28 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.
Inauguration Day
Well the day all of the Mars Society has finally been waiting for has arrived. Today we inaugurated the
Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. The ceremony started at 9:20 PM CDT. Most of base
camp was here. There were camera flashes all over the place. It was quite a moment.
The day started off with more work being done on the habitat. A little tweaking here and there, some fresh paint and some more
partitions were put in place. I spent most of the day doing my usual web work. However after dinner is when all of the
festivities started. We were told to gather at the habitat at 9:00 PM. The “crowds” started arriving around 10 to nine. One interesting
note was the wind. At first we thought someone was playing music in the habitat. It was almost as if a symphony was playing.
The wind however was moving through the holes in the habitat legs. It was very appropriate. Perhaps this sound is similar
to what the Mars Polar lander would have heard if it had survived.
As usual with any ceremony it started a bit late. Eloquent speeches were give by Dr. Pascal Lee, Dr. Carol Stoker, Dr. Charlie Cockell
and finally Dr. Robert Zubrin. It was an emotional time, a historic time. We broke a bottle of champagne on the railings of the
habitat and fired a one gun salute. Afterwards a short “open house” occured followed by the crew going into the habitat to
start the simulation.
The first event inside the habitat was to setup our personal area. Then we started a time delayed simulation with
the Mars Society “mission control” in Denver. That went very well. We then went to bed.
What a day! It was just too much. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.
For daily updates on the NASA Haughton-Mars Project click here.
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