Mars Robotics Association coach Jeff Beckstead plans to make the maps a part of the robotics group's “Robotics Village” event at the Mars New Year Festival. Maps of the Red Planet and the moon will then be given to the Mars Area School District.

Coordinator Gregg Hartung, of the Mars New Year Festival, said this year the team is literally bringing the red planet to the borough Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10.

“The (NASA) Jet Propulsion Lab tried this back in mid-April at their open house in Pasadena, Calif.,” Hartung said. “It’s like a tunnel you walk into and it’s the ‘Mars Experience.’”

The 16-foot tunnel will include footage and sound provided by NASA, he said, offering visitors a first look at what walking across the red dunes of Mars might be like for future colonists.

“You can walk through and get a sort of simulated experience to some degree, the best we can, in terms of being on the red planet,” Hartung said.

The simulation will be only the second showing in the United States after NASA Jet Propulsion Lab’s previous showing in April.

“That’s going to be really neat,” Hartung said. “That’ll be on Pittsburgh Street with NASA, too.”