Signing up for an Arctic Mars

The Mars Society is looking for a few good men - and women - to spend four months holed up in an artificial igloo or tromping around the Canadian Arctic in bulky faux spacesuits.

This won't be an extended vacation, or a reality-TV plotline. For rocket scientist Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, next year's exercise on Devon Island will be an experiment in the exploration process - a test that could help smooth the path to Mars.

It's been a couple of months since Zubrin first announced the plans for a four-month simulated Mars mission on Devon Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, just 900 miles (1,440 kilometers) from the North Pole. Now he and other mission planners are ready to sign up a volunteer crew of seven who will operate from the Mars Society's Arctic habitat from May to September next year.

Six of the crew members will have to stay "in sim" for the duration - meaning that they'll follow the same procedures that a crew on true Mars would have to contend with. They'll have to wear bulky "spacesuit simulators" to venture outside the habitat, and be responsible for all the chores associated with daily life on another planet.

A seventh volunteer will serve as a field support manager, taking care of the logistics and toting a shotgun when necessary to fend off polar bears.

Hundreds of volunteers have already gone through such simulations, either at the Flashline Arctic Mars Station on Devon Island or at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. "What I'd like to do is basically expand the pool of volunteers," Zubrin said.

The Arctic simulations recently came under some backhanded criticism in a Chicago Tribune report that compared the Mars Society's work unfavorably with that of the Haughton-Mars Project, a parallel series of Devon Island expeditions funded by NASA. The report called the operation an "extraterrestrial summer camp" for "tourists."

Zubrin took strong issue with that characterization.

"We're not going there as 'space tourists,' and certainly our personnel have as many scientists among them" as the Haughton-Mars Project does, Zubrin said. "About 20 percent of our people have been at NASA or the European Space Agency."

He said the Haughton-Mars Project is doing worthwhile work, using Devon Island's Marslike setting to learn about the ground-level geology that might be found on Mars, as well as to test prototype technologies for Mars operations.

"What we're doing is different," Zubrin said. "We're not primarily interested in studying the geology for purposes of geological comparison. ... What we're studying is the exploration process itself."

For example, past simulations have revealed that boredom shouldn't be a problem during future trips to Mars - which is unlike the typical response seen in other confined environments, such as submarines or isolation chambers. Rather, future crews are more likely to fall prey to workaholism, Zubrin said.

One of the key questions Zubrin wants to answer is exactly how much water a person needs per day - for drinking as well as for bathing, cooking and other uses - during an extended expedition under Marslike conditions.

"You can only get this number with a crew that is actually in the field, being tasked. You can't do this in a tent camp," he said. "I have to tell you that this number is the most important number in determining the mass of a mission to Mars."

The simulations also provide insights into the best tools to use for exploration: During forays onto the lunar or Martian surface, rideable rovers like the all-terrain vehicles used on Devon Island might be more suitable than larger, pressurized Red Planet RVs, Zubrin said.

"Before you spend $2 billion developing a $2 billion pressurized rover, you might want to figure out whether you want to spend $2 billion on a pressurized rover," he said.

Zubrin said the estimated cost for next year's simulation is about $100,000 - one-millionth of the price tag of NASA's return-to-the-moon program. The money is in hand for next year's simulation, but the society is still looking for expedition sponsors so that the missions can continue beyond next year, Zubrin said.

"What we're doing is, we're taking that money - except we haven't taken it from the American taxpayer - and we can practice for the moon and Mars in the Arctic or the desert," Zubrin said.

The specifications for next year's crew basically call for four scientists, two engineers and a field support person who has mechanical skills as well as wilderness skills. They should be in good health, between 21 and 60 in age, and able to take part in a two-week Utah training session in February as well as next summer's Arctic exercise.

The deadline for applications is Sept. 30, and the crew is due to be selected by the end of November. The Mars Society promises "hard work, no pay, eternal glory" - plus travel expenses to Utah and Devon Island.

For more information, including the detailed requirements for the application and the address to send it to, check out the Mars Society's call for volunteers.