The Explorers Club

Keith and I are both Fellows of The Explorers Club. We are carrying flag number 162 with us on this expedition. We will shoot some photos of the flag with us in some special locations on Devon Island in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Leroy Chiao

Devon Expedition Team

Here is a photo of me with Matt Reyes, the third member of our expedition, on Devon Island. Matt is a horticulture scientist as well as a whiz with video processing.

Leroy Chiao

NSBRI and Devon Island

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute funds research that is conducted on Devon Island. I carried a plaque of the NSBRI logo with me on this expedition.

Leroy Chiao

Risk Symposium at LSU, Oct 28-30, 2007

Keith Cowing and I are co-chairing a Risk Symposium, which will be held at Louisiana State University from October 28-30 of this year. It is a follow-on conference to one that was held by NASA in 2004. The conference will feature prominent explorers and their expeditions, both on earth and in space! Check out the web site:

www.riskexplore2007.com

Here is a photo of Keith and me on Devon Island in our LSU garb. This is probably the farthest north the colors have been! Devon is less than 1000 miles from the North Pole.

Leroy Chiao

On Devon Island

I arrived on Devon this morning. This place looks like what I would expect Mars to look like! Also, there is a lot of very fine dust, as there would be on Mars, which gets into everything.

The base consists of different modules and is arranged logically, as a base would be on Mars. There is a central mess tent, a central core area, communications, storage and workshop spaces. The hygiene stations are shared and the people live in a tent city.

After arrival, we received safety briefings, a tour of the base and communications briefing. We then set up our tents and unpacked our gear. After lunch, our team discussed our activities for the next several days.

We arrived with the rover team from NASA Ames. We will follow them as they conduct operational tests of their two rovers. The two are equipped with different sensors and will be used to map out areas under controlled and semi-autonomous conditions.

Leroy Chiao

Today Resolute, Tomorrow Devon!

After a multitude of flights, stops in Detroit, Ottawa, Iqaluit, Hall Beach and Nanisivik, I've arrived in Resolute. I am told that Resolute is the SECOND most northerly city. Who's counting? Apparently at least one person from a place called Grise, which is pronounced 'grease.'

Charming little place, Resolute! About 250 people live here full time. The Inkeepers, Amanda and Duncan, are delightful folks.

Leroy Chiao

Leaving Tomorrow to Devon Island

I just got back from a two week trip to China late last night and I am leaving for Devon tomorrow. Scrambling around to make sure that I have all of my gear and get it all packed!

Note the two other sites that I have listed in the Devon Island Expedition photo caption:

spaceref.com/blogs/earthclassroom
www.marsonearth.org

Also, please see our press release for the expedition at this link:

spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=24644

Cheers!

Leroy Chiao