Operations
The Mars Society sends researchers to live and work at the station typically for one month during the arctic summer. Each of these expeditions consists of a crew of between 6 and 7 individuals. Typically 1 to 2 months prior to departing for the Canadian Arctic, the crew gathers for an initial face-to-face meeting and training session in Colorado. Departing for the arctic, the crew travels by commercial airline to Resolute. There they spend a few days at the South Camp Inn, organizing their supplies and equipment and conducting some final training while waiting for clear weather. They then board Twin Otter aircraft for the final leg of the journey. These aircraft land on a dirt airstrip located on Devon Island near the station. The primary means of crew transportation while on the island is by All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs).
During the formal Mars simulation period of each expedition, it is required that any outside work be done while wearing a simulated spacesuit and that all communications are conducted by radio. Space suited crew members use a simulated airlock depress/repress procedure upon each exit and entry to the habitat. Communications between the station and off-island researchers are subject to a time delay (typically 20 minutes) which mimics that of actual radio traffic between Earth and Mars. A satellite phone is kept on-site for use in emergencies.
Due to limited visibility of crew members wearing simulated spacesuits, all work outside the station is conducted with one crew member "out-of-sim". It is the responsibility of this crew member be on look out for, and to protect the crew from, polar bears. This crew member is typically armed with a pump-action shotgun loaded with slugs. The crew also carries bear deterrent devices known as bear bangers. No polar bears have yet been encountered by the crew of an FMARS expedition, although signs of their presence on the island are regularly seen, and at least one encounter has occurred with participants in the HMP.
Crew members are also required to write periodic reports to document conducted research, to advise on the status of engineering systems, and to capture details related to other aspects of operations. There are four reports that are typically generated, these being the Commander's Report, a Science Report, an Engineering Report and a Narrative Report. The crew transmits these reports to a Mission Support team (typically located in Colorado).
Read more about this topic: Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)