George James, Personal Journal – The Mars Society Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station – 11 Aug 2001

Although we were scheduled to fly out at 9:00, we were told that wind and fog were postponing our flight. However, about 10:30 they said get to the airport. By 11:45 we were on final approach at the airstrip on Devon Island. We were greeted at the airport and moved down to HMP and had lunch. During lunch I met several people including Michael Boucher from Sunstrand who used to work in my division at NASA JSC. I was under specific instructions from Jeff Hagen and Sonia Ried to look him up. After lunch Eric and I had ATV and bear training. I hit the target with the shotgun (but had to ask Eric to verify it). I headed over to the hab and checked out the guy wire connections and tower. Later I found out that the tower was reserved by the on-site communications infrastructure and we may need another tower shipped up from Resolute.

We headed over to the hab and helped the last crew move their gear out. We moved our stuff in and started helping to clean up and modify the hab. I had to help install a few fixtures in my sleep area after I moved in. Figure 1 shows my small sleep area. A second plane came in later which had the remote sensing station. Pascal took me to the rim of the crater and pointed out several features of the crater. The hab is right next to the rim and is very noticeable (see Figure 2). I discussed with Pascal about my interest in practicing resource prospecting techniques. This is an excellent overlap between the pure science aspects of our simulation and the engineering aspects.

I unpacked and checked out the remote station. There were a couple of components damaged but probably not dysfunctional. I sent out status messages to mission support concerning the damage. We had a good crew meeting and continued to work in the hab. The sim did not start until later that night. We discussed a familiarization EVA to a nearby scientific site. I offered to be the IVA officer as I had more time that Rocky in the suit last May. I also offered to share duties with Pascal to keep the generators fueled. We stayed up late watching GalaxyQuest (which is in great demand up here). I was glad that I brought it.

The windows of the hab are very important. They give a great connection to the environment and give the occupants a sense of outdoors. A Martian hab should probably have a good number of them as well.

Figure 1. View of Crater Rim and Floor as Seen from a Hab Window.

Figure 2. My Sleep Station in the Hab.