CNN and CNN.com Explore “Mars on Earth”

CNN Videophone and CNN.com Webcasts Transmitting Live from Remote Mars-like Arctic Island

Although no place on Earth is truly similar to Mars, CNN will offer viewers and users a rare look at the remote location of Devon Island, Canada, where scientific research for expeditions to Mars is in progress. Beginning Monday, July 16, and continuing throughout the week, CNN will present “Mars on Earth,” an on-air and online look at what is believed to be the most Mars-like place on Earth, Haughton impact crater on Devon Island.

CNN space correspondent Miles O’Brien and producer Linda Saether will report live from the island via videophone each day as the 2001 Haughton-Mars Project conducts scientific studies and field work to investigate the technologies for future exploration of Mars by robots and humans. Additionally, CNN.com will offer two Webcasts at http://www.cnn.com/marscamp Thursday, July 19, and Friday, July 20, at 11:30 a.m. (ET).

O’Brien will profile non-profit and private organizations as they search for extra-terrestrial life forms and research technologies for future exploration. During each Webcast, O’Brien will interview NASA scientists and other researchers at the camp about the possibility of a manned mission to Mars. Additionally, the site will offer online chats with O’Brien, maps of the campsite and a 360° pictorial IPIX camera tour.

Organized by NASA’s international field research team, the Haughton-Mars Project seeks to research exploration technologies and strategies for future human and robotic missions to Mars. Devon Island is the largest uninhabited island on Earth and is located in the Canadian-Arctic Circle. Formed nearly 23 million years ago, the Haughton crater’s geological and geographical make-up is considered to have the most comparable terrain to Mars, and researchers have created a habitat that is similar in size and shape to a spacecraft.

CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., an AOL Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to 16 cable and satellite television networks; three private place-based networks; two radio networks; 12 Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN to Go in the United States and CNN Mobile internationally, which provide news and information to mobile devices; and CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service.

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Kristi Angevine

Atlanta

404/827.4296

kristi.angevine@cnn.com