Space
Mission Sims: Remote site simulations have
been common in space programs since the beginning
of the space age when, for example, Apollo astronauts
practiced Moon rock hunting in western US desert
locations. Private space groups, especially the
Mars
Society, are following this practice with
the goal of developing technical, organizational,
and sociological tools that will be used in real
missions to space in the future.
This year the Mars Society is supporting a crew
of seven people in a four month stay, May through
August, at the Flashline
Mars Arctic Station (FMARS) in the Canadian
Arctic. This is the longest mission of the FMARS
program and is intended to "prepare for eventual
human missions to the Red Planet by conducting
scientific exploration under nearly all of the
constraints that astronauts on an actual Mars
mission will one day face" (Objectives
& Mission Overview). Here is the FMARS
Webcam page with live images of the crew.
Last year the Moon
Society turned the Mars
Desert Research Station in Utah into a temporary
Lunar Base. The Artemis
MoonBase Sim 1 expedition consisted of a nine
person crew that included engineers, a biologist,
a journalist, and a documentary maker. During
their stay, they carried out a number of tasks
such as following a space frontier diet, testing
light EVA suit designs, working on dust control,
and constructing a simulated "pressurized tunnel"
between the Hab main living quarters and the GreenHab,
which holds a greenhouse and wastewater system.
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