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 Objectives & Research Abstracts
In preparation for their unprecedented four-month Mars mission simulation this summer, Commander Melissa Battler will lead her crew through two weeks of intense training at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah beginning February 18. The crew will learn to work as a team with each other and with supporting groups, while familiarizing themselves with the procedures necessary for their full-scale mission this summer in the high Canadian Arctic.
This summer's mission will take place from May through August of 2007 at The Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island in the high Canadian Arctic. This landmark expedition will prepare for eventual human missions to the Red Planet by conducting scientific exploration under nearly all of the constraints that astronauts on an actual Mars mission will one day face. Crew members include Battler; Executive Officer Matt Bamsey; Chief Engineer James Harris; Interdisciplinary Scientist Kim Binsted; Engineer Ryan Kobrick; Biologist Kathryn Bywaters; Geologist Simon Auclair; and alternate Emily Colvin.
"We are about to embark on an extremely challenging, potentially dangerous simulated Mars mission to the Canadian Arctic," said Battler. “In order to achieve crew survival and mission success, it is critical that we anticipate all challenges, and begin to prepare for them. We must train together, bond as a team, and learn to trust each other, starting now."
The training will consist of several phases, and will involve all of the supporting groups that will remotely assist the crew in their upcoming mission. The rotation will commence with the crew meeting with the Science Advisory Group (SAG) to discuss mission objectives and develop important procedures. Seven days of full simulation will follow with the crew fully rehearsing for this summer's FMARS mission. Crew 58's final days will be spent working with the Engineering Team, and completing firearms training (the polar bears won't fend themselves off!) and wilderness first aid training.
In addition to numerous human factors studies, the FMARS science objectives will focus on the transition from winter to spring in the Arctic environment. Such a scientific undertaking has numerous parallels to conditions on Mars, and entails a near-identical field research procedure.
By working with the SAG prior to the actual mission at FMARS, the crew hopes to increase its scientific productivity while on-site in the Artic. The concept, tested on previous Mars Society expeditions, is that crews who train together prior to a mission are able to work together more effectively due to increased familiarity with each other. The SAG is led by co-Principal Investigators Shannon Rupert of New Mexico State University, and Chris McKay of NASA Ames. This team of 11 world-class scientists has coordinated the orchestration of this complex mission, and supported the selection of the FMARS crew.
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