Posted by tourdemars to Mars Society at October 12, 2003 12:00 PM

The place is Arkaroola in the northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia, an explosion of red rocky outcrops and whirling red dust that drops away to the endless horizons of Lake Frome. It has often been likened to a Martian landscape. Now the link is even more real. Arkaroola will become ground zero for one of the most ambitious projects in Australia's contribution to space travel – the colonisation of Mars. In less than two years this is where the Mars Analogue Research Station, called MARS-OZ, will sit. Looking like a huge witchetty grub, it will be one of four research stations across the world that will lay the groundwork for a mission to Mars.