Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
ICP alum Mackenzie Calle’s photographs, as seen on the cover of the July 2026 edition of National Geographic, show what life on Mars might look like. The cover story, "Beyond Earth: How We’re Preparing to Live and Work on the Moon and Mars," was produced in collaboration with Cameron Peters, a National Geographic photo editor and fellow ICP alum.
The project comprised over 60 participating analog astronauts across 16 habitats in 13 countries, who ran a two-week simulation in tandem. This is the largest space simulation ever conducted, testing how humanity could live across the solar system, such as on Mars and the Moon.
Calle acted as Crew Journalist and GreenHab Officer on the simulated Mars mission at Mars Desert Research Station, in Utah. While she was immersed in the intensity of the assignment and the challenging conditions, Peters, in Washington D.C., had to zoom out to look at the big picture, assessing missing pieces and offering critical feedback in a timely way. These key check-ins became crucial to the story.
The partnership between Calle and Peters is evocative of a wave of visual storytelling that thinks more critically about the future of space exploration. And in creating more diverse narratives of space missions, stories like Beyond Earth stand to expand the global view on how different space research can look.
Calle drew inspiration from Sally Ride, the first known queer astronaut, which informed her project "The Gay Space Agency" about queer history and astronauts in space. Meanwhile, Peters found Alice Gabriner, Elizabeth Krist, and Fred Ritchin's classes at ICP most influential, and helped her to think about how to tell stories in different ways.
Read more about “Beyond Earth,” Calle, and Peters in a new editorial piece at icp.org/interviews.
ICP alum Mackenzie Calle’s photographs, as seen on the cover of the July 2026 edition of National Geographic, show what life on Mars might look like. The cover story, "Beyond Earth: How We’re Preparing to Live and Work on the Moon and Mars," was produced in collaboration with Cameron Peters, a National Geographic photo editor and fellow ICP alum.
The project comprised over 60 participating analog astronauts across 16 habitats in 13 countries, who ran a two-week simulation in tandem. This is the largest space simulation ever conducted, testing how humanity could live across the solar system, such as on Mars and the Moon.
Calle acted as Crew Journalist and GreenHab Officer on the simulated Mars mission at Mars Desert Research Station, in Utah. While she was immersed in the intensity of the assignment and the challenging conditions, Peters, in Washington D.C., had to zoom out to look at the big picture, assessing missing pieces and offering critical feedback in a timely way. These key check-ins became crucial to the story.
The partnership between Calle and Peters is evocative of a wave of visual storytelling that thinks more critically about the future of space exploration. And in creating more diverse narratives of space missions, stories like Beyond Earth stand to expand the global view on how different space research can look.
Calle drew inspiration from Sally Ride, the first known queer astronaut, which informed her project "The Gay Space Agency" about queer history and astronauts in space. Meanwhile, Peters found Alice Gabriner, Elizabeth Krist, and Fred Ritchin's classes at ICP most influential, and helped her to think about how to tell stories in different ways.
Read more about “Beyond Earth,” Calle, and Peters in a new editorial piece at icp.org/interviews.
