It might sound nerdy to most- but when engineers and scientists all excited about sending humans to mars are trying to solve ‘martian’ problems-it’s a beauty. That’s what happened at MDRS today, and in fact what happens here on “Two weeks of Mars –Earth”! A UND space studies student built a rover to compliment human Extra Vehicular Activity (EVAs) on Mars that would maximize the exploration activities on the planet alongside astronauts conducting planetary exploration. But how do we know it really works? Well, we need to test it in ‘Mars’ like environment with the marsonauts. Josh, who is a biologist and also makes for a great engineer for his instant problem solving techniques, thought it would be a good idea to bring the rover out to MDRS that his colleague built and test it out. This was an exciting moment for me when we teamed up at the Hab (habitat) to make these tests come together. We tried to fix the little guy (MACHO-MA Complimentary Human rOver) in the morning, and came up with some neat ideas. Being an engineer, MDRS is like being thrown in a candy store. We played with the rover inside the Hab first before coming up with the objectives for the EVA today-Ran it up through some small boulders, chair, and other obstacles. We fixed the housing to have better view of the electronics, built some mounts for the battery, antennas, transceiver etc. using scrap material in the Hab. We then moved on to test it outside on mars with me acting as the ‘marsonaut’ while Josh controlling the rover from inside using the video feed being transmitted from the rover. I tried my best to make use of this opportunity to learn, feel and contribute as much as I could. When the tires fell off the rover and I had to fix it , and when the housing had to be removed to check on electronics and connections- it was a tough task to perform with the gloves on (it is a well-known problem in the spacesuit world). We included hand signaling for communication which will be an important part of EVAs during loss of voice communication. We identified a few areas we can improve on and will be conducting more tests with the rover for stratigraphy and spectroscopy in the coming days and making improvements where needed.
On the other hand, I completed the first human factors assessment that I am performing teaming with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), in fact with my previous crew member from MDRS, who is a Human Factors Professor at FIT. If there is one major hurdle to overcome for human planetary exploration involving months of exploration that would be the “human” aspect. I am curious to see how these two weeks affect each of us personally and professionally. It might not be equivalent to 2 years of living on Mars, but still a starting a point. Additionally, we will be performing EVA Rescue operations and procedures tests in the next two weeks teaming up with my colleague from Boeing.
This is just the beginning, there is more to learn about the red planet and more to innovate in order to successfully send humans to mars and bring them back ALIVE!
Kavya K.Manyapu
Crew Engineer
On the other hand, I completed the first human factors assessment that I am performing teaming with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), in fact with my previous crew member from MDRS, who is a Human Factors Professor at FIT. If there is one major hurdle to overcome for human planetary exploration involving months of exploration that would be the “human” aspect. I am curious to see how these two weeks affect each of us personally and professionally. It might not be equivalent to 2 years of living on Mars, but still a starting a point. Additionally, we will be performing EVA Rescue operations and procedures tests in the next two weeks teaming up with my colleague from Boeing.
This is just the beginning, there is more to learn about the red planet and more to innovate in order to successfully send humans to mars and bring them back ALIVE!
Kavya K.Manyapu
Crew Engineer