Home to many extreme weather conditions, Death Valley National Park is chosen by scientists as a place to study extraterrestrials.
Located near the border between the US states of California and Nevada, Death Valley National Park is the hottest place on Earth, with summer temperatures reaching 56 degrees Celsius even in the shade. This is also the driest place in North America, with an average rainfall of less than 50 mm.
However, the harsh conditions and arid landscape of the site make this park an ideal place to study extraterrestrials.
The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) said that about 3 billion years ago, Mars had the same status as Death Valley National Park does today. As a result, Red Planet researchers have used the park as a testing ground for equipment, tools, and hypotheses related to Mars missions.
Typically, in May 2019, NASA tested a technical model of the Lander Vision System (LVS) to prove the performance of this system. The system subsequently guided a rover named Perseverance to a safe landing on Mars. NASA said the LVS is an integral part of the guidance that helps steer Perseverance away from dangerous areas on Mars.
In addition to testing the equipment in Death Valley, scientists also studied the terrain of the park to better understand the Martian terrain. Because the park has relatively modest vegetation, accessing it to study its terrain is not difficult.
Death Valley National Park has an alluvial fan terrain that forms when water flows from a ravine and spreads sediment in a triangular or fan shape and flows down a steep hill.
NASA scientists compared this erosion and sediment movement to the alluvial fan formations in Gale Crater on Mars.
This research also extended to Ubehebe Crater and another crater about 183 m deep called Mars Hill, where there are traces of basaltic rocks left over from past volcanoes. Both are geological features similar to those on the Red Planet, where volcanic activity has occurred.
