page_title: Desert Research and Technology Studies
hierarchical_section_title: Desert Research and Technology Studies
context_page_description: NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies is a group of teams which perform an annual series of field trials seeking to demonstrate and test candidate technologies and systems for manned exploration of the surface of the Moon, Mars, or other rocky bodies.
  Desert RATS began in 1997, reviving Apollo-style lunar exploration training from decades earlier. The field season takes place for around two weeks each year, usually in September, in planned locations surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona. Some tests have also been conducted near Meteor Crater. These activities are designed to exercise prototype planetary surface hardware and representative mission scenario operations in relatively harsh climatic conditions where long distance, multi-day traversing activities are achievable.
context_section_description: NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS or D-RATS) is a group of teams which perform an annual series of field trials seeking to demonstrate and test candidate technologies and systems for manned exploration of the surface of the Moon, Mars, or other rocky bodies.
  Desert RATS began in 1997, reviving Apollo-style lunar exploration training from decades earlier. The field season takes place for around two weeks each year, usually in September, in planned locations surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona. Some tests have also been conducted near Meteor Crater. These activities are designed to exercise prototype planetary surface hardware and representative mission scenario operations in relatively harsh climatic conditions where long distance, multi-day traversing activities are achievable.
caption: Test subject Dean Eppler, working at the rear of a science trailer during Desert RATS 2004
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