Into the Blue: Sled dogs on Mars?

On the frigid, white-washed afternoon of January 17th, 1912, British Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his men approached their goal. After months of frozen fingers, icicle beards, and monotonous scenery, they had almost reached the South Pole. They must have spent the last several kilometres in near delirium, drugged by the exhilaration of the immediacy of their dream: completing the first ever expedition to the South Pole.

But all of that changed when an incongruous speck appeared on the horizon – a dark blob floating in a sea of white. As they got closer, confusion turned to dread: they had been beaten. The foreign object was in fact Roald Amundsen’s tent, and inside was a letter to Scott from the great Norwegian explorer himself, adding insult to injury.

And so ended one of the last great explorations of Earth – a frantic race by two teams to reach the bottom of the world. Driven by national pride and personal ego, Amundsen and Scott set off from similar locations on the Antarctic coast as roughly the same time. So why did Amundsen win? Why did Scott and his men tragically end up dead while Amundsen sailed home as the victor? How does this seemingly random story relate to anything?

All of these questions have the same answer: analogs. Prior to his departure, Amundsen had spent months in the northern reaches of Norway familiarizing himself with his equipment, his crew, and most importantly, his sled dogs. On a previous expedition to the Northwest Passage, he learned from the local Netsilik people about cold-weather survival skills. Needless to say, this all came in very handy – his sled dogs got him across Antarctica faster, and his animal skin clothing (fashionably modelled below) was lighter and warmer than Scott’s apparel.

The tale of Amundsen and Scott is an important parable for future Mars explorers, both robotic and human. We must learn everything we can about martian conditions and simulate them. Robotic components must be tested in Mars-like soils at analog locations to make sure they can operate effectively outside of the lab. One of the most important uses of analog sites for human missions will be to test space suits, whose joints can stiffen beyond repair with continued exposure to the dust.

As our team continues to test the Urey component of the upcoming ExoMars mission, analog sites and their soils are in high demand. Testing the instrumentation on these soils will show us what to expect on Mars, so hopefully there will be no insurmountable surprises once we get there!