Initial Project Feasibility Findings:
A "Go" for MDRS Moon Mission #1
November 20, 2004 - updated Nov. 24, 2004
To Moon Society Leaders, Advisors, and Team Members:
Re: Report on Initial Project Feasibility Findings.
by Peter Kokh
A Unique Opportunity
The Mars Society's facility in Utah has been rented for one two-week crew rotation slot each year since its opening in 2001 by Bill Clancey's team from NASA for the purpose of field testing exploration robots. Now the Mars Society has announced an opportunity for other space organizations to rent this facility for two week 6-crewmember exercises at a quoted price of $7,000.
This is an unprecedented opportunity for the Moon Society as it will allow us to conduct exorcises from which we may glean useful information, without the high front end costs of building and outfitting our own analog station. Indeed, the lessons we stand to learn from this "rent before you buy" opportunity promise to result in a much improved and more ergonomic design for our own analog research station, Project LETO, at some time in the future.
The $7,000 cost for one crew rotation, while something we could pay for out of current funds, is a figure that it should not be to difficult to raise from a donor sponsor, supportive of our goals, and happy to have the exposure opportunity for a name, product line, or company. The figure comes down to a little over $1,000 for each crew member for a unique 2-week field-vacation. However, we do not propose that prospective crew members pay for more than their round trip transportation to the customary staging point in Salt Lake City.
Philosophy of Approach
What this is not. This project is not about simulating the series of missions it will take to build a fully functional private enterprise Moonbase. It is about simulating exercises and activities that future crews will need or want to do on the Moon, in a suggestive environment, under those conditions that can be simulated, in order to learn what works and what does not - in the field.
Simulation exercises already performed in the Canadian High Arctic on Devon Island and in Utah by Mars Society crews have already changed established (read NASA and/or contractor) thinking about how to go about various things. For example, an early lesson was that pressurized rovers should be preceded en route by scouts in open, unpressurized ATV analog vehicles that will find negotiable paths for the big pressurized rover. Further, tethered and teleoperable mini-rovers should be aboard these scout ATVs so that when needed, they can explore a crevice or scarp to determine its negotiability. The little agents are also useful to examine the undercarriages of larger vehicles for potential damage from rocks and boulders.
The idea is not to provide 100% faithful simulation. That would be prohibitively expensive and has proven unnecessary to uncovering information useful in redesigning activities and equipment for more satisfactory performance.
It has proven to be most useful to put the experimenters, the crew people in the field, "in the mood," by having them observe "Sims." They put on mockup spacesuits, go through pre-breathing exercises, and exit the hab's airlock whenever they go outside. That the suits are not even close to the real thing does not prove to be important. There is a classic old Science Fiction tale by Clifford D. Simak, by the title of "The Big Back Yard" that suggests what is happening here. In this tale, there sits a country home on a quiet road, surrounded by countryside, Earth countryside. You enter the front door, walk through the house, and exit the back door. But lo and behold, when you open the back door, you are not looking on that same terrestrial countryside that you saw, obviously surrounding the home, when you entered it. You are suddenly about to step out onto another world, from which perspective, the whole house, front door included, sits on an alien landscape.
When crew members first come to the Mars Desert Research Station and enter the hab door in their street clothes, they are entering a facility obviously on Earth. But when they exit that door in their Sims Spacesuits, they are entering a Martian terrain. The mind set contributes productively to the conduct of their experiments and exercises in a way conducive to producing lessons that either affirm exercise or equipment design and function or suggest improvements and sometimes complete new approaches.
The crews have also experimented with living conditions, but this line of exercises has been given less stress and is spotty: one crew experimented with a macrobiotic diet; another crew's experiments with minimizing water usage, startled NASA experts who on paper had assumed that personnel would need three times as much water per person as now proves to be the case.
Doing Moon Outpost Simulations at this Facility
First, there can be no doubt that this is not an ideal location for us. The geology is sedimentary and there will is no sedimentary rocks or deposits anywhere on the Moon where open water has never flowed. There is no basaltic terrain here either.
That means that what geology experiments we can do here will be reduced to testing equipment that measures gravity, heat flow and other things, and indeed such experiments can be done anywhere. So while the Mars crews have hosted many a geologist student or professional with a research program that needed field testing, this does not appear to be a promising line of activity for us. Clearly, if and when the time comes for the Moon Society to launch its own analog station, we need to find a more appropriate setting, one where there are lava flows or basaltic lava floods, lavatubes, etc. That suggests NE California, Eastern Oregon and Washington, and Eastern Idaho.
