MIT researchers visit Mars on Earth (Forwarded)

News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

November 16, 2005

MIT researchers visit Mars on Earth
Matthew R. Silver, News Office Correspondent

At 75 degrees north latitude, Devon Island lies high above the Arctic
Circle, a few hundred miles from the magnetic North Pole. A true polar
desert, it is also the largest uninhabited island on Earth. But the reach
of MIT extends even here.

This past summer, a research team from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and
Astronautics established a semi-permanent shelter at the NASA
Haughton-Mars Base. Supported by a NASA grant on interplanetary supply
chain management, the team went to Devon Island because the existing base
infrastructure, combined with the remote and barren location, makes it
ideal for studying logistics strategies that could be used in planning
exploration strategies to the moon and Mars. The principal investigators
for the project are Professors Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi.

"Haughton-Mars Base provides an excellent analogy to lunar and Mars
exploration," said de Weck. "This is primarily due to its remoteness, the
time-varying nature of the transportation links and its thin supply line."
The MIT team also included former NASA astronaut and MIT Professor Jeffrey
Hoffman and seven students.

The Haughton-Mars Project is an international, interdisciplinary field
research project sponsored by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, focused
on the scientific study of the Haughton Crater -- a 40-kilometer-wide
geological structure formed more than 38 million years ago by the impact
of a large meteor. Chosen in part for its remoteness and similarity to
Mars terrain, the site also serves as an analogue or "mock" exploration
base, where an array of exploration-related engineering and technology
experiments are tested.

Another expedition goal was to establish an MIT presence at the Haughton
base for future educational and research activities.

"The Haughton-Mars Project Devon Island base gives us a unique opportunity
to conduct experimental tests of some of the ideas we've been developing
for lunar and Martian exploration," Hoffman said. "We're hoping this
becomes a permanent MIT facility."

The MIT team compiled a complete inventory of materials at the base,
including such key items as food and fuel. It also experimented with
modern logistics technologies, such as radio frequency identification,
that autonomously manage and track assets, with the ultimate goal of
creating a "smart exploration base" that could increase safety and save
astronauts and explorers precious time.

Results from the MIT expedition are now being processed. These findings
will form the basis for continued work on interplanetary logistics through
this fall.

RELATED WEBSITES

* MIT Haughton-Mars Campaign 2005
http://web.mit.edu/mrsilver/www/hmp/
* Haughton-Mars Project
http://www.marsonearth.org/
* MIT and Mars
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/mars.html

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Image 1:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/n...e-enlarged.jpg (51KB)]
In this aerial view of the Haughton-Mars Base, near the North Pole, the
six core structures (including the MIT tent) can be seen on the left.
Photo: Matthew R. Silver

[Image 2:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/n...n-enlarged.jpg (61KB)]
MIT Professor Jeffrey Hoffman tests a Hamiliton Sundstrand concept
spacesuit while at the Haughton-Mars Base on Devon Island last summer.
Photo: Jessica Marquez