Monthly Archives: November 2022

The third pressure door

Nathan Schmit, Kai Staats salvaging an original pressure door from Biosphere 2 for SAM.

The south end of the 40′ shipping container, soon to be completed as the crew quarters at SAM, will include an emergency exit for visiting crew. We are proud to have been gifted yet another pressure door assembly from the original Biosphere 2. Kai and SAM team member Nathan cut and with the help of Tim move the mass from the ‘technosphere’ to SAM. Nathan spent the better part of a day preparing the door frame for welding. On Tuesday, December 13 it will be attached to the new steel stud wall, and soon thereafter put into function for the first time in some twenty years.

Nathan Schmit, Kai Staats salvaging an original pressure door from Biosphere 2 for SAM. Nathan Schmit, Kai Staats salvaging an original pressure door from Biosphere 2 for SAM.

By |2022-12-19T07:04:43+00:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: Construction|0 Comments

Patch, rattle, and roll

Nathan Schmit replacing more than 170 rivets in the future crew quarters of SAM at Biosphere 2

Patching the 40 foot shipping container has proved to be significant challenge, setting us back two weeks from our intended schedule. Yet, each day we make progress toward a functional pressure vessel, each test demonstrating that our efforts are worth while—the audible space grows more quiet and the rise in pressure more rapid.

In parallel Luna and Kai applied paint to the workshop floor, bridges, and exterior roof of the airlock while Ezio (visiting from Italy) and Grant (visiting from Vietnam) worked on SIMOC Live, a new version of the Mars habitat simulator that will function as the live data capture system for SAM, collecting data in real-time from dozens of in-hab sensors.

By |2022-12-23T04:38:28+00:00November 23rd, 2022|Categories: Construction|0 Comments

Uplift Aerospace, AstroAccess at CHaSE

Uplift Aerospace, Astro Access complete first class at the Center for Human Space Exploration (CHaSE) at Biosphere 2

Uplift Aerospace’s Space+5 team has completed the inaugural spaceflight training program at the Center for Human Space Exploration (CHaSE), University of Arizona Biosphere 2 alongside three ambassadors from AstroAccess, and the humanoid robot Bina48 from Terasem Movement Foundation. The mission for this historic training program is to increase access, diversity, and inclusion in human space exploration.

The Space+5 is a five person spaceflight training class within Uplift Aerospace’s new community-led space program that embraces blockchain technology as a means to advance access to space with activations and research focused on key mission pillars: Art, Science, and Philanthropy. The Space+5 class is composed of Ruben Salinas who has been contracted by Uplift Aerospace for an upcoming suborbital space flight, Sydney Hamilton, Mike Mongo, Trent Tresch, and Joan Melendez-Misner.

The November 17-20 curriculum and training at Biosphere 2 and the University of Arizona recreation center was in collaboration with AstroAccess to develop ongoing programs and resources for future astronauts with disabilities. The training program was taught by Space+5 astronaut candidate and CHaSE founding Director Trent Tresch, Space+5 astronaut ambassador and mentor, Dr. Sian Proctor, executive director of the University of Arizona’s APEX aerospace medicine fellowship Dr. Mira Milas, with assistance and support by CHaSE co-founder Kai Staats, UA PhD student Atila Meszaros, and Paragon SDC aerospace engineer Baily Burns, and Mason Robbins of the Saxavord Space Port, Scotland.

The AstroAccess ambassadors are Sheila Xu, Eric Shear, and Mary Kate Cooper. Sheila Xu is currently pursuing dual MPP and MBA degrees at Harvard University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the first Deaf Asian female pilot and has interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Eric Shear is a graduate student at the University of Florida, where he is studying chemical engineering with the goal of working in the space industry on life support and in-situ resource utilization. Eric flew as part of the Deaf Crew on MAA1. Mary Cooper is a student pursuing a Masters of Science in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering at Stanford University, where she recently graduated with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering & Computer Science. Mary is a champion athlete and a below-the-knee amputee. Mary worked at SpaceX on the spaceflight training team to help prepare Polaris Dawn, NASA Crew-5 and Crew-6 for spaceflight.

The spaceflight training program included participation by humanoid robot Bina48 who was present for rount-table conversations and was represented in an emergency water egress training session at the UA pool.

By |2022-11-24T16:52:54+00:00November 22nd, 2022|Categories: In the news|0 Comments

Patch, seal, and test

Pressure tests during SAM construction, Oct 20 - Nov 11 2022

This week we welcome volunteer Bindhu Oommen, a general surgeon from Dallas, Texas. Bindhu learned of SAM during the 2022 Analog Astronaut Conference and will be returning one week each month for the foreseeable future. We appreciate her attention to detail, surgical precision (sorry, it has to be said), and willingness to travel a great distance to assist our team. While she is gaining skills in fabrication, our team is entertaining conversations about the challenges of space medicine.

