Month: February 2018

MDRS Crew 188 Journalist Report 04FEB2018

Crew 188 Science’s the Shit Out of MDRS

SOL-7 Author’s name: Julia DeMarines

The theme for this report is Science. It is the third report in a short series responding to the MDRS “Safety, Simulation, and Science” priority of operations.

BACKGROUND:

In the wise words of Mark Watney in The Martian, “in the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m going to science the shit out of this,” and that’s exactly what crew 188 plans to do during our residence at the Mars Desert Research Station. Collectively, we have brought over $30,000 worth of research equipment in hopes to advance scientific knowledge. MDRS provides a unique space in which scientific research can be conducted as if a crew of explorers were carrying out experiments on Mars. Crew 188 offers a diversity of backgrounds and expertise that, collectively, would support groundbreaking discoveries, and innovations, if we were truly on Mars, and aim to tackle the big questions.

These big questions we will be tackling include: how a crew will maintain the health and performance of astronauts living and working in isolated conditions such as on Mars and overcome difficulties; what an optimum extra vehicular activity (EVA) suit and glove design would be for ensuring protection and functionality for its user in extreme conditions; mitigation of dust contamination from EVA’s; optimum crop production with minimal resources in reduced gravity situations; experimental and immersive astronautical performance following a journey that transcends through Earth’s atmosphere and beyond; a 360º camera will capture performance astronautics to give observers a complete and immersive perspective of living on Mars; collection of micrometeorites to add to a worldwide database aiming to yield clues to the solar system’s formation; and last but not least, using in situ chlorophyll detectors to detect signs of life as if on a Mars rover. For a more information please find a more detailed description of our research plans below, and in the meantime, stay tuned for scientific updates!


SCIENCE: 
Summary of Research Experiments

1. Increasing Spaceflight Analogue Mission Fidelity by Standardization of Extravehicular Activity Metrics Tracking and Analysis 
Spaceflight analogues include human simulations that attempt to match as many variables of a real mission as possible, but here on Earth and at a fraction of the cost. Each analogue has unique environmental and human performance testing conditions, but they all have limitations. The goal of this Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Spacesuit Utilization of Innovative Technology Laboratory (S.U.I.T. Lab) research is to improve simulation fidelity through Extravehicular Activity (EVA) data collection, analysis, and feedback, which will help humanity prepare for destinations such as the Moon or Mars. The investigation of human performance data with respect to workload expenditure will help identify energy limitations, thus training explorers to maximize their potential.

2. Remote Video Capture Analysis of Spacesuits for Spaceflight Analogue Expeditions
The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Spacesuit Utilization of Innovative Technology Laboratory (S.U.I.T. Lab) is designing protocols for the recording of analytical videos for analogue spacesuit performance. This approach derives how to communicate effective instructions to a remote crew, and then analyze simulated spacesuit performance. The protocol development has future applications for distant diagnosis of spacesuits, for example a crew on Mars may need expert technicians on Earth to troubleshoot range of motion (ROM) limitations. Key results and recommendations will be presented in this paper aiming to help advance analogue expeditions and missions to the Moon and Mars.

3. Dust Abrasion and Operations Investigation of Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment (TMG) Gloves 
Dust on planetary bodies in a known problem for equipment and astronaut health, as the extreme abrasiveness can cut through the layers of a spacesuit. Dust particles present health risks to astronauts and exposure must be mitigated before sending crews to Mars and beyond. One of the most intricate parts of a spacesuit is the glove. The gloves must have an extremely high range of dexterity to enable astronauts to complete their tasks correctly and efficiently. Wear and tear on the gloves will be recorded and analyzed after the completion of the MDRS analogue mission.

4. Martian Dust Filter Tests
As humans venture further into space more issues correlated to space travel are being discovered. While the perils of dust particles may not be widely recognized, it is one of the major issues astronauts will face on the surface of the Moon and Mars. Dust particles present a problem for both astronaut health and equipment. Dust particles cling to spacesuits, which upon ingress would begin circulating throughout the spacecraft or habitat. An astronaut’s health is compromised by the dust particle’s potential to stick to the lungs and cause respiratory illnesses. Data collected from this research will further facilitate the mitigation of astronaut’s exposure to dust particles on the surface of celestial bodies.

5. In-situ testing of VEGGIE prototype plant growth hardware: Orbital Aquifer System for VEGGIE (OASYS)
We will bring a GreenHab experiment to test a new prototype vegetation system, invented by NASA KSC scientists, for watering plants in reduced gravity environments. Salad bar style lettuce is an ideal vegetable for this demonstration as it is quick to grow and easy to germinate from seeds. The purpose of this research project is to further test candidate crops that need to be performed through an analog study prior to being grown aboard ISS.

6. Performing Astronautics
Dr. Sarah Jane Pell’s MDRS research forms part of an Australia Council Fellowship project titled Performing Astronautics. Performing Astronautics explores the bodily practice of navigation beyond Earth’s atmosphere as an Experimental and Emerging Art. Explored in parallel phases combining: 1) instrumental/speculative and 2) operational/performative experimentation and exploration through participation in space analogue training and human spaceflight mission simulations.

