During our rotation, we will develop several projects and test
simulation procedures.
Our top priority is the simulation and therefore, we decided on
several rules that the crew should follow during our two weeks in the
MDRS. Those rules mainly concern the EVA procedures and tend to make
this simulation as close as possible the the Martian reality.
Our five scientific projects are the followings.
-Local Positioning System for Mars
Once mankind will start to explore Mars, they will need to know their
position on the planet. Since there will be no GPS at first, they will
need to use a different positioning system. We thought of using
triangulation to solve this problem. We will use fixed beacons made of
Arduino chips with known positions and moveable beacons that will be
carried by the crew. By analyzing the power of the signal received by
the moveable beacons and their information, the crew can know its
position. One advantage of this approach would be the fact that the
exploring crew could extend the beacon network with its advance in
unknown territory. It could also be used to carry information from the
field to the headquarters.
This project would be an improvement of a project started by Crew 103
that failed due to hardware issues. We plan to use their previous
experiences and equipments, which will help us to achieve the first
results even faster, and give us more time to improve the project.
-Observation of astronomical objects from Mars
Mars has a very tiny atmosphere compared to the Earth, so telescopes
located on martian soil would be more efficient because of the absence
of atmospheric perturbations. Another big advantage to be on Mars (or
equivalently in the desert of Utah) is that there is no luminous
pollution, which becomes a chronic problem on Earth.
We plan to observe the sky between 10 pm and 3 am because all the
objects we want to observe before appear in the vision field. So at
the MDRS we will use the MUSK observatory, and the software
”stellarium” on windows. It will help us to locate the astronomical
objects. We’ll follow the formation on the website in order to become
expert in that field and to be able to use the CCD camera and the
different filters for photography.
-A study of the past climatic conditions through rock and sediment analysis
The geology of Mars holds important information on the previous
climatic conditions of the planet. The main goal of this project is to
analyze the nature of the rocks around the MDRS to determine these
conditions and to produce a satisfying model of their formation. A
global mapping of the rocks localization according to their nature is
planned to reconstruct the past landscape and obtain a global model of
the sedimentation around the station.
-A search of water traces by erosion analysis
The observations on Mars show landscape structures similar to water
flow environments on Earth and the Curiosity rover has recently found
rocks characteristic of stream beds. However, the surface of Mars is
now completely dry and the landscape and sediments are the last
indicators of past water traces. This project is centered on the
observation of the landscape and the analysis of sedimentation and
erosion around the MDRS. We plan to find a (now dry) modern stream
bed and study the erosion traces left to reconstruct the regime of the
past water flow and its characteristics.
-Desensitization of the smell in close space in terms of time
Astronauts in mission on Mars will stay in closed area for quite a
long time. So, the idea of this project is to study the possible
impact of such living conditions on the smell's ability of the crew
members, that is the bluntness of their sense. It can be due to
numerous factors like dust in the living area, the absence of usual
and common smells, and so on. This could create an insecure climate in
the station because the astronauts would become less sensitive to
smoke smells or toxic gas for example, which could threaten the whole
team. To do so, the first day of our simulation members will be
educated to recognize the smells that we have brought with us in form
of essential oils. Then after a week the first group will take a test
which will consist in distinguishing the different smells of a mixing.
Finally at the end of our simulation the second group will take it
also. By comparing both results we will be able to determine if
bluntness really occurs.