MUMBAI: After making history with the Mars Orbiter Mission , India is now set to embark on a simulated Martian environment where participants experience the challenges of a manned mission to the red planet For the first time, an all-Indian crew will take part in a two-week Mars-related research assignment between January 28 and February 12, 2017, at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, US. This was confirmed by Michael Stoltz , Mars Society's chief spokesperson, to TOI. The MDRS, organised by the US-based Mars Society , was launched in 2001 and, in the past 16 years, nearly 1,000 youngsters from all over the world have participated in the programme.MDRS is a Mars-analog test site which has a prototype of a habitat that will house humans on Mars and serves as a test bed for Martian exploration. The research projects of the Indian team will include assessing “the degree to which human-associated bacteria could potentially contaminate the Red Planet during a manned mission and measure the impact of dust storms.''