October 2004
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General Meeting - October, 2004
Our guest speaker James Russell, a Ph.D.. candidate in aerospace engineering at CU presented his Mars Society paper on the MDRS as a space exploration analog, looking at various of the internal and external factors that an analog has to reproduce in order to be a more or less realistic facsimile of an other-planet exploration mission. In particular, with regards to a Mars mission requiring a crew of six, two and a half year duration, distance and isolation from Earth, including 180 days in microgravity, an analog test bed is crucial to try to anticipate difficulties and their solutions before the actual expedition occurs. He made comparisons and listed strengths and weaknesses of a number of analog test beds including MDRS, polar, underwater, lunar and LEO, closed-system simulators and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each in terms of their abilities to accurately simulate a mission environment. Each had their merits and flaws with all the terrestrial bases having the distinct inability to simulate microgravity, yet with ISS not being able at this point to provide an adequate substitute.
He also looked at the time-studies of how astronauts spend their time doing which duties while in space and how MDRS compared to those time breakouts with a clear discrepancy showing re: the amount of time spent on doing maintainance/support (hab and life) taking up far more mission time in space leaving less time for exploration and science work as compared to the MDRS schedules. MDRS could certainly be arranged to increase those internal maintenance times as well as an enforced isolation of predictable time periods on a consistent basis (he suggested ten days) so as to create a data base of comparable numbers and variables which are currently sorely lacking in the field and the literature.
In his analysis of MDRS crew switches he suggested that we develop manuals and skill sets for experiments to be transferred for long-term and ongoing studies that exceed the normal crew rotations of two weeks including the possibility of greater automation and computer-monitored controls and used the Green Hab as a good model for developing that kind of system. He will post his study and results later on the web when he has polished and will submit it to the RMMS website when available. The business meeting include the fact that we have to nominate some new Board members and officers (due to the term-limited chair expiring) for the upcoming chapter cycle and there was a noticeable lack of time and availability for the current members to be able to take the roles, especially the president and vice presidency seats. Some discussion was had that we may have to disband the chapter if those roles are not filled and at the same time a strong desire was expressed by all to continue the meetings for our own interests, passions and the ability to meet with like-minded people for ongoing discussion and learning. It was decided that we could continue in that capacity regardless of how the nominations turn out and it was also decided to put out a request (plea) to the mailing list for any interested persons to step up for the available positions. We also discussed the possibility of changing our meeting times to accommodate more people but did not have a consensus on what time might be best. The results will be determined at the next chapter meeting at the same place on 11-15-04.
