A Martian (Analog) Odyssey

I'm back in civilization, and finally can share some video with you. Yes, I know its late. (Give me a break, man. I was in the ARCTIC. By the way, I think I can use that fact to WIN pretty much every conversation from this point forward.)

On my second day at the Haughton-Mars Project, 4 of us set off on a 3 hour ATV traverse across rugged terrain, to a ridge roughly 7 km away, in order to set up some Iridium equipment. ATVs are absolutely critical for movement-there are no roads here, or any civilization beyond the HMP base camp, and unless you are in the Humvee, or perhaps possess the magical power of levitation, you will soon become an expert in all-terrain vehicles.

The barren landscape is beautiful in its extreme alien starkness. As you might expect in an Arctic polar desert region, there is little snow or vegetation. Instead, it is dry, dusty, rocky, and acutely UV-saturated due to the polar day's 24 hour sun. The terrain exhibits many varied features similar to those on Mars: our traverses take us across large boulder fields, down through networks of canyons and valleys, through thin meltwater channels and winding gullies, and up along high ridges that overlook the 12 mile diameter Haughton Crater.

Check out my YouTube playlist of short video from the traverse; for photos, check out my Picasa album.