As we get closer to deploying we'll keep you up to date on what specific activities we'll be doing this year. One added bonus event this year is the total solar eclipse happening on August the 1st. The HMP Research Station is directly in the path of totality so we should have an excellent viewing and research opportunity, weather permitting of course.

The Haughton-Mars Project will be using even more social media tools this year to keep you up to date. To start, we invite you to follow us on our HMP Research Station Twitter channel. Twitter is social micro-blogging service.

The HMP Research Station is unoccupied at this time however ongoing research is being conducted in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse with data being collected daily and being sent back by satellite to researchers in Vancouver and Montreal.

Three pieces are scheduled to run this week on Daily Planet (Canada only), featuring the EVA Walkback experiment (Sept. 11th), the NASA K-10 rovers from the Ames Research Center (Sept. 12th) and the telemedicine work being done at HMP (Sept. 13th).

Daily Planet can be seen on Discovery Channel Canada at 7pm and 11pm (Eastern). Note that due to the news-magazine style of the Daily Planet, breaking news and other events may cause changes to the original scheduling.

Also, anyone in Canada can watch these episodes online about a day following the original TV air date.

Everyone at the Haughton-Mars Project would like to congratulate John on this most prestigious honor.

Please stay tuned to our website (www.marsonearth.org) for exciting new announcements and opportunities regarding next season.

Here are some additional photos of the HMP-2007 field season:

All the webcams are now online and the three HMP Research Station webcams are updating every minute. We've also added our second entry in our new feature this year "This Week @ HMP". Included are spotlights on various projects ongoing during that week as well as a new video feature.

Continue to watch this space and www.marsonearth.org for updates and additional information about the many interesting activities planned for this summer.

Prepared by: Matt Bamsey, Canadian Space Agency
Edited by: Marc Boucher, Mars Institute

A pre-field season visit to the Mars Institute's Haughton-Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island was conducted on April 24, 2007. The field team included: Matt Bamsey (Canadian Space Agency), Samson Simonie and Paul Amagoalik, Mars Institute contractors.

Flight Details

Following arrival on Devon Island the Twin Otter left for another flight and the pilots stated to the field team that they would return in 4 to 5 hours.

Goals

1. Repair visit to the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse
2. Assess Humvee
3. Assess Research Station for Possible Damage
4. Assess the state of the runway

View of the HMP Research Station

A closer view of the HMP Research Station

A description of the results pertaining to each goal is described in the sections to follow.

Pre-Visit Overview: Communication with the greenhouse has not been possible over the last several months (communication has been possible with MSAT antenna but not main greenhouse computer etc.). A visit to determine and potentially repair the faults was required. A visit would also provide the greenhouse team valuable data for planning for the upcoming field season.

Visit Summary: The visit restored communication with the greenhouse as well power to several components which had been ‘incorrectly’ powered off. The visit also provided a chance to take detailed photographic surveys both internal to and external to the greenhouse. These surveys also determined that an external greenhouse storage cabinet has been damaged by a polar bear.

The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse

Matt Bamsey communicates with the The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse team by satellite phone in fixing the problem with greenhouse communications system.

Greenhouse Webcam 1

Greenhouse Webcam 2

Note: The greenhouse webcams are not back in operational mode however the date stamp of each image is incorrect. This will be corrected during our upcoming field season.

Goal 2: Assess Humvee for Snow

Pre-Visit Overview: Recently taken aerial shots lead the Mars Institute to believe that the passenger door of the Humvee could be ajar and that a substantial amount of snow could have entered the Humvee. A visit would determine if this was the case and if any repairs would be required during the upcoming field season. It would also allow for the internal snow to be removed and the Humvee to be resealed.

Visit Summary: The following was learned during the assessment of the Humvee:

• There was a considerable amount of snow in the Humvee. The bulk of the snow was removed by hand and shovel and an image showing the Humvee before close up is provided (slightly more snow removed before actual departure).
  
• The contents of the Humvee do not look to be disturbed. Though there was evidence of some snow infiltration.
  
• Final state: the cargo strap on the Humvee was tightened and Humvee secured.
  

The MARS-1 Humvee Rover

Goal 3: Assess Research Station for Possible Damage

Pre-Visit Overview: Damage due to weather or bears could have occurred to the research station. A general survey of the research station could be used to assess these damages.

Visit Summary: No tent or research station damages (a part from the Humvee and an external greenhouse storage cabinet) where found. The perimeter of each tent was inspected and no damages found (though damage could be present behind the large snow drifts covering some of the tents).

Additional, Samson visited the tent on Maynard (Satellite) Hill and reported that no damages were present to the equipment.

Goal 4: Assess the State of the Runway

Several images of the runway were taken and a discussion with the pilot (Steve) was had. Steve stated that the runway is in ‘good shape’ and that it should be fine for another few weeks of flights in (obviously weather dependent). He did state that there were several patches of deep snow that could cause problems for take off with large loads but that actually help for slowing the aircraft down on landing. No blockages due to fuel drums, or other materials existed.

The HMP Research Station Igloo

Samson wanted to report that he was the first person to build an igloo at HMP Research Station. With some help from Paul and Matt, it was completed just as the pickup flight came in.

The HMP RS Igloo

In February the Mars Institute undertook its annual trip to the high arctic for talks with local communities and had the opportunity for an aerial survey of the HMP Research Station. Some of those photographs are now online.

"A human mission to Mars might be 30 years away or more, but one day it will happen," said Pascal Lee, 43, the NASA astronomer who first visited this place a decade ago and supervises the Haughton-Mars Project, as the program is known. "The fundamental lessons we are learning here need to be learned now. On the moon and Mars, it's going to be all about fieldwork, geology, reconnaissance, resource assessment, traversing vast tracts of territory--all of this stuff we do on a daily basis here."

Editor's update - Dec. 20: After a week the Chicago Tribune archives their stories and you have to pay to read it.

This next image shows the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse and surrounding area.

Over the past week, additional testing of the Hamilton-Sundstrand spacesuit was conducted in addition to ongoing fieldwork being carried out by participants from Morehead State University, University of Aberdeen and University of Ottawa. The Mars Institute was also very happy to accommodate a visit by CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield. In addition to visiting HMP, Chris also gave talks about his experiences in space to the communities of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord.

The station population is currently at 22, with this number expected to fall to 15 by the end of the day.

Addy Overbeeke from Hamilton-Sundstrand makes some adjustments to the prototype spacesuit, worn by Nick Wilkinson. Chris Hadfield, Christine Pires and Steve Braham watch the work from afar. Photo HMP-2006 / P. Lee

In addition to those organizations mentioned above, coordination and implementation of the exercise on Devon Island was carried out by participants from Simon Fraser University, Hamilton-Sundstrand, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Colorado (Boulder), Rocky Mountain Rescue, the Canadian Space Agency, NASA-Johnson Space Center, NASA-Ames Research Center and Mars Institute.