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The Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, where Dan Barnfield, originally from Wembley, will spend Thanksgiving Week. (Image Credit: Jen Carver Hunter, supplied by Dan Barnfield.)
By Curtis Galbraith
Space Exploration

Man originally from Wembley to spend Thanksgiving in Mars simulator

Oct 8, 2026 | 6:00 AM

A man originally from Wembley will be in Utah Thanksgiving Week to take part in a research project related to living on Mars. 

Dan Barnfield will be at the Mars Desert Research Station as part of the Spaceward Bound program. 

Barnfield says in an email that “we’ll be living and working in a simulated Mars habitat.” 

He and his teammates, known as Crew 327, will be in that simulated habitat from Thanksgiving Day, October 12, until Friday, October 16. 

“The Spaceward Bound program is built around three objectives: science, simulation, and education. Crew 327’s activities will center on analyzing Earth, and MDRS specifically, as a Mars analog, with a focus on local geology and geologic processes,” says a release from Barnfield. 

He adds that “stretches of the week are run under full simulation of astronaut life on the Martian surface.” 

Barnfield will be creating lessons that can be used in Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. 

He adds in the same release that the simulator he will be in includes “a habitat, engineering bay, greenhouse, science laboratory, and two observatories, with pressure suits and rovers used to work in the surrounding desert, a recognized geologic Mars analog.” 

More information on this research can be found here. 

Barnfield is a graduate of Beaverlodge Regional High School and what was then called Grande Prairie Regional College, now Northwestern Polytechnic. 

He now lives in Cochrane and is the creator and host of a cartoon for kids called BLAST OFF!

by Curtis Galbraith