[MUSIC PLAYING]
PASCAL LEE: The first time we arrived on Devon Island,
we landed in this plane.
The team was very small, with just four people.
And I was just completely taken aback
by how Mars-like the whole landscape was.
MATTHEW JONES: Especially when you're flying in,
it looks just like a moon base.
The land is desolate.
KATJA MINITSENKA: We had to take seven flights to get here.
It's a really tough undertaking, but it's extremely fascinating.
PASCAL LEE: This is a place that is barren.
KATJA MINITSENKA: Vast.
Intimidating.
BILL O'HARA: You're rambling through areas
that are quite dangerous.
JOHN SCHUTT: It's isolated and remote and rocky, just
like the surface of Mars is.
DAVID NORTH: I think someday there
will be humans walking on Mars.
Definitely.
PASCAL LEE: My guess is that the first people who land on Mars
will say something to the effect, oh wow,
this looks just like Devon Island, where we trained.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Pascal Lee.
I'm a planetary scientist.
I work with the Mars Institute and the SETI Institute.
Devon Island is the world's largest uninhabited island.
It's cold, dry.
I call this place Mars on Earth.
We find exactly the same looking canyons, valleys, and gullies
here.
BILL O'HARA: It's just very desolate and empty
of everything.
Here, there's no road to go back to.
KATJA MINITSENKA: There are no streets,
but there will be Street View.
My name is Katja Minitsenka, and I
am working on all things related to Mars and Google,
sort of bridging the two things.
PASCAL LEE: We have an amazing team from Google.
We are adding our base camp and our surroundings
to Google Street View.
KATJA MINITSENKA: We're going to be able to see it and welcome
everybody to Mars.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOHN SCHUTT: I've been associated with Pascal
ever since we began this project back in 1996.
As camp manager, I'm responsible for the smooth running of camp
and getting all of the equipment up and running and operating
smoothly.
So one of the first things I do when I get up in the morning
is start the generators, start the water pump.
And sometimes I cook breakfast.
All right, dig in.
In the meantime, the people in camp
are just starting to wake up.
KATJA MINITSENKA: Yeah, we've been getting up
at 6:00 every morning, Steve and I and John.
MATTHEW JONES: Wake up every morning, brush your teeth,
give yourself a bath using baby wipes.
You go to breakfast.
You're constantly covered in many layers.
You're wearing gloves.
It is the high arctic, so temperature is always
down right around freezing.
I have been helping out with the Humvees, working on those.
And it's a new experience for me.
Delicious.
[ENGINE WHIRRING]
DAVID NORTH: I'm David North.
And I'm an engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center.
I'm happy to be part of the science and research that
will someday lead to a younger generation landing on Mars.
SPEAKER: Altitude, 502 feet.
DAVID NORTH: There's something on the other side of the hill
there, too.
You see this green stuff right there?
It's very difficult to fly on Mars
because the atmosphere is so thin.
So the trick is to make your vehicle very light.
And this vehicle is a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle.
And the idea there is there are no prepared runways on Mars,
so you have to land in such a way
that you can land in rough terrain or terrain that doesn't
allow for rolling landings.
Tipping over is definitely an issue for this aircraft.
So there's one of the things we're
learning about this aircraft is maybe the wheelbase needs
to be a little bit bigger, particularly
if it's a robotic aircraft and there's no one there to fly it.
[ENGINE WHIRRING]
PASCAL LEE: I bring my dog up here because he
has a very specific role.
We are in the Arctic.
We're not at the top of the food chain.
It's the polar bear that's at the top of the food chain.
And so we have a dog here as part of our bear wildlife
deterrent system.
The hope is that my dog would be able to sniff out a bear
and not attack it, but distract the bear
and buy us a little more time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The science is only part one of our work.
The other part is we're learning how to explore.
OK, so today we're going to Astronaut Canyon.
It's spectacular, and it's really very
similar in morphology to what we see on Mars.
It takes about 2 and 1/2 hours to get there.
KATJA MINITSENKA: I think this could
be one of our panels for the Voyager story.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BILL O'HARA: We're going to be out on an ATV ride
and heading far away from the habitat.
And all around you, 360 degrees, you'll see nothing but rocks.
PASCAL LEE: So the way you would explore
Mars is driving your ATV wearing a spacesuit.
And while you're riding, you're connected to your reserves
so that they will recharge the oxygen tanks and the batteries
in your backpack.
Your ATV would be a self-driving robot that would follow you
in your exploration on foot.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is why we're here.
It has exactly the profile, the slopes,
the topography, if you will, of some
of the canyons we see on Mars.
KATJA MINITSENKA: I am actually collecting 7 to 10 panoramas
to create a Voyager story.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PASCAL LEE: It's not just spending money
to build a rocket, and train people,
and build hardware, and fly to Mars with the fuel.
It's the fact that this will galvanize
an entire new generation of people to go into science.
BILL O'HARA: We're standing where
no one has ever stood before.
PASCAL LEE: This is a place that pushes us to some limit.
It's a perfect place to train for Mars because it's
a lot more forgiving than Mars.
You can make your mistakes here so that by the time you go
to Mars, you won't.
KATJA MINITSENKA: The winds are so strong.
You have to be always on the lookout.
So it's a little weary.
PASCAL LEE: What we're going to do with the rocks
that we collect is to try to figure out what hit here.
We still don't know if it was an asteroid or a comet.
KATJA MINITSENKA: And so what are you hoping to find?
PASCAL LEE: So we're going to be looking
for traces of an extraterrestrial signature.
So for example, rare Earth elements.
KATJA MINITSENKA: Oh my gosh, it's stunning.
I don't think I'll ever look at the rock the same way.
JOHN SCHUTT: It's a desire to know more
and to delve into our past and delve into our future.
BILL O'HARA: I think it matters for new people looking
into either planetary geology or engineering.
KATJA MINITSENKA: Studying space and astronomy
opens up your mind.
It's almost like traveling.
You understand so much more about the physics that surround
you in your everyday life.
PASCAL LEE: So this is one of the first generation's concept
suits for Mars.
To go to Mars, you have to have a good space suit.
And right now, we do not have a space suit
that is going to be able to work on Mars.
You cannot hop around with a spacesuit that heavy.
And so part of what we're doing here
is to find ways to reduce the mass of our future space suit
for Mars.
KATJA MINITSENKA: It's heavy.
A little surreal.
It really feels like you're somewhere else.
I can't believe I'm wearing one.
PASCAL LEE: I don't find Devon pleasant, in spite
of how often I come here.
I don't come here because I somehow relish the discomfort
that we have here.
I am cold.
I miss my family.
But somehow this place has a dimension to it
that makes me think that, hey, this is all worth it.
This is so close to making it happen.
Oh, look at this!
Man, this is awesome!
KATJA MINITSENKA: I hope you see the images of it
and you really want to go there.
There's so many stories where Street View's encouraged,
or moved people, or inspired people
to do something extraordinary.
And even if one person gets more interested in studying
other planets by just looking at Street View,
I'll be really happy.
BILL O'HARA: It's part of our nature.
I think we always have the yearning to explore.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAVID NORTH: I think when we think
about going to other planets or colonizing them,
we tend to think, why would you want to go there?
It's cold.
It's rough.
Well, that's the same thing that people in the old world
said 400 years ago.
But maybe 1,000 years from now, when
people have colonized Mars, they'll
think, well, this is normal.
I live on Mars.
So what?
[MUSIC PLAYING]