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Latest revision as of 13:11, 5 July 2026

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is a Mars analog research facility run by The Mars Society in the southern Utah desert — the second of the Society's analog stations and one of the longest-running Mars surface simulations in the world. Since its habitat was built in 2001, rotating crews have lived "in simulation" near Hanksville, wearing analog spacesuits for surface excursions and rationing water, power, and communications much as an early Mars settlement would.

The campus has grown into a cluster of connected modules — the two-story Hab, the GreenHab greenhouse, the Science Dome laboratory, the RAM engineering workshop, and the Musk Mars Desert Observatory. Each field season (roughly October–May) hosts crews of six or seven scientists, engineers, and students from around the world; by 2025 more than 300 crews had completed rotations, carrying out research in geology, biology, engineering, and human factors. Read more →

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-[[File:2020RoverArtistsConception.png|300px|left|Mars Perseverance Rover|link=Mars Perseverance Rover]]
+[[File:mdrs.jpg|300px|left|Mars Desert Research Station|link=Mars Desert Research Station]]
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-NASA’s ''[[Mars Perseverance Rover]]'' launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. The landing site is Jezero Crater at the coordinates 18.38°N 77.58°E, at nearly the same longitude as the Viking I lander in 1976. Perseverance has four major goals.  The first goal is to determine whether life ever arose on Mars, the second goal is to characterize the climate of Mars, third is to characterize the geology of Mars, fourth and most importantly to prepare for human exploration of Mars.
+The '''[[Mars Desert Research Station]]''' (MDRS) is a Mars analog research facility run by [[The Mars Society]] in the southern Utah desert — the second of the Society's analog stations and one of the longest-running Mars surface simulations in the world. Since its habitat was built in 2001, rotating crews have lived "in simulation" near Hanksville, wearing analog spacesuits for surface excursions and rationing water, power, and communications much as an early Mars settlement would.
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-Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, was once thought of as a clone of MSL Curiosity, which landed in Gale crater in 2012.  Some of the systems are the same and some have been updated with current technology.  The 2020 rover is over 150 kg heavier than the MSL rover, weighing in at 1,025 kg.  Perseverance will utilize the same landing system as Curiosity, the skycrane, which is enhanced with updated technology such as terrain relative navigation.  This system will help Perseverance avoid landing in a dangerous area.  Another new technology is the system called range trigger, which tells the parachute when to open in order for the rover to land in the desired landing spot.  This technology saves time, as previous rovers had to land in a flat area and later drive to the more interesting targets.  Perseverance has updated titanium wheels which include cleats and spokes as scientists discovered that Curiosity’s wheels were being damaged by the sharp rocks. The wheels for Perseverance were redesigned to withstand damage from the sharp rocks.
+The campus has grown into a cluster of connected modules — the two-story Hab, the GreenHab greenhouse, the Science Dome laboratory, the RAM engineering workshop, and the Musk Mars Desert Observatory. Each field season (roughly October–May) hosts crews of six or seven scientists, engineers, and students from around the world; by 2025 more than 300 crews had completed rotations, carrying out research in geology, biology, engineering, and human factors. '''[[Mars Desert Research Station|Read more &rarr;]]'''
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