7. Bending Horizons 360 
“Bending Horizons 360” is supported by Monash Immersive Visualisation Platform [MIVP] with the provision of the Insta360 Pro Camera. The aim is two-fold: firstly to support collaborations with fellow crew researching EVA spacesuit validation [in partnership with
Final Frontier Design FFD], environmental interactions, science and engineering engagement, human factors and performance research. Secondly, to produce speculative fiction short films, new 3D artifacts and novel expressions of video data to capture the range of human-environmental interactions on the Mars Analogue environment supporting a future collaborative partnership between Dr. Sarah Jane Pell and A/Prof David Barnes.

8. Potential Human Activities to Improve Quality of Life on Mars
This research project is looking for how the quality of life can improve during Mars simulation as a case study. Currently quantitative data shows that the human activity should be regulated. However, because of long-time requirement for Mars habitat mission, identifying how astronauts’ quality of life can improve during Mars mission need to develop is very important to maintain mission efficiency and space activity as well. This research project is primary looking for what available human activity can improve the quality of life during Mars habitat mission in the future.

9. Project Stardust
This collaborative meteorological investigation of micrometeorite samples collected from field sites all over the world now includes samples taken from MDRS. These types of analyses on Earth help us understand how the solar system was formed as we venture out to explore it.

10. In-situ Chlorophyll Detection
“Are we alone?” is a fundamental human question that is shared by humanity. The answer may be right around the corner or perhaps never come but we will never get closer to that answer if we don’t search for life. Researchers from NASA and Robotics Everywhere LLC (www.f3.to) have collaborated on a handheld Chlorophyll detector that can be operated in the field, indoors, and hopefully, underneath a rover using Chl-florescence.

11. Mars-to-Mars Hangout: Connecting Mars Basecamps Across the Red Planet
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, will gain communication and opportunity benefits during its two-week mission period by live video connecting with the AMADEE-18 analogue simulation simultaneously running a Mars research mission, located in Dhofar Region, Oman.

Simulation: Imitation of a situation or process for research and training
SOL-6 Author’s name: Dr. Sarah Jane Pell

The theme of this report is Simulation. It is the second report in a short series responding to the MDRS “Safety, Simulation, and Science” priority of operations.

BACKGROUND:
First and foremost, the MDRS analogue attempts to curate a research station model supporting the professional relationship and activities of early settlers.

The simulation, by its nature, combines real working facilities on Earth Mars-like terrain, with instruments and systems for the imitation of a Mars-like situation and various associated process for research and training. There are collective and individual jobs to get done in developing and maintaining the station. Crews define an assigned role and a job position for each member with a myriad of tasks to perform, and conditions to explore.

Ultimately, the MDRS simulation offers an experience for contributing to a body of situational or process-based knowledge unraveling the intricate inner working of establishing a human foothold on Mars.

The simulation evokes many responses. There are moments when we feel like visitors, tourists, customers, test-subjects, staff, scouts, students, researchers, settlers, crewmembers, trainees, simulants and occasionally, frontier explorers.

SIMULATION:
Today, two teams of three Analogue Astronauts simulated “spacewalks” or extravehicular activities [EVAs] across the MDRS Mars-analogue terrain. We designated EVA-7 as an opportunity to implement formal briefing procedures and techniques derived from related analogue EVA SIM procedures (underwater). [See MDRS Crew 188 EVA Coordinator Briefing and De-brief Protocols below. We welcome any suggestions or feedback, and include here for future crews to reference, noting donning and doffing checklists would also be helpful for MDRS EVA Operations].

The EVA-7 profile supported a three-hour spacewalk by three astronauts on the MDRS analogue site to troubleshoot a navigation issue, perform a bubble experiment along the ridge overlooking the habitat, and capture activities in 6K 360 3D Video in-situ. [See EVA reports]

The ways the simulation maintained “high-fidelity” included: instances of loss of direction or radio communication, high winds, unchartered pathways such as climbing up the cliff face, the variety of surface conditions over the 1000 feet elevation, the incredibly rich red and amber marmalade geology, the exertion activities themselves, team-work, sense of adventure and the shared mission.

Ways that the simulation was “broken” included: picking up commercial rubbish in the ravines, watching an SUV drive by along Cow Dung Road, encountering plant biodiversity on the open plains, noticing animal tracks along the ridges, looking out for rattlesnakes and cougars, and using a digital phone as an instrument for checking time.

But, these are the surface conditions: let’s dig a little deeper into the experience. It is not just space, rather the spatiality of the embodied experience, and how we react and feel that determines our relationship to the simulation.

We are “in simulation” when we feel that we need to be ultimately resourceful in charting our own experience. In other words, the conditions need to support our navigation through an experience, with autonomy and agency. Zak Trolley describes many instances where we must suspend our beliefs and open ourselves to the imagined, and this is made easier by proximity to the Mars-like landscape. For example, looking up through the red hills towards the ridge summit, it is easy to see yourself following the Curiosity Rover pathways.

