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American Morning
Recreating Life on Mars
Aired July 16, 2001 - 11:18 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: Life on the International Space Station is becoming reality, but living on Mars, well, that is a mystery to this day still. But scientists are trying to figure out exactly what life would be like if you were there on the Red Planet.
We get details on their efforts right now from CNN's space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, who joins us live by video phone from near the top of the world. He's at Devon Island in Canada, which is just above the Arctic Circle -- Miles?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Leon, if you were looking for the closest version of Mars you can find on this planet, you'd find it right here. And that's why scientists are here. There are about four dozen of them right now and they're engaged in a short summer field season of research activities and really practice at what it would be like to be on Mars.
Right now as we speak, the day has begun here. The weather is not cooperating very well. There's a group here from Carnegie Mellon University with a robot that they would like to practice with and refine, a robot that uses the sun as a navigation tool. Right now they're scouting out a place to do that but because of the heavy cloud cover they may be rained out today.
As we speak, another group that is living inside a simulated spaceship has begun a space walk, if you will. In other words, they suit up as if they would be on the surface of Mars which, of course, doesn't have any breathable air for us, and do an eight hour stint of work carrying hammers and chisels and tools, doing what a geologist would do here on earth, and basically finding ways to look for microscopic traces of life. This is a seemingly lifeless place, but when you start turning boulders over, sure enough, there's life there. The scientists here believe the same thing is very likely true on Mars, if only they had a chance to go try out their theories.
Now, over my shoulder as the camera pans you'll see the center portion of the Haughton Mars project. NASA, the Center For Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute and the Planetary Society are all part of this program so there's some private and public money involved here. The people who come up here are real space enthusiasts and if they had the opportunity, they would take a ride to Mars. That, of course, now at least 20 years away according to the experts and to our friends at NASA. This project is now about 10 days old. It's been delayed by the weather. You can see the patches of snow, which are unusual for this time of year even this far north, and will continue through the middle of August. We're going to stay up here all week and get a sense of what they're doing and what a mission to Mars might be like someday. We'll be checking in with live reports, taped reports and we'll see you on the Web with a series of Web casts and chats -- Leon?
HARRIS: Yes, and you thought that you could put those gloves and hat away for the year, but not so, Miles. Listen, let me ask you something about the -- I know it's been, it's only been a short time so far up there, but have the scientists that you've been talking with given you any indication, have they reached any surprises or come across any surprises so far?
O'BRIEN: Well, the big surprise here this year has been the weather. It's really given, it hasn't given them much of an opportunity to do much science, quite frankly, Leon. They were delayed getting here. The landing strip is a muddy little patch and they had to wait for the snow to clear and for the weather to clear. But I think what they've found, generally speaking, when it comes to coming to places like this, and there are some dry valleys in Antarctica that are kind of similar, when you go to very cold, very dry places that seem to be lifeless, it turns out when you look a little more carefully, life really abounds there. It's just in how you look, and that's the lesson that they would like to learn more about and would like to spread as they look towards searching toward Mars.
HARRIS: Fascinating. All right, thanks, Miles.
As we said, folks, you can keep track of Miles' adventures up there on our Web site at CNN.com. Miles, go ahead, go back inside and get warm for the time being. We'll talk to you later on.
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