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Two scientists in spacesuits, stark white against the auburn terrain of desolate plains and dunes, test a geo-radar built to map Mars by dragging the flat box across the rocky sand. When the geo-radar stops working, the two walk back to their all-terrain vehicles and radio colleagues at their nearby base camp for guidance. They can't turn to their mission command, far off in the Alps, because communications from there are delayed 10 minutes. But this isn't the red planet _ it's the Arabian Peninsula. (AP Photo)
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The desolate desert in southern Oman, near the borders of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, resembles Mars so much that more than 200 scientists from 25 nations chose it as their location for the next four weeks, to field-test technology for a manned mission to Mars. (AP Photo)
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Public and private ventures are racing toward Mars _ both former President Barack Obama and SpaceX founder Elon Musk declared humans would walk on the red planet in a few decades. (AP Photo)
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Seen from space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown expanse. Few animals or plants survive in the desert expanses of the Arabian Peninsula, where temperatures can top 125 degrees Fahrenheit, or 51 degrees Celsius. (AP Photo)
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The desert's surface resembles Mars so much, it's hard to tell the difference, Kartik Kumar said, his spacesuit caked in dust. (AP Photo)
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Scientists from across the world sent ideas for experiments and the mission, named AMADEE-18, quickly grew to 16 scientific experiments, such as testing a "tumbleweed" whip-fast robot rover and a new spacesuit called Aouda. (AP Photo)
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NASA used the Mojave Desert to test rovers destined for the red planet but they also discovered much about how humans can adapt. (AP Photo)
SC takes suo motu cognisance of viral timber log videos, issues notices to Centre, state govts
