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Dispatch from FMARS | ||
 From left to right, Nell Beedle, Shannon Hinsa, Emily Mac- Donald, K. Mark Caviezel, Frank Eckardt, Markus Landgraf, Robert Zubrin. |
In 1998 the Mars Society was founded, and we decided that our first project would be to establish a simulated human Mars exploration base on Devon. The idea is to consider the exploration of this Mars analog environment, but do it in the same style and under many of the same constraints as would occur on Mars. By doing so, we could gain valuable experience that could be used to develop the strategies for Mars exploration and thus define requirements for the development of effective Mars exploration technologies.
The station was built in the summer of 2000, and a series of short (4 to 11 day) crew rotations were done in the summer of 2001. This year our goal is a single longer rotation of some 20 days. Based upon our experience here last summer, as well as our 84 days of operations this spring in the Mars Society's Mars Desert research Station in southern Utah, we plan to implement a much more systematic approach to field exploration. This will occur by combining work our own work on the ground with remote sensing imaging from orbit from the Landsat and Terra satellites, and through a well organized plan of collaboration between our field team and scientific experts across the globe.
 K. Mark Caviezel raises the Martian flag on the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, July 10, 2002. |
This year's mission on Devon will be a step forward in realism another respect. In the past, our teams on the island operated with significant logistical support from the NASA base camp here. This year, the crew will be operating independently. This creates a sense of isolation and self-reliance that will be central to the psychology of actual Mars mission. Our human factors data can thus be expected to be improved accordingly.
Our crew is a diverse lot, consisting of myself as commander, and K. Mark Caviezel, both astronautical engineers from the Denver Colorado area, Nell Beedle, a geologist and oceanographer from Seattle, Washington, Frank Eckardt, a German-born, British educated geologist from Botswana, Markus Landgraf, a European Space Agency physicist from Germany, Shannon Hinsa, an environmental microbiologist from Dartmouth University, and Emily MacDonald, a Scottish astrophysicist now doing graduate work at Oxford.
K. Mark and I left Denver on Friday afternoon, and linked up with Nell in Edmonton that night. We then made it to Resolute Bay without incident the next day. Unfortunately, the rest of our party were traveling to the Arctic by the eastern route, leaving Ottawa for Iqaluit and then proceeding to Resolute, and their plane was delayed from Saturday to Sunday. This was worse than it sounds because, while on Saturday the weather on Devon was good, by Sunday it was socked in from 20,000 feet down to the surface, precluding a flight in from Resolute. This remained the case on Monday, causing us to lose two more days.
The Nunavut guidebook reports a saying that "Resolute Bay is not the edge of the world, but you can see it from there." There is much to support this. The town, a settlement of a few hundred Inuit, is bereft of vegetation, and the coastline is strewn with wreckage ranging from whalebones to LST landing craft. But the people here seem to have a sense of community, and are always willing to help anyone. Indeed, during the summer of 2000, it was Inuit youth from Resolute Bay who made the FMARS possible by joining with Mars Society volunteers to build it after the destruction of our construction equipment in a failed paradrop induced the paid construction crew to run away. I met two of those who had joined us while I was in Resolute Monday. In 2000 they were high school boys, but Jeff is now a working man and Joannie is in college in Ottawa studying electrical engineering. They'll both do well.
Resolute Bay has another attraction, the South Camp Inn, a delightful haven owned and operated by the amazing Aziz "Ozzie" Kheraj, mechanic, construction man, hotel operator, expedition logistics expert, entrepreneur, wit, family man, and last but not least, Mayor of Resolute. Aziz was also a key player in getting the FMARS built, by rapidly organizing the logistic support that allowed us to recover from the paradrop failure. I suggested to Aziz that he build a ski lift on the hills behind the town, and thereby attract an expanded clientele of international adventure skiers every winter. He expressed skepticism about the commercial viability of the idea, but knowing him, I'm sure that he will eventually come around to the concept, and make it work too.
We used the time in Resolute to teach all members of the crew how to use All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and familiarize them with the use of shotguns, which are needed as protection against polar bears. We also worked out a written set of mission objectives, which are reproduced below.
Finally, around 2 PM Tuesday afternoon, word came that the weather on Devon had finally broken. We rushed down to the airport and, in intermittent snowfall, loaded a Twin Otter, the small two-propeller arctic utility workhorse aircraft, with one ATV, an ATV trailer, a barrel of diesel oil, three shotguns, some food, and the persons and possessions of K. Mark, Markus, and me. We flew to Devon without incident, and after landing unloaded the plane with the help of the plane's crews. ATVs and fuel drums weigh about 350 pounds each, and are thus too heavy to lower off the plane with muscle power. So they are dropped to the ground from four feet up. We loaded the trailer with a light load, and set off to find a ford to cross the river ("the Lowell Canal") that separates the airstrip from Haynes Ridge where the FMARS is located. Because of all the rain, I was concerned that the Canal might be running high, making it necessary for us to cross through several feet of freezing water, as sometimes occurred last year. However my fears proved to be ungrounded, and a ford only a few inches deep was found.
In was an interesting feeling re-entering the FMARS, which we had left vacant since last summer. I was afraid that there might be substantial damage or theft, but the structure was completely intact, and as far as we could see, everything, including a substantial stockpile of food was still there.
We spent several hours moving our planeload of supplies and equipment from the airstrip to the station, and then had to do some heavy lifting moving the station's diesel generators out of the airlock to their proper positions about 30 meters from the hab. We had brought a charged battery with us from Resolute to start them, as it seemed doubtful whether the generator's own batteries would survive the ultra cold temperatures they had experienced during the winter. However, before we hooked up the new battery, we took bets as to whether the old battery might work. K. Mark said no way. Markus gave it 50:50. I, speaking in jest, said I was certain it would start right up. It did. Everyone was flabbergasted, the spectacle of the generator starting instantly after being exposed to an Arctic winter producing much the same effect as watching the 100 year-old Volkswagen start immediately in the Woody Allen movie "Sleeper."
Around 5:30 Nell and Frank arrived with more supplies and two more ATVs. Unfortunately, however, the weather, which was acceptable here, deteriorated in Resolute shutting down further Twin Otter flights, and leaving Shannon and Emily behind for another day. So the five of us worked till midnight stowing supplies and getting the communication system working.
This morning we were all up by eight, after which we had a meeting in which we listed all the things we need to do to prepare the FMARS to being simulation activities. These included upgrading the spacesuits to MDRS standards, arranging a pee barrel to cache all urine, fix the hab's plumbing which had been damaged by freezing, putting a new Martian tricolor flag on the roof, fixing the weather station, establishing an internal computer network, set up our local radio communication system, securing the station's ladders, installing the plaque naming the Mars Society members who donated this past winter to make our work possible, putting new logos of major corporate donors up on the outside of the FMARS, and cleaning and organizing the entire station.
It's a lot of work, and as I write this at 6 PM, it is still going on. However, Twin Otters are flying again out of Resolute, and we hope to see our two remaining crewmembers within a few hours.
With luck, we may be able to begin our simulated mission tomorrow.
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Copyright © 2002 The Mars Society. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002 The Mars Society. All rights reserved.