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much of the equipment that you utilized in HI-SEAS is equipment that can be used for actual missions to Mars ?
sorts of experiments did you conduct ? What was involved in performing those experiments , and can you share any results ?
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COURTESY OF Ansley Barnard Barnard works on a test for EVA suit fans during the mission . Battery life on an EVA suit is limited , and ventilation affected how long the crew members could be working outside of the habitat in their EVA suits .
much of the equipment that you utilized in HI-SEAS is equipment that can be used for actual missions to Mars ?
Our mission had a Veggie system for plant growth , a version of which is currently on ISS . We also worked on research tasks dealing with virtual reality and conflict management that astronauts may utilize in the future . The habitat has a biology lab , but it doesn ’ t have all the equipment you ’ d expect . Much of that is too heavy to fly to Mars , so learning to do without the equipment is in many ways more realistic for the analog . The habitat also has a lot of equipment that isn ’ t intended to go to into space , but might have a microgravity or space grade counterpart , like a shower , 3D printer , solar panels and a treadmill .
sorts of experiments did you conduct ? What was involved in performing those experiments , and can you share any results ?
All the crew members in HI-SEAS are both researchers and research subjects . We ’ ve conducted studies on many things like plant growth , 3D printing and synthetic biology . We were the subject of several studies on crew psychology , operations and scheduling . I conducted a study on how we prioritize resources in the mission , and I used optimization software to figure out our overnight minimum power limits . I also studied how my crew mates , a diverse group with different desires and needs , assign importance to things for our limited power budget . I found out that running calculations can be easy , but trying to find a solution that supports everyone ’ s needs is tricky . Most of the main research will be published in a few years because the researchers need mission replicates to confirm their findings .
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