Martian Understudy

Question: According to NASA, what destination on Earth most closely resembles the surface of Mars?

Answer: Iceland

Who says you need a spaceship to visit Mars? You can still find a few destinations with geological features that resemble something from another planet right here on Earth. But Iceland is a destination where all the landscapes are “otherworldly.” So much so that NASA and other international space agencies use the “Land of Fire and Ice” as a stand-in for Mars—for everything from testing procedures and equipment to putting rover prototypes through their paces in extreme environments.

And when we’re ready for manned missions, you can be sure that any Mars-bound astronauts will be training in Iceland first.

The use of Iceland for research and astronaut training is nothing new. Before the historic lunar missions in the mid-60s, 32 Apollo astronauts were sent by NASA to Iceland—including Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon. Perhaps Iceland deserves a little credit for that flawless “one small step” he took on the lunar surface.

What makes Iceland so important to space exploration?

Scientific researchers are drawn to Iceland for the same reason the rest of us are—the dramatic landscapes of ancient glaciers and geothermal wonders. Although scientists aren’t really there to take in all the scenic beauty. What makes it so special from their point of view is how Iceland possesses terrestrial analogues of diverse regions of the moon, Mars, Venus, and other planets—and more of them than anywhere else on Earth. Even better, these diverse geological features are within close proximity to each other in Iceland, so space researchers don’t have to go to Antarctica for experiments on extreme cold and then off to Hawaii to study lava tubes. It’s one-stop shopping on Iceland.

And what makes Iceland even more important these days is how it could actually help unlock some secrets about Mars. The Red Planet wasn’t always the frigid, inhospitable land it is today. Scientists believe that conditions on Mars some three billion years ago weren’t too different than what it’s like in coastal Iceland today—especially all the geothermal activity and hydrothermal vents that may give rise to primitive forms of life. What it boils down to is the search for life on Mars begins in Iceland.

“Is there life on Mars?” isn’t just a Bowie song

It’s fine to dream about things like “colonizing Mars” and “space tourism,” but those are really distractions from the original focus of missions to Mars—to search for the evidence of life.

Since 1997, six successful rovers have operated on Mars. Five of these increasingly advanced robotic vehicles—Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance—are from the U.S. The sixth, Zhurong (named after the mythical Chinese god of fire), is from China. Both Curiosity and Perseverance are still actively exploring Mars. The goal of all rovers has been to search for signs of ancient water, study the planet’s geology and climate, and investigate whether Mars may have once supported life. A far cry from the stationary landers of yore, rovers can tool along the Martian landscape, climb hills, analyze rock samples, and even drill into the planet’s surface. And most of the sites where the rovers are programmed to explore on the surface of Mars are selected based on the research done in Iceland.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has gathered rock samples that scientists believe could contain compelling biosignatures of ancient microbial life. But they must be tested in a lab before it can be conclusively proven that Mars once harbored life. Unfortunately, funding for the project was suddenly canceled by the current administration. Many scientists have criticized the cancellation of the samples’ return, one going so far as to calling it an “extinction level event.”

The future of Mars exploration by America is anyone’s guess at this point. If you’re betting on who will be the first nation to put a man or woman on Mars, you may want to hedge that bet with some money on China. Plans are already in place in China for manned missions beginning as early as 2033, with a goal of establishing a permanent base on the planet. Five years ago, their Mars rover Zhurong operated for more than a year before a planned shutdown for the Martian winter.

China already sends more rockets into space per year than any other nation. They also operate the Tiangong space station, which is soon to be the largest with the retirement of the International Space Station in 2030. China has landed a spacecraft on the Moon’s dark side, and they are the only nation aside from the U.S. to successfully land on Mars. If China does become the first to build a base on Mars and gain access to its resources, it will leave an awful lot of people in the U.S. seeing “red.”

Iceland launches Mars-fueled ad campaign

Well aware of the popularity of their alien-like landscapes, Iceland’s tourism board decided to embrace all the comparisons to Mars with a cheeky ad campaign. They want people to know that they don’t need a spaceship to see otherworldly sights like red rocks, black sands, and subglacial volcanoes because they’re all in Iceland. Their first ads promoted “Iceland is like Mars—if the Red Planet had hot tubs.”

To support the campaign, they also launched an innovative space billboard that was taken into the stratosphere by a weather balloon. A camera was able to capture the image on the billboard with the curve of the Earth as a backdrop. The message read: “Iceland. Better than space.” Iceland’s tourism board wants everyone to know that the billboard was not in orbit and would never put something on a trajectory around the Earth for the sake of marketing. The weather balloon that launched the billboard did not require fuel, and was recovered after it deflated at a pre-determined altitude.

