china’s Mars simulation base is called the “Mars Village, ” and it is designed for researchers and tourists alike. This means researchers, as well as tourists who want to experience what it's like to be on Mars, may access the base with a red planet-like environment.
According to reports, the building of the base is already on going with geologists, researchers and actual astronauts scheduled to visit the site for ocular inspections. The “Mars village” base will be built in Qinghai province in China, a known desert in the area. Experts say that the location is perfect to copy the Martian environment.
Mars Village for Mission to Mars
China, not only dreams of building its own space station but they are also banking on sending a mission to the red planet by the year 2020. They are also very vocal about their plans to send humans to Mars.
But in order to be successful in their ambitious projects, the simulation base was deemed necessary for preparation and safety purposes. The base will be built in a 95,000-square kilometer property in Qaidam in Qinghai desert without any signs of vegetation.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences is also open to promoting the explorations, thus the building of a tourist site near the base according to Li Xiaoqun, the director of the General Office of the Lunar and Deep space Exploration.
Instead of being purely experimental, Mars Village will also serve as an educational base for many different fields of studies such as geography, astronomy, aerospace, new energy, and meteorology. Aside from that, rumors say that a specified area will be dedicated to filming so that TV and movie crews can come in and film in the base.
Mars-like simulations
China is not the first country or agency to build a Mars-like environment for scientists and astronauts. In fact, the US already has an existing simulation area in Hawaii. Last 2015, six researchers lived in isolation in the Mars-like enclosure for one year.
Simulation environments are vital especially since China already expressed its intent to send humans to deep space including Jupiter and the red planet.
In fact, Wu Yanhuan, the Vice Director of the country’s National Space Administration confirmed their 2020 Mars probe.
But China’s thirst for space dominance does not stop in Mars. They wanted to be a “space giant” in the future. Aside from the ambitious Mars probe in 2020, China is also looking at building a settlement on the moon.
