Northwest Passage Drive Expedition

The Northwest Passage Drive Expedition (NWPDX) (2009-2011) was a multi-stage vehicular expedition from the North American mainland to Devon Island in the high Arctic, by way of the Northwest Passage. The expedition was led by planetary scientist Pascal Lee. Although the expedition was primarily logistical and was not intended to be a high fidelity simulation of a crewed pressurized rover traverse on the Moon or Mars, it was the first long-distance road trip dedicated to planetary exploration studies and provided important lessons for planning future long-range vehicular traverses off Earth. The expedition was also the first crossing of the Northwest Passage in a road vehicle. The first stage of the expedition, NWPDX-2009, established a record for the longest distance driven continuously on sea-ice in a road vehicle: 496 km (308 mi).

The expedition’s main objective was to deliver the Mars Institute’s HMP Okarian rover (aka Moon-1 Humvee Rover), a modified Humvee serving as a planetary pressurized rover simulator, from the North American mainland to the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island. Once delivered, the HMP Okarian would be used for research - through simulations of planetary excursion missions - to plan future human Moon and Mars exploration. The Northwest Passage Drive Expedition was proposed by HMP principal investigator Pascal Lee when rover operations on Devon Island using the HMP’s first Humvee alone, the Mars-1, proved too risky, and a second Humvee (the HMP Okarian) became needed at the HMP site.

The expedition’s secondary objectives were scientific: to measure the thickness of the sea-ice along the Northwest Passage to document Climate Change in the Arctic, to quantify the potential microbial forward contamination of future pressurized rover traverses on the Moon and Mars, and to study the logistics of planning and implementing pressurized rover traverses on the Moon and Mars.

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