“How we will live on Mars tomorrow is how we should be living on Earth today.” –Kai Staats, Director of Research for SAM.
The Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM) is a hermetically sealed and pressurized research facility located at the renowned University of Arizona Biosphere 2. It was designed and constructed almost entirely by the hands of volunteers, students, and SAM staff in just over two years, from first shovel in the ground to first crew sealed inside.
Since the spring of 2023 SAM continues to improve, grow, and expand, from a borrowed Paragon CO2 scrubber to a world-class CO2 scrubber research facility; from a basalt sandbox (quite literally) to the world’s largest geologically accurate, indoor Mars yard; from the first (and very leaky) hydroponics prototype to an advanced automated system that supports studies in bioregeneration.
The SAM team has evolved too, from Kai and Trent with broom, shovel, impact wrench, and a box of sand paper to a working group of 18 people across four countries—a half dozen on-site, every day, moving at high velocity toward the goal of helping our species become interplanetary. As with the original Biospherians, the SAM team launched with a passion for human space exploration and over time has become aware that How we will live on Mars tomorrow is how we should be living on Earth today—aware of each breath we take, thankful for each drop of water we drink, and intentional for how we grow our food and manage our waste.
SAM is a research facility, habitat analog, and a mirror for each person who enters and leaves—with an improved awareness of what it means to be a custodian of this, our home planet Earth.
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