The Atacama Desert and the McMurdo Dry Valleys (a snow-free valley in Antarctica, one of the driest places on Earth, where it has not rained in nearly two million years) have been used on Earth as testing grounds to simulate expeditions to Mars.
Because of its eerie nature, the Atacama has been used as a filming location for Martian scenes, including in the TV series Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets.
