Devon Island
Devon Iceland is the second largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and is part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
Geography
It is separated from Ellesmere Iceland in the north by the Jones Sound and Baffin Island to the south by the Lancaster Sound. It is with an area of 55,247 km ², the largest uninhabited island in the world; the settlement of Dundas Harbour ( ⊙ 74.534283333333-82.383275 ) on the south coast is now abandoned. The eastern third is from an up to 880 m thick ice cap, the Devon Ice Cap, covered.
Because of its height and its northern location, the island has only sparse vegetation and there exist only a few higher organisms, including musk oxen and lemmings. The rainfall on the island are very low.
Devon Iceland is known for the Haughton Crater ( 75.366666666667-89.683333333333 ⊙ ), which was created by the impact of a meteorite approximately 38 ± 2 million years ago and has a diameter of about 20 km.
History
The island was discovered in 1616 by William Baffin and initially named by William Edward Parry North Devon (after the English county of Devon ).
Project Mars Habitat
The Mars Society is currently conducting on the island by a project for which a Mars -Habitat has been established in Canada's cold wilderness. Following the withdrawal of NASA from distant, plans manned mission to the moon and Mars, the Mars Society founded in 1998 with headquarters in Boulder in the U.S., which regards manned missions to Mars as a destination.
The Mars habitat on Devon Island to promote the interest and capabilities for a human mission to the red planet. Here, spend six weeks in the crew habitat and leave the module only in space suits. Investigations are carried out on Mars. The habitat is about the size of a landing module as it is to be sent to Mars. The crew has only three hours of oxygen for activities outside their module in the Canadian wilderness.
The conditions on the island are closely related to those on Mars. The icy temperatures Mars climate come of it very close. The crews who lived as Mars astronauts in the habitat, lived through all phases of a Mars mission. The base was built near the Haughton Crater, which has around 20 kilometers in diameter and arose before 39 million years ago by a meteorite.
In July 2004, the 9 crew members were on the Flash Line Mars Arctic Research Station ( FMARS ). During the mission 7 and the German ESA physicist Markus Landgraf from 6 to 27 July 2002, spent three weeks in the Mars simulation. Although the Mars simulation is carried out in the Canadian wilderness with only very simple means and the financial resources are limited, the studies do provide a first overview of the behavior of the first Mars colonists on the red planet not unlike the professional astronauts are so well trained and educated.
This particular physical and psychological factors are important, especially when it comes to critical or even life-threatening situations. The Mars Society has even developed its own flag on Mars. It consists of three vertical stripes: red-green- blue. The missions began as a seven -to ten- day stays and last for about four weeks time.