SCIENTISTS have set out to recreate life on Mars — in a deep cave in North Yorkshire.
Experts have built a lab 1,000m below ground near Whitby to see how well astronauts could function on the Red Planet.
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The team believe the environment — with its 250 million year old rock salt deposits — will help them duplicate conditions found on Mars and the moon.
They have created a hub like that built by stranded Matt Damon in 2015 sci-fi movie, The Martian, to test how humans might work and stay healthy on long space missions.
It is dubbed Bio-SPHERE or Biomedical Sub-surface Pod for Habitability and Extreme-environments Research in Expeditions.
The project is being run in partnership with Boulby Underground Laboratory.
Prof Sean Paling, who runs it, said: “The project promises to help answer key logistical questions in establishing sustainable living conditions in remote, subterranean environments.
“It will significantly contribute to the essential preparations for our collective long, difficult and exciting journey in exploring habitats beyond Earth.”
Lead researcher Dr Alexandra Iordachescu, of Birmingham University, said the hub would help “gather information that can advise on the life-support systems in deep-space missions”.
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