This Mind-Blowing Mojave Desert Compound Will Train Astronauts For Life on Mars

The EBIOS Project is essentially a prototype design for a Martian colony.

One way or another, humans are going to Mars. We’ve got all the space travel technology to get there; it’s just a matter of time. The biggest problem might be how to handle staying there. Interstellar Labs, based in France, is ready to work on that problem.

The concept rendering of the “Experimental Bio-Regenerative Station” (EBIOS) facility above reveals what Interstellar Labs plans to build in the Mojave Desert so prospective astronauts can train under the kinds of circumstances they’ll face on the surface of the Red Planet 163 million miles away.

Interstellar Labs plans for EBIOS to be a completely closed and self-sustaining compound. It’s also supposed to be carbon-neutral and once complete could host up to 100 people. 

EBIOS will move one step closer to reality in 2021, when Interstellar Labs plans to break ground in the Mojave Desert. There’s plenty of agreement among scientists that deserts are the best places to encounter conditions akin to those found on Mars, where there is very little water and it can get as cold as -80 F (okay, that would have to be artificially replicated) and as warm as 70 degrees Fahrenheit near the equator.

Interstellar Labs is working with NASA on the design, planning waste management systems as well as growing and processing food and drinking clean water. 

Once the EBIOS is up and running, it will operate for six months a year as a top-level research facility and for the rest of the year, it will be open for tourists—which is a pretty smart plan, once you realize the tourism side will fund the science. 

You can learn more about the project and the people behind it here: www.interstellarlab.earth.