Arctic Research Station: A Step Toward Mars

Phrogman writes: "There is some great information on the Mar's Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station which is being set up in the 20km diamater Haughton meteorite crater on Devon Island in Canada's high arctic. They will be assembling a complete simulation of a manned Mars lander there and conducting research leading towards a human mission to Mars. The lander was built in Denver, and is currently undergoing final checks before being flown up to the crater by the U.S. Marine Corps. There is detailed information on the lander itself here.

The project is a joint venture with NASA, and is sponsored by the Mars Society, Discovery Channel, and of course flashline.com (thus the name). There is also excellent 360 degree Quicktime(tm) photos of the entire region on the official website for the Haughton-Mars project. Marc Boucher of spaceref.com is actually onsite at the base camp and will be reporting on events there over the next few months."

The attitude seems to be pragmatic -- if we want to go to Mars, we need to start building the infrastructure, make the public aware of the possibilities, demo Mars vehicles, etc.

Comments

Re:The public and the possibilities

[DHartung]

Reality Master sez:
There simply is no reason, from Joe Public's point of view, to go to Mars. Yes, there is a lot to discover scientifically, but that usually doesn't interest the average joe. The moon was interesting because that was new, and we had the russians to beat.

I hear you (and believe me, I'm just as pragmatic). But the main thing isn't that the average joe thinks Mars is uninteresting. In fact, the preponderance of space operas like Armageddon and Mission to Mars (!) argues against that. The problem is that the average joe thinks Mars is too expensive to explore. They don't want to pay for it, especially when our national debt is measured in gajillions.

There's also a small contingent who use the red herring argument that "we should solve our problems on Earth first" (as if we will ever have all humanity's, or even just America's, problems solved). It even shows up here at /. all too frequently.

And please don't give me the old tired line about all the tech benefits that came out of the space program. Yes, benefits came out of it, but nothing that wouldn't have come out of industry anyway (only cheaper).

That's the usual ex post facto justification. Truthfully, the benefits come less in terms of specific inventions ("Tang! Space pens!") than in the development of a high-tech infrastructure and high-tech workforce to build it. (Hey kids! Where did the internet come from?) Eventually those people go into other lines of work and apply the knowledge they've gained. At the same time, the wider culture gains in terms of being challenged by the exploration. Zubrin talks of the Western Frontier's importance to the US, for example.

It's been said before, and it bears saying again. It is time for private industry to privatize space. Only when it pays for itself will humans have a permanent presence in space. Trying to rely on the fickle budgets of governments is just folly.

Perhaps. On the other hand, governments have done more for us in terms of space exploration so far than any private company. This may be a valid analogy, but so far it's failed to prove out.

Even counting the private satellite business and its LEO/GEO applications, from weather to communications, there's extremely limited and narrow-minded interest in space from the private sector. The most recent great hope for space privatization, including the financing of efforts to develop true low-cost launch systems, has crumbled in the face of the failure of Iridium. Just this last week, Gary Hudson left Rotary Rocket (the most promising candidate, with a flying vehicle), and Globalstar effectively began to run out of money. Without LEO constellations to launch, there's no investment potential in cheap rocketry.

And without cheap rocketry, we're stuck waiting for governments to do the right thing.

----

Re:hrrmm...

[NaughtyEddie]

Interesting that you guys call them "English" measurements. The English - who haven't used them in engineering for many years - call them "Imperial" measurements (anyone remember the Empire? ;) We only use them for measuring beer these days (and a pint is 20 fl oz compared to the US's measly 16 fl oz pint).