Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada

The MARS will be sponsored, designed, and built by the Mars Society, http://www.marssociety.org/researchstation.asp as its first milestone project that will pave the way to sending humans to Mars. NASA scientists and engineers will be consulted at all stages of the project's design and construction and the facility will be made available for joint NASA and Mars Society operation upon completion. The first elements are scheduled to be set up at Haughton in the summer of 1999. The MARS will begin operations in July, 2000. It is anticipated that the project will generate tremendous public interest and support, and will receive worldwide recognition. The Mars Society has identified three primary goals to be met by the MARS: The MARS must generate public support (and hopefully political action) for sending humans to Mars. In order to acheive this, the MARS must be a realistic and recognized facility. The MARS will inform and inspire audiences around the world. It will serve as the Mars Society's flagship project, one that will serve as the foundation of a series of bold steps that will pave the way to the eventual human settlement of Mars. The MARS must serve as a useful field research facility at Mars analog sites on Earth to further our understanding of the geology, biology, and environmental conditions at these locations. In order to achieve this, the MARS must provide safe shelter and be an effective field laboratory.

The MARS will be made available to NASA, university, and industry scientists and engineers to support ongoing geologic and biological research at a Mars analog site actively investigated by NASA. Far more capable and comfortable than a field tent, the facility will bring to the field what will amount to a compact laboratory in which data analysis can begin before scientists leave the field and return to their home institutions. (Visit the Classroom for a description of the MARS). Such a facility will help develop a capability that will be needed on Mars to allow productive human field research.

The MARS project task force will develop in consultation with NASA a detailed and prioritized program of field research that will assess the level of fidelity of each proposed Mars analog experiment to be conducted at the MARS.

The MARS represents a necessary step towards sending humans to Mars because the exploration of the Martian surface by humans still has aspects that have never been encountered before in human exploration endeavors on the Earth, in low orbit, or on the Moon.

Overview | Mars Society | Devon Island/ Haughton Crater | Classroom | Field Reports