SCIENTISTS have shared plans to simulate life on Mars in a desert in Argentina.
A new project dubbed Solar54 aims to prepare cosmonauts for future missions to the Red Planet.
The project will be carried out in an Argentine red desert called a hundred kilometers away from the city of La Rioja.
Named the Los Colorados provincial reserve, the landscape is filled with red soil and organic canyons that mimic Mars’.
On the project’s website, researchers call the area “one of the places most similar to the red planet on Earth.”
Solar54 hopes to provide a space for astronauts and scientists to conduct a number of studies and tests that will help with the colonization of Mars.
“It has the objective of emulating the living conditions, Space Technology laboratories, and Food Production Systems that would be used on the planet Mars,” Solar54 project managers said.
The site comprises six domes for accommodation, cooking, crew recreation, plant production, Cubesats satellites, and a general laboratory, per the project’s YouTube channel.
Behind the funding for the project is the government of La Rioja and FANIoT – a company that develops IoT technology and virtual reality environments.
“La Rioja province has a historical link to the aerospace industry and Solar54 intends to revitalize this sector of the economy and reposition the country as a provider of aerospace-related products and services,” Ayelen Ebene, FanIot Innovation Director, said
