Elizabeth Howell, PhD, is one of the few people who has lived on a simulated Mars base. An award-winning journalist, she regularly contributes to Space.com, Forbes, and SkyNews. She witnessed five human space launches—three from Florida and two from Kazakhstan. She also pretended to be a Red Planet astronaut in 2014, on Crew 133 of the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Elizabeth holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Carleton University and two postgraduate degrees in space studies from the University of North Dakota. She lives with her husband in Ottawa, Canada.