Earth as a Classroom - Team Blogs

Our team will visit Devon Island to conduct 5 days of webcasts and other instructional activities spanning the period of 16-20 July 2007. This activity is sponsored by the Mars Institute and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education with additional assistance from The Explorers Club and SpaceRef Interactive, Inc. and from the team itself.

We will conduct these webcasts from the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station and nearby locations to illustrate how NASA and other space agencies are learning to live on the Moon and Mars here on Earth. These webcasts will be combined with other materials to provide a unique educational opportunity for students participating in Challenger Learning Center activities. The audience will be focused at junior high/high school students, but will also be designed to reach a more general audience as well.

We currently plan to have twelve Challenger Learning Centers participate in these webcasts. During these activities, participating centers will be able to interact live with our team - and other participants - on Devon Island. At the present time these live webcasts will be provided only to participating Challenger Learning Centers. Material presented on these webcasts will be archived for public viewing shortly after their initial presentation. Should we be able to broaden distribution of these webcast further we'll update this website accordingly.

Our team consists of 4 individuals: veteran astronauts William Readdy and Leroy Chiao, horticulturist/space researcher Matthew Reyes, and space biologist Keith Cowing (who is also the team lead for this project).

We will also have the distinction of carrying a flag on our "Flag Expedition" from the Explorers Club (Cowing, Chiao, and Readdy are Fellows of the Explorers Club). A formal report will be presented to the Explorers Club upon our return.

As we prepare for our trip, we were all very pleased to get the following note from STS-118 Astronaut Barbara Morgan: "Best wishes to Leroy, Reads, Matt, and Keith on their Teaching Expedition to Devon Island. I look forward to learning all about it when I return from space."

While this remote island does have some musk oxen, small birds and mammals - and some plant life, in many places, there is almost no easily visible life at all. In those places, the surface looks very much like what our robots have seen on Mars. This is one of the reasons why many scientists and engineers find Devon Island a useful place to do research that will help us explore Mars (and the Moon) one day.

So far, humans have only visited another world (the Moon) a half a dozen times. The longest visit to the lunar surface was three days. On short trips like these, you can afford to bring all the supplies you need - air, food, water, etc. and leave things behind when you are done with them. And of course, the trip home only takes several days.

I live in a world of green. This year was especially so with all the rain we had been getting in Virginia this Spring and Summer. This all changed as I ventured north once again to the Canadian high arctic where green is a rarity and rock and snow are the norm.

The place I lived in for nearly a month was chosen for its similarities to Mars. Those who visit the place call it "Mars on Earth" - the Haughton Mars Project - Devon Island, Haughton Crater.

Unlike last year, this was my second 'mission'. I have already endured the long flights and the hardships, and learned what to do - and not to do - what to bring and what to leave behind. As such, this year would be less of an unknown adventure - but, an adventure, none the less it was.

In the summer of 2002 I had a unique opportunity: I had the chance to visit another planet - or at least the closest thing to such an experience one can have without leaving this planet.

I was a participant in the Haughton-Mars Project - a international multidisciplinary research project led by Pascal Lee, managed in cooperation with NASA. My company is also a financial sponsor of this project. In addition, I was a journalist documenting the various research projects underway here.

While I wore many different hats as I set foot on this amazing island, they all soon merged into one: I was a witness to a close approximation of what it would be like to explore another planet: specifically, Mars. As such, the only way to convey my experiences is to do so from a personal perspective.