So what is Rio Tinto and where is it? Rio Tinto is a river in the South of Spain which is flowing through the region of Andalucia. The river discharges about 100 km from the city Huelva into the Atlantic Ocean.

Well now we have:

• Aouda-X… a space suit simulator, which is waiting for its biggest, longest and most adventurous field-test.
• the MCC.. a well- rehearsed team controlling the mission in the Mission Control Center.
• Operations… a group of people supporting the suit- tester during its EVAs.

But also a place on earth, which is as similar to Mars as possible, is necessary.
For accomplishing this Mars- Analogue- mission we need an area whose geology, soil structure, etc. is similar to the conditions on Mars.

So we started looking after an arid and cold place with red sand and red hills.
Concerning the low temperatures the Arctic would be suitable, of course. Because of this reason this will be the destination of our next field test.
But for this simulation we also wanted a comfortable transportation logistics and so we kept on searching and finally finished, when we found the semi- desert Rio Tinto in the Southwest of Spain, the most mars- similar place in Continental Europe.
There we are expecting temperatures between 10 and 20°C and a very arid landscape, which provides a sandy on the one hand, but also a rocky surface on the other hand.
The fact that there are no plants offers the best conditions for our forthcoming expedition.

The countdown has started: T-10 h until the Rio Tinto field crew leaves for Spain.

Our prepartions for Rio Tinto

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