Mission To Mars

With a six-person habitat already built on Canada’s Devon Island in the Arctic, and it has NASA’s cooperation. After a lengthy location search, with its harsh climate the deserted island, which features a 14-mile crater, was deemed the closest environment to Mars that can be found on Earth. About 200 scientists around the world applied to be part of the yearlong experiment, with 60 of them moving to the next round of the selection process. The final six will move into the two-story, 1,000-square-foot complex, which includes sleeping quarters, a bathroom, a science lab for conducting experiments, engineering space as well as simulated air locks. “It has everything six scientists would need for a year,” Reed said. The six, who will be wearing space suits when venturing outside, will be followed by TV cameras in the vein of Big Brother but the only communication with the outside world they will have during their stay will be with mission control, which will be based out of the NASA AMES center from where the Mars exploration Rover mission is run. Chris McKay, who is working on the Mars Rover Mission, also is helping the Mars Society with their project. (Source: Deadline.com)