Scientists are pretending Hawaii is Mars

bgrpro65 avril 30, 2021

Humans have never traveled to another planet. We've visited Earth's moon but despite sending rovers, orbiters, and probes to places like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, we've never even sent humans to orbit another planet, much less land and see the sights. Mars is definitely the best candidate for human exploration, and space agencies like NASA are already laying the groundwork for those future missions. One of the ways scientists are preparing for crewed missions to Mars is by testing what it might be like to explore the planet's most interesting features while wearing protective gear.

That's exactly what is happening at HI-SEAS, the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, located on Hawaii's Big Island. The site is a research location and a Mars habitat analog, meaning that researchers and groups can use the location to simulate what it might be like on Mars or the Moon. Scientists recently set up shop there and explored lava tubes on the island that are similar to what astronauts might explore when they finally make the trip to the Red Planet.