An Air Force veteran who now commands ‘space missions’ in the Utah desert has said that humans are ready for life on Mars, and it may become a reality by 2030.
David Laude, a founding member of the Mars Society, told the Daily Mail everyday Americans are already conducting innovative experiments that may become regular chores for the first colonists in space.
The Mars Society was established in 1998 to both educate the public and advocate for future space missions that would explore the solar system.
While humans have yet to walk on Mars, Laude and others regularly simulate what astronauts may soon encounter on the Red Planet, carrying out two-week expeditions near Hanksville, Utah.
Hidden among the desert canyons, which are extremely similar to the Red Planet, the society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) acts like a scientific training facility for those hoping to one day travel through space.
Unlike the strict requirements for getting into NASA, Laude said anyone with an interesting experiment they want to test under Mars-like conditions can apply to join an MDRS mission.
‘You don’t have to have training, but it just makes you more likely to have the requirements,’ Laude explained.
‘It could be a student, some psychology student wanting to do projects on human factors. That’s not uncommon at all. There’s been high school students there before.’
David Laude (right) seen with another participant at the Mars Society’s desert research station in Utah
The Mars Desert Research Station (pictured) hosts several 2-week missions each year which carry out Mars-like science experiments
Laude said most of the missions take place between October and May. MDRS has three main structures, including a two-story habitat for the crew, a greenhouse for biological research, and a dome-shaped lab for science experiments.
There is also an array of solar panels, a collection of small vehicles similar to NASA rovers and tiny telescope observatories for viewing stars over the clear Utah desert sky.
The region’s extreme aridity, with little rainfall and low humidity, mimics Mars’ lifeless environment, where liquid water is practically non-existent.
The base’s remote location, far from urban areas, helps the Mars Society simulate the isolation of a Martian habitat, recreating the psychological and logistical challenges of planet colonization.
The soil in Utah is also rich in iron oxides (giving it a reddish hue), which is chemically and visually similar to Mars.
The local environment has helped participants carry out crop research in the improvised greenhouse, recreating the harsh conditions that await astronauts needing to grow food once they reach the Red Planet.
The landscape has also come in handy when Laude and others test rovers and go on walks in improvised space gear known as extravehicular activity suits (EVAs).
Pictured: Laude and another MDRS participant use a motorized cart to simulate NASA rovers moving across the Martian desert
The MDRS has several structures, including a facility where the participants suit up for simulated space walks
Mars Society applicants have conducted all sorts of projects here, including using Elon Musk’s Starlink system to wirelessly transmit data from the desert back to the MDRS, just like astronauts would need to do while communicating with Earth.
Similar to an actual Mars mission, Laude noted that the preparations begin up to 10 months before the applicants head to Utah.
‘My role as a commander is organizing, managing, training and developing crew roles, and developing and researching projects,’ he said.
Part of that job means handing out additional roles for each person at MDRS to fill during their two-week stay, such as a crew engineer and a health and safety officer.
The research projects go through an approval process, which gets cleared by the director of the MDRS, Sergii Iakymov, about a month before the mission starts.
Laude said humans are currently in a much better position to successfully travel space than they were during the early Moon missions.
‘I think [there is] much more reason now to think it could happen in 10 years,’ Laude said.
‘I think 2030 to 2035. I think that’s probably about the earliest I would see humans there. Maybe very late 2020s.’
Laude (pictured) simulates a Martian space walk through the Utah desert near the town of Hanksville
Participants at MDRS don’t need professional credentials to apply to the Mars Society. Having an interesting science project can get you accepted to join the mission
The Mars Society mission commander noted that the first missions to the fourth planet will likely involve robots, adding that this would be a ‘good next step’ because of SpaceX’s recent string of explosions while testing its Starship space vehicle.
‘Frankly, I don’t think they’re doing enough engineering and research before they launch,’ Laude said.
‘They’re kind of known for launching and seeing what happens… way more than NASA would.’
Unfortunately, Musk and SpaceX may be the only chance humans have of reaching Mars within the next five years due to federal budget cuts to NASA.
The Mars Society has already publicly denounced the funding cuts, saying that the group ‘stands 100 percent in opposition to this brutal attempt to wreck American space science’.
Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have opted to leave the space agency through the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, NASA officials have confirmed.
While The Mars Society, a non-profit organization, doesn’t work directly with NASA or private companies such as SpaceX, the group has received some financial support from Musk’s company.