Nor are biology experiments designed to search for extremophile bacteria or other signs of life that conceivably may be found on Mars. Instead, we propose looking for researchers who have experimental agriculture, horticulture, and biospheric experiments they want to field test at MDRS under our watch.
However, this does not exhaust the possibilities for performing useful EVAs. The Utah site does have some areas, if the many pictures available online are a clue, that in color and terrain appearance, are suggestively moon-like. For example a large expanse of bentonite:
http://cobalt.cbqc.net/mdrs/fs01/images/crew04/c04d11eva04.jpg
I have applied for an early crew assignment on one of the scheduled Mars crews this season so that I can do reality checks on many of the ideas proposed below. On that personal schedule is mapping the more lunar-like areas of the surrounding terrain for EVA routes by our crews.
WHAT MOON SOCIETY CREWS CAN DO AT MDRS.
In pouring over the archives of past crews at the Mars Arctic and Mars Desert stations, I have compiled a respectable list of ideas for crew experiments and simulations. Then I went over the list to sort these ideas into three main categories I shall label IVA, CVA, and EVA.
IVA - inside vehicle/hab activities
CVA - activities immediately outside (circum) the hab
EVA - excursions outside the vehicle/hab
CVA is admittedly a new category. We'll explain the need below.
Next I sorted the ideas in each category according to expense of required equipment and difficulty, in order to come up with a list of options for a first two-week rental exercise that are relatively easy, inexpensive to set up, yet valid and promising respectable results.
While the idea is to simulate exercises on the Moon, some of the items identified will apply to exercises on Mars as well as the Moon. In pursuing them, we will be "giving something back" to our Mars Society hosts, by way of lessons they can apply to their own future exercises.
#topMDRS MOON MISSION #1 EXERCISE IDEAS
IVA - Activities inside the MDRS Hab
As mentioned, only sporadic, non-dedicated attention has been given by Arctic Mars and Desert Mars Crews to simulating the experiences and activities of future explorers and pioneers inside the Habitat areas. Not only does this lack of attention leave us with many opportunities to go further, it is our belief that by more closely simulating the living conditions of future pioneers, we will do a better job of putting our crew personnel "in the mood" for their outside the hab exercises.
Areas for Mood-setting IVA Simulation Exercises
Foodstuffs, food preparation, and menus - we have a former Milwaukee (LRS) chapter member who took the lead in preparing the menu for a Space Frontier Vegetarian Luncheon at ISDC '98 in Milwaukee. The luncheon guest speaker was Alan Binder of Lunar Prospector. The event was well attended, and many people were surprised by how much they enjoyed the luncheon. At MDRS, we propose to restrict ourselves to dry, freeze-dried, and otherwise dehydrated foodstuffs for the most part, reconstituting with water, as if it were "produced on location from local oxygen and hydrogen," as would be the case on the Moon. As our Moonbase is likely to have a garden area producing fresh salad stuffs, but probably not enough for daily use, we propose to have our Hanksville contact bring in fresh salad stuffs twice during the exercise, for the first Sunday meal, and for the last Friday meal on the eve of departure. The crew would suggest improvements and alterations to try on any follow on crew mission.
Mood-setting Ambience - Little has been done at MDRS to provide a Mars-feel ambience to the interior of the Hab. During my scouting trip to Hanksville, I will be examining the interior for mood-setting decor options and accessories that are easy to put up and take down when we leave. I have a host of ideas here, most of which I may try to provide personally, at token expense.
Tableware at MDRS is comprised of simple white correlle, a user-friendly (breakage resistant) choice, but hardly anything that says "Mars." I have made it an action item to look at some options for tableware, mugs, etc.
Arts & Crafts - On the real frontier, one thing pioneers with an artistic bent can do to make everyone feel more at home, is to create useful and/or decorative accessories out of local materials. Hopefully, on the first and each of any follow on crews we will have at least one person who can pursue this kind of activity. Art and craft stuffs will be of two types: "trashure" - items made out of discarded trash, and glass, ceramics, sand paintings, or other ways of turning local soil and rock into something decorative.
Recreation - The Hab has a respectable library of books, tapes, and games, and every crew person is invited to bring an item to leave behind.
