KiwiSpace Foundation
MARS ANALOGUE MISSIONS / UTAH / 2012

Mars Desert
Research Station.

A small habitat in a vast desert. For the KiwiMars crew, this was a place to practise exploration—and bring the experience home.

The cylindrical Mars Desert Research Station habitat in the Utah desert
THE HAB / UTAH

The station as documented during KiwiSpace’s 2012 expedition.

STEP INSIDE / PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2012

A room with
another-world view.

Choose a viewpoint, then load the panorama. Drag to look around; use the zoom and fullscreen controls to explore.

Preview of the 2012 habitat panorama
A WORKING SIMULATION

Real constraints.
Earth beneath our feet.

The Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station offered a setting for learning how a small crew might live and work on another planet. The Hab brought sleeping, eating, research and maintenance into one compact, two-storey building.

In 2012, KiwiMars combined field excursions with daily reporting and public outreach. Crew members prepared simulated spacesuits and radios, passed through an airlock routine, worked in the surrounding geology and returned to shared meals, maintenance and reports.

This was an analogue of selected challenges, not a reproduction of the Martian environment. The Hab did not need to hold a Martian pressure difference, and Utah’s warm spring weather was very different from Mars. The value lay in the routines, limited resources, teamwork and science.

This tour uses the photographs and descriptions from the 2012 visit. It does not depict later additions or the station’s present-day layout.

HOW THE STATION WORKED

One base.
Many small systems.

Explore the original descriptions of life and work around the Hab.

Living upstairsA kitchen, communal table, workstations and six small sleeping rooms. Working downstairsLaboratory benches, field equipment, maps and the preparation area for EVAs. Preparing to go outsideThe airlock routine used a simulated waiting period before excursions. Keeping the Hab runningTools, maintenance and the practical work behind an expedition. The greenhouseThe 2012 account describes water recycling and a greenhouse without plants at the time of the crew’s arrival. The observatoryA telescope and a dark desert sky added astronomy to the research setting. Getting into the fieldATVs and a support vehicle helped crews reach the surrounding terrain. The complete habitat accountRead the preserved 2012 description and its original photographs and floor plans.
THE STATION & ITS SURROUNDINGS

Life on
this red planet.

The MDRS Flickr gallery ↗
April 28, 2012 441April 28, 2012 442April 28, 2012 451EVA 2 Phobos Peak 13Stone FlowerEVA 2 Phobos Peak 1EVA 2 Phobos Peak 18EVA 2 Phobos Peak The Hab and the Factory ButteEVA 2 Phobos Peak lichensEVA 2 Phobos Peak 52

Original KiwiSpace photographs from the 2012 expedition. Browse the panorama album on Flickr ↗

THE EXPEDITIONS

Now meet
the explorers.

KiwiMars 2012 dashboardRead the crew’s original accounts, one day at a time.TasMars 2013 dashboardFollow the next expedition’s science, engineering and field reports.