For as laborious as it may appear, our team has enjoyed nearly every minute of this completely normal office remodel. We don’t have to worry about maintaining a hermetic seal, or the structural integrity of a hull under pressure, or the circulation of air and CO2 monitoring—rather, were engaged in the rapid (by comparison) efforts to reinforce and level a new kitchen cabinet, hang two new doors, scrub bathroom tile, install a toilet, paint, and rewire a few outlets.
Today, Thursday, January 11 marks the fourth day that our team has returned to SAM since a few days before the Christmas holiday. We all needed the break after another three months of intense activity. Mason and Natasha have returned to Europe, with Bindhu and Sean in their home towns of Dallas and Chicago respectively, conducting research and working on SAM related projects from afar.
Matthias, Luna, and Kai engage daily with Atila balancing his graduate degree, thesis research, and time at SAM. We will all come together again in just twelve days for a week of intense, hands-on work at SAM. For the remainder of January our goals will be the continued renovation of the building we now claim as the SAM Operations Center, a return to the reduced gravity simulator, and the installation of the new array of hydroponics racks, shelving, nutrient tanks, runs, and computer control systems.
What’s more, we are preparing for the construction of a 3000 sq-ft Mars yard, co-designed and expertly crafted by a leading Hollywood set design company. Stay tuned for the official announcement and design details!
The SAM Operations Center is nearly fully transformed from a former storage facility for B2 house keeping to an elegant, modern facility with conference room, workshop, storage, library-den, full bath, kitchen, and a full-featured Mission Control Center complete with desks for four officers and heads-up displays for SAM monitoring and communications.
Our first team lead by Christopher Cokinos will be in SAM the second week of March. Our own SAM team members will be establishing baselines for CO2 production in preparation for a full suite of bioregenerative experiments October-December 2024.
2024 is the year we fully transition from construction to scientific studies, data collection, and building our legacy in human space exploration.
Stay tuned!