---
title: "China Is Sending Teens to a Simulated Mars Colony"
description: "It sounds like the premise to a young adult novel: a totalitarian government sends its kids to a special facility to train them for life at a Mars colony."
date: "2019-04-18"
modified: "2019-04-18"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-teens-simulated-mars-colony"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "china"
  - "mars"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# China Is Sending Teens to a Simulated Mars Colony

![It sounds like the premise to a young adult novel: a totalitarian government sends its kids to a special facility to train them for life at a Mars colony.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/china-is-sending-teens-to-a-simulated-mars-colony1.png>)
*\<em\>Image: WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images\</em\>*

## Mars Colony

It sounds like the premise to a young adult novel: a totalitarian government sends its kids to a special facility to train them for life on Mars. But this strange project isn't fictional — it's China's C-Space base.

"We are trying to come up with solutions," C-Space founder Bai Fan [told *AFP*](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/small-step-china-mars-base-teens-opens-desert-doc-1fo65y3>) of the project, adding that "the base is still on \[Earth\], it's not on Mars, but we have chosen a landform that matches closest to Mars."

## Space Camp

At the high-tech space camp, according to *AFP*, the teens will wear mock space suits while they explore the Mars-esque landscape of the Qaidam Basin.

But as China preps for a Mars rover mission expected to launch as [soon as next year](<https://www.businessinsider.com/china-mars-spacecraft-launch-2020-rover-sample-return-2019-1>), at least one academic says the C-Space simulated Mars base is silly and bears little resemblance to a genuine base on the Red Planet — especially if, as planned, it opens to the public as a tourist destination with a themed restaurant.

"From the very beginning, I've been opposed to this," Peking University professor Jiao Weixin told *AFP*. "Tourism doesn't make much sense... what is the meaning in it?"

**READ MORE:** [A small step for China: Mars base for teens opens in desert](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/small-step-china-mars-base-teens-opens-desert-doc-1fo65y3>) \[*AFP*\]

**More on China's simulated Mars base:** [*China Opens Its First Mars Simulation Base*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/mars-simulation-base-china-open>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)