Posted by tourdemars to Mars Society at April 10, 2002 12:00 PM

Shannon Rupert, back in San Diego after two weeks in a simulated Mars laboratory in the Utah desert, was craving vegetables. The greenhouse outside the MARS Desert Research Station recently blew apart in 92 mph winter winds, so Rupert's crew had had little fresh produce. Now, back at the San Diego chapter of The Mars Society, Rupert was munching on celery and carrots, describing for her colleagues an eerie Utah landscape of red and pink – uncannily similar to the martian terrain they long to see for real. The 4-year-old society, with member-supported chapters around the globe, says a human mission to the Red Planet is long overdue. Its members, lay people and scientists alike, are undaunted by a new season of fiscal austerity at National Aeronautics and Space Administration and by the enormous cost and technical challenges of sending humans to Mars.