I am proud to state that my Masters student Atila Meszaros successfully defended his thesis last week, and today submitted the final written document. This marks three and a half years since he first approach Dr. Gene Giacomelli for a graduate degree program, and five years since Atila first volunteered at SAM, at the encouragement of Dr. Shannon Rupert, then director of the Mars Desert Research Station where Atila had served as a site manager. Atila moved to Biosphere 2 nearly a year and a half ago, living, working, studying on-site as an integral part of the SAM team.
His thesis “MULTI-PHASE STUDY OF SUPER-DWARF PEA FOR BIOREGENERATIVE LIFE SUPPORT AT THE SPACE ANALOG FOR THE MOON AND MARS” was the definitive project for which SAM was designed and built–to demonstrate a bioregenerative system in the context of a sealed, human-in-the-loop mission. Following six studies in various food cultivars, with a regimen of computer controlled CO2 injection, Atila and his counterpart Luna Powell, Co-Director at SAM, configured a complex series of experiments in Vapor Pressure Deficit–an important function for plant respiration which, as we determined, can significantly affect plant growth and fruit production.
My most proud moment was when Atila and Luna approached me last summer, while I was overseas, with news that one, then two of the runs, each a full six weeks in effort, were fraught with challenges that made it difficult, perhaps impossible to produce the quality data we needed.
We explored options to compensate for the failed air conditioning, and for a CO2 regulator that was overwhelmed by an inlet set too high. But we could not make the math work. Without hesitation, without complaint they willingly threw out a combined twelve weeks (two months on the calendar with overlapping segments), adjusted the calendar, and started over.
That’s science. That’s how it gets done. It’s incredibly hard to do science right, and there is almost never a perfect run. In those two failed experiments I recognize valor and commitment to quality. Thank you Atila, Luna, and Matthias for a job well done.
And thank you Dr. Joel Cuello, Dr. Triston Hooks, Dr. Raymond Wheeler, and Dr. Lucie Poulet, John Adams, Jason Deleeuw, and Matthew Rusek-Peterson for your support, guidance, and commitment to this multi-stage, multi-year endeavor.
