8 Ways We're Getting Ready To Go To Mars

2. Mars On Earth

Preparation is the key to success, and it's probably good idea to give our astronauts a bit of training before we hoy them off into space.

Unfortunately, the closest environment that is exactly like Mars is, well, Mars, but we can have a good go at taking what we know about conditions on the red planet and doing our best to simulate them back home.

In July 2010, six volunteers embarked on a Martian training exercise in Moscow, that would last until November of the following year, to simulate the experience of the 520-day trip to Mars.

Antarctica is always a good spot for Martian training, as the planet's thin atmosphere means that temperatures can plummet. Deserts also tend to be a good shout, due to the dry, barren nature of the Martian landscape. The Haughton crater on Devon Island is considered to be the best Mars analogue and has been home to the NASA's Haughton Mars Project since 1997.

As well as training on the ground, another way of preparing for spaceflight, is to head underwater, where the buoyancy mimics the weightless environment of space, as in NASA's aptly named NEEMO project.