The Mars Society would like to extend its sincere thanks to Alpha School, an AI-powered private K–12 school network operating in Texas, Florida, Arizona, California and several other states, for its recent collaboration at our Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah.
As part of a filming project by Limitless Productions at MDRS featuring three Alpha School students, the production company made significant updates to the interior of the habitat to create a more immersive, Mars-like environment.
These enhancements included updated furniture and cabinetry, orange window film in the Hab and RAM that emulates the Martian atmosphere, new racks and storage bins, as well as cutlery and crockery, a new front sign directed at sightseers at the entrance to the campus, and numerous other additional improvements throughout the station.
While some of these improvements were cosmetic in nature, they meaningfully enhance the immersion of the station and will benefit future analog astronauts participating in MDRS missions. We are grateful to Alpha School for both its partnership and its thoughtful contributions to the station.
In addition to the Alpha School visit, the facility’s power infrastructure was upgraded through the replacement of existing batteries and electronics and the installation of a SolArk system. The new system is fully integrated with the existing solar panel array and automatically activates the generator only when needed.
The solar upgrades had been long planned and were carried out by members of the Mars Society community, Colin Lennox and Richard Flarend of Pennsylvania. The $20,000 required for the upgrade was raised through a successful crowdfunding campaign featured on the MDRS website. Thanks to all of our ‘Martian’ supporters!
