A Sensoria M3 crewmember above HI-SEAS habitat one day of a moonwalk.
(Portray: © Courtesy of James Ward)
Dr. Michaela Musilova is the director of Hawaii Method Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program, which conducts analog missions to the moon and Mars for scientific be taught at a habitat on the volcano Mauna Loa. Currently, she is accountable for the 2-week Sensoria M3 mission and contributed this characterize back to Method.com’s Knowledgeable Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Commander’s Chronicle for the Sensoria M3 Mission at HI-SEAS
Lunar Mission Day 6 (Dec. 9, 2020)
I used to be vastly greatly surprised when the Selene II crew started their tradition of 100 pushups and situps. It used to be no longer an evening process that I anticipated the crew to desire doing. The SENSORIA M3 vastly greatly surprised me extra with a contemporary sport: fiber-pong. It’s miles definitely a lunar model of beer pong. Every evening, our eating room desk is hastily remodeled real into a ping-pong desk of kinds. We make no longer own any alcohol on our analog moon mission, so beer has been changed with dietary fiber. Furthermore, we make no longer are looking to raze our precious water, so we use random objects from socks to Lego objects to own the bottoms of the cups we use within the game to stabilize them.
Why fiber? Our drink of desire is water mixed with powdered fiber, as the crew is terribly cautious about no longer getting any digestive disorders. The HI-SEAS Clinical Director Dr. Joseph D’Angelo warned us about the dangers of clinical considerations triggered by the freeze-dried meals on missions, reminiscent of constipation and worse. Joseph is our chief clinical officer as well, which system that he is the physician for the crew and supervises the mission clinical officers. All the scheme thru the most modern missions, I in actuality had been performing as the crew clinical officer moreover to the commander. I in actuality own first support and desert first support training that qualifies me for this role. We specifically recruit medically trained crewmembers for some missions which own a spotlight on human-associated be taught. We moreover work with experts in medication to test and strengthen our emergency clinical procedures one day of analog missions.
The SENSORIA M3 lunar analog crew is certain to steer clear of any clinical considerations “on the moon,” so fiber is terribly great on the menu. Our analog astronaut meals lacks a desire of most well-known vitamins, minerals and other vitamins, which is why we now own got to ingest dietary dietary supplements on a normal foundation. With out them, we threat struggling in various ways one day of the mission. Why no longer create a sport out of dietary supplements, then? I definitely make no longer mind as prolonged as the crew would no longer overdose on them. Fortunately, the fiber is no longer very gorgeous to devour or drink, which is why ingesting it, as segment of the game, looks to be to be the ideally suited system to inspire the crew to devour it.
Rather than that, the crew has no longer been needing any extra motivation to point of curiosity on their be taught. They’ve been nearly too motivated to work on their projects and whisk on moonwalks. I divulge “too motivated” because they are so alive to to stay these activities that I disaster veritably that they’ll be overworking themselves. Some crewmembers can ranking exhausted on a mission if they are no longer careful. Due to this being the commander will be complex at instances, as I in actuality want to place my foot down for some matters and the crewmembers would possibly well no longer repeatedly take into accout that it be in their most interesting interests that I stay so.
My most modern crew has been gleaming working out though. They’ve peaceable been in a space to abet out a desire of needs despite having to switch at a slower amble. Habitat Operations Officer Lea Tremendous Miller and Chief Engineer Niko Blanks pale the previous few days to wear Hexoskin ideally suited shirts beneath their EVA (extravehicular process) matches in present to catch data on heart rate, breath rate and process to stipulate vitality expenditure one day of our moonwalks. The details from the Hexoskin ideally suited shirts is moreover being paired with cognitive workload assessments for sooner than, one day of and after EVAs. The two own long previous on an total of 4 EVAs to this point and would possibly well be collecting extra data as the mission continues.
Chief Science Officer Emily Seto has been simulating an astronaut-drilling mission to contain about signs of lifestyles the usage of a Honeybee Robotics’ ground coring drill that has been designed to develop astrobiological samples. The coring bit is the usage of Honeybee-patented core damage off technology, which has been chosen for the coring drill of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover Perseverance (drilling often is the first step within the Mars sample-return campaign). Working out the distribution of microbial lifestyles in analog environments reminiscent of lava tubes can present excessive clues for biosignatures in permanently shadowed areas on the moon and or Mars. I in actuality had been serving to Emily with her be taught projects, while Vice Commander James Ward has been documenting our work — particularly the day and evening moonwalks.
Within the habitat, Science Communique Officer Gianna McLaren has been spending her time documenting her expertise as an analog astronaut from the standpoint of one exclusively contemporary to the location neighborhood, writing for the Nationwide Method Society’s Ad Astra journal. She is moreover writing a e book about the numerous adventures which own shaped her obsession with exploration and persistent questioning of what is concept about seemingly. This involves a reclusive 9-month preserve in France at the age of 16, to quite a lot of years stationed spherical the usa in various Nationwide Forests, to getting her racing license driving a System 3 automobile at Sonoma Raceway and one way or the other, settling into lifestyles in Marin County, California. She views getting concerned about the with out discover evolving scamper of situation exploration as the following mountainous gallop.
Phase of the crew has trusty come all but again from an evening moonwalk. Stuffed with obvious vitality from the ideally suited views exterior, the crew reunited within the habitat amongst heaps of guffaws. I forgot how badly we odor after we come all but again from moonwalks. Crewmembers repeatedly want a miniature little bit of time to accept that odor of sweat from our our bodies and on our gear. I repeatedly wonder how hastily the crew will ranking pale to this odor. Essentially it takes a couple of days, however some folks fight for the duration of your total mission attributable to the smells. I’m grateful that my nostril can selectively ignore those smells, however peaceable be on excessive alert for harmful smells reminiscent of chemical substances, propane gas, something burning and heaps of others. Crews shaggy dog myth that I’m savor a dog when it involves those smells — I at once whisk investigating the attach the odor is coming from and then I create certain that that they hear all about it. We can’t threat something else unsuitable occurring to our lifestyles abet systems!
Commander Musilova signing off to a couple of pre-bedtime fiber-pong with the crew.
Educate Michaela Musilova on Twitter @astro_Michaela. Educate us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
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