Lee's research focuses on Mars, asteroids, and impact craters, in particular in connection with the history of water on planets and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Pascal Lee is widely recognized for his efforts to advance the human exploration of Mars, in particular via its asteroid-like moons Phobos and Deimos.

Pascal Lee studied astronomy and space sciences at Cornell, and worked as a research and teaching assistant for his thesis adviser Joseph Veverka, and the late Carl Sagan.

Accompanying Lee were American explorer John Schutt and Canadian Inuit field guides Paul Amagoalik and Joe Amarualik of Resolute Bay.

The crossing was a success and the Mars-1 has since been serving on the Haughton–Mars Project as a mobile field lab and concept vehicle for future pressurized rovers to be used on the Moon or Mars.

Lee commanded the mission while Andrew Abercromby of the NASA Johnson Space Center served as field lead of the rover traverse investigation.

Accompanying Lee were veterans John Schutt and Joe Amarualik, expedition technician Jesse Weaver, and cameraman Mark Carroll of Jules Verne Adventures.

The team succeeded in driving 494 km in 8 days from Kugluktuk to Cambridge Bay, along the fabled Northwest Passage, establishing a record for the longest distance driven on sea-ice in a road vehicle.

At one point along the drive from Kugluktuk to Cambridge Bay, the Moon-1 partially fell through a lead (crack in the sea-ice), but was ultimately rescued by the expedition team.

Accompanying Lee were veterans John Schutt, Joe Amarualik, Jesse Weaver, and Mark Carroll, and documentary director Jean-Christophe Jeauffre of Jules Verne Adventures.

In August 2008, Lee was pilot scientist of the first field test of the SEV, which was conducted under the auspices of the NASA Desert RATS project at the Black Point Lava Flow site in Northern Arizona.

The SEV was developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center principally under the leadership of astronaut Michael Gernhardt and robotics engineer Robert Ambrose.

[15][16][17] Based on probable values for the Drake equation, Pascal Lee proposed that the number of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way is 1 or very close to 1, implying that we are alone.