Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station

The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station is the first of two simulated Mars habitats established and maintained by the Mars Society.BackgroundThe station is located on Devon Island, a Mars analog environment and polar desert, approximately north east of the hamlet of Resolute in Nunavut, Canada. The station is situated on Haynes Ridge, overlooking the Haughton impact crater, a 23km diameter crater formed approximately 39 million years ago (late Eocene). The location is approximately 1609km from the Geographic North Pole and approximately 1287km from the Magnetic North Pole.FMARS is the first research station of its kind to be built, completed in the summer of 2000.Operated by the non-profit Mars Society, the station's mission is to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making real the vision of human exploration of Mars. The society uses the station to conduct geological and biological exploration under conditions similar to those found on Mars, to develop field tactics based on those explorations, to test habitat design features, tools, and technologies, and to assess crew selection protocols.The project's final cost was US$1.3 million, raised through sponsorships with major companies. Flashline.com, an internet business, donated $175,000 and was granted the right to affix its name to the project. Other major sponsors included the Kirsch Foundation, the Foundation for the International Non-governmental Development of Space (FINDS) and the Discovery Channel (which purchased exclusive English-language TV rights to the station's activities for the first two years).