Wanted: Volunteers For Simulated Mars Mission In The Arctic
What’s the Latest Development?
The Mars Society has announced that they are looking for six people who would be willing and able to spend a full year at a research station participating in a simulated Mars mission. The station is located on Canada’s Devon Island in the Arctic Circle — about 900 miles from the North Pole — and the selected participants will be expected to conduct scientific experiments and in general live as though they were really on the planet. “If they want to go outside their base, they’ll have to wear a spacesuit. If something breaks, they’re the ones who are going to have to fix it.” The application deadline is November 30, and the mission — Mars Arctic 365 — is scheduled to begin next July.
What’s the Big Idea?
The Mars Society isn’t the only nonprofit group preparing for the day when humans do finally take off for the Red Planet. Last year, Mars One’s call for volunteers to go on a one-way trip garnered over 200,000 responses, and if all goes well, they could put a colony on the planet by 2023. Meanwhile, on the governmental side, NASA’s estimates are more conservative: They plan to send humans to Mars by the mid-2030s.
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