Space
Science - Activism
Watch the Mars Colony on Earth
The Mars
Society has opened the Flashline
Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island where 6 crews
of volunteers will carry out simulations of a Mars colony during
the short summer season. They will test tools and techniques needed
for creation of real Mars colonies.
Spaceref.com
provides a webcam
view from the station at its Mars
on Earth 2001 website.
The crews will live in a habitat
built last summer. They will use spacesuits whenever they go outside
(staying for realistic periods in the air locks) and follow other
Mars type constraints such as a long time delays in communications
with the "earth base".
A separate group will carry out the
Haughton-Mars
Project (HMP), which includes researchers from NASA as well
as the SETI
Institute, in the nearby Haughton meteor crater. They will
look at techniques for detecting life in the crater's harsh conditions
that mimic in many ways those on Mars.
A prototype
rover will also be tested by a group from Carnegie
Mellon's Robotics Institute.
