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	A parachute airdrop of equipment for prototype living quarters on Mars was destroyed By Greg Clark Staff Writer posted: 05:00 am ET 12 July 2000

A shipment of equipment that was to be used to assemble a prototype for living quarters on Mars was destroyed Saturday when a parachute failed during an airdrop above Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic

Parts of the Mars Society's Mars Arctic Research Station were destroyed, and two crucial pieces of construction equipment badly damaged when cargo dropped from a U.S. military transport plane smashed into the ground "without assistance" from a parachute, said Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society.

The "research station" is a 27-foot- (8.2-meter-) wide, two-story circular dome, built to test the design for a module that could house a small crew of astronauts on Mars. It was designed and built by the nonprofit Mars Society for about $300,000 raised through private donations and sponsorship contracts.

The dome is being assembled along side NASA's Haughton-Mars Project, an exercise by an international team of scientists from many disciplines, to assess the feasibility of future human missions to Mars. The project, now in its fourth summer season, is conducted near Devon Island's Haughton Crater, a 12-mile- (19-kilometer-) wide basin that was formed millions of years ago by a huge meteorite impact. Because the geography is so similar to the kind of terrain that might be found on Mars, and because environmental conditions there are harsh, it is an ideal place to rehearse for Mars.

Saturday's crash of the cargo pallet threatens the Mars Society's plans to assemble the habitation module before the summer field season ends in mid August, Zubrin acknowledged. A construction crane and a trailer were seriously damaged, and fiberglass panels that would have become the floors of the two-story dome were broken "beyond repair," he said. But he vowed that every possible effort would be made to go ahead with the project. Most of the module's prefabricated pieces arrived safely in four other successful cargo drops.

"We're going to show you what the strongest link in the chain of a [human-crewed] Mars mission is," Zubrin said. "That's the people." Robots break, but the human ability to improvise solutions means that space missions run by astronauts are tremendously robust, he said.

As for improvising solutions for the habitation module, Zubrin said the assembly crew would likely rebuild the floor out of wood, which is available in Resolute, the nearest town to Devon Island. It lies some 150 miles (240 kilometers) by air to the southwest.

The trailer can be easily welded together, but the crane might be more difficult, Zubrin said. The crane is necessary for putting together the 10-ton habitat module. It will be used to erect the dozen 20-foot- (6-meter-) tall, 800-pound (365-kilogram) wall panels, and to place the 350-pound (160-kilogram) roof panels at the top. The Mars Society brought in a metal worker from Resolute on Tuesday to examine the crane to see if it can be repaired.

"This is the Arctic, and things happen," Zubrin said. "The weather has been bad and we all knew this would not be a walk in the park, but we're going to continue the project and were going to get it done."

The team originally planned to assemble the station in 14 days. Once ready, a human crew of six "astronauts" will move into the module to test ideas about how to conduct the day-to-day duties of a planetary exploration mission.

Although the team will now almost certainly miss the target completion date of July 20, finishing the module by the first of August may still be possible, Zubrin said. If nothing can be done, the project may have to be postponed until next year.

The Mars Society plans to use the habitation module on Devon Island during the next five summers. The total cost of the project, which will include adding other modules, perhaps a greenhouse, is estimated to cost $1.3 million.