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a this is utah special
Landscape, Starscape
Utah is known for its captivating, even otherworldly landscapes that transcend imagination. We’ll explore 40 miles worth of indigenous rock art in Nine Mile Canyon, connect with both land and the universe through Nancy Holt’s land art piece, Sun Tunnels, and learn how the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station simulates life on the red planet in the red rock of southern Utah.
Stories from this Episode
Nine Mile Canyon
Nine Mile Canyon is known as the world’s longest outdoor art gallery. With more than 40 miles of petroglyphs running from Duchesne to Carbon County, Nine Mile Canyon offers a unique slice of Utah’s ancient past. Meet the youth volunteers from Project Discovery’s Nine Mile Canyon Stewardship Day, a program teaching kids how to protect these ancient Fremont & Ute artifacts for future generations.
Sun Tunnels
Sun Tunnels(1973–1976), by American artist Nancy Holt,consist of four 18-foot-long concrete cylinders arranged in an open x-shaped configuration in Utah’s Great Basin Desert. Large holes bored into each cylinder depict the constellations Draco, Perseus, Columba, and Capricorn.In Holt’s own words, the Sun Tunnels are an earthwork that “bring the vast space of the desert back to human scale.”
Mars Desert Research Station
What would life be like on Mars? That’s what the researchers & space buffs at the Mars Desert Research Station outside Hanksville are working to find out. Students and researchers from around the world gather at this remote desert outpost run by The Mars Society to spend a week or more in a simulated space habitat, never leaving the confines of their space suits or breathing the fresh air outside.
