NASA | The Mars Chamber

The Mars chamber is a box--about the size of a refrigerator--that re-creates the temperatures, pressures, and atmosphere of the Martian surface, essentially creating a Mars environment on Earth!

Scientists and engineers use this chamber to test experiments on the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite--a fully functioning chemistry lab about the Curiosity Mars rover.

By re-creating Mars on Earth and using an exact duplicate of SAM, scientists can "pre-run" experiments on SAM to make sure everything will work properly on the Mars rover. Learn more about the Mars chamber by watching this video!