The 1,700 sq ft home for the next year includes four private quarters and a shared bathroom with a shower and toilet. They are people with advanced degrees in Stem fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) and fit a physical and psychological profile to make them suited for such an experiment. N asa hasn’t identified the four crew members set to enter the habitat in June, but said they were selected using similar criteria to the astronaut corps. And when we want to look at closed environments and stress, we build chambers like this.” When we look at oxidative stress, we go to the bottom of the ocean. When we want to look at vitamin D and people that don’t see the sun, we go to Antarctica. “So when we want to look at bone loss and muscle loss, we put people to bed. “No matter how challenging or large or expensive something like this is, it’s easier than doing it in spaceflight,” said Scott Smith, who leads the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at Nasa Johnson Space Center. Nasa’s scientists are also conducting a series of “analog missions” meant to simulate various parts of space exploration here on the ground. Scientists compared Kelly’s biometrics with his Earth-bound identical twin, Senator Mark Kelly, to learn the effects of extended spaceflight. In 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko spent a year on the International Space Station. The mission isn’t Nasa’s first test at long-term trial runs before sending humans deeper into space. Bottom: Plant pods where the crew members will grow ready-to-eat food like tomatoes and leafy greens. Top: Helmets are seen inside the Mars Dune Alpha during a media tour. Getting to the Moon means getting to Mars, and getting to Mars means testing the physical and behavioral health of a crew in isolation. As part of the Artemis missions, Nasa is also launching Gateway, a space station that will orbit the Moon and serve as a pit stop for Mars-bound missions. Artemis is sending astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since 1972, including the first person of color and woman to walk on another celestial body. Preparations for that trek are already well under way with the agency’s Artemis program. The first mission could be a nine-month trip one-way, and could leave the astronauts on the surface for two and a half years before starting the long trip back home. Nasa says it hopes to send humans to the red planet as early as the 2030s. W atching four people spend a year in a 3D-printed box is Nasa’s next small step toward landing humans on the surface of Mars. Not only will they have to get along well, but they’ll also have to perform well together.” “You’re asking for individuals to live and work together for over a one-year period. “This is really an extreme circumstance,” said Dr Suzanne Bell, who leads the Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory at the Nasa Johnson Space Center. They’ll conduct experiments, grow food and exercise – and be tested regularly so scientists can learn what a year on Mars could do to the body and mind. The four crew members will live in a small housing unit that was constructed using a huge 3D printer to simulate how Nasa may create structures on the Martian surface with Martian soil. A working area inside the Mars Dune Alpha, Nasa’s 3D-printed simulated Mars habitat.
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