Mars Society Special Bulletin #41 – 19 Apr 2001
FABRICATION BEGINS ON MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION!
Fabrication has begun on the Mars Desert Research Station, the second
of the Mars operations simulations stations that the Mars Society is
building around the world. The first unit in this program, the
Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, a simulated Mars exploration
base, was built during the summer of 2000 on Devon Island in Nunavut,
Canada, and will go into operation in the high Arctic during the
summer of 2001. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) will be
deployed in a Mars analog desert environment in the American
southwest this September, and will support field operations during
the fall, winter, and spring. Together, the two stations will act as
laboratories supporting a year-round program for learning how to live
and work on Mars, offering researchers the opportunity to conduct
systematic studies of the strategies, technologies, human factors and
hardware designs necessary to prepare for the human exploration of
Mars.
The Mars Desert Research Station is being fabricated for the Mars
Society by Built on Integrity (BOI), of Boulder City Nevada. Founded
by Scott Fisher, of the Fisher Space Pen company, a longtime
supporter of space exploration in general and the Mars society in
particular, BOI has developed a proprietary construction technology
combining a steel frame, foam core, and elastomeric skin to produce
an ultra lightweight structure with extremely effective insulation
properties. The MDRS will use this technology to produce a station
that is the same size as the fiberglass honeycomb Flashline Station,
but which weighs less than half as much. The Mars society intends to
take advantage of the lightweight nature of the MDRS to make it
mobile, moving it to support exploration at several different desert
locations in the course of its operating lifetime.
Engineering support for the design of the MDRS is being provided by
the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Currently, fabrication is
advancing rapidly, and a rollout of the structure is planned for May
3 in Las Vegas. Details of the time and place of the rollout will be
posted on the Mars society web site at www.marssociety.org.
Photographs of the panels of the Mars Desert Research Station in
fabrication can be viewed on the BOI website at
www.spaceconstruction.com.
A Mars Society volunteer task force has been formed to examine
promising locations for MDRS operations in the American southwest.
Scouting trips have already been conducted in Texas, Utah, Nevada,
Arizona, and California. A downselect to determine the initial
station site is expected before summer.
An in depth discussion of plans for operation of the Mars Desert
Research Station will occur at the Fourth International Mars Society
Convention, which will be held at Stanford University, August 23-26,
2001. See www.marssociety.org for details.
SPRING RECCONAISANCE EXPEDITION RETURNS FROM FLASHLINE ARCTIC STATION
A Mars Society spring reconnaissance expedition to Devon Island to
assess the condition and effect improvements in the Flashline Mars
Arctic Research Station has just returned. Led by Project Scientist
Pascal Lee and Project Manager Frank Schubert, the team landed on
snow-covered Devon in Twin Otter aircraft equipped with skis for
landing gear, and found the station to be in excellent shape after
being left alone for an Arctic winter. They then stayed on the island
for seven days, installing airlocks, and new electrical and plumbing
systems in the hab in preparation for this summer’s field season.
Both Lee and Schubert kept journals of the trip. In the introduction
to his journal, Lee writes:
“The April, 2001 early deployment to the Mars Society’s Flashline
Mars Arctic Research Station has just been completed. Six of us,
Frank Schubert, Matt Smola, Leonard Smola, Greg Mungus, Joe Amarualik
and I spent a week on Devon Island configuring the interior of the
habitat in preparation of the upcoming summer field season. It was a
week of relatively intense work and an interesting experience for us
all. For this one week we were the only inhabitants of Devon Island,
otherwise the largest uninhabited island on our planet. The FMARS was
both our home and our work place, our base and our lifeboat. The
exterior environment, while not as lethal as that on Mars, was in
many ways more hostile than that prevailing in the summer. The
outside temperature oscillated between -27C and -35C, and the Arctic
ozone hole was at a maximum as is the case at this time every year.
The stay gave us all a flavor of some of the great experiences to
come, when crews will be spending increasing amounts of time in
isolation in the FMARS, living and working as if they were on Mars.
Properly managing our power resources and supplies, and using
adequate clothing for all outdoor activities was critical to our
survival. Luckily, winds remained close to calm throughout our stay,
a true blessing given all the materials and equipment we had to move
from the runway (a snow strip) to the habitat 0.5 mile away.”
Describing the arrival of the crew at the station, Schubert writes;
“The landscape just fades into the sky here. Still the white hab
sticks out. We circle several times, then the pilot does a couple of
touch and go passes. I felt pretty safe. Temperature at Devon
International Airstrip is -50 with the wind chill. We land on skis
and unload the snowmobile. Then we head for the hab. The doors to
the hab are frozen shut. I bang on the door and a ton of snow falls
on my head. Inside the hab, temp is about -30. The condensation of my
breath makes it hard to see. Pascal, Greg and Joe arrive shortly
after we get the door open. The heaters are fighting a losing battle
downstairs, so we move all heat upstairs and decide to go for it and
stay the night. IT IS COLD.”
Photographs from the trip and the complete expedition journals of
both Schubert and Lee are posted on the Mars Society website at
www.marsociety.org.
GERMAN MARS SOCIETY PROPOSES MARS BALLOON MISSION
The Mars Society Germany (Mars Society Deutschland e. V.) has made a
sensational mission proposal to the German space agency DLR
(Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt e. V.): the Mars Society
Balloon Mission. The proposal was presented on February 14 and 15,
2001, at the Mars/BepiColombo Workshop at the DLR Center in Bonn.
During this mission, a so-called super-pressure balloon would float
for up to 100 days over the Martian surface and collect a vast
quantity of scientific data, as well as unprecedented landscape
photographs. Since Germany has never previously sent a probe to
another planet, this would be the first German interplanetary
mission.
The complete study is available at
http://www.marssociety.de/projekte/balloon.html.
For further information on the German Mars Society balloon mission
plan,
contact: Sven Knuth, Member of the Board, Mars Society Germany e. V.
http://www.marssociety.de
Email: Sven_Knuth@online.de
HAKYLUYT PRIZE CONTEST OPEN FOR 2001
Students; there is still time to enter the Hakluyt prize contest!
This year, as always, the Mars Society is conducting a contest for
the best student letter to world leaders advocating a humans to Mars
program. The letters should be no more than 500 words long, and will
be judged on the basis of both the quality of the letter and the
number of world leaders to whom it was sent. Students 22 years old
and younger are eligible. The winner will receive an all expenses
paid trip to the Mars Society Convention at Stanford, California, and
a fine Bushnell telescope. Winners in past years have included Adrian
Hon, 15, of Liverpool, England; Katie Harris, 17, of Georgetown,
Ontario; and Felix Dance, 16, of Brisbane, Australia.
Entries should be sent to Mars Society headquarters by no later than
May 31, 2001. Letters, including the list of leaders to whom they
were delivered, may be sent by email to info@marssociety.org or via
post to Hakluyt Prize, Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills, CO, 80454.
The Hakluyt prize is named after Richard Hakluyt, the tireless
pamphleteer whose writings convinced Queen Elizabeth I and the circle
around her to take the policy decisions that made possible the
British settlement of North America. If Mars is to be settled, future
Hakluyts will be needed. Perhaps one of them could be you.
For further information see our website at www.marssociety.org or
contact info@marssociety.org
