Crew 291 & 292

The Mars Society Australia is leading two crew rotations to the Mars Desert Research Station (http://mdrs.marssociety.org/) in Utah in January/February 2024. The first rotation (291) will be all Australian, on site from 20th January to 3rd February. Rotation 292 'Mangalyatri' will comprise a predominantly Indian crew under the leadership of Dr Annalea Beattie, which will be on site from 4th February to 17th February. The rotations will be undertaken in full simulation mode. Research streams include geology, engineering, human factors/medical science, microbiology and astronomy. There will be a program of daily EVA's to undertake fieldwork.

Expedition Goals

The purpose of the expeditions are to

provide a new generation of Australians and Indians with an opportunity experience a full analogue Mars mission
advance allied research projects across multiple disciplines
foster collaborative partnerships between organisations and individuals

Crew 291 - Boomerang

Andrew Wheeler (Expedition Commander)

Crew 292 - Mangalyatri

Dr Annalea Beattie (Expedition Commander)

Mangalyatri means 'Mars Expeditioners' in Hindi. Mangalyatri is a mostly Indian national crew with a mission focus on learning about Mars analogues in order to build a science desert research station in Ladakh. Apart from our own individual research at MDRS, in simulation our goal is to think about what we can learn from the systems and science operations in Utah and apply this knowledge to future work in Ladakh.