Although still 140 million miles and at least 12 years from human exploration, humans are getting closer to setting foot on Mars everyday.

In March, four Penn State students will be part of a two-week simulation conducted at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the Utah desert and will be testing a new rover that could someday be used to assist astronauts on the surface of Mars.

The four members of the crew are all part of the Penn State Mars Society (www.clubs.psu.edu/up/mars) and have official jobs while participating in the simulation. The crew includes Kevin Sloan, society president and commander; Jason Schwier, society vice president and computing specialist; Amy Blank, chief rover engineer; and Ryan Kobrick, habitat engineer and health officer.

Sloan (senior-electrical and mechanical engineering) explained that while the selection process for these simulations is competitive, one thing set the Penn State team apart -- its rover.

"We definitely had an advantage; we had something to test," he said. "Some scientists and engineers go there and make up their missions as they go along."

Members of the Mars Society began thinking about developing a rover a few years ago, but the project had been moving slowly. The rover design addresses a few problems with current rover designs in that it will make rovers more compatible with each other and will simplify their use for astronauts in the field, Sloan said.

Sloan explained that a virtual reality glove can be implanted within a space suit to control the rover. Using simple hand gestures, the astronaut can control the rover while it carries out various tasks. It is the group's hope that by using its prototype, a system could be developed that would allow all rovers to be standardized but capable of being equipped with swappable modules on site for carrying out a variety of tasks.

The controls for the rover will be simple for the astronauts and universal for most tasks. For instance, curling one's fingers may mean drive forward; in that case, if the rover is drilling, curling fingers may mean drill down, the drilling variation of drive forward.

The emphasis of this rover design is in the efficiency of carrying out various types of research on the surface of Mars, Sloan said.

"Lots of tasks will need to be performed, and right now, completing 30 tasks could involve sending up 30 rovers. That's 30 sets of wheels and 30 sets of equipment, much of which is the same," he said. "Instead, we want to scale it down and send six rover bases that have all the basics and then just send 30 different and much smaller, swappable research modules."

Kobrick (graduate-aerospace engineering) also explained the positive interactions that are possible between human and robot using their new rover design.

"It gives the ability for multitasking; the human can tell the rover to look at one rock while he looks at another. If the astronaut sees something he would like to examine, he can have the rover stop while he continues to explore," he said.

When the crew is not testing its rover design, it will live in "The Hab," a module that is 8 meters in diameter and realistically simulates what could be used to explore Mars in early missions. One of the biggest purposes of the simulations is to study the crew interactions and the psychological aspects of Mars exploration, Kobrick explained.

He also said the support team from PSU and the resident Mars Society staff are as important as the crew members in the simulation because they will be fixing software bugs, repairing damages and looking over the crew like mission control.

For Sloan, the change from the hustle and bustle of Penn State to a small, confining habitat will be an adjustment.

"It will definitely be interesting going from Penn State's open spaces and students and the always going from point A to B lifestyle to something much smaller. You can't get up and run around the block in a Mars simulation," he said.

The types of simulations like those carried out at the MDRS are essential for the future success of human Mars exploration, explained Kobrick.

"It's research needed to find out what problems might occur before traveling all the way there," he said. "Financially, it makes sense to do research right here on Earth to maximize efficiency and budget for these missions properly."

Kobrick explained that human Mars exploration could have benefits for almost all disciplines. It would mean new types of technologies, international cooperation and possible mining opportunities and could lead to finding new life or traces of life in the past on the Red Planet. Almost any scientific, cultural or social discipline could gain in some way from exploring Mars.

Sloan added that man's basic need for exploration has now logically led us to exploring Mars.

"Mankind has always been outgoing in exploring new areas and new frontiers. Some people look at space exploration as archaic and something read about in history books, but now people are seeing that there is another world out there calling to us, just waiting to be explored and discovered," he said.

Technologically, mankind has been ready to explore Mars since the 1990s, but NASA as an institution was not ready. Now, after the President Bush's recent announcement of a Mars initiative, the United States could, under ideal circumstances, be on Mars by 2015, Sloan said. However, he believes a much more realistic estimate is 2030.

Kobrick said, "I see that its going to have to be a private, public and possibly international partnership that will get us to Mars by 2030."