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Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station
Why Devon Island?

Devon Islan Aerial View of CanyonLocated at approximately 75 degrees north latitude, Devon Island is a part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, grouped between Baffin Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Not only does the island exhibit geological and glacial features which resemble features found on Mars, its daytime temperatures are similar to those of a summer day on Mars. Additionally, Devon is largely free of snow and ice in the summer - something the Antarctic, another popular Mars analog, cannot offer so easily. Finally, while the island is remote, it is still close enough to medical facilities that anyone suffering illness or injury during an expedition can be evacuated with relative ease. These characteristics make Devon Island an ideal proving ground for technology and equipment that may one day be carried to Mars.

What is the Haughton Crater?

Haughton Crater
1998 airborne synthetic apeture radar image of Haughton Crater, courtesy Geological Survey of Canada.
The Haughton meteorite impact crater (right), on Devon Island, in the Canadian high arctic, is 20 km in diameter. Formed 23 million years ago, it is the highest-latitude terrestrial impact crater known on land (75°22'N, 89°41'W). It lies in the "frost rubble zone" of the Earth, i.e., in a polar desert environment which approximates in several respects the conditions that may have prevailed on the surface of Mars earlier in its history, when wetter and warmer conditions might have existed there.

By its nature, the crater is a testimony to our planet's profound ties with the cosmos. By location, it represents a geographic extreme on our planet and, as it turns out, a unique analog to a neighboring world. Therefore, by studying the Haughton crater and its surroundings, we hope to learn more about Mars, the Earth's geologic past, a cosmic phenomenon (impact cratering) that has in the past catastrophically altered the course of the Earth's evolution, and an extreme environment in one of the most rarely visited corners of our planet. While investigating Haughton, we will also learn how to best explore Mars, by testing robotic and human exploration technologies and strategies, and by optimizing interactions between the two.

Haughton and its surroundings show that a wide suite of natural features and processes occur there that provide possible analogs to similar Martian features. These observations provide a basis for identifying similar features on Mars or, alternatively, for understanding why such features might be different there or altogether absent. Continued studies of Haughton will allow more detailed investigations of these Martian analogs, and ultimately a better understanding of the evolution of Mars itself. The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station offers a unique potential for broad-ranging science return and an opportunity for innovative engineering in geographic and planetary exploration. It is perhaps the combination of these factors that best defines the significance of the project.

FMARS 2007 Crew Blog

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