With all the talk about rocketing to Mars, we need to ensure
we conduct studies as well regarding how we will live on Mars. And this is where the Mars Society's MarsDesert Research Station comes into the picture.
The stations are "laboratories for learning how to live and work on
another planet." Various prototypes
house four to six crew members and give scientists a chance to see how humans
will fare in an harsh, isolated environment.
Crew members include geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics,
physicians and others, who may live in the habitat for weeks or even
months.
Here is how Crew 140, which served a mission from April to
August this year, wrote about some of the lessons learned in the final missionreport:
The greenhouse on Mars will be the main power source of life of the first inhabitants on the Martian surface. Due to the strong ultra violet rays on the Red Planet, Luciana Tenorio (Crew Journalist & EVA Engineer), considered a fabric/filter 100% UV, besides the material of the fabric is a nonwoven polyester which covers the aluminum frames (icosahedrons). This small shelter from the harmful UV rays was born from the need for shade during the days of solar intensity on Mars, in the Utah desert, where the greenhouse plants die burned by the strong intensity through the skin of polycarbonate (actual covering of the greenhouse). The project of Luciana was testing this second skin over the fourth rib of the greenhouse structure to see how the plant growing developments takes place during our two weeks of the research. During the first week the temperature inside the greenhouse lowered a little bit, but in the second week the temperature grew much more outside. As the project spanned only a very small portion of the greenhouse, we feel that it would have been very successful in achieving its goals if it had been placed over the entire surface of the Greenhab.
I am glad eager volunteers are adding to our knowledge about how to live on Mars. You can volunteer to join a mission or simply donate to these missions.
