Terrestrial Analogs for Conditions on Mars

Extreme spots on Earth may reveal life on Mars, Knight Ridder Newspapers

“Although it will be at least 30 years before the first human sets foot on Mars, NASA already is testing some of the conditions that astronauts might face there. For example, [Astrobiologist Nathalie] Cabrol took astronaut Scott Parazynski, a space-walk specialist on the shuttle Atlantis in 1997, with her on a climb up Licancabur, a 19,522-foot Bolivian volcano. Dangerous ultraviolet radiation is intense in the scanty atmosphere up there, as it is on Mars.”