Music - We could play with Lunar "Filk" songs, contributing to a Lunar frontier song book, as Mars crews at MDRS have been doing. Musical instruments made from Moonbase trash might include a steel pan drum, and/or a marimba, which might also be made of ceramics using local materials (or brought along, made from let's-pretend or looks-like lunar materials.
Games - One of the all time classic best games of the world is Mancala or Oware. A simple game involving a carved or scultped board with twelve bowls or pits, and seed or pebble game pieces supports endless strategies for winning. We intend to supply one made of ceramic or simulated ceramic over metal or wood.We'll rename it "Craters & Rocks"
Ergonomic Experiments - How user-friendly is everything in the Habitat? We might experiment with moving things around (those things that are not fastened down, at least) to see if there are more ergonomic arrangements. We can also examine prescribed routines for their "ergonomic sense."
Media interviews should be scheduled, including at least one with a back home station or newspaper from each crew members hometown. Some of the early MDRS crews have done this.Exercise - Muscle tone and fitness may be a problem area for lunar crews operating in one sixth Earth-normal gravity. Isometrics is the most promising idea, and if isometric equipment is not a feature of MDRS, we could contribute some. Another option is to provide foot-powered electrical power generation for personal electronics within one's cabin, provided we have a volunteer crew member. We'd want to log any difference in total use time of electronic devices dependent on foot power, as opposed to when they are just plugged in or operating on batteries.
Consumables Minimization Experiment - I have another experiment, one that would result in recommendations that could result in a drastic lowering of toilet paper consumption, that I would like to run by crew members, to be run on a voluntary basis, so long as results are logged.
"Define & Design" Exercises - At end of our first (and any follow-on) mission, the crew will discuss ideas suggested by their experiences inside the Hab, of how our own Lunar Analog Habitat should be laid out and organized, what features it should have, and what activities it should support, as well as suggest things to be tried on follow on MDRS Moon Missions.
A first crew could also determine the Hab interface specifications for the design of a retrofit removable periscopic window design, and for a sun-pipe system if this has not been done on the prior scout mission. These items, once designed and assembled, could be put in place for testing whenever they are ready. The assumption here is that if we are living in a shielded habitat with direct access to views of the outside surroundings and to sunlight would be cut off by the shielding envelope. The project would be to test non-electronic engineerable workarounds.
LOGS & REPORTS - Filing reports and logs is a daily inside activity of all MDRS crew members. With a view of promoting improvements, both for future MDRS crews in general, and for any future MDRS Moon Missions in particular, I propose we log several additional activity areas:
Sims-on/Sims-off Log - documenting every time we must, or choose to, "break Sims" i.e. go outside without a "spacesuit", document the time out, time back, and reported reason or excuse. We want to create a record that we can examine for opportunities to improve Sims Fidelity. This includes having supplies and replacement parts brought in from Hanksville, the local town a few miles away - something absolutely out of order for Mars missions, and which ideally should require a minimum 3-day delay for Moon missions. Obviously, the law of diminishing returns applies. There is a point where, for our purposes, an additional area of Sims Fidelity is just not worth the bother and expense.Food-Menu Log - recipes tried and reactions and lessons; suggestions for improvements.
Trash discarded Log - efforts at sortation to promote recycling where feasible, including separation of items requested by the "trashure craftsperson."
Crew Operations Manual discrepancy Log - logging every time we do, or find it necessary or convenient to do, something in a manner other than prescribed in the current Crew Manual. The idea here is to suggest realistic and melioristic improvements to the Crew Manual..
NOTE on above proposals - While we might not be able to perform all of the above simulation ideas on our first MDRS Moon Mission, they are all simple enough, inexpensive enough, and yet valid enough to be considered. We propose to do as many of the above as feasible.
CVA - Activities in the Immediate Vicinity ("circum") Outside the MDRS Mars Hab
Background - While MDRS Operations has not identified the habitat periphery as a special activity area, it already is such, including the GreenHab Greenhouse, the Musk Observatory, and an auxiliary solar photovoltaic power system.
The Greenhouse - We will want to study the Greenhouse operation with a view to determining how feasible it would be for us to contribute to its improved operation in follow on MDRS Moon Missions. For example, in reply to my suggestion, Gus Fredericks believes that we could easily experiment with raising Talapia in the last tank in which treated water is held prior to exiting the system. Talapia are an edible fish that do well in recycling water systems, and have become a staple addition to many "back to nature" "Mother Earth" type Greenhouse operations. On future missions, the crew members might enjoy a Talapia filet along with their fresh salad stuffs for their final meal on the eve of departure. Gus also thinks my idea of mushroom cultivation has merit. But these are things we will want to try in the future, if and when we are doing a pair of back to back MDRS Moon Missions, as that will provide needed continuity.
