21 July 2000: Marc Boucher's Personal Journal: Base Camp, Devon Island

Note: Information on the current field season, as well as past seasons can be found here.

A Structure Takes Shape

The habitat is really taking shape. Several construction techniques have been tried but now one that works well is in place. Each panel is individually being put into place. Today the construction crew put up another four panels. It's a slow but steady process. As each panel goes up the excitement grows. This is really happening. It even looks like we will have the opportunity to do the first simulation. The shakedown simulation will probably only last a week but it will give us enough time to get a feeling of what it's like to live in it.

To give the habitat some perspective imagine this. Yesterday Oz and Colleen were coming back from a five day geology trek to the south of the crater. When they were about 15 kilometers from camp they decided to try and find Haynes Ridge where the habitat is going up. With the naked eye they were wondering what the white patches where on the ridge. At first they thought it was snow. After looking through the binoculars they realized that it was the habitat going up. They were astonished. When they had left they did not know it was going to be constructed.

The Media

The camp has been swamped with media. It really is quite a site. Documentary crews are going everywhere including on traverses and of course covering the habitat construction. These projects, the Habitat and the Haughton-Mars project will be in the spotlight for some time. The biggest problem with a camp that has had as many as 55 people is the allocation of our 14 ATV's. The lineup in the morning to get one is really quite funny. That is unless your stuck without one.

More tomorrow. Hopefully the entire hab will be standing on its own.

For daily updates on the NASA Haughton-Mars Project click here.

A second set of panels was partially raised but a minor problem with the way the guy wires were set meant that the panel had to come down. When the panel came down it suffered minor damage. However the damage was quickly repaired. By dinner time only one set of panels was up. We had hoped to have three sets up by the end of the day.

We are very fortunate right now as the weather forecast is for good weather through Saturday. This means that if all goes well all of the side panels will be in place by Friday. Then we will build the floors from wood and then raise the roof. Considering the setbacks we have had we are doing very well. Should the habitat be completely finished within a week we will do a short crew simulation with some of the science we had planned.

Mars Meets The Internet

We may have performed a first today. For a couple of hours after several hours of prep work we were able to broadcast images onto the web from the construction site. We had an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) near the hab with a web cam provided by SpaceRef.com using wireless technology from Simon Fraser University's(SFU)/NASA PlanetNet research program. This test was conducted by myself and Stephen Braham of SFU. The image was captured by the web cam which has its own web server within the unit. The image was then broadcast through the wireless network to a repeater then up to the satellite dish. From there it was sent to the Anik 1 satellite and routed through an Internet service provider in Ottawa. The image was refreshed every 30 seconds. Tomorrow we hope to broadcast more images this way. However no time has been set. Just visit this web site for updates as the day progresses.

Sometime in the morning I'll also post a video of today's panels going up.

Tomorrow should be another great day!

For daily updates on the NASA Haughton-Mars Project click here.

Video File

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