Author Description

Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic is the world’s largest uninhabited island, a place the size of West Virginia nine hundred miles from the North Pole. In its center is the world’s only impact crater in a polar desert, a hole twelve miles across and almost a thousand feet deep formed by an asteroidal comet hitting the Earth 38 million years ago. Every July, two dozen scientists set up camp on the rim of the Haughton Crater, a setting which duplicates as close as any place on Earth the barren Martian landscape. It’s one of a handful of analog environments for Mars — places where the harsh climate, severe geology, and unfamiliar terrain mimic conditions of the planet. Its environment is so hostile that no one has ever colonized more than small areas of its coastline for brief periods, and it's where the NASA practices people on Mars. Driving to Marsrecounts William L. Fox's three trips to Devon, working with the NASA Haughton-Mars Project. This book tells why we explore, how we see the world, and how we see ourselves in it. The flip sides of a single issue will ultimately determine whether or not we can stay alive on Earth.