What I Learned Today

I have spent the past couple of days at the Mars Desert Research Station outside of Hanskville, UT, engaged in a simulated human mission to Mars. The pace has been hectic as we’ve worked to learn how the two-story Hab we live in operates, maintain all of its systems, keep ourselves alive on a limited selection of food, and also plan and execute our science goals. I’m learning new things every hour on the hour, and for the duration of the mission I’ll be posting to our crew blog rather than here. So feel free to follow us there — and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous photos we’re posting!

Our MDRS mission begins three weeks from now. Today as part of my preparations, I watched some training videos. These videos are part of the Mars Society’s efforts to improve the education and training of crews both to help the missions run more smoothly and to avoid damage to the equipment. They’ve created a YouTube channel where these and future videos will be available.

The first video describes how the GreenHab (water filtration system) works. Graywater from the shower and sink goes into a series of strainers, and is then piped into a bacteria-filled tank that helps break down phosphates and other bits left over. From there it goes into a series of three aquatic tanks, with floating plants growing in them, and ultimately the water goes into a reservoir that is used for toilet flushing.

The second video introduces us to the generators (two diesel, one gas) that provide power to the Hab. The video demonstrates the generator start-up process. It doesn’t actually explain why one would need to start the generator (is this a daily occurrence? do we shut them down at night?), but at least now I know where the switches are.

There’s also a lot of great information available at hablife.org. As usual, I want to be as educated as possible about what I’m getting into!