Eight years ago Charles Cockell won just 91 votes when he stood for parliament on a platform that promoted the colonisation of Mars. The British biologist hopes to gain more solid support for his dream later this month when he joins the first simulation of a human mission to the red planet. Cockell, 33, and scientists from Nasa, the American space agency, are among a team of explorers who will spend a fortnight living in near-Martian conditions during an expedition to Devon Island, a frozen wasteland of the Canadian Arctic.