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.