If you’ve ever closed your eyes and imagined what it would be like to walk on the red surface of Mars, we have news for you: you don’t need a spacesuit or astronaut training to experience it. You just need a ticket to northern Chile.
And the link between both worlds is more concrete than you imagine. Recently, the NASA scientific team operating the Curiosity rover identified a new crater about 10 meters in diameter on the Red Planet. The name they chose to christen it wasn’t random: Antofagasta, where San Pedro de Atacama is located.
Why did they name a crater Antofagasta?
The choice wasn’t by chance. For scientists at the American agency, Antofagasta is the Earth’s representation of Mars.
For decades, the Atacama Desert has been the place where NASA tests its robots and drills before sending them into space. Its extreme aridity and soil chemistry are so similar that they have served for years as a setting for astrobiology research.
Don’t believe us? Here are three examples you can visit.
Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)
It is probably the most iconic landscape in northern Chile. Imagine huge sand dunes, salt ridges that crunch under your feet, and clay formations sculpted by the wind over millions of years. At sunset, the Moon Valley is tinged with purple and reddish tones so intense that you’ll forget for a second that oxygen is abundant here.
Mars Valley
Its name says it all. Mars Valley (also known as Death Valley) is a labyrinth of vibrant red rock formations and giant dunes. It’s a favorite spot for travelers to go sandboarding or simply to walk in absolute silence, surrounded by a geography that perfectly mimics the Martian canyons that Curiosity roams today.
Piedras Rojas (Talar Salt Flat)
At over 4,000 meters high, the Talar Salt Flat (known as Piedras Rojas) offers a surreal contrast. Huge rust-colored rocks—the result of iron oxidation, the same process that gives Mars its color—surround a turquoise lagoon. It’s an extreme, beautiful, and so alien landscape that it will take your breath away.
Ready for your first mission out of this world? The “Antofagasta” crater awaits you on Mars, but the real adventure begins here, in northern Chile.