Our crew(s) should study the Greenhouse operation, as well as alternative options, to make experience-weighted suggestions for what kind of biospheric recycling systems we should install in our own future Lunar Analog Station.
The auxiliary solar power system - our first crew would examine this system and the purposes for which this added power is used, and work to identify additional hab-peripheral activities that would be enabled by an expansion of this grid that future MDRS Moon Missions might choose to contribute, especially to enable hab-peripheral experiments and demonstrations.
Site Management - this is an area of concern and opportunity that does not seem to have been identified by MDRS Operations staff. Within this topic comes: definition and design of areas set aside for various storage needs
• Definition and design of areas to be left as undisturbed and natural as possible, including optional "nature walks"• Provision of "shielded" but "unpressurized" areas for storage of items regularly accessed for use within the habitat areas, and for exterior habitat maintenance activities.
In Moon Miners' Manifesto, issue # 37, July 1990, I wrote an article by the title of "Ramadas." Ramada is a word of Spanish origin, and in driving through the plains and southwest you see it applied to roadside canopies that provide shelter, not so much from the rain, as from the Sun. (Now you know the "rest of the story" behind the hotel brand "Ramada Inn.") In this article, I explored the idea that if we put those supplies and equipment that we routinely need to access under an unpressurized but regolith-shielded canopy or hanger (or "ramada") we would have areas of "lee" vacuum, vacuum shielded from the cosmic elements of intense sunlight, cosmic rays, solar flares, ultraviolet, and the incessant micrometeorite rain. Personnel working habitually in such an environment could wear a more comfortable, less restrictive, lighter weight "soft" pressure suit instead of the customary "hardened" space suit. Such areas would have similarly protected access direct to pressurized habitat areas.
In short, we propose that one of the useful things we can do on a first MDRS Moon Mission is to design and map out a lightweight mockup protected canopy or shed area in which routinely used supplies and equipment are stored, and see to what extent overall EVA activities are improved by this separation of activities into those that can and cannot easily be performed in "lightsuits" at less "exposure." Our CVA exercises would suggest what should and should not be stored in such areas. (Obviously supplies needed stored outside for inside use on the one hand, and supplies and stored equipment needed for EVA excursions on the other hand.) Our findings will have an effect on overall Moonbase (and Marsbase) design.
For simulation purposes, we need only a light, easily erected and removed, framework system that would "enclose" the "protected areas" for simulated access and maintenance activities in "lightsuits" worn in "EVA Lite" simulation exercises. Plus an airlock vestibule with three ports: docking, full EVA to "unprotected" outside areas, EVA Lite to "shielded" but unpressurized areas.
The cost of the needed framework components and equipment (many design options to be investigated) should be minimal (no more than a few hundred dollars at most), should we wish to pursue this opportunity on a follow-on MDRS Moon Mission.
Moon Mission #1 would define and map the areas around the hab to be set aside for such an add-on skeletal structure, and identify constraints and things to model and simulate. The crew would also suggest materials and design features for a "Light Suit" - one lighter and more comfortable than the current EVA simulation spacesuit. We'll need such light suits if we are going to examine whatever improvements to overall operations there are by the provision of these specially "shielded" areas.
Site Assessment for Teleoperated Shielding Emplacement Exercises - Our friends in the Mars Society do not seem concerned with the need to provide supplemental (to the thin Mars atmosphere) shielding for their habitats. We can step into this neglected area. As a first step, our MDRS Moon Mission #1 crew can examine the surroundings of the MDRS site as to its suitability for tests of various automated and teleoperated methods of site preparation (including grading and excavation) and shielding emplacement both directly over a habitat mockup or over a host "hanger" aka "ramada." Shielding can either be in the form of a regolith sand-pebble mix, or as sand bags or blocks.
It has been suggested that there are a number of hab-sized, even hab-shaped rocky mounds in the area that might do. But as this is a leased site owned by the Federal Bureau of Land Management, it would be best not to undertake any exercises that would alter the landscape. Instead, a "dummy" structure such as an old schoolbus could stand in for the Moonbase habitat structure. A first mission would only do a site assessment. A follow on project would be to organize a student engineering school competition, with the finals to occur at MDRS, with much publicity both for us and our hosts.
