Human Exploration Ethnography of the Haughton-Mars Project 1998-99

• Main Author: William J. Clancey
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Arctic; Devon Island
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.22.5924; http://home.att.net/~wjclancey/HCC_at_HMP-99_Mars_Society_.pdf

During the past two field seasons, July 1998 and 1999, we have conducted research about the field practices of scientists and engineers at Haughton Crater on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, with the objective of determining how people will live and work on Mars. This broad investigation of field life and work practice, part of the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) lead by Pascal Lee, spans social and cognitive anthropology, psychology, and computer science. Our approach involves systematic observation and description of activities, places, and concepts, constituting an ethnography of field science at Haughton. Our focus is on human behaviors---what people do, where, when, with whom, and why. By locating behavior in time and place---in contrast with a purely functional or "task oriented" description of work---we find patterns constituting the choreography of interaction between people, their habitat, and their tools. As such, we view the exploration