Background
The station is located on Devon Island, a Mars analog environment and polar desert, approximately 165 kilometres (103 mi) north east of the hamlet of Resolute in Nunavut, Canada. The station is situated on Haynes Ridge, overlooking the Haughton impact crater, a 23 kilometres (14 mi) diameter crater formed approximately 39 million years ago (late Eocene). The location is approximately 1,609 km (1,000 mi) from the Geographic North Pole and approximately 1,287 km (800 mi) from the Magnetic North Pole.
FMARS is the first research station of its kind to be built, completed in the summer of 2000.
Operated by the non-profit Mars Society, the station's mission is to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making real the vision of human exploration of Mars. The society uses the station to conduct geological and biological exploration under conditions similar to those found on Mars, to develop field tactics based on those explorations, to test habitat design features, tools, and technologies, and to assess crew selection protocols.
The project's final cost was US$1.3 million, raised through sponsorships with major companies. Flashline.com, an internet business, donated $175,000 and was granted the right to affix its name to the project. Other major sponsors included the Kirsch Foundation, the Foundation for the International Non-governmental Development of Space (FINDS) and the Discovery Channel (which purchased exclusive English-language TV rights to the station's activities for the first two years).
The FMARS project is one of four stations originally planned by the Mars Society as part of the Mars Analog Research Station Program. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) began operation in 2002 in southern Utah. Stations to be built in Europe (European Mars Analog Research Station / EuroMARS) and Australia (Australia Mars Analog Research Station / MARS-Oz) have not progressed beyond the planning stages.
Read more about this topic: Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station
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