Sims-break Log - Our first mission would also log all Sim Breaks in which activities in the periphery of the hab were the occasion for a decision to break Sims, to perform some activity without a spacesuit. The log will help us make operational improvements.
Energy Use Log - Our first mission would also log all power use, inside and outside of the Hab, noting the activities supported. This log will help in design of a future 2-crew back-to-back pair of missions to simulate the Moon's alternating 2-week long dayspan and nightspan periods and how we can efficiently sequence tasks to be performed in two ideally energy-intensive/manpower-light and energy-light/manpower intensive periods. The reasoning here is that even if the Moonbase has a nuclear power source, there will still be more power available during dayspan, thanks to solar power generation, than during nightspan when the only auxiliary (to nuclear) power will come from power storage systems fed by dayspan solar energy.
EVA SIMULATIONS - Excursions beyond the periphery of the MDRS Mars Hab
Background - In our introduction above, we already discussed the variety of pursuits that have been followed by MDRS EVA crews, and how many of them would not be applicable for our purposes. We did also mention that some areas of the surrounding "Mars scape" are suggestively more Moon-like in coloration and texture and that we propose to attempt to map these areas in our scouting visit.
Non-suitability of the terrain appearance and geochemical makeup aside, EVA excursions will be a mainstay of actual Moonbase operations, and there are useful simulations we can do in which terrain-appearance and geochemical makeup are irrelevant. Some of these ideas require little extra, not-already available equipment or tools. Some are more ambitious, good ideas for follow-on MDRS Moon Missions.
EVAs under special outside conditions
• A daytime EVA in pre-identified grayer areas of the surroundings, under totally overcast skies, would at least get away from the distraction of reddish, Mars-suggestive soil areas, and the blue sky of Earth.• A nighttime Full Moon excursion would again minimize the distraction of ground color, and provide an inspiring vision in the sky.
• "Earthlight EVA" - More ambitious would be a nighttime EVA under overcast skies with a lit large Earth Globe perched over some terrain-commanding ridge. This would be ambitious, requiring on site batteries or a generator and a lightweight but wind-sturdy of fabric over a globe framework. For an average EVA traverse distance of 100 yards from the globe, the globe would need to be 10 feet (a 1:30 ratio) in diameter. For greater distances, the simulated globe must be greater yet, in a proportion which scales up materials needed with the square of the distance. Thus only a modest demo makes any sense.
• Glaring surface - Black Skies - Also ambitious, but we think doable, is a nighttime EVA that would simulate the daytime lunar EVA experience of a glaringly bright surface under an ink-black sky. An admittedly limited simulation of this could be provided by attaching a light weight (conduit pipe) pyramid tower attached to the 4 (or 3) corners of the ATV, with a cluster of halogen lights atop. For example, two 200 watt halogen lamps could be directed to flood the immediate circle around the ATV and its riders. Four 500 watt halogen lamps would be aimed at shallower angles to illuminate the surrounding vicinity. To counterweight this assembly, the ATV would be weighted down with batteries, and/or power invertor, and/or generator. A tower 20 or more feet high should be light enough so as not to destabilize the ATV. For the crew, the halogen light cluster representing the Sun would be directly overhead, well outside their horizon-scanning angle of vision. So you would have the bright "moonscape" with intense "sunlight" and a "black sky" in which any stars would be blocked out by the glare just as they are on the Moon.
• Total Lunar Eclipse EVA - A similar arrangement with much dimmer orange color bulbs, would simulate a lunar EVA under total lunar eclipse conditions.
We are not pretending that anything of real usefulness would come from any of these EVA simulations, only that they could be done, and would help support the mood-setting illusion of being on the Moon. They might be good PR.
Fork -in-the-road "Hostels" - A daytime, normal EVA of real usefulness might be to identify EVA route "forks in the road" at some distance from the MDRS Mars Hab that would make promising locations for parking a mobile (ATV-towable) hab where EVA crews on ATVs could overnight, in order to support longer distance excursions through the surrounding Utah "marscapes." To accompany such spot-locating exercise, we could work to define and design exactly what should be in such an overnight hostel, turning over our findings to the Mars Society. The exercise would be valid for our needs on the Moon as well.
