Is This What a Mars Outpost Will Look Like from Orbit?

By Nancy Atkinson - June 6, 2013 at 5:31 PM UTC | Missions
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This sure looks like a futuristic settlement on the Red Planet, as Italian astronaut

Luca Parmitano

pondered on Twitter yesterday when he shared this image taken from the International Space Station, saying, "Maybe one day our settlements on Mars will look like this."

But what is this facility -- which must be huge and looks to be out in the middle of absolutely nowhere? A secret new branch at Area 51? A mock-up of a base from the

"Legion of Space"

sci-fi books?

It's actually one of the world's largest lithium salt production facilities, located in the "lithium triangle" of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, high in the Atacama desert in Chile. Below is an aerial view:

[caption id="attachment_102716" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

An aerial view of the brine pools and processing areas of the Soquimich lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat, the largest lithium deposit currently in production, in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, on Jan. 10, 2013. Credit: Ivan Alvarado / Reuters.[/caption]

You can read a

great article here

(with more great images) about the lithium mining operations, enabling all your electronic gizmos to be powered.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com