Town's fate is truly out of this world

Upon arriving at the camp, the participants, most of whom are teenagers, are tasked with searching for resources and putting them to use, such as purifying water and building small electric generators. Over a period of 84 hours, they will complete 10 main tasks. One of the tasks is to build a rocket using 3D printing, which requires them to learn 3D modeling, before designing and constructing the rocket, carrying out tests in a wind tunnel, and finally launching it.

"We would like to motivate the teenagers to survive using their own knowledge, achieve their goals with their own effort and have the passion to explore the unknown," Gao says.

The Mars Camp is a part of the grand Lenghu Mars Town project, which aims to draw on local characteristics and help develop the area with approaches including science popularization, science fiction and technological innovation.

The project is run by Lenghu Mars Town Culture and Tourism Development Co, with support from the local government.

"Lenghu had prospered from oil mining. Now because of the depletion of oil resources, the town is seeking new ways of transformation," says Qu Xiangdong, chairman of the company.

"I feel that our project has shown that culture and tourism development must be conducted in accordance with the region's unique characteristics in order to maintain vitality and sustainability. Without green mountains or clear water, we can also utilize the yardang landforms and create innovative projects."

The company has also established the Lenghu Sci-fi Literature Award in order to support domestic sci-fi writers. Because of the region's favorable geographical conditions, the town is collaborating with major observatories, such as the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the construction of an astronomical observatory base, building telescopes on top of the town's Saishiteng Mountain at an altitude of 4,576 meters.

Last year, Lenghu Mars Town was selected by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a national tourism and science demonstration zone, the only area in Qinghai province to make the list.