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Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!

I am fascinated by all of the ways in which we recreate life in space on Earth. Scientists and astronauts alike rely on analogs to simulate off-world conditions, to learn about the universe or train for upcoming missions. NASA has a giant swimming pool, the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL), for practising spacewalks. Marina Koren has written about her visit to watch NASA’s gruelling underwater test for astronauts. She didn’t stay to the end: “A typical spacewalk rehearsal lasts about six and a half hours, with no breaks.”

South Korea has built the world’s biggest moon simulator. 

“The so-called dusty thermal vacuum chamber (DTVC) combined with lunar soil is the first and biggest of its kind in the world, state-funded Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) said on Tuesday during its opening ceremony in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.”

The DTCV recreates lunar surface temperatures, ranging from extremely hot to extremely cold, and the lack of atmosphere. The KICT has also built a facility that can produce up to 200kg of artificial lunar soil (regolith simulant) a day, 

If you’re thinking that you’d love to visit the NBL and the DTCV (I certainly am!), then check out the ‘Mars base camp’ China has built in the Gobi Desert. For students. It’s like a space-age Youth Hostel!

Analog sites aren’t always this high-tech. Scientists reviewing the data sent back from Mars by the Curiosity rover have discovered that it’s sitting on soil strikingly similar to that on some Scottish islands. And there’s a salt mine in the north of England that is “home to various forms of hardy microbial life, offering a window on what life could be like in similar