The Mars Analogue Research Station (MARS) Programme has two sites used to simulate the conditions of living and working on Mars. One is on Devon Island in the Arctic; the other is in the desert in Utah. Participants have a strict protocol of Mars simulation conditions they follow as they test equipment and develop procedures for Mars exploration.

If you have been waiting for your chance to learn what it is like to live and work on Mars wait no more! The Mars Society is currently taking applications from the general public, educators, and students to develop the skills necessary to thrive in a regime analogous to The Red Planet. Crews of dedicated volunteers work in full simulation in the canyonlands of Utah in order to conduct field investigations in the physical sciences and engineering. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is host to many "firsts" when dealing with crews and their research. There were the first all women and all men crews who resided within the Mars hab. The MDRS has also been host to the first children to live, study and play while in full simulation during the Family Living Analysis on Mars Expedition (F.L.A.M.E.) missions conducted in June 2005, March 2006, and March 2007.

Call for Volunteers: The Mars Society is requesting volunteers to participate as members of the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah during extended simulations of human Mars exploration operations. The upcoming Mars Desert Research Station field season will begin in December 2007 and run through April 2008. Volunteers should state clearly what segment of MDRS field season span they are available. Both volunteer investigators who bring with them a proposed program of research of their own compatible with the objectives of the MDRS and those simply wishing to participate as members of the crew supporting the investigations of others will be considered. Research proposals which focus the effort of or require selection as a team of up to the full six-person crew will also be considered. The Mars Society will be issuing an additional call for volunteers for the summer 2008 field season of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island later. However those volunteering for MDRS at this time may also volunteer for FMARS 2008, which is anticipated to consist of a single 2-month crew rotation running from mid-June to mid August 2008. FMARS crew selection is highly competitive, and prior experience at MDRS, while not strictly required, is considered to be an important credential for FMARS selection. In 2004, for example, 6 out of 7 FMARS crew members had prior MDRS experience.

It's barely 8 a.m. as Chris Carberry stands in the middle of a field in the early morning sunlight, shivering slightly. He's waiting for Barack Obama, who is due to speak in about two hours. Obama volunteers are wary. Could Carberry be a researcher from the Clinton campaign? Or a dangerous nut? No, Carberry is a motivated man determined to see through his mission: to find out where each of the presidential candidates stands on Mars. Carberry is the political director of the Mars Society, a nonprofit group that pushes relentlessly for human exploration and settlement of the red planet. He's the point man for Operation President 2008, in which Mars Society members lie in wait for presidential candidates at campaign stops in the early primary states, then leap out to pop the question: As president, would you send a man to Mars?

The Mars Society's four-month Mars exploration Arctic simulation mission, the first of its kind, reached its halfway point today (7/2/07), and will now begin a unique experiment by shifting its operational cycle to Mars time. The long-duration simulated Mars mission on Devon Island in the high Canadian Arctic has been operating successfully for two months. The seven-person crew of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) has conducted a comprehensive program of geological and microbiological field exploration in the island's Mars-like polar desert, 900 miles from the North Pole, all while operating under many of the same constraints that human explorers would face on Mars. By doing so, they are learning from direct experience many lessons that will be of critical value when human explorers actually set foot on the red planet. At this writing, the crew has completed two months of mission simulation on the island, doubling the one-month duration record set by previous crews. The plan is for the crew to continue for two more months, quadrupling the previous record for an active Mars mission simulation. As Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin explained, "This is an utterly unique experiment that goes far beyond anything that anyone has ever done before. In contrast to the isolation studies done by the Russian Space Agency, for example, our crews are not sitting in a room in the middle of a major city playing chess for weeks on end. Rather, they are being tasked to undertake a tough program of actual field exploration, doing real science under risky conditions hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement in one of the most hostile environments on Earth. It is by taking on challenges like this that people are going to learn how to explore on Mars."

"Mars is within reach!" according to Irene Schneider and fellow members of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Crew 61. For two weeks in April, the international and interdisciplinary crew of six individuals occupied a prototype Mars habitat in the Utah desert. Their mission: "Emergency Preparedness." Core activities on the "Martian" landscape included emergency protocols such as radiation evacuation and radiation poisoning prevention—likely challenges facing human habitation on the Red Planet.

Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, and Science recommended an increase of over $280 million above the requested level for NASA. However, within this budget markup, there is language that would prevent work on programs devoted to humans to Mars. According to a House Appropriations Committee press release, the markup language states that NASA cannot pursue “development or demonstration activity related exclusively to Human Exploration of Mars. NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests." THIS ANTI-MARS LANGUAGE MUST BE REMOVED! Otherwise, the program may turn into MOON ONLY program. We can't let that happen.

A group of BYU students will be competing in the first ever "University Rover Challenge" this weekend in Southern Utah. The "University Rover Challenge," hosted by the Mars Society, is a competition among various universities testing prototypes of Mars rovers. Each team has worked hard to create a suitable prototype. These rovers are designed to serve as a support for future expeditions to the planet Mars.

Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto, National Space Society Projects and Events Coordinator for Chapters is on a mission. A mock mission to Mars, that is. Veronica Ann, along with her children, manned the MDRS, Mars Desert Research Station analogue, in Utah. Veronica Ann, who is also the founder and current President of the Phoenix Chapter of NSS, served as commander (CDR) during the mission and took time from her busy schedule on Mars to send reports to other Spacers around the globe. "By the F.L.A.M.E. (Family Living Analysis on Mars Expedition) Crew's efforts we hope to give a renewed enthusiasm for human exploration. With a predetermined destination we embark on a voyage in which we hope to inspire our children and others to reach as far as they can, for exploration is the act of searching for the purpose of discovery. Exploration challenges us. Have you felt challenged lately? If not, what can you do to be a part of the wonders of space exploration?"

What is it like to live on Mars? Seven adventurous scientists, including a University of Hawai'i computer science professor, will look for the answer this summer in the Canadian Arctic. From May to August, they will hole up in a futuristic-looking research station on Devon Island, an uninhabited wasteland 900 miles from the North Pole. When they walk outside into below-zero temperatures, they will wear space suits. Their research will mimic what scientists on Mars would likely study — climate, topography and daily changes in temperature. But most importantly, they will experience the hardships of a not-so-simulated isolation, miles away from anything resembling civilization: They will eat freeze-dried or canned food, strictly ration their water intake, and follow a strict routine of work, exercise and rest.

Today, Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, participated in the 9th Annual International Mars Society conference held in Washington, D.C. Space Adventures' vice president for orbital spaceflight, Christopher Faranetta, discussed the company’s plans for a circumlunar mission. "Last year, Space Adventures announced its commitment to send the world’s first commercial passenger to the moon," said Mr. Faranetta. "Aside from the fact that no one has orbited the moon in 34 years, this mission will provide our client with the opportunity to view the illuminated far side from less than 62 miles away; see the famous earthrise; and become the world's first private interplanetary explorer."

The Mars Society is looking for a few good men - and women - to spend four months holed up in an artificial igloo or tromping around the Canadian Arctic in bulky faux spacesuits. This won't be an extended vacation, or a reality-TV plotline. For rocket scientist Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, next year's exercise on Devon Island will be an experiment in the exploration process - a test that could help smooth the path to Mars. It's been a couple of months since Zubrin first announced the plans for a four-month simulated Mars mission on Devon Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, just 900 miles (1,440 kilometers) from the North Pole. Now he and other mission planners are ready to sign up a volunteer crew of seven who will operate from the Mars Society's Arctic habitat from May to September next year.

Being cooped up on a space mission can do funny things to you - even if it's a make-believe mission. During an extended simulation of a voyage to Mars back in 1999, a bloody fistfight reportedly broke out between two ersatz astronauts, and one woman participant complained of sexual harassment. So it'll be interesting to see what happens next year, when the Mars Society is due to stage a simulated four-month mission - not within the comfy confines of a laboratory, but amid the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. The society's president, Robert Zubrin, confirmed last week's reports that his organization was forgoing its annual simulated mission on Devon Island this year, and concentrating instead on next year's Arctic expedition. "Essentially we're saving the money from this year so we can do something bigger next year," Zubrin said.

Robert Zubrin uses his vision of the past to extol his vision for the future, but he never allows himself to go off on a tangent. He has the ability to provoke laughter, but also to incite outrage in his single-minded approach to Mars exploration: that it trumps other purposes of the U.S. space program.

Dennis Hands, a science program presenter at the Natural Science Center, was selected by the Mars Society to participate in its Mars Desert Research Station extended simulation in southern Utah.