Mars on Earth: What months of simulated astronaut missions taught this scientist

six crewmembers in spacesuits pose outside of a simulated spacecraft in a laboratory

GOLDEN, Colorado - There are ways here on Earth you can get yourself in able-bodied condition, primped and primed for travel to the nearby moon, even to strut across the distant dunes of Mars — all in the hopes of later achieving the genuine thing.

Meet Anastasia Stepanova, a PhD student in space resources at the Colorado School of Mines here in Golden, and a veteran of multiple missions here on Earth that simulate the conditions human crews would experience during spaceflight or long-duration missions on the moon or Mars.