Inside a Utah desert facility preparing humans for life on Mars

Hidden among the majestic canyons of the Utah desert, 7 miles from the nearest town, is a small re facility meant to prepare humans for life on Mars

The Mars Society, a nonfit organization that runs the Mars Desert Re Station, or MDRS, invited CNBC to shadow one of its analog crews on a recent mission. "MDRS is the best analog astronaut environment," said Urban Koi, who served as health and safety officer for Crew 315. "The terrain is extremely similar to the Mars terrain and the tocols, re, science and engineering that occurs here is very similar to what we would do if we were to travel to Mars. "SpaceX CEO and Mars advocate Elon Musk has said his company can get humans to Mars as early as 2029

David Laude, who served as the crew's commander, described a typical day. "So we all gather around by 7 a

Around a common table in the upper deck and we have breakfast," he said. "Around 8:00 we have our first meeting of the day where we plan out the day

And then in the morning, we usually have an EVA of two or three people and usually another one in the afternoon. "An EVA refers to extravehicular activity

In NASA speak, EVAs refer to spacewalks, when astronauts leave the pressurized space station and must wear spacesuits to survive in space. "I think the most challenging thing these analog missions is just getting into a rhythm

Although here the risk is lower, on Mars performing those daily tasks are what keeps us a," said Michael Andrews, the engineer for Crew 315

Watch the to find out more.