Here’s how you can explore Mars on Earth

I am very sure the title of the article has confused you, and for good measure. Mars, which is a planet several lightyears away from our planet, how can it possibly be here on earth. It is not, but there is a place here on this very planet, that is uninhabited, and possesses the most Mars-like conditions, so much so, that people have used this place for research related to Mars. The place I am talking about is Devon Island.

Devon Island in the Arctic is the largest uninhabited island on Earth, and for good reason. With a polar-desert climate and barren, rocky terrain, which is frequently veiled in fog, this desolate landmass is hardly welcoming.

The vast inland plateau is blanketed by boulder fields and cut by deep canyons and mazes of valleys. The landscape is also scarred by a large meteorite impact crater and smoothed by ancient lake beds.

Researchers with NASA’s Haughton-Mars Project come here every summer to study one of the most Mars-like places on Earth and learn how to explore Mars in the future.

Google Earth possesses a tailor-made tour around Devon Island and while you can always manually search for it, the following method makes the experience a bit more insightful and immersive.

Step 1. Open the Google Earth app on the web browser. This version of Google Earth has the feature we are talking about.

 

 

Step 2. Click on the three-line button at the top left-hand side of the home page.

 

 

Step 3. From the menu that appears, click on the Voyager button.

 

 

Step 4. Scroll through the various options and click on the ‘Mars on Earth’ tab.

 

 

You will now start an interactive tour of the Devon Islands, and not only can you virtually explore the place, but you also get some really insightful information about it. Personally, I didn’t really know a lot about the Devon Islands and was not even aware that it is called Mars on Earth. This virtual tour from Google Earth really taught me something new, and I hope it does for you too.

If you want to use the Google Earth Pro application on the PC, then you will be restricted to manually searching for Devon Islands and virtually exploring it on your own. You will not be able to see the insights about the location.