Helga Kristín climbs up the face of a glacier wearing the MS1 Mars prototype spacesuit. This was part of a mission to test the suit which took place from July 26 to Aug. 5.

A team of researchers and explorers ventured inside of a volcano and out to some of the most remote stretches of Iceland to test a spacesuit prototype in one of the most Mars-like environments on Earth.

Led by the Iceland Space Agency (ISA), the team traveled into the Grímsvötn volcano and across the Vatnajökull ice cap to test the MS1 Mars analog suit. The suit, designed by Michael Lye, a senior critic and NASA coordinator at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), serves as a tool to test human capabilities on Mars. The suit istested the suit for the possibility of doing climbing as well," Lye said. "Helga had crampons on and a harness and was able to climb up the face of a glacier."

Helga Kristín climbed up the face of a glacier wearing a Mars analog spacesuit. (Image credit: Dave Hodge/Unexplored Media)

The MS1 Mars analog suit, which is a one-off prototype that was built by a team of students at RISD, performed well in testing, Lye said. The main issue that they had was with the boots, though Lye specified that they were standard military boots and not specialized for analog Mars activities.

As Lye told Space.com, the team hopes that this suit informs suit design and development for crewed missions to Mars and helps advance space research capabilities in Iceland. They