Field Science Ethnography: Methods for Systematic Observation on an Arctic Expedition

The Haughton-Mars expedition is a multidisciplinary project exploring an impact crater in an extreme environment to determine how people might live and work on Mars. This expedition to the Canadian High Arctic seeks to understand and field test Mars facilities, crew roles, operations, and computer tools. The author combines an ethnographic approach to establish a baseline understanding of how scientists prefer to live and work when relatively unencumbered, with a participatory design approach of experimenting with procedures and tools in the context of use. This article focuses on field methods for systematically recording and analyzing the expedition's activities. Systematic photography and time-lapse video are combined with concept mapping to organize and present information. This hybrid approach is generally applicable to the study of modern field expeditions having a dozen or more multidisciplinary participants, spread over a large terrain during multiple field seasons.

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