BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's space correspondent Miles O'Brien is going to join us, because he's on a real adventure on this Monday morning. Miles is Canada's Devon Island. And it's above the Arctic Circle, closer to Greenland than to anywhere else. And he's there to talk with scientists who are trying to simulate what life might be like living on Mars. And so Miles joins us now from the barren landscape of Devon Island by videophone -- good morning, Miles.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian. Barren indeed -- what you're seeing here behind me is as close to Mars as you can get here on the planet Earth. And that is what draws scientists to this place. They've been coming here for years -- the last couple of years in great earnest, conducting experiments, trying to actually live as they might live if they were explorers on the surface of Mars. First of all, let me tell you a little bit about our journey. It began, of course, in Atlanta, Georgia. We flew to Ottawa, Canada, and then on to</s>NELSON: Miles, who funds this program, since NASA is not involved in it per se -- at least officially?</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, NASA scientists are here. And there is sort of a trickle of support which comes through that direction. But, basically, there are some enthusiastic, privately-funded groups. The Mars Society is one of them. The Planetary Society is another -- and then the SETI Institute: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. These groups are enthusiasts who would like to see the exploration of the solar system. And they have supported much of this effort.</s>NELSON: All right, thank you, CNN's Miles O'Brien. He's on Devon Island up on the Arctic Circle. And as you can tell, we had some technical problems there, both audio and visual -- Miles' signal having a little difficult going from that barren terrain up to the satellite and back here.
Scientists Simulate Mars on Earth