Life on Mars is one step closer to reality following the opening of a Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility at the University of Guelph that will seek to better understand how to sustainlife in deep space. It is the most sophisticated and unique facility of its kind in the world in the field of advanced life support. The facility will have the highest level of Canadian technology in controlled environment systems research, eventually containing 14 of the plant science world’s most sophisticated hypobaric (reduced pressure) chambers.