As noted in a prior post, we discovered that the silicone rubber patches applied to the lung in 2021 had failed. On Wednesday we carefully measured and cut the recently obtained EPDM rubber and on Thursday John Z., Bindhu, and Kai applied the rubber patches to the lung using the same procedure as that used to repair inflatable river rafts (rubber obtained from Discount Rubber Direct and glue from NRS).

On October 20 and 21, October 25 and (after applying the new patches) on November 11 (this essay) we conducted pressure tests of the expanded vessel at SAM. These tests are a means to locate leaks, fix those we can immediate address, and improve our methods for the continued sealing of the SAM habitat analog.

It is important to note that the various dips (graph a top) are the opening and closing of valves or temporarily patching holes during the test (Mark Watney—PVC tape is far more effective than duct tape). Ultimately, we are shooting for a smooth, steep rise from the start of the blower (~4.5 minutes on graph) to the maximum pressure when the lung is free from the ground (~10 minutes). The total duration of the test is not indicative of the leaks, rather when we terminated the blower, opened valves and/or doors, and allowed the lung pan to settle again to the floor.

Kai applies incense smoke as a means to visually detect leaks in SAM, Biosphere 2 Once again, we engaged simple auditory inspection to detect the leaks, and the application of incense smoke to visually see leaks we could not hear or to confirm the exact location of those we could hear. Ezio returned as our super sleuth outside of the SAM pressure vessel and to operate the blower. He located an additional three leaks, two by listening and one by smell, which was unexpected by highly fortunate.

By |2022-11-15T00:55:45+00:00November 11th, 2022|Categories: Construction|0 Comments

Fabrication in the dessert

Kai measuring the proportional sharing of a cinnamon roll at SAM, Biosphere 2 Kai cutting a cinnamon roll at SAM, Biosphere 2

Project management is a complex endeavor. Finding the right balance of give and take, guidance and learning is imperative for the long-term health and success of a team as diligently involved as that which is constructing SAM.

When Luna ventured to the cafe in Oracle before departing for an early weekend, John, Bindhu, and Kai found themselves in the challenging situation of having an extra pastry. This is one of those moments in which a team could be catapulted into the kind of grievance and mistrust from which it may never recover, or move through the situation with grace, stronger than ever.

We approached this with the same engineering precision applied to the fabrication of SAM, and the outcome was completely satisfactory.

By |2022-11-12T18:04:31+00:00November 10th, 2022|Categories: Construction|0 Comments

One hundred small steps

Cleaning the unthinkable! SAM at Biosphere 2

This past week has seen tearing things apart more than putting them together, which feels like progress lost even when we know it is the best way forward. In order to weld the perimeter of the end of the 20′ container we had to remove the west-end insulation panels installed this summer—two days of effort undone in a few hours. We learned how well the construction adhesive adhered and the properties of expansion foam in small and large spaces. What’s more, we cut channels in the side walls in order to visually see (and later test) the quality of the weld by exposing the seam on the inside for our auditory and visual inspection during consecutive pressure tests.

Between the Tuesday, November 1 and Friday when UA welders Charlie and Chad were onsite, we filled our days with myriad small projects, the kind otherwise left for when major efforts are complete. It was hard to focus, at first, but in looking back it feels good to have checked-off so many tasks.

  • Cleaned the conduit from the TM to the site of the original, external data terminal.
  • Removed the 2021 lung patches with heat gun and careful application of pressure.
  • Installed the insulating ceiling panels to the SAM Air Intake Room (AIR).
  • Chipped the entrance to the TM-to-lung tunnel in prep for primer.
  • Removed the TM outer (non-sealed) door and hinges; sanded, primed.
  • Scraped, sanded, and primed the final, inner segments of the lung pan.

In a project such as this, there are moments no one will forget. One such moment was when we decided to reverse the flow of air in the shop-vac and blow any debris out of the two PVC conduits we retained that once carried power and data from the TM to the computer terminal and data analysis terminal. We were horrified and at the same time overtaken by laughter when not only did a cloud of dirt, seeds, droppings, sticks and twigs fly into the air, but a mummified rat too!

We realized then we had to clean these pipes well beyond simply blowing air. We repeatedly filled them with water and bleach and using the vacuum in reverse, created a water fountain until it ran clean (banner at top). The words “Disgusting!” and “Oh no! That is really gross” were heard over and over followed by “Let’s do it again!”

By |2022-11-12T17:46:20+00:00November 4th, 2022|Categories: Construction|0 Comments
Go to Top