An assistant professor in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences, Binsted is one of seven crew members from around the world participating in what will be the longest and most isolated human Mars simulation mission ever conducted.

The simulation takes place at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the high Canadian Arctic, a location bearing striking similarity to the Red Planet, a UH news release said.

The missioin is sponsored by The Mars Society, a private international grassroots organization dedicated to furthering the case for human exploration of Mars. Its objective is to prepare for eventual human missions to the Red Planet.

The other six crew members come from the United States and Canada. Binsted will be the chief scientist on the mission. Her role includes coordinating the collaboration between the crew and the "Earth-based" Science Advisory Group, carrying out the projects on which she is the crew lead, and being a "guinea pig" in several of the human factors experiments, the UH news release said.

Some of the scientific projects that the crew will conduct include geological surveys, searching for evidence of past life, searching for evidence of extant life, and environmental and meteorological observations. In addition, investigating the role and optimal combination of human exploration, telepresence, robotic exploration, and the use of remote sensing tools are all part of the simulations.