Page 10 - BPW-UK e-news - Edition 100 - February 2022

PAST EVENT REVIEW

MY LIFE ON MARS
Adventures of a Planetary Scientist on Planet Earth
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On Wednesday 2 February BPW UK had the pleasure of hosting “My Life on Mars” a presentation by Dr Pascal Lee,
son of BPW member Monique Lee.
He gave us an insight into his growing up in Hong Kong and then moving to Paris aged 8 to boarding school, with no English skills.
Today he is a planetary scientist working at NASA in America. His fascinating and unlikely journey took us to some of the most Mars
-like places on our planet: the Arctic, Antarctic, Arizona, Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Greenland, Hawaii, Iceland and Spitzbergen,
with the singular focus of finding Mars On Earth and laying the groundwork for future human journeys to the Red Planet.
One of his key influencers was Carl Sagan and he was honored to be his last teaching assistant. (In the picture below he is at the
back on the right).

He also shared the many adventures and experiences he lived
along the way, writing a children’s book, flying helicopters and
driving the Northwest Passage.
He is internationally recognized for his work on the study of ice
and caves on the Moon, the history of water on Mars, the origin
of Mars’s moons, and planning the future human exploration of
Mars. Dr Lee has led over 30 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarc-
tica to study Mars by comparison with the Earth.
He explained how exploration on Earth mirrored exploration on
the surface of Mars and the areas noted below have been exten-
sively used to study geological formations that look similar to
those found on Mars. By identifying the ways in which they were
formed on Earth gives insight into the weather and geological
conditions found on Mars.
He recently led the Northwest Passage Drive Expedition, the sub-
ject of the award-winning documentary film Passage To Mars
(2016). Devon Island is used to study and test the types of trans-
portation, space suits, equipment and conditions found on Mars

as it’s so remote, untouched and replicates the testing environ-
ment expected when we eventually reach this alien planet.
If you would like to find out more about Dr Lee’s work then below
are some recommended YouTube Videos. Also if you asked some
questions during this talk, all answers will be given shortly.