Astroland Agency

Spanish private space company

Astroland Interplanetary Agency is a Spanish interplanetary agency based in Cantabria, Spain. Astroland operates the first permanent, plug-and -play subsurface analogue station inside a cave 1.5 km long and 60 meters high in Santander. Astroland is an aerospace startup acting as a research organization, whose main objective is to envision future living capabilities on Mars.

## History

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Astroland was founded by David Ceballos in 2018. It was his childhood dream to explore the space and when he worked for Ministry of Culture and Heritage he got the chance to explore the Caves and came up with the idea to start the interplanetary agency.[1][2]

The company lets analogue astronauts to experience Mars Analogue Habitat on Earth for the first time in a permanent plug and play subsurface analogue station, though there have been other Mars analogues in caves  earlier this is the first and only of a permanent nature. It took around two years to locate the cave working alongside expert biologists, archaeologist, architects and environmental engineers.[3][4][5]

## Overview

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The main goal is to develop the skills and technology necessary to establish human colonies on Mars focusing on the habitat, with the aim of facilitating functional human habitats, that will be first deployed on the Moon and then on Mars.[6][7][8]

The first step has been to set up the first and only permanent plug-and-play subsurface analogue station worldwide which provides fully equipped operational scenarios analogue to Mars /Moon lava tubes, since according to previous scientific research one of the most sensible things to do to be protected from the harsh Martian environment will be to settle underground, in the old Martian lava tubes.[9][10][11]

Astroland Interplanetary Agency initiated the work on the project in 2016 and it took two years to convince the authorities to use the Cave in Arredondo (Cantabria) Santander. There are two main components of the agency: Ares Station and the Space Center.[12]

## Facilities

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### The Space Center

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It is a 5-module complex located at the Science and Technology Park of Cantabria. This experiment facility is the training camp for the Astrolanders, and of course, the Mission Control Center where every single aspect of the mission is monitored remotely, from the astrolanders vital constants and metabolic parameters, to audio and visual contact, communications with the station are time delayed to simulate the time it takes for each message to travel from Earth to Mars.

The participants first go through remote training program. These trainings include: mental, physical, nutritional, technical, and moral couching.  Then, the next phase consists of physical, psychological and operational training at the Space Center: induction to caving, rope climbing and abseiling, rescue and self-rescue techniques, decision making and risk assessment, confine spaces awareness, claustrophobia, stress, coping with emergencies and risks such as slips, trips and falls .[13][14]

### Ares Station

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Ares Station is the cave where the mission takes place. Before entering Ares Station, the Astrolanders are geared up in astrosuits (astronaut-like suits for analogue missions).

The Astrolanders stayed in the main habitat Alpha Base, with capacity for 8 crew members, fully equipped with all the necessary welfare facilities and apparatus for running the experiments, such as sleeping cubicles, vacuum toilets, exercise and work stations, high resolution microscopes, hydroponic culture laboratory, 3D printers, hygiene kits, and lyophilised food.[15]

At the deep end of the cave there is also an exploration outpost, a life capsule with capacity for 2 people.

## Awards

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The company has won the following awards:

* 2nd Prize in SME of the Year 2021[16]
* XXI Entrepreneur Award Finalist[17]
* Yuzz Cantabria 2017 finalist[18]

## References

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1. ^ "Astroland, vivir en Marte es posible". dlm-magazine. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
2. ^ "Astroland: idea de negocio en el sector espacial". Emprendedores.es (in Spanish). 6 September 2021. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
3. ^ Construcción, Alimarket. "Astroland presenta sus viviendas inteligentes y sostenibles inspiradas en Marte - Noticias de Construcción en Alimarket, información económica sectorial". Alimarket.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-07-15.
4. ^ Huen, Eustacia. "What's Living On Mars Like? You Can Have A Taste In This Trip". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
5. ^ Pozo, Desirée (2020-03-19). "Visitar Marte sin salir de España: la cueva de Cantabria en la que experimentar cómo es el planeta rojo". Hipertextual (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-07-15.
6. ^ Moreno, Miguel Ángel (2021-01-10). "Astroland, la empresa española ofrece a los astronautas una estación que emula la vida en Marte dentro una cueva de Cantabria". Business Insider España (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-07-15.
7. ^ Ordóñez, Rafael (2019-01-25). "La vida de Marte en una cueva de Cantabria". El Independiente (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-07-15.
8. ^ "Astroland: vivir en Marte sin tener que salir de la Tierra". MuyInteresante.es (in Spanish). 2019-09-26. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
9. ^ TV3 (2021-06-08). "Explorar la vida a Mart per salvar la Terra". CCMA (in Catalan). Retrieved 2022-07-15.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
10. ^ "Un viaje científico a Marte sin salir de la Tierra". El·lipse (in European Spanish). 2020-02-18. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
11. ^ "23rd IAA SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM (A5)" (PDF).
12. ^ Ceballos, Mario; Peña, Jorge De La; Elorza, Iñigo Muñoz (2020-01-01). "ASTROLAND: AN INNOVATIVE PERMANENT ANALOG HABITAT TO EXPLORE THE CAPABILITIES OF SUBSURFACE HABITABILITY AND OPERATIONS IN MARS". 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) – the CyberSpace Edition.
13. ^ Germany, reisereporter, Hannover, Niedersachsen (2019-08-23). "Mars-Urlaub: Das Weltall ist näher, als du denkst". reisereporter (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-15.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. ^ "TripAdvisor proposing simulation of life on Mars". sg.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
15. ^ "Simulate a Mission to Mars with TripAdvisor Experiences and Astroland Agency". pastemagazine.com. 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
16. ^ "La empresa Formaspack, Premio Pyme del Año 2021 de Cantabria". Europa Press. 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
17. ^ 20minutos (2020-01-28). "Siali, Premio Emprendedor XXI a la empresa más innovadora". www.20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-07-15.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
18. ^ "Los creadores de 'Siali', entre los 100 jóvenes más creativos del mundo de los negocios del ranking Forbes". El Faradio | Periodismo que cuenta (in Spanish). 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2022-07-15.