There is no feud between the Mars Society and SpaceRef. I left the board and the steering committee and do not hold any grudges. I made my contribution. It was time to move on.

You must remember the Haughton-Mars Project has been in existance longer than the Mars Society contribution of the hab. We decided we wanted control over our donation so we opted to work with NASA, SETI, the CSA and other organizations. We did not mention the Mars Society in our press release because our project has nothing to do with them. It's just like the Hyperion rover from CMU last year. They went up, did their thing and had nothing to do with the Mars Society. They were part of the HMP just like us.

As to other people's concerns, all of the issues brought up have already been discussed. If you look at our new research site (http://research.spaceref.com) you'll notice we have a broad based science committee. More information is available there including our abstract from the NASA Astrobiology conference.

I'll conclude by stating that if we don't try to do something like this in an environment like Devon Island then how will we get to Mars? Our contribution opens up the door to answer many questions and will undoubtedly raise new ones. The knowledge we gain will be valuable.

Marc Boucher