Photographer Jim Urquhart travelled into the Utah desert to document the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) where a crew of scientists work, study and live together in conditions designed to simulate life on Mars. The Mars Research Society takes advantage of the Utah desert's Mars-like terrain to investigate the possibility of a human exploration of the red planet.
Scientists, students and enthusiasts work together developing field tactics and studying the terrain. All outdoor exploration is done wearing simulated spacesuits and carrying air supply packs and crews live together in a small communication base with limited amounts of electricity, food, oxygen and water.
Volker Maiwald, executive officer and habitat engineer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, walks among the rock formations while collecting geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station
Volker Maiwald, executive officer and habitat engineer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, walks among the rock formations while collecting geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station
Csilla Orgel, a geologist with Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, collects samples
Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission collect geological samples
Volker Maiwald, executive officer and habitat engineer, and Hans van Ot Woud, mapping researcher and health and safety officer, wait in an airlock in their simulated spacesuits before venturing out to collect samples in the Utah desert
Hans van Ot Woud, mapping researcher and the health and safety officer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), waits in an airlock in his simulated spacesuit before venturing out to collect geological samples in the Utah desert
Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission venture out in their simulated spacesuits to collect geological samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station
Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission return to the Mars Desert Research Station
Hans van Ot Woud, a mapping researcher and the health and safety officer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, checks on plants grown at the Mars Desert Research Station
The Musk Observatory is seen from the working and living quarters at the Mars Desert Research Station
Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission return after collecting rock samples for study
Matt Cross, an engineer with Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, works on a rover at the Mars Desert Research Station
Names of past crew members are stuck on the doors of the crew bunks inside the Mars Desert Research Station
Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission prepare a meal at the Mars Desert Research Station
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is seen in the Utah desert
Melissa Battler, a geologist and commander of the Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, and Csilla Orgel, a geologist, climb a rock formation to collect samples for study
Melissa Battler and Csilla Orgel analyse samples at the Mars Desert Research Station
Hans van Ot Woud, mapping researcher and health and safety officer, Csilla Orgel, geologist, and Melissa Battler, geologist and commander of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, plan their excursion to collect geological samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station
Melissa Battler, a geologist and the commander of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, studies a 'Martian' rock
