Mars is a cold place with plummeting temperatures from -60°C down to -130°C, the atmospheric pressure is only a hundredths of earth's, much lower than on Mount Everest, the prevalent gas is carbon dioxide and UV light penetrates an unshielded atmosphere. The installation carries the romantic and destructive idea of giving a rose to Mars. Using a planetary simulation chamber the exhibited rose has been exposed to Martian Environment for 6 hours at the Mars Simulation Laboratory in Denmark. The lab works together with the European Space Agency and uses the chamber to investigate biological responses to this environment. The installation is made up of a specially designed steel chamber hosting the exposed rose placed in Martian soil [Iron(III) Oxide].

The Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Art (CAAC) invited c-lab to exhibit an installation on The Martian Rose which features a rose that has been exposed to a Martian environment through proxy simulation using a (non-functional) planetary vacuum chamber modified allowing the audience to look into the rose.  

Watch the 4 minute video above of the 6 hour long experiment: Use the controls above to view the video.

The experiment took place on the 27th March 2007 at the Mars Simulation Laboratory (University of Aarhus, Denmark) where two (miniature) red roses were subjected to proxy Martian parameters.  We’d like to thank the Mars Simulation Laboratory for facilitating the experiment, particularly to Dr Jon Merrison who conducted the experiment with us and to Dr Per Nørnberg for organising this.  Finally, thanks to Hansjorg Schmidt for his help with the lighting towards the installation.
 

 The Martian Rose is supported by