Human-Robot Teamwork EVAs - Another line of useful EVA simulation activity would be to pursue, in a humbler fashion, the already ongoing experiments with human-robot teamwork in exploration. We could identify tasks to be performed by companion robots, and a list of simple teleoperation commands, and have one crew person stand in as the robot and follow the commands of the other "human" crew person. Only prescribed commands could be used or followed. We'd learn quickly enough how that command list needs to be expanded. We'd also learn what supported robot activities were most useful and helpful. Think of it as a left hand/right hand partnership. For example, the "robot" stand in would identify requested types of samples, pick them up, and present them in the requested orientation to th "human" so that the later could inspect them. We could attempt to learn what types of inspection and analysis are better done by robots and which by humans. This is just a first "one-head" stab at this idea. A look at this area of simulation by several heads might either find more options or conclude that none of the above is worth our time.
Identifying Spacesuit Alteration Needs - While out on EVAs, whatever their purpose or activities involved, we need to be alert to the limitations imposed by our suits, so that we can suggest future modifications. The fat glove is a problem. Would a stylus extension of the right glove index finger, and a claw/fingernail/scratcher extension of the left glove middle finger prove helpful? The Mars crews have already added many devices to the suit arms and glove backs, such as a mirror. There seems to be much we could experiment with on this line. It is not inconceivable that some of these suggested improvements may translate to modifications for real spacesuits to be used on the real space frontier. At the very least, should the Moon Society every undertake to build its own analog station, we would end up with improves EVA "spacesuits."
CONCLUSION
Many Valid Options - There seem to be many lines of indoor, close-in peripheral, and EVA excursion exercises that MDRS Moon Missions could pursue with the reasonable expectation that we would be learning something useful, hopefully for real future crews on the Moon, but certainly, for nearer term application to the Society's own future Lunar Analog Research Station, as part of the long-planned Project LETO.
Activities identified above include many that will be relatively easy, and inexpensive to support, yet valid and promising returned insights. There also seem to be quite a few moderately more ambitious simulation exercise, but which do not appear to be overly expensive to support.
MDRS Moon Mission #1 is "a Go"
In short, our conclusion is that pending identification of an expense-assuming sponsor, it's "a Go" for MDRS Moon Mission One.
Feedback requested. We would appreciate your constructive criticisms and contributions to this list of ideas and "more fully bake" this proposal..
Meanwhile, in the expectation that location of a sponsor will not be a problem, I have asked the Mars Society to reserve a crew rotation slot for us towards the end of the current season which ends in mid-May 2005.
The first Crew of Six - There will be six crew slots. I'd like to captain the first mission, but not any follow on missions. The new India chapter proposes to send one crew member at their expense. That leaves four spots for what I feel may be quite a number of worthy applicants. The call for volunteers will go out shortly.
Mission Support - Remote Mission Support, primarily via email, has been provided by the Rocky Mountain (Denver Area) Mars Society chapter. On the assumption, and it is desirable, that we provide our own Mission Support, I have run the suggestion by our most vigorous chapter, Moon Society St. Louis, and also by the, temporarily we hope, napping student chapter at Brigham Young University in nearby (to MDRS) Provo, Utah. Nothing is set as yet.
Crew Perks - the crew, once picked, will have some pre-mission homework , to include naming our mission, and designing a logo/mission patch. I would like them to go home with some momentos: copies of the logs and photos on a CD, logo apparel items, and perhaps a two-year extension of their individual Moon Society memberships, plus a nice framable certificate. An auxiliary goal of these exercises is to provide abundant and varied publicity opportunities, and treating our returning crew members as "heroes of the day" may work well for that purpose.
Publicity Opportunities - If we pursue this project their will be ample opportunities for local, national, and international publicity in television and on the radio, on the Internet, and in the press. A documentary and a book are not unreasonable outcomes. If we plan it right, we will be able to leverage our collaboration not only with the Mars Society, but possibly with other groups such as SEDS and individual college and university organizations. All this is in addition to valuable experience and lessons learned to invest in our own Lunar Analog Research Station now still over our horizon. We hope to have many opportunities to increase our membership, as well as our talent pool, through this project.
Peter Kokh
November 22, 2004
November 24, 2004 - First Call for MDRS Moon Mission #1 Crew Volunteers August 25, 2004 - Project announcement
INFORMATIVE LINKS
The Mars Desert Research Station
PHOTOS
Photo of the Mars Hab in its surrounding landscapeThe view out of one of the Mars Hab portholes
Daily Field Reports
2003-04 Field Season 3MDRS Habitat Floor PlanMDRS Crewmember Packing List - what to bring
MDRS GreenHab & Graywater Treatment System
Geological History of the area around the Mars Desert Station
