This week's column is different than those I have written in the past. You see, I am sitting in a tent full of computers on Devon Island less than a thousand miles from the North Pole.

How is this relevant to space exploration?

I am a participant in the NASA Haughton Mars Project (HMP), which is led by the SETI Institute. Each year (this is the sixth) scientists and engineers come to this remote location (the largest uninhabited island on Earth) to perform research aimed at sending humans to Mars. (Pictured: Keith Cowing on Devon Island. Photo courtesy HMP 2002 - SPACEREF)

One of the things being investigated here is a concept for the spacesuits and tools that we'll need on Mars. Thirty-three years ago this week — a third of a century ago — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the surface of another world. After just five more lunar surface missions we put a halt to human planetary exploration.

Human spaceflight has continued — and so has the development of spacesuits used in microgravity. However, advances in surface suits have not made all of the strides that will be needed. But we're getting close. Over the past several years here on Devon Island, spacesuit manufacturer Hamilton-Sunstrand has field-tested a conceptual Mars exploration spacesuit.

The suits used by Apollo astronauts were designed, at most, for several days' use on the lunar surface. By the time their short missions were over, the ever-present lunar dust and the harsh conditions had taken their toll and the suits were all but useless. The sort of suits we'll need on Mars will have to work for months, be fully serviceable, and most of all, be conformable in a wide variety of situations, both routine and emergency.

In addition to being flexible and long-lived, these suits will also need to provide their wearer with a wide variety of information sources, both local and remote. As part of the HMP, Xybernaut wearable computers have also been tested, often in concert with the concept spacesuits so as to attempt to understand the information resources a Mars explorer would need at his or her fingertips. (Photo courtesy HMP 2001 - Pascal Lee)

When Neil, Buzz, and their fellow crewmember Mike Collins (who remained in lunar orbit during the mission) traveled to the Moon they carried all of the food, water, and air they'd need with them. With some minor exceptions, nothing was recycled. This is fine if you are making a jaunt in the local neighborhood (lunar missions, even the longest, lasted less than two weeks.)

When we go to Mars we're going to have to be mindful of what we bring, what we recycle — and possibly, what we get from Mars itself. Looking back across decades of Mars base plans, one common component is a greenhouse of some sort. This structure would serve as part of a closed environmental life support system that would recycle wastewater and other materials, produce food, and regenerate the atmosphere that the crew breathes.

In an effort to start to understand what it would take to operate a greenhouse on Mars, my company, SpaceRef Interactive, has donated a greenhouse to the HMP. Dedicated to noted science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the "Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse" will serve as a testbed for the biological and engineering challenges that will face the operation of such a structure on Mars. Placing this greenhouse in a very remote and hazardous location allows systems to be tested for their robustness as well as their reliability. The greenhouse was finished just a few days ago. Science operations will begin next summer.

Thirty-three years ago on this date I was at Boy Scout camp listening to radio reports from the Apollo 11 crew as they sped towards the Moon. Today I spent most of my day with Tom Graham, a post-graduate student at the University of Guelph, as we finished installing insulation on our greenhouse. Other team members practiced sophisticated Internet communications to be used during surface exploration while others examined the large meteor impact crater that lies just over the hill from us.

It is our collective hope here on Devon Island that well before another third of a century passes, humans will be living and working on Mars. Hopefully this greenhouse will serve as a testbed for the knowledge that will be needed to make this come to pass.

The current series Enterprise takes us all back (or forward if you prefer) to a time when humans just begin to understand the technologies needed to explore beyond our solar system. We are in a similar situation now with respect to understanding what it will take to move outward to other planets. As such, an Enterprise mission sticker will be placed within our greenhouse to serve as a source of inspiration — and camaraderie — with the crew of the good ship Enterprise NX-01.