Why is it in news?

Over 200 scientists from 25 nations are conducting simulation tests in the vast sandy terrain of Dhofar Desert in southern Oman for a manned mission to Mars

Details

• The desolate desert in southern Oman, near the borders of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, resembles Mars so much that more than 200 scientists from 25 nations chose it as their location for the next four weeks, to field-test technology for a manned mission to Mars.
• Seen from space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown expanse. Few animals or plants survive in the desert expanses of the Arabian Peninsula, where temperatures can top 125 degrees Fahrenheit, or 51 degrees Celsius
• The desert’s surface resembles Mars so much, it’s hard to tell the difference. The types of geomorphology, all the structures, the salt domes, the riverbeds, the wadis, it parallels a lot of what we see on Mars.
• Public and private ventures are racing toward Mars—both former president Barack Obama and SpaceX founder Elon Musk declared humans would walk on the Red Planet in a few decades.
• New challengers like China are joining the United States and Russia in space with an ambitious, if vague, Mars program. Aerospace corporations like BlueOrigin have published schematics of future bases, ships and suits.
• The recent successful launch of the world’s largest rocket, the Falcon Heavy, has instilled new hope in future manned Mars missions which are envisioned by various space agencies. The next step to Mars, he says, is to tackle non-engineering problems like medical emergency responses and isolation.
• While cosmonauts and astronauts are learning valuable spacefaring skills on the International Space Station—and the US is using virtual reality to train scientists—the majority of work to prepare for interplanetary expeditions is being done on Earth.

Why is the world excited about Mars?

• Until the first spacecraft flybys of Mars in the 1960s, scientists believed the planet might have liquid water and sustain life. That possibility was enough to fascinate the public.
• Even before the Mariner flybys in the 1960s, scientists thought Mars had water and life, even if it was just some sort of plantlike lichen. Mars' spectrum, its color in the near infrared, mimics that of vegetation. Back in the '50s and '60s, they concluded that was evidence of chlorophyll, and Mars had vegetation
• The popular culture and science fiction has also played a significant role in generating curiosity amongst the people about the red planet.

Source

Livemint