While researching coverage of Mars and the best way to visually illustrate our quest to reach it, senior photo editor Kurt Mutchler came across an image of a chamber filled with simulated dust that mimicked a lunar-like landscape at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. “I was stunned,” he says. “It looked like something out of a sci-fi novel. I knew we needed to make a picture there, and I worked to make it happen.”

The chamber, known as the regolith bin, is 26 feet on each side and filled with 120 tons of simulated space dirt. It can be used to simulate the dust storms astronauts might face on Mars, as well as to test various descent and landing techniques.

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