Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station

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The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is a project operated by the Mars Society in collaboration with NASA's Haughton-Mars Project, to conduct geological and microbiological 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. To this end, the Society constructed a research station on Canada's remote northerly Devon Island in the summer of 2000. In the following summer, six separate crews of five to seven people occupied the station and began work. It is required that any outside work be done wearing a spacesuit simulator and that all communications are conducted by radio. Communications between the station and off-island researchers are subject to a time delay which mimics that of actual radio traffic between Earth and Mars.

The project's final cost was US$1.3 million, raised through sponsorships with major companies. Flashline.com, an internet society, donated $175,000 and was granted the right to affix its name to the project.

The FMARS project is one of three being carried out by the Mars Society. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) began operation in 2002 in southern Utah, and the European Mars Analog Research Station (EuroMARS) is awaiting deployment in Iceland in 2007. A fourth project, the Australia Mars Analog Research Station (MARS-Oz) is currently (2005) in the initial planning stage.