March 3, 2025
by Staff Sgt. Jaime Sanchez
Space Base Delta 1
SCHRIEVER SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. — In an ongoing NASA study set in the backdrop of Arizona, U.S. Space Force Spc. 4 William Wallace, 4th Space Operations Squadron payload engineer, was invited to further continue the science community’s understanding of extraterrestrial agriculture.
APUS ARG-1S Red Crew Keston Denhalter, Aedanaya Diamond, Gilbert Wilkerson, and Commander Laura Rieske egressed from the SAM research vessel today, February 18, at 10:03 am. They were met in the SAM Mars yard by the members of the Blue Crew and Mission Control.
In the debrief that followed at the SAM Operations Center, the mission was described as a complete success with all science objectives met, data collected on several vital systems (CO2, RH, potable water, hydroponics), and a successful Mode 3 run in which the vessel was fully sealed for four hours.
Photos and narrative coming soon!
SAM offers a unique, highly engaging experience for visiting crews as it likely the first time they have monitored carbon dioxide (CO2), relative humidity (RH), temperature (temp), VOCs, and pressure in a hermetically sealed vessel for the duration of an analog mission.
While prior discussions of air quality in SAM usually focus on CO2, the APUS ARG-1S crew was asked to also keep a close watch on relative humidity as they are the second crew to condense the moisture contained in the vessel’s body of air, filter it, and then add it back into their potable water supply.
There are a total of seven devices able to condense water vapor into liquid water within SAM: 2 mini-split heat pumps and 2 dehumidifiers in the Test Module; 1 mini-split and 1 dehumidifier in the Engineering Bay, and 1 mini-split in the Crew Quarters. As the TM currently contains two racks active in hydroponics to provide fresh vegetables for the crew, the mini-splits must remain set to Heat, even in this too-warm winter in order to maintain an approximation of the ideal growing temperatures. In heating mode, any condensation occurs on the condenser, outside of SAM.
The dehumidifiers can be set to presets of Continuous, 55%, or 45% with manual setting of a much wider range. They activate when they sense the relative humidity to be at or above the given threshold. The mini-splits condense water at the air handler inside the habitat, or can be set to Dehumidify in which they neither heat nor cool the habitat, but work instead to capture water from the air and drain it into a potable bucket, one below each wall-mounted unit.
As such, the crew may elect to set the mini-splits to Heat, Cool, or Dehumidify as they see fit in the Engineering Bay and Crew Quarters, manually changing the settings throughout the day and night. The crew has access to a local, real-time display of the SIMOC Live data via the dedicated terminal in the EB, or on any of their laptops.
At the SAM Operations Center and Mission Control, which for this mission was occupied by two dedicated officers and the rotating crew before and after the crew switch on day 5 (through the airlock), the same data is also available, delayed by 20 minutes to simulate the light-travel time from Mars to Earth.
One of the functions of Mission Control is to monitor the air quality, at all times, and to guide the crew as to how to manage the components. So, when a regular oscillation of humidity followed a certain spike, as registered in both the EB and CQ, it invoked a discussion at Mission Control and dialog (delayed by 40 minutes round-trip) with the crew.
Is this a false reading? And if not,
What is causing the spike in humidity?
What is bringing it back down again?
Is this a false reading? Given the data visualization on the SIMOC Live dashboard, there was some concern for the spikes and valleys. However, as RH and temperature are included with both the SDC CO2 and BME pressure sensors, there are two RH and temp sensors on-board each SIMOC Live board, and one board in each of the four modules. This is important when analyzing any of the data streams, for it helps to immediately determine if a short-term fluctuation is in fact a representation of the real world, or an anomaly in that particular sensor and data stream. It was confirmed that this is a real reading as a total of four sensors (2 in EB, 2 in CQ) were matched in the pattern.
What is causing the spike in humidity? The first guess was boiling water for coffee or tea, cooking, or exercise. But intuitively the spike was too large, registering in both the EB and CQ. In fact, it appeared that the humidity was propagating upstream, meaning against the flow of air from the Air Intake Room (SAM AIR) to the TM, EB, and CQ. As such, this had to be a good bit of moisture released all at once.