The campaign was initiated after a global study by Visit Iceland found two fifths of the planet’s population believes that Iceland offers scenery better than they ever imagine experiencing in space. So, they decided to contact all aspiring space tourists and tell them not to bother waiting for commercial space flights to begin and visit Iceland now instead—for a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint—and unlimited oxygen. The survey also revealed that six out of ten people believe Martian landscapes have red rocks, volcanoes, and black sand—all of which can be found on Iceland.

Iceland gets the star treatment from Hollywood

Iceland’s remarkable landscapes didn’t go unnoticed by Hollywood, either. While just a handful of titles (like Die Another Day and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) are explicitly set in Iceland, countless films use Icelandic landscapes to represent everything from primordial Earth and post-apocalyptic worlds to any number of distant planets. As one would expect, Iceland’s otherworldly landscapes lend themselves far better to sci-fi and fantasy, which explains their prominence in films like Star Wars and Game of Thrones.

Iceland’s film appearances are really too numerous to mention, so we’ll just point out a few standout performances. Iceland has a hell of a role in Christopher Nolan’s recent blockbuster The Odyssey, with one of its black sand beaches becoming the realm of Hades, where Odysseus descends to consult the blind prophet. Many other scenes were shot throughout Iceland for the production, including the harbor where the Viking ship was moored. About a thousand Icelandic extras were used during filming. This was Christopher Nolan’s third shoot in Iceland, using the location for Batman Begins and Interstellar.

Iceland also appears in the final season of Stranger Things, including a scene with a lovely rainbow that the series directors confirmed was, in fact, a “real rainbow.” The James Bond film A View to a Kill uses Iceland in a sequence where Bond shoots down a helicopter, which bursts into flames and crashes into an iceberg. The scene was considered so dangerous to film that leading man Roger Moore never even set foot in Iceland. Instead, he just left his stunt double there to take all the risks.

Iceland’s film debut was in Sons of the Soil, a 1920 silent film about two brothers fighting for the love of a beautiful woman. And a star is born ...

As the curtain goes down on the Land of Fire and Ice, consider that sage advice from Iceland’s tourism board about not waiting for any commercial space tourism to take you to Mars. Aside from the technical challenges, there’s that round-trip flying time of two to three years—which is an awful lot of in-flight movies. Needless to say, then, O.A.T. won’t be offering any adventures to the Red Planet in the foreseeable future. But if you’d like to experience the next best thing, we’d love for you to join us in Iceland!

Oh, one more thing. Have you heard about the fancy new restaurant that just opened on Mars? Great food, but no atmosphere ...

A few more fascinating facts about Iceland and its Martian doppelganger

• There’s an elf on every shelf—We’re not sure of their opinions on the existence of Martians, but more than half of Icelanders believe in elves.
• Baby it’s cold outside—Probably not advisable on Mars, but babies in Iceland are routinely left outside to nap.
• Late adopters—Perhaps Icelanders will pick up the pace when Mars is ready to colonize. Their current homeland was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans.
• You try shooting with numb fingers—Police in Iceland don’t carry guns. In spite of the impression given in the bloody plots of Nordic thrillers, violent crime is pretty much non-existent in Iceland.
• Then why am I so itchy?—Whether you’re planning a trip to Iceland or Mars, don’t bother packing the DEET. Mosquitoes don’t exist at either location.
• Moscow, we have a problem—The first man-made object to hit Mars was actually the 1971 Mars 2 probe by the Soviets—but it hit far too hard. The probe crashed during landing.
• Out of this world—Prior to its bankruptcy, the non-profit company Mars One received more than 200,000 applications to participate in a mission to colonize Mars—knowing full well that it would be a one-way trip.
• Mars Attacks!—If Martians ever did invade our planet, Iceland may have trouble defending itself as the country has no army, navy, or air force.
• What, drones there, too?—No spacecraft had ever taken off and landed on the surface of Mars (or any other world) until March 2021, when Ingenuity, a small drone aboard NASA's Perseverance unpacked itself from the belly of its rover and took off into the Martian sky. It continued operating successfully until January 2024, when it broke one of its rotor blades during its 72nd and final flight.
• My friends call me Mahhk—In the 2015 film The Martian, Matt Damon’s character is named Mark, the English version of the Latin name Marcus—which means Mars.

Get a taste of the Red Planet in Iceland’s Westman Islands on the optional pre-trip extension to Untamed Iceland.