MDRS Crew 194
Wilderness Medical Society
Mission Plan
Nothing speaks to the essence of “wilderness” more than another planet. Mars represents the most remote and austere environment that humans have ever contemplated exploring. To simulate the demands of living and working on Mars, this group from the Wilderness Medical Society will serve as crew 194 at the Mars Desert Research Station. We will use MDRS as a base of operations for exploring Mars.
During this time, we hope to study medical issues unique to astronauts, space flight, and life on other planets. While our crew has considerable experience with delivering routine medical care and medical care in some of the most remote environments on this plan, we hope to gain an additional dimension of knowledge while considering the provision of medical care on Mars. In particular, we will study and simulate emergencies related to changes in normal human physiology due to microgravity, changes in ambient pressure, relevant toxicology, radiation, space motion sickness, and behavioral health and performance. We will also study ultrasound as an imaging modality in spaceflight.
A significant component of our learning will also be experiential. We have studied the work of prior crews from an engineering and research perspective, and hope to apply some of these lessons on EVAs. However, as our primary study is related to the care of injures crew members, our EVAs will frequently results in “unintended” consequences in which the crew will be forced to call on their medical and wilderness skills in order to survive.
Finally, we have also brought along technology to assist with our operations. We hope to use rapid process improvement software to help craft operational and design changes for our mission and the Hab.
We are thrilled about the opportunity to live and work at MDRS for a week, and would like to thanks both the Mars Society and the Wilderness Medical Society for this wonderful opportunity.