My second space analog mission
Space design for a Martian habitat during Mission 47 at Habitat Marte and much more …
Mission 47 was my second virtual space analog mission at Habitat Marte. In this post, I will relate my experience in a format that I hope has become familiar: question and answer style.
If this is the first time you’re encountering the terms space analogs or analog missions, flip over to Space Analog Missions on the whats and whys of space analog missions. The remainder of this article will make a lot more sense! In my first virtual space analog mission at Habitat Marte, we focussed on recycling and sustainability in a Martian habitat. You can read more about the mission in my post about mission 43 at Habitat Marte.
If you’re familiar with how missions at Habitat Marte are structured and run, skip ahead to the details of Mission 47.
Q. How does a virtual analog mission at Habitat Marte work?
7 individuals with a passion for space exploration and settlement are recruited from around the world to form an analog astronaut team. Each team member is given the responsibility to design and imagine a distinct facility within a human space habitat on Mars. The facilities include:
- Main Station
- Launch Centre
- Greenhouse
- Sanitation Centre
- Health Centre
- Engineering Station
- Power Station
Q. How long do missions last?
Typically, for 7 days.
Q. What was your role in the mission?
My role was chief of the launch centre - an area within the habitat that ships would arrive and depart from. If this makes you think of airports on Earth, you’re on the right track!
Each centre chief presents their research on their chosen facility. This gives everyone in the mission an opportunity to learn about techniques, protocols and technologies in adjacent realms.
Q What was the theme of Mission 47 at Habitat Marte?
In this mission, we focussed on architectural design of the habitat. This included designing the layouts, evaluating materials, machinery and locations of the various facilities within the habitat.
Q. Does a virtual analog mission offer the same experience as an in-person one?
Like all things virtual, I’m sure that it does not. Given that my first mission was this summer and under the cloud of Covid-19, virtual missions are the only sort that I’ve experienced so far. The disadvantage, of course, is that most studies - isolation and confinement, food production and any that rely on geological similarity are not feasible in a fully virtual setting. I really enjoyed the way that it exercised my imagination.
Are virtual missions a viable replacement for in-person missions - definitely not, but they are the next best thing.
Q. What material did you cover for the launch centre?
For this mission, I chose to focus on the following areas of the launch centre:
- Categorizing operations
- Technological considerations within the facility
- Fuel system options
- Construction and maintenance of landing pad facilities
- Mining in-situ resources for oxygen, water and fuel generation
- Robotic swarm technology to enable these functions with implied redundancy
- Design and location of the facility
- Benefits and dangers of a lava-tube habitat
- 3D printed over-ground habitat
- Hybrid model with facilities split between over and under-ground regions
- 3D printing materials
- Robotic exploration of caves via vertical scaling
Q. That’s a long list - what’s the biggest highlight?
I cannot impress upon you how remarkably awesome this particular exploration was - so I hope that you’ll forgive my build up. This time around, I explored the feasibility of underground habitats within lava tubes1. Imagine a volcano erupting and masses of molten rock aka lava pouring out. Beneath the vast rivers of lava on the surface, exist tubes or conduits of further vast rivers of lava. The underground tubes supply lava to the surface. Once the eruption has receded, the tubes remain - forming an intricate interconnected underground cave system. Many such tubes exist on Earth too! On Mars, these tubes are much larger than what we typically find on Earth due to the lower gravity. Living underground on Mars has some distinct advantages i.e. protection from radiation, micrometeorites and dust storms. A further advantage is temperature stability (unlike the roller coaster 20 to -73℃ that is the Martian surface). But it’s not all roses and sunshine in the caves. Very often, old lava flows will leave behind stalactites. Sharp rocky material, boulders and uneven flooring will prove to be a significant barrier to underground habitats. A final challenge will be the absence of sunlight. Skylights do provide a source of light into the caves, but we will need to find a clever system to redirect this light to penetrate further within the cave system (closing scene of the Mummy anyone?).
Another interesting concern around underground habitats is robotic exploration. Ingenuity2 onboard the Perseverance mission3 will be the first time we test controlled flight on another planet. Imagine a climbing robot - one that can scale walls and rocky surfaces near vertically - Enter LEMUR4. The LEMUR system of robots have 4 limbs; each limb having 16 fingers, covered in 250 tiny fishhooks that allow it to grip rough rocky walls and scale near-vertically. Now, what if we put these two together - an ultra-light robot with large rotor blades, and limbs with tiny fishhooks so that it can crawl through tubes that are too dangerous for it to fly through. Robotic exploration to vet lava tubes for human habitation will be the deciding factor for this particular choice of habitat. One could conceive of life sustained in lava tubes using inflatable and self-deployable habitat modules such as the Bigelow Aerospace’s B3305.
Q. That sounds interesting! Is there more?
Absolutely! Here are some links to the materials that I presented:
Q. What are some other areas that were discussed?
- Yash Rathod6, a student of architecture at Maharashtra Institute of Technology, discussed various types of Martian habitat construction viz. 3D printed, ice, sulphur concrete, pre-fabricated self-deployable and inflatable structures. We explored an inflatable habitat design with hydraulically powered robotic columns serving as a skeleton. Levels in each facility demarcated facility function from kitchen and greenhouses spaces.
- Jas Purewal7, an astrophysicist and senior scientist, walked us through construction techniques using reinforced sulphur concrete. We discussed the possibility of robotic build-outs of the skeletons of these structures, and arriving humans installing an airtight membrane within the structure. Given the vast quantities of food and water that will be required for human sustenance, we explored growing algae, mushrooms and insects under artificial light and preserving them within food stores.
Q. Where can I find out more?
This article represents the first green shoots. All our sessions were recorded and are available on Youtube. I’m always happy to chat about my experience - feel free to reach out to me via the usual channels.