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American Morning

Scientists Simulate Mars in Arctic Circle

Aired July 16, 2001 - 10:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A group of scientists is working above the Arctic Circle, where scientists believe conditions will help them simulate the life that you would have if you lived on Mars. Our space correspondent Miles O'Brien is traveling with the group. He joins us now and he's on our special world famous video phone now. He's on Canada's Devon Island -- Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I guess you could say it's out of this world famous now, Leon. We spent quite a journey to get up here. We're about 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the largest uninhabited island on the planet with a group of scientists that are hoping against hope to one day put into practice what they're simulating right here, and that is to say the Martian environment.

This is about as close to Mars as you can get on this planet. There are about 40 scientists, researchers and adventuresome types here who are a part of this project. And as you look over my shoulder and take a look at this encampment, this is the Hotten Mars Project (ph) central command, if you will. Downtown, they call it. That's a bit of a euphemism, I suppose. And at the center of it you can see the tent with the NASA logo on it. That's the mess tent where we just had our breakfast and just had a meeting to talk about what's ahead for the day.

There's a team here from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh working on a robot that is guided by the sun using the sun to navigate, although we're not seeing a lot of sun today so they may not be working. And then in about an hour's time we're going to head across to the other side at the edge of the crater here to the Mars analog research site and a simulated spaceship. There's a crew that is living inside, Leon, and every time they step outside they get a space suit on and they attempt to do a day in the life of a Martian explorer with that spacesuit on, trying to do work.

All of this is with the hope that one day this will make human beings a lot smarter if and when the time comes we actually send people to the fourth rock from the sun -- Leon?

HARRIS: All right, Miles O'Brien reporting live from Devon Island, up there way, way north, just above the Arctic Circle, and you see the great pictures and there is actually snow on the ground up there.

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