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The analog astronauts have touched down in Armenia, the Armenian Space Forum reports.

"Last night, the mission program managers extended a warm welcome to the 6 astronauts who will be part of the groundbreaking AMADEE-24 mission," it said in a social media post on Saturday.

"Just a reminder: Only 4 days left until the grand opening ceremony of the AMADEE-24 mission. Stay tuned to our page to catch all the updates!" the Space Forum added.

AMADEE-24 is a Mars analog simulation in Armenia, managed by the Austrian Space Forum hosted by the Armenia Aerospace Agency. The expedition will be carried out in a Martian terrestrial analog and directed by a dedicated Mission Support Center in Austria. A small field crew of highly trained analog astronauts with spacesuit simulators will conduct experiments preparing for future human and robotic Mars exploration missions.

Simulating Mars human-robotic surface activities in terrestrial analogs has evolved into an efficient tool for developing exploration mission architectures. They facilitate to understand the advantages and limitations of future Human planetary missions, becoming an added value for the development of remote science operations, helping to understand the constraints and opportunities of the technology and workflows.

The test site in the province of Ararat was selected for their geological and topographic similarity to Mars. The AMADEE-24 mission presents an excellent opportunity to:

• Study equipment behaviour involving the simultaneous usage of instruments with the option of humans-in-the-loop (via two high-fidelity spacesuit simulators, portable system, etc.)

• The development of platforms for testing life-detection or geoscience techniques, robotic support tools for human missions and concepts for high situational awareness of remote support teams.

• Studying the analog as a model region for its Martian counterparts.

• Serving as a catalyst to increase the visibility of planetary sciences and human exploration.

• Evolving the know-how of managing human missions to Mars deploying a realistic model for a Mission Support Center – Astronaut actions and the encompassing decision making framework.