However once reaching the road at the top of the ridge, you have to work so much harder to imagine belonging to an outpost on Mars. On an EVA, Dr. Ryan Kobrick reports the feeling of being constrained to the limitations and requirements of wearing the life-support systems, relying on navigational and time-stamped operations and waypoints, and undertaking pre-authorised research tasks also strengthens the social and collective simulation.

These types of elements draw us closer to the inner experience of the simulation: conscious of the shift in space and spatiality of your own body in time, and perspective. It is a delicate dance between suspending aspects of reality and illusionism, fact and fiction, the serious and the phantasmagorical.

As this the second most important aspect of the MDRS experience, we are embracing and discussing ways to support each other in the enhancement and fidelity of the simulation experience, through playing out the socially coded nature of our roles and curating the themes of our own perspectives.

We recommend that future crews consider an EVA to the top of the ridge to look back over the MDRS station. From that vantage, you can fully appreciate the isolation and beauty of the Mars-analogue site, you can film and be filmed, and the perspective helps frame where you are, and why you would come here.

MDRS Crew 188 EVA Coordinator Briefing Protocols
The EVA Coordinator for each EVA SIM is responsible for conducting a pre-EVA briefing in the presence of the entire EVA team (including Astronauts (EV.1. EV.2. EV.3…,) CapCom, Safety/Medical Officer, Astronaut Attendants and any Technical Specialists). Each team member has a responsibility to give their full attention during the briefing, as in the event of an incident any team member may be required to initiate and/or control emergency procedures.

The content of this briefing must include at least the following information, and must be modified to take account of any other details specific to the particular extra vehicular simulation operation being considered:
1. Identification of the EVA Coordinator (they would normally be the person giving the briefing) and EVA Commander/s for the EVA/s (may or may not be the EVA Coordinator);
2. Nomination of Roles Analogue Astronauts, Standby Astronauts and Astronaut Attendants for the EVA, where applicable
3. Details of life-support equipment to be used during the EVA/s, including any habitats, vehicles, or mobile SSBA (LP compressor or bottle bank), SCUBA, CLLSP pack, oxygen equipment, and First Aid/safety
4. List equipment and any other specific items needed; including vehicles, personal protective equipment, payload instrumentation, tools, guidance and navigation material, timepiece, safety or research equipment
5. Allocation and description of tasks of each EVA team member, outlining all procedures for the extravehicular activity simulation;
6. Full details of the EVA plan, specifically including mission objectives, location, duration, tasks, risk, hazards, mitigation strategies, EVA termination procedures, ‘in SIM’ emergency procedures, safety checks, and communication procedures;
7. Confirmation with Attendant/s and Standby Astronauts/s of their duties, including keeping visual contact with Analogue Astronaut/s or their communications and knowledge of protocols for recovery of injured Astronauts from the analogue environment, rescue procedures, and out of SIM emergency/evacuation procedures;
8. A briefing of each individual regarding their specific tasks, and for analogue astronauts, a check on their fitness to perform the EVA (i.e. asking about tiredness, or any colds, flu’s or injuries they may have, and overall willingness and wellbeing);
9. Details of expected ‘in SIM’ conditions, including weather and terrain conditions, visibility, temperature, range of radio communications, exposure/isolation etc. (NB. these must be confirmed once at the analogue site);
10. Recall signals and protocols;
11. EVA termination points e.g. low air/minimum air limits, technical equipment failure, change of conditions, time in SIM, loss of visibility, fatigue, cold, oxygen toxicity limits, etc.
12. Answers to any queries.
As well as the above, once at the analogue site, the EVA Coordinator must perform the following tasks:
1. Re-evaluate the site, conditions, team, tasks and consequent duration of the EVA;
2. Reconfirm all Analogue Astronaut’s and Standby Astronaut’s health, air supply, equipment etc.;
3. Ensure all required information is recorded on the ‘EVA Record’ Form (may be delegated to CapCom);
4. Conduct a final evaluation of all Analogue Astronaut’s equipment and dress.
MDRS Crew 188 EVA Coordinator De-Briefing Protocols
After every EVA, the EVA Coordinator must conduct a post-EVA debrief with all EVA personnel on the simulation including the following:
1. Checking the health of all simulation astronauts, and recording details of any issues or incidents encountered, including discussing whether risk assessment controls were effective;
2. Noting all tasks achieved and any irregularities described by the astronaut/s;
3. Recording equipment problems encountered, and ensuring the equipment is tagged OUT OF SERVICE;
4. Notifying each astronaut of their EVA details as recorded;
5. Notifying each astronaut of their repetitive group designator, and the time they left the air-lock and the EVA;
6. Detailing any post EVA restrictions to each astronaut, including altitude, heavy work, exercise or showering restrictions, and ensure the astronaut understand these.
As well, the EVA Coordinator should coordinate with the Safety/Medical Officer:
7. Check each astronaut’s health 1, 6, 24 & 48 hours after the EVA (where practicable);
8. Ensure they and the EVA Leader (if other than EVA Coordinator), sign the EVA Record Form/s for the day.
9. Prepare the EVA Report for Mission Control