style and under the same constraints as they would on the Red Planet. By doing so, we will start the process of learning how to explore on Mars."
(Full Story)

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