Scientist navigates the Arctic from lab chair
Stephen Braham, 778.782.7981, warp@polylab.sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
http://www.marsonearth.org/ (Check this site for information on twitter and blogging updates on the trip)
Beginning in April, Stephen Braham will co-navigate the first road vehicle to traverse the Arctic’s Northwest Passage—right from his Simon Fraser University lab chair.
Previously, only people on snowmobiles have successfully navigated the polar-bear territory, where ice thickness varies significantly and temperatures dip below minus-35 Celsius.
An adjunct professor in SFU’s School of Communication and director of the school’s PolyLAB, Braham is helping a research team in a revamped Humvee military vehicle drive across close to 2,000 kilometres of Arctic sea ice.
The Mars Institute-based researchers have driven the Humvee—once a vehicular star in Hollywood movies such as Contact—from NASA in California to Vancouver. Using satellite phone systems, Braham will help the expedition get from Kugluktuk, Nunavut to the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) Research Station on Nunavut’s Devon Island.
Braham has been helping NASA design and test rover vehicles equipped with high-speed networking and advanced radio communications systems for planetary exploration, at the HMP Research Station for 11 years. Devon Island’s environment mimics Mars’ extreme conditions, making it a perfect testing ground.
Braham will use weather forecasts and information about ice conditions from satellites and the Canadian Ice Service to help this international scientific team travel safely to HMP.
“This trip enables us to look at long-range navigation issues for the multi-hundred-kilometre rover trips expected for humans on expeditions of the moon and Mars,” explains Braham, the operations director of this mission.
Braham’s knowledge of ice thickness science will help scientists better understand the long-range impact of global warming. If sea ice continues to melt at the current rate, this could be the first and last time that a road vehicle makes this trek.
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