IN PHOTOGRAPHS: Life in a Martian desert

Reuters photographer Jim Urquhart travelled into the Utah desert in the United States to document the Mars Desert Research Station where a crew of scientists work, study and live together in conditions designed to simulate being on Mars.

The station takes advantage of the Utah desert's Mars-like terrain to investigate the possibility of a human exploration of the red planet.

Scientists, students and enthusiasts work together developing field tactics and studying the terrain. All outdoor exploration is done wearing spacesuits and carrying air supply packs and crews live together in a small communication base with limited amounts of electricity, food, oxygen and water. Everything needed to survive must be produced, fixed and replaced on site.

We present some interesting photographs of life in a Mars-like desert.

In this photograph, Volker Maiwald, executive officer and habitat engineer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, walks among the rock formations while collecting geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

The MDRS aims to investigate the feasibility of a human exploration of Mars and uses the Utah desert's Mars-like terrain to simulate working conditions on the red planet.

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A view of the night sky above the Mars Desert Research Station is seen outside Hanksville in the Utah desert.

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Hans van't Woud (L), a mapping researcher and a health and safety officer, Csilla Orgel (C), a geologist, and Melissa Battler, a geologist and commander of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, plan their excursion to collect geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station outside Hanksville in the Utah desert.

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Hans van 't Woud, mapping researcher and the health and safety officer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission of the Mars Desert Research Station, waits in an airlock in his simulated spacesuit before venturing out to collect geologic samples in the Utah desert.

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Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission venture out in their simulated spacesuits to collect geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Melissa Battler (C), a geologist and commander of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, talks to members of the crew about collecting geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Melissa Battler (L), a geologist and commander of the Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, and Csilla Orgel, a geologist, climb a rock formation to collect geologic samples for study at the MDRS in the Utah desert.

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Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission venture out in their simulated spacesuits to collect geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission collect geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Hans van 't Woud, a mapping researcher and the health and safety officer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, collects geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station outside Hanksville in the Utah desert.

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Members of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission return after collecting geologic samples for study at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Csilla Orgel, a geologist of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, makes her way back to the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Matt Cross, rover engineer of Crew 125 EuroMoonMars B mission, works at his computer at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert.

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Matt Cross works on a rover at the Mars Desert Research Station outside Hanksville in the Utah desert.

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Melissa Battler studies collected geologic samples at the Mars Desert Research Station outside Hanksville in the Utah desert.

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