This Mars Simulation Is Being Ruined By Tourists And Drones

This Mars Simulation Is Being Ruined By Tourists And Drones

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The Mars simulation research base in Utah has become a tourist niche hot-spot. Months and even years of research are being ruined by trespassers.

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This Mars Simulation Is Being Ruined By Tourists And Drones

In the middle of the Utah desert, a crew dressed up in full astronaut gear is out for a walk as part of their months-long isolation experiment to research life on Mars. But the isolation simulation is ruined by several tourists and flying drones trespassing. The Mars Desert Research Station MDRS is owned and operated by the Mars Society. It hosts eight-month seasons for professional scientists, engineers, and students to train and research in extreme isolation.

Simulation is a key part of space exploration. In simulations for Mars, habitats are usually constructed in remote locations where terrains match those of the Red Planet. Crew members sleep, eat and conduct experiments for long periods of time without ever leaving the compound. To go outside they must wear spacesuits sometimes fitted with cameras, microphones, and self-contained breathing systems.

The Director of the Mars Desert Research Stations MDRS said that tourists and drones have become a real problem for Mars habitability research. For the past weeks, the station has been busy putting up “No Trespassing” signs, uploading “Not Open To The Public” disclosures on their sites, social media, and even on their Wikipedia page. “On the internet and in the nearby town of Hanksville, people are saying we are open to the public and that the station is accessible to everyone. I have spent more time chasing people off the property than welcoming them,” the MDRS Director Dr. Shannon Rupert said. Dr. Rupert added that while some tourists seem confused and disappointed others have crossed the line to the point of having to call the police.

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Training For Life In Mars: No Trespassing Please!

Dr. Rupert says that the main challenge is social media where “misinformation travels like wildfire.” People have been posting photos of the MDRS with coordinates encouraging others to visit the station. Drones flights are banned from flying over private property and trespassing is illegal, but tourists wonder about the station, stare inside the buildings or just sit on the hills outside the airlock waiting for the “astronauts” to take their daily EVA.

The MDRS campus includes six structures. The habitat is where crewmembers live and work, and airlock tunnels connect to the other structures. The station has many rooms, including the Robotic Observatory and the Musk Observatory, a GreenHab where conventional and aquaponic research is done, a Science Dome that houses solar systems controls and laboratories, and the RAMM, where ATV rovers and engineering research takes place. The station has been operating since 2001, and more than a thousand researchers have gone through the program.

MDRS says that their facility is unlike other Mars simulations projects because the geological features in Utah are similar to those on Mars. Humans traveling in the future to the Red Planet will experience levels of isolation that no human has ever experienced. The MDRS focuses its research on mechanisms to cope with this experience. MDRS urges the public to stay away from the station. Months and even years of work go out the window if the Mars simulation becomes a tourist attraction.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mars-simulation-utah-tourism/

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