FMARS 2009 A Scientific Mission by the Mars Society W. Vernon Kramer – DMC Geology Instructor FMARS 2009 Commander
Mar 31, 2015
FMARS 2009 A Scientific Mission by the
Mars Society
W. Vernon Kramer – DMC Geology Instructor FMARS 2009 Commander
Mars Society
An international organization devoted the studies of sustaining a human settlement on Mars
This is done by performing simulated Mars missions where participants live in a Mars habitat and work outside in simulated space suits
MDRS near Hanksville, UT
The Mars Society maintains a second habitat near Resolute on Devon Island
About 600 miles North of Arctic Circle
Largest uninhabited islandsize of West Virginia
Haughton Crater
~ 30 MY old meteor crater; ~23 km in diameter; Arctic desert
An ideal environment for a Mars simulation
Stop for a moment to meet the crew of FMARS 2009
Meet at Resolute, Nunavut on July 28, 2009
Population less than 500
Home for the month of July for six Mars settlers25 feet in diameter and ~ 20 feet high
Outside in “simulation”
Travel by ATV and all outside activity with suits
Just like on Mars
All mapping: UTMNAD83/WGS84 bordering Zone 16 using Tule, Greenland
10 meter contours
FMARS at 8373.621 N; 420.731 E
Haughton Crater IOL – Inuit Owned Lands
Geologic map
Notice the red dots
Hydrothermal pipes
Examples of a hydrothermal pipeOf the more than 70 pipes, most were found by walking over the terrain (without a space suit)
Our mission is to “find” these various types of “pipes’ with a UAV and sample the pipes for useful minerals (all within a space suit, helmet and thick gloves!
Then we will further test these with EM geophysics
Remotely controlled Prioria Maveric UAS with GPS, with cameras that can take high resolution color and infrared photos
Nikon CoolPix P6000 with geotagging
All sampling will be GPS tagged with Nikon donated cameras
All field data will be collected using a DMC loaned Trimble GeoXM
(with training by John Nelson - DMC)
A variety of other GPS units will be used for navigation (including loaners from DMC)
And all GPS data will be integrated using ARCMAP (from DMC IT, with training by DMC John Nelson)
Traverse of an unmanned rover for a couple of months
The reality of Mars, a +1,000 M hill of sulfate mineralization
By men in space suits in a few days
We must find usable minerals on Mars for this to happen!