If not cooking or human respiration, then what? We then asked the crew if they had switched the mini-split units from Dehumidify to Heat, as this would disable the function of condensing moisture and quite possibly dump moisture into the air. The theory (proposed by Kai) was that the heat exchangers have a large copper surface area by which a relatively large volume of air can interact, thereby heating, cooling, and/or removing moisture. If that surface area is wet with condensate, and the mode is switched to Heat, the coils will rapidly move from cold to hot and immediately eject the water molecules back into the air as soon as the fans spin up.
We inquired if in fact the crew has made this switch, and yes, they confirmed this to be true.
What is bringing it back down again? The oscillation then is the dehumidifier in the same module working to reduce the humidity, turning off when it reaches its desired low threshold, then kicking in again as the humidity rises.
Case solved!
Narrative coming soon …
Narrative coming soon …
Narrative coming soon …
Kristen Miller and Terry Trevino of the American Public University have brought to SAM a ten days mission, with two crews of four sealed inside of SAM for five days each. This unique project will feature a mid-mission crew shift-change via the SAM Airlock, such that one half of the crew will join the dedicated CapCom team at the SAM Operations Center. Both crews will perform a wide variety of research projects including algae studies, EVA research, communications, crew nutrition, microbial spread, and water electrolysis. The mission will be facilitated by an on-site Mission Support team, the first to work from the SAM Operations Center and Mission Control.
Narrative coming soon …
The Analog Astronaut Conference will once again be held at the renowned Biosphere 2, for the fourth year in a row! This year’s theme, “Creating Community on Earth and Beyond”
May 1-4, Biosphere 2, Arizona USA
Get your tickets | Submit an abstract | Propose a workshop | Learn more …
Atila Meszaros
We welcome the return of Atila Meszaros from his home country of Peru. Atila is graduate student at the University of Arizona, working principally under SAM Director of Research Kai Staats. Atila completed his first year and a half of classes from the fall of 2022 through the close of 2023, and is now set to engage in 18 months of research at SAM. His research is at the core of why SAM was designed and built—to establish baselines for human and plant studies in bioregeneration. Atila and Luna will be the principal directors of Phase II of our three phase study, with plant CO2 sequestration research starting in March and continuing through 2025.
SAM Surgical Bay Workshop
Bindhu and Kai lead the Surgical Bay workshop at B2 January 17-19. They welcomed five practicing surgeons to Biosphere 2 Friday afternoon, spent all of Saturday at SAM and in the B2 board room designing a medical bay capable of a dynamic array of surgical procedures, all conducted far, far from home. It was a unique event, with all home cooked food and catered meal (one of the attendees claimed Kai’s omelette was the best he had ever consumed!). There was no use of computers or slide presentations with a half day of hands-on design, discussion, and even an engineering challenge with wooden sticks, string, superglue and a few substantial rocks. It was casual, creative, stimulating, and engaging. Bindhu is now following up with the attendees, merging feedback to expand the draft paper written by Kai and Bindhu, while other team members explore state of the art in NAVY submarines and remote terrestrial habitats.
A study of the microbiome
Carter Hollings, University of Arizona undergrad in Biology has completed his first survey of the microbiome at SAM, having outlined several small squares (approximately 20cm x 20cm each) where he sterilized the surface and then a week later compared the swabs and samples. With the incoming APUS crew, our forth at SAM, Carter will again survey this built environment before and immediately following the 10 days mission. We are excited to learn from his first run as we are working in and around SAM, and then following the sealed mission.
New construction!
Daniel and his comedic crew of concrete workers returned to SAM for the third time to pour three slabs (now two weeks ago): new CO2 scrubber room, new IT room, and a new floor in SAM AIR. This was a major accomplishment, giving us foundation (pun intended) for a whole new set of high quality facilities at SAM.
