Portals to New Worlds: Martian Exploration Near the North Pole – News Deeply

Researchers are using Devon Island in Canadas High Arctic as a stand-in for Mars to help better understand how astronauts could survive the red planets hostileenvironment.

Members of the Mars 160 expedition stand in front of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Perched on the edge of a 39-million-year-old crater is a white circular hut. It sticks out on the rocky, lichen-dotted landscape of Devon Island in Nunavut,Canada.

Known as the Hab, this 8m (26ft) diameter structure is home to six scientists and researchers who just moved in for a 12-week mission to simulate life onMars.

The Arctic has long been a frontier for exploration, and now its being used to open horizons on other planets. Last week, theMars 160 missionlaunched phase two of its program, sending an international team to theFlashline Mars Arctic Research Station. Initially, the mission was set for three months of immersive study, but poor weather conditions may cause the mission to be cut to half its original length. While at the station, the team will test equipment and undertake a suite of geological, microbiological and paleontological experiments to prepare future astronauts for exploration on the redplanet.

The mission is run by theMars Society, a space advocacy organization preparing for human exploration and settlement on the red planet. The first phase of the mission was conducted from a research base in the desert of southern Utah in the fall of 2016. The conditions of the barren, Mars-like landscape of the Arctic North will serve to test the conclusions of the desert-based research and see if the more costly Arctic simulations can provide equally valuablepayoffs.

The advantage of our simulations is theyre done in real Mars analogs where you can do real field science that you cant do in a building, said Shannon Rupert, principal investigator of the mission and director of the Mars Desert Research Station. Whats unique about this mission is its comparing one analog to another analog. A twin study like this has never been done where the same people do the same investigations in two separate Marsanalogs.

Mars 160 expedition members explore Devon Islands lichen-covered landscape in spacesuits. (Photo Courtesy the MarsSociety)

The Arctic also offers unusual landscapes similar to ones seen on Mars. One team member, Paul Knightly, is studying Arctic polygons honeycombed soil structures formed by the freeze and thaw of thepermafrost.

We know Mars has Arctic-like polygons in permafrost, Rupert said. So we know theres a process in the Arctic that were seeing on Mars, and we can conduct tests about it from ourstation.

The inhospitable conditions of the Arctic have long held interest to scientists studying life on other planets, and indeed the Hab isnt the first outpost on Devon Island theHaughton Mars Projectrun by the Mars Institute has been conducting studies from the crater annually for two decades. Other teams of astrobiologists have also tested experiments in Arctic lakes that could some day be used for looking for cellular life on water worlds like Europa, and geologists have scoured northern ice fields in search of meteorites that hold clues to how our solar systemformed.

Out in the crater, two team members wander the desolate landscape in white spacesuits, simulating the atmospheric conditions of Mars and simultaneously testing the suits design. However, unlike on the distant planet, the explorers of the alien Arctic landscape are required to have one member carry a shotgun, in case of curious polar bears. The Mars 160 team scouts the environment around the Hab, just as the first Martian explorers will investigate Mars. So far they have taken soil samples and studied collected biological specimens, such as lichen andinsects.

The six crew members come from four continents, and their expertise spans a range of disciplines from geology to biology to engineering. The diversity is intentional, as part of the mission goal is to better understand team dynamics in isolatedenvironments.

Not only do they come from different backgrounds and speak different languages, their perceptions of things based on their experiences are very different, Rupert said. Whenever we do go to Mars, were going to have to look at how you take the best people from diverse backgrounds and throw them into a mission and make them successful at that mission. This team has really proven that, regardless of where youre from and what your background is, its possible come together and pull as ateam.

Though the team keeps busy with lab work and writing, in their spare time they relax like any Earth-bound human reading books, baking, exercising on a stationary bike and watching movies (the team is currently working their way through season two of the television show The Expanse, a sci-fi show depicting future colonization of Mars). Power is supplied to the Hab by generators, and all food supplies were brought in on arrival. For the duration of the mission, the team works in isolation, connected to the rest of the planet only through emails sent over a satellitephone.

With initiatives like the Mars Society,Breakthrough StarshotandSpaceX, space colonization is no longer confined to the dreams of science-fiction authors, and it seems the Arctic will continue to play a role in providing a test bed for scientists andengineers.

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Portals to New Worlds: Martian Exploration Near the North Pole - News Deeply