December 18, 2002 -- NASA Testing K9 Rover in New "Marscape" for Future Missions
NASA scientists and engineers are testing new technologies using a K9 rover in a newly built
"Marscape" test facility in preparation for future missions to Mars. Testing is being conducted
at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley in a 3/4-acre "Marscape" that has been
designed to resemble the terrain on Mars. Constructed at a cost of about $74,000, the test
facility incorporates the environmental and geological features of Mars that hold the greatest
scientific interest. The Marscape features a dry lakebed and outflow channel, a meteorite impact
crater, a volcanic zone containing a dry hydrothermal spring and an area that scientists describe
as "chaotic terrain." Related News Release