Mars Camp in a Desert: China Builds $ 23 Million Mars Simulation Base to Help Astronauts Explore Red Planet
China is stepping up its space exploration efforts with the launch of a simulation camp on Mars.
It comes at a crucial time for China, which is eager to show off its progress in space research after being the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon in January.
According to Reuters (via The New York Post), the colony is known as China’s “Mars Camp” due to its strangely eroded desert environment that resembles the surface of Mars. The Qaidam Basin in the red rock region of western Qinghai has been called “the most Martian place on Earth.” Experts said the landscape, rocks, sand and even temperatures would be comparable to those of Mars.
(Photo: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images)
JIUQUAN, CHINA – JUNE 17: The Chinese Space Agency’s Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft aboard the Long March-2F rocket is launched with three Chinese astronauts on board at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021 , in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft will be transported aboard the Long March-2F rocket launched to the space station that China is building from the Gobi Desert, marking the country’s first manned mission in nearly five years.
China builds simulation camp on Mars to better understand the red planet
The simulation camp opened in the city in 2019 with a facility aimed at helping space enthusiasts and professionals better understand Mars through immersive simulation experiences. Scientists used it to prepare for the exploration of Mars.
Local governments are developing the service industry and moving towards the integration of scientific research, popularization of science, science education and cultural tourism based on unique resources.
The “Mars Camp” is a 1,734-acre complex that includes a tourism center, a Martian colony, a simulation facility and other facilities. At any time, the site can accommodate up to 160 people. According to South China Morning Post, the project cost about 150 million yuan ($ 23 million). The facility also plans to attract 2 million visitors per year by 2030.
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China’s Mars-like space simulation base looks like a cross between “Star Wars†and “2001: A Space Odysseyâ€.
About 100 ecstatic Chinese teens concluded a five-hour visit to the facility in 2019.
The teens said they felt like they were in a space colony in a dark landscape reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine – like the one in Star Wars.
“We saw the monolith, a crater and a cave. It’s better than Mars than I imagined,†a 13-year-old student from Jinchang said at the time. Reuters.
In one of the most iconic images in Western cinema history, a strange black monolith emerges in front of a tribe of ape-men in the African savannah in the 1968 sci-fi film 2001: The Space Odyssey.
The installation consists of many interconnected modules, including a greenhouse and a false decompression chamber.
Mars Camp partners with ACC to make facility an astronaut training center
Media companies and officials in Gansu, a province in northwest China, came up with the idea for the March 1 base camp. The camp covers about one-fifth of an American football field.
Authorities hope the camp, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Jinchang settlement, will improve tourism and make tourists feel like they’re on Mars.
In addition to serving as a tourist attraction, the camp has partnered with the China Astronaut Center (ACC) to transform the facility into an astronaut training center.
The camp isn’t the only Chinese Mars-themed attraction. China launched its first Martian “village” in March on the adjacent Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
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