Ramon Crater in the southern Israeli desert provided a place for a team of
five men and one woman to simulate what it would be like to live for about a
month on Mars.
The six researchers live in the AMADEE-20 habitat, which is where they
sleep, eat, and conduct experiments. While outside, they wear artificial
spacesuits equipped with cameras, microphones, and self-contained breathing
systems.
This project is the result of a collaboration between the Austrian
Association, the Israel Space Agency, and the local group D-MARS.
With AMADEE-20, which was supposed to happen in 2020 but was delayed due to
COVID-19, the team hopes to bring new insights that will help prepare for that
mission in the future.
"The habitat is currently the most complex, most modern analog
research station on the planet," said Gernot Gromer, director of the
Austrian Space Forum.
In all the team will conduct more than 20 experiments including geology,
biology and medicine and hope to publish some of the results when completed.
