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A guide dressed in a spacesuit stands at the entrance of "Mars Base 1" in the Gobi Desert in China
A Mars-based simulator sits in the middle of the Chinese Gobi Desert, but instead of welcoming astronauts into training on the Red Planet, the facility welcomes many teenagers on a school trip.
Surrounded by bare hills in northwestern Gansu province, "Base 1 of Mars" opened on Wednesday to show teens – and soon tourists – what life could be like on the planet.
The inauguration of the facility comes as China progressed in its efforts to catch up with the United States and become a space power, with the ambition of one day sending humans to the moon .
The white-colored base has a silver dome and nine modules, including living quarters, a control room, a greenhouse and an airlock.
Built at a cost of 50 million yuan (7.47 million US dollars), the base was built with the help of the China Astronaut Center and the China Intercontinental Communication Center, a television production organization of China. 39; State.
Teenagers trek through the desert, where they explore caves in a Martian-like landscape. The nearest town is Jinchang, about 40 kilometers away.
On Wednesday, more than 100 students from a nearby high school walked in the arid plains of Gobi, wearing tracksuits similar to space suits.
"There are so many things here that I've never seen before and that interest me a lot," said 12-year-old Tang Ruitian.
The white base has a silver dome and nine modules, including dwellings, a control room, a greenhouse and an airlock
"Closer to Mars"
The company behind the project, C-Space, plans to open the base, currently an educational institution, to tourists, with a hotel and themed restaurant to attract geeks to the city. # 39; space.
"We are trying to find solutions … the base is still on Earth, it's not on Mars, but we chose a relief that best fits Mars," AFP said. founder of C-Space, Bai Fan.
It follows a Mars-like "village" that opened last month in the Qaidam Basin of neighboring Qinghai, an extremely hot and dry region, the world's highest desert, considered the best replica of surface conditions in the world. March.
As budding astronauts explore "Mars" on Earth, China plans to send a probe to the real red planet next year.
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Teenagers wear space suits and hike in the desert, where they can explore caves in a Martian-like landscape.
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Models of Martian rovers are seen at "Base 1 of Mars", in Gansu Province in northwestern China
Beijing is investing billions in its military space program, hoping to have a crewed space station by 2022.
Earlier this year, he made the first soft landing on the other side of the moon, deploying a rover to the surface.
But the C-Space project has been criticized by some members of the scientific community.
Jiao Weixin, a professor at the School of Earth Sciences and Space of Peking University, said the building and the surrounding desert were hardly representative of the conditions really hostile on Mars.
To truly reproduce the harsh and toxic conditions of Mars would be to create a truly hostile, costly and "totally useless" environment, he said.
"From the beginning, I am opposed to this," Jiao told AFP. "Tourism does not make much sense … what is its significance?"
China plans to lay probes on the other side of the moon, March by 2020
© 2019 AFP
Quote:
A small step for China: the base for teenagers of Mars opens in the desert (April 17, 2019)
recovered on April 17, 2019
from https://phys.org/news/2019-04-small-china-mars-base-teens.html
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