A group of six Belgian students have travelled to the Utah outpost for a two-week mission. This rocky outpost, bearing a resemblance to the red planet has become a hot spot for scientists and engineers to test technologies and experiment with their Mars projects.

The research center at Utah is managed by Mars Society, a nonprofit group, aiming to help put humans on the Martian surface. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society director, stated, "What we are doing on Mars is beginning humanity's career as a space-faring species, a multi-planet species. This is about extending the human reach from one world to many worlds".

The Belgian students are the 153rd group in the last 14 years to make such a visit. Romain Compere, one of the six students mocked that he does not want to die without oxygen, thousands of kilometers from his home with no one to love him!

Compere and his five classmates have been chosen amongst the 34 other students at their university. The Mars Society charged each of them $1,000 for the mission, which was funded collectively by a grant from NASA, donations from their own university and contributions by several Belgian science companies.

The mimicking of the interplanetary missions on these remote sites has instilled new hope in the space enthusiasts who now believe that the 140-million-mile trip could be a realistic possibility in the near future.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden recently announced that the space agency plans to get people to Mars in the 2030s. However, the private companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are trying to plan trips to Mars and even hoping to colonize Mars before NASA does.

The third annual 'Humans to Mars Summit' begins on May 5 in Washington D. C., and is expected to be attended by about 800 people and watched online by millions.