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Proactive Disclosure

Simulating Mars on Earth

The Haughton-Mars project and preparing for a human expedition

Devon Island and the Haughton Crater are located 180 km northeast of Resolute Bay. (Image: NASA)

Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is a rocky, desert in the Canadian North, where summer lasts just five weeks at an average temperature of only 2ºC. It is a near-perfect environment for simulating some of the conditions on Mars, given its climate, remoteness and the geological, environmental and biological similarities to Mars. Its geographic remoteness enables scientists to study the effects of isolation and to test technologies that will be used in an environment without electricity, infrastructure or any traditional means of communication.

That is why the multidisciplinary scientific team of NASA's Haughton-Mars project chose Devon Island. This multinational team is focused on one objective: preparatory work for a long-duration, manned space mission.

2006 Expedition

2005 Expedition

2004 Expedition

Devon Island's Haughton Crater formed 20 million years ago and has been preserved from weather erosion by the dry climate of the North; it resembles some of the craters of Mars. Study of Haughton Crater is essential to finding resources in such regions. How will astronauts feed themselves during a two-year mission, short of transporting food by the tonne aboard a shuttle? The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse was donated by SpaceRef Interactive Inc. to the Haughton-Mars Project in 2002. SpaceRef along with other participants including the current users of the greenhouse from Guelph University and the Canadian Space Agency erected the greenhouse on Devon Island in the High Arctic in the summer of 2002. The greenhouse is now growing plants thought to be potential food crops for a Mars base. This ongoing experiment is flourishing as a robust, autonomous greenhouse, producing lettuce as a test crop thanks to an ingenious Canadian-designed gardening system.

The Haughton-Mars project base camp viewed from the airstrip as it first appeared to the summer 2003 team.

(Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

Alain Berinstain, Greenhouse Principal Investigator from CSA/University of Guelph, installs sensor circuitry in the aft end of the greenhouse in July 2003 (Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

Alain Berinstain, greenhouse principal investigator from CSA and the University of Guelph, installs sensor circuitry in the aft end of the greenhouse in July 2003.

(Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

Temporary airlock under construction on Greenhouse in summer 2003. This will serve to decrease thermal shocks during testing. (Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

Temporary airlock under construction on the greenhouse in summer 2003. This will serve to decrease thermal shocks during testing.

(Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

Part of the newly installed greenhouse monitoring and control system during summer 2003.

(Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

New lettuce sprouts growing in the greenhouse.

(Photo: NASA Haughton-Mars Project)

The Haughton-Mars Project Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse was donated by SpaceRef Interactive, Inc. and established at the project's Base Camp (now Haughton-Mars Project Research Station) with initial sponsorship support from NASA. The greenhouse facility is currently managed and operated by the Mars Institute, in partnership with the SETI Institute and Simon Fraser University. Dr. Alain Berinstain of the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Guelph is the current Principal Investigator in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. The ongoing investigation is supported by the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Guelph, Simon Fraser University, and the SETI Institute.