August 25, 2004 - The Moon Society is looking into renting the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah for a two week period. The purpose would be to conduct a set of Lunar Outpost Simulation Exercises. Such an exercise, possibly followed by additional Moon Missions at MDRS, would help the Society better plan the siting, design, and operation of its own Lunar Analog Research Station as part of Project Leto.

A window of opportunity has been provided by the Mars Society's decision to make this facility available to other groups for 2-week long crew rotations, for a rental charge that should be relatively easy to cover with sponsor funds. We are putting together a team to look into the design of a simulations program to include operations that will be uniquely relevant to lunar outposts as well as operations areas that will apply to both lunar and Mars outposts, but which have not been simulated by previous MDRS crews.