Crew of seven pursuing Mars exploration knowledge from high Canadian Arctic during long duration simulated mission

F-XI LDM Human Factors Researcher / Crew Engineer

The sun rose over the snow-covered terrain as we began our four-month simulated Mars expedition at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the high Canadian Arctic on Devon Island, Nunavut. But the sun will never set during our mission. This is the first time a simulated mission at an analogue station has ever been conducted for this long. The crew of 7 is conducting over 15 projects including field science in geology, biology, limnology, and paleolimnology, studies in engineering (such as a water study), and six human factors studies. The highlight of the human factors is about to begin when the crew goes on ‘Mars Time’ for the entire month of July. With an extra 39 minutes added to every day the crew will slowly drift out of sync with everyone back on Earth. The crew is composed of university graduate students and faculty, so the adaptation to a Martian Day probably won’t disturb our circadian rhythms (since they never have been stable).

My role with the crew is to facilitate the human factors studies, which include exercise, communication, habitability, group dynamics, sleep, and ‘Mars Time’. It has been a challenging role and difficult to keep everyone on track without pushing them to hard to complete the tasks. The tasks include online surveys, reaction tests, exercise bike, and other gear such as LifeShirts for sleep.

We are on top of the world during the IPY (pretty close to the magnetic North Pole,) and we hope that our work helps bring humankind one-step closer to Mars!

Space!

Ryan

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For more information about the crew and mission please visit: www.fmars2007.org