Scientists have found 'Mars' right on Earth

Remote areas in Pilbara, Australia, with a climate similar to Mars, were chosen by scientists from the Mars 2020 and ExoMars projects as the sites for the experiment.

According to Digital Trends, the supervising team of the two missions Mars 2020 (NASA) and ExoMars (Europe and Russia) have had an field trip to an area in Australia.

Specifically, the Pilbara region has similarities with Mars such as high temperature, low humidity and ventilation.

Scientists from NASA and Europe hone their research techniques before deploying their mission to the red planet in the summer of 2020. (Image: NASA).

Both Mars missions 2020 and ExoMars have the same purpose of finding evidence of ancient life on Mars. Therefore, the field trip to Australia focused on finding and identifying small fossils that once existed in the area.

' The remote area of ​​Pilbara has been confirmed to have the oldest fossil life forms on Earth. If we can better understand the origin of these fossils, we will be prepared to look for signs of life on Mars' , Ken Farley - scientist of Mars Project 2020 - prize prefer.

NASA's trip to practice the techniques of research and identification of specimens, which is an important 'key' of the Mars 2020 mission.

ExoMars, meanwhile, uses autonomous vehicles with a miniature onboard chemistry lab to analyze organic compounds like amino acids. These compounds may be evidence of previous life on Mars.

A canyon at Karijini National Park, the heart of Pilbara region.(Photo: iStock).

This is not the first time NASA scientists have experimented with extreme environments on Earth to test the technology they plan to use on Mars.

Earlier, NASA conducted self-driving missions in Chile's Atacama desert region, which also has hot and dry climates similar to Mars.

The Mars 2020 mission is scheduled to begin in July 2020 and arrive in Mars in February 2021. Meanwhile, ExoMars is scheduled to start a few days after the NASA project and will reach Mars by March 2021.