The Mars Desert Research Station is one of the first attempts of a comprehensive integration of planetary field sciences and research schemes with developing an extensive appreciation of manned space exploration beyond Earth's orbit in mind. Austromars is an interdisciplinary project containing experiments from the area of fundamental research and practical sciences. The spin-off potential is quite high which means technologies developed for mars research are applied in non space related fields from mobile monitoring of patients to waste management.

Besides the natural sciences based experiments Mars Desert Research Station offers an unique environment to test new technological developments under controlled conditions: considering the rapid technological development of the recent decades nobody can anticipate how for example a space suit will look like in 30 years. But research in analogue stations makes it possible to "ask the right questions" at least, that means the definition of the hardware's specification. At the same time the Austromars experiments yield a high degree of real-life relevance for terrestrial appliances, for instance the (during the simulation tested) Famos hardware can be used to detect symptoms of fatigue with fraught-with-risk occupational groups early enough.

The Flight Crew was presented on Monday, 20th february at a press conference. The training started in December 2005 in Graz. Following you will find all names and short portraits of the flight crew for the AustroMars Mission in April 2006.

The mission control center in Austria is the brain of the Austromars mission - led by a flight director the flight controllers are caring for the safety of the mission, instructing the crew, filing the continuous stream of scientific data and observing the progress of the expedition.

Mars Society operates the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a mars-analogue station in the desert of southern Utah/United States nearby Hanksville. The facility's principal item is a "habitat" measuring 8 metres in diameter. It's a two-floor construction mounted on landing pads. Furthermore there are outbuildings like a greenhouse supporting the bioregenerative systems and a small observatory for astronomical purposes.