This Week @ HMP (week 2 of 6) | Haughton-Mars Project | HMP Research Station

July 10, 2007

The HMP Research Station outline of this weeks scheduled activities.

The second week of the field season is when research activities begin in earnest as additional participants arrive at the HMP Research Station on Devon Island.

Activities this week include researchers working in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse as well Canadian Space Agency field research. Also arriving this week are Canadian Analogue Research Network participants from the University of Ottawa, the K-10 Rover team from NASA Ames Research Center and the education and public outreach team representing the Mars Institute and the Challenger Centers.

As of today three new webcams placed around the research station are now online. WebCam1 is a 'floating' webcam meaning that it will change positions around the Research Station. WebCam2 is postioned on Maynard hill and faces north with a view of the Research Station on the left and the runway next to rock formation known as the Fortress is on the right. WebCam3 is in the office/planning tent.

This Weeks Video: A Fly-By of the HMP Research Station, the Haughton Crater and Surrounding Area

Spotlight On: The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse

The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is an experimental greenhouse on Devon Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada. The intent of this greenhouse is to support research that will be conducted under the auspices of the Haughton-Mars Project, an international interdisciplinary planetary analog field research program led by the Mars Institute.

Dr. Alain Berinstain of the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Guelph is the current Principal Investigator in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. The ongoing investigation is supported by the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Guelph, Simon Fraser University, and the SETI Institute.

The greenhouse was successfully erected on Devon Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada, in July 2002. The purpose of this greenhouse is to allow the growth, propagation and harvesting of selected plants in support of basic and applied research in the fields of astrobiology, space biology, life support systems studies, information technologies, and human factors investigations.The Greenhouse is not intended to be a full-featured, high-fidelity simulation of a Greenhouse to be established on Mars. Rather, as is the case of most analog studies being conducted on Devon Island, it will support scientific and operations research in an operational setting that is relevant to Mars in unique ways - each at a specific level of fidelity and complexity. The intent is that this Greenhouse will serve as an initial experimental field-deployed testbed that will support field research of inherent and immediate value, and from which lessons may be learned to support the design and implementation of future field facilities enabling higher fidelity demonstrations. Current development focuses on developing reliable systems and methods for operating this greenhouse autonomously, through remote control year-round. To do so, customized communications, data acquisiton and control, environmental control, power, and plant growth systems must be developed.

Ultimately, through a sequential and iterative program of experimentation, it is hoped that a better understanding of the operational challenges faced by future astronauts on the surface of Mars (or other planetary bodies) will be gained.

Development of new generations of robust sensors for nutrient monitoring and plant health monitoring is currently underway. Energy management and modeling studies are also undrway.

This is a collaborative project that involves rsearchers from the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Guelph, the University of Florida aand Simon Fraser University.