Life On Mars
by
E. P. Dowd
The land is barren and unforgiving — a remote, polar desert that one scientist described as the “only place in the world where there is total silence.”
Canada's Arctic Circle is unlike any place on earth. One place in particular, Devon Island in Nunavut, bares an uncanny resemblance to another world, the planet Mars. It's for this reason that up to 30 people spent the past summer on the Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world.
Representatives from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Russian Institute for Space Research, as well as several other research institutions and universities made the trek to Devon Island to study the Haughton Crater, a 20-kilometre-wide meteorite crater formed 23 million years ago.
You could say that for these space enthusiasts the assignment was an out of this world experience. This international mission conducted research to pave the way for the future exploration of Mars. Scientists for the NASA Haughton-Mars Project believe the crater's rugged terrain, which was first surveyed in the 1950s, shares similar geologic features and/or biological attributes to Mars. Devon Island also has weather not unlike the Martian equator on a summer day; the big difference of course is that you would need a space suit to survive on Mars.
As one NASA scientist aptly summarizes: "It looks like Mars and it acts like Mars."
The Haughton Crater may be the first place that space enthusiasts think of to conduct extraterrestrial research, but it was the last place in the world 27 year-old Mark Connolly had in mind to find work.
While he got great mileage out of his international postings, nothing has quite compared to this assignment with the Haughton-Mars Project. As Field Operations Liaison, Connolly worked with the NASA press office to provide professional video for the Project's website (http://www.arctic-mars.org/ ) and NASA TV.
Sounds simple enough, but consider the conditions. Daylight around the clock, explains Connolly, "means that sleeping can be a real challenge. Four hours a day is the norm. We work the rest of the time."
But stamina is required for much more than the exhausting work hours. The weather tests the team's ability to cope with extreme conditions. Members basked in warm sunny days and then held on for their dear lives in dust storms that threatened to wipe out the campsite. And, there was always the risk of sudden cold fronts that within minutes could drop the temperature 30 degrees. In addition to the high winds and freezing temperatures, there was an extra-fine, Mars-like dust, which seeped through everything, including the electronics.
"To put it mildly," says Connolly, "nature is in control up here. You had better respect it."
The Haughton-Mars Project and media professionals alike were impressed with the quality of colour and picture Connolly was able to produce on-site. Connolly gives a great deal of credit to the Canon XL-1 he used for the assignment. The camera itself is half the size and weight of cameras typically used to produce broadcast quality images.
"With the Canon XL-1, I could point and shoot in any conditions and the result were superb. It is the only camera where I'd trust the automatic settings," explains Connolly. "In fact, documentary crews from the UK, Japan, the U.S. and Canada used the footage from the XL-1 because they considered it to have produced better quality images than their own cameras."
Connolly was particularly impressed with the optical image stabilization. "I was one of only a few civilians ever allowed to shoot inside a U.S Marine Corp Hercules transport plane. I held the camera with one hand as the plane raised its nose to drop cargo out at 1,000 feet. Amazingly, the camera compensated for my shaking hand as the Mars base shot past."
On another occasion, Connolly was leaning out of a helicopter as it did a rapid sideways dive into a two thousand-foot canyon. Again, the picture image was steady.
Footage shot on the XL-1 was loaded into an Apple G3. Final Cut Pro software was used for editing. The sequences were then compressed and sent via satellite to NASA TV in California and then streamed onto the web.
While the XL-1 proved to be a reliable point-and-shoot camera, the best feature is its picture quality according to Connolly, who felt it was as good as any $100,000 dollar camera on the marketplace. "While a number of TV crews spent half-an-hour on the usual white balancing, I was confident enough in the camera's automatic sensors to point, shoot and finish the job before they even started."
However, the weather and unique Arctic conditions did cause a few minor issues with the camera. For example, "the auto focus on occasion preferred the Martian-like dust to the intended target of the camera," explains Connolly. Overall though, the performance of the Canon XL-1 surpassed his expectations.
"On macro shots, in particular, the XL-1 has no competitors," states Connolly. "Where other semi-professional cameras have pixelation, the XL-1 provides outstanding images in almost every circumstance."
While the polar-desert setting, geologic features and biological attributes of the Haughton Crater offer unique insights into the evolution of Mars, Connolly believes the use of the Canon XL-1 in such demanding conditions offers insights into the evolution of the News business.
Connolly believes the XL-1 could play a key role in Newsgathering. For example, he sees a day in the near future when war correspondents will be close to the front with an XL-1, laptop, editing software and a high-speed, wireless internet connection via satellite or cell phone. "The XL-1's superb results and price make it perfect for the field-studio of the future."
Connolly also notes that given ease of using an XL-1, prosumers and amateur enthusiasts alike are also better equipped to produce quality images.
"The XL-1 is easy to use, reliable and captures broadcast quality images. It empowers any user," says Connolly. “It performed exceedingly well under extreme conditions, providing a vivid depiction of what life on Mars on Earth looks like.”
Now that's far out.