## 2 Materials, Equipment and Context
### Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse  
Several Canadian research programs involve the development of bioregenerative life support technologies for future long duration missions to the moon and Mars. One example is the Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative (MELiSSA) Project's Higher Plant Compartment [22] and relevant to the GFP imaging project in discussion, the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse (ACMG) [23]. The ACMG (Figure 2) is located on the rim of Haughton Crater on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic and its fundamental purpose is to serve as a development analog for systems that would reside on the surface of the moon or Mars. The extreme environment of the Arctic is itself a challenge to the systems development process and procedure. All of the ACMG physical sensors, including the external weather station, are designed to collect data to -40\({}^{\circ}\)C, and have been successfully monitored in a variety of extreme conditions. In addition, the remote nature of the location places these systems development efforts within operational constraints that further mimic extraterrestrial deployments. For example, communications must be managed via highly specific, satellite-based transceivers and power must be developed and managed in situ. Researchers are typically only on-site during the month of July and thus human intervention is minimal, and non-existent for most of the year. Figure 2 also shows a timeline representing the basic annual operational strategy and duration of on-site ACMG activity. Thus the ACMG is a very relevant testbed for developing system integration and data handling of the TIS-II GFP Imager as an advanced, gene expression sensor subsystem. The ACMG greenhouse was established in 2002. A detailed description of the greenhouse systems and operational strategy is available in [23]. In general the ACMG is not a full-featured, high fidelity  
Figure 2: The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse at the Haughton Mars Project Research Station and a diagram of the greenhouse systems. Electrical power for the ACMG is derived from solar cells and wind generators, which are visible in the image at the top. The power consumed by the greenhouse ranges from 150W in the summer to 25W in the winter. In the summer, the solar panels provide a total maximum power of 660W, far in excess of what the greenhouse systems draw. In addition, the two wind generators can provide a total of 800W, although this value is usually far less in the winter. The sensor systems within the ACMG, together with a number of standard imaging cameras and the TIS-II GFP Imager, are coordinated by an embedded computer running a local Ethernet network. All data are transmitted via satellite modem to Simon Fraser University. A typical operational timeline is shown beneath the photograph. Operational details can be found in [PERSON] et al, [23]. simulation of a greenhouse to be established on Mars. It does, though, support scientific and operations research in an environment which is operationally relevant to Mars in unique ways - each at a specific level of fidelity and complexity. The main greenhouse systems include the plant growth system, environmental control system, power system, communication system and local network and the data acquisition and control system. The TIS-II GFP Imager and greenhouse interfaces are presented in Figure 2. Data from the TIS-II GFP Imager is passed by the local Ethernet network through an Ethernet switch (EISB16-100T, CTRLink) to the data acquisition (DAQ) and control system (cFP-2120, National Instruments) where it is stored and later transferred to the embedded communications, command and control computer (Linux-based single board computer). From this point, data can be transferred through the local high-speed optical fiber network to local users, or onwards via a high-speed human planetary exploration mission-equivalent wireless and satellite communications network, when both are available during full operation.