Home Depot away from Home
Kai now officially lives at Home Depot with a record-setting 11.5 hr shopping spree on Thursday, January 23, with three visits to the north Oro Valley store. Kai retrieved the gravity-offset rig from the UA welding shop, which was this evening reassembled, adjusted, and is now fully operational. It is lighter, more stiff, quicker to respond, and far smoother in operation than the original wood and steel prototype.
Hydroponics
Luna worked with Jason, expert in everything plant-based at Biosphere 2, to transplant seedlings for the next hydroponics run in the TM during the APUS mission, February 9-18. While not a science run, this collection of greens (some from B2, some from Home Depot) will provide our visiting crew with a backdrop of edible plants to liven up their stay in SAM.
New IT room
Kai, Matthias, Griffin, and Luna framed in the two side walls and roof structure for the new IT room, located inside the historic 6400 sq-ft greenhouse structure that was originally part of the Biosphere 2 visitor experience. This room-inside-a-room will give us a clean, air conditioned space for the WiFi router, SIMOC Live, and SAM crew email server (with light-travel time delay), as well as data collection for the TM and any other systems we prefer to have at the bottom end of the radio link to Ops. In addition, Matthias and Griffin ran three new circuits to the location of the new IT room: air conditioning, critical computers, and accessories. Eager to install the buckets for lights, sockets, and switches.
A return to the lung
The SAM Lung is the prototype variable volume pressure regulation module that maintained pressure in the Test Module for more than three years of solo experiments while the Biospherians designed and built the Biosphere 2. This was the first structure that Kai and Trent set to renovate in 2021, and remains the last structure to be completed. It’s mostly below ground, difficult to enter, and hard to work on. After several more weeks effort, we are nearly done with one more coat of primer and then two coats enamel paint. Just last week Matthias and Bindhu pressure washed top of the metal pan and it looks much, much better! Ready to be primed .. but then it snowed and it’s too cold.
He’s back!
Master fabricator Nathan returned to SAM three weeks ago and as expected dove directly into a major effort to seal SAM. The number of leaks he has discovered in the 40′ is beyond what we expected, from tiny pin holes to major tears. In our last pressure test it was determined that the A/C unit continued to leak even after a massive amount of silicon was injected. So, we unmounted the head unit and rerouted the coolant and power lines through new hole in the side of the shipping container, allowing us direct access to the port such that we can test for and repair leaks more easily. The bathroom window has been completely removed and replaced with an all new polycarbonate construction. Nathan and Kai applied employed a version of the original Biospherian technique to seal the TM windows, resulting in what we believe will be a perfectly airtight seal. The TM/40 and 40/airlock bridges are fully rebuilt, and a dozen more leaks too. Fingers crossed for the next pressure test!
Patents in motion
While Cameron Smith, Kai Nevers, Trent Tresch, and Ivy Wahome designed and built a prototype tent for backpacking on Mars, Kai Staats outlined a half dozen new ideas for patents around an inflatable habitat for terrestrial exploration, on foot. Given Kai’s sketches and rough draft, Trent is now working to complete the submission of the IP to UA Tech Launch Arizona, with hope that one or more patents will come to fruition.
Trent Goes to NASA!
Our very own Trent Tresch was accepted by NASA to be a part of an 11 day stay in a reduced pressure analog at NASA Johnson Space Center. He will be living and working in a 9 psi (similar to 10,000 feet elevation) environment with increased O2 while conducting various activities and exercises to test for VO2 Max and cognitive abilities.
Well, that’s all we have for the first three weeks of January 🙂
Four years ago today Kai and Trent moved to the Biosphere 2 to undertake what they thought would be a six month renovation of the 1987 Test Module. Four years later, construction of the ever expanding facility continues with completion of the stunning Mars yard in April 2024, completion of a third generation hydroponics facility in September 2024, and now a new IT room at the SAM workshop, and the foundation poured for a new CO2 scrubber research facility as of Thursday, January 16, 2025.
It just keeps getting better!