Postcards from Mars

SAM team member Matthias beach has been sealed inside of the SAM vessel for one week. His days are filled with a variety of tasks: eating, exercising, writing in a journal, completing surveys for one or more World Biggest Analog projects, recording video logs, monitoring 144 dwarf pea plants growing in four hydroponics racks, and overall maintenance of this SAM facility.

What makes otherwise mundane tasks unique is the attention to detail. Breakfast is not just warming up water for a bowl of oatmeal, but recording the mass of every bit to be consumed (water, oats, powdered milk, bagel, cheese, etc.). This is a time consuming process that is fundamental to the research endeavor.

Matthias’ carbon dioxide generation, a natural part of human metabolism, is directly affected by a variety of factors such as the amount of sugars and carbohydrates in the foods consumed, hydration, exercise, and sleep. Where Matthias is spending his time increases CO2 levels in that module (Lung, Test Module, Engineering Bay, Crew Quarters) until the higher concentration diffuses toward an equilibrium. His very movement around SAM changes the distribution of CO2 as his body acts as a circulation engine. We can see this when monitoring the four SIMOC Live sensor arrays, one for each module.

Today, at the close of week one, Matthias begins to harvest the 144 pea plants. His first priority is to deliver 48 plants, through the airlock, to Luna and Atila who will process the plants outside of SAM. In concert with Dr. Lucie Poulet and her student Louise, Researchers in Bioastronautics & Life-Support Processes at University Clermont Auvergne, France, the plants are being recorded for their height, wet and dry biomass including the fruit bodies (pea pods) separately, and leaf surface area (as determined with a flatbed scanner). Matthias’ next task is to process the remaining 96 plants inside of SAM, recording height and again, the wet biomass for the plant including the pea pods separately. Later, the plants are dried in the Biosphere 2 bio lab to capture the dry biomass. This requires two full days for one person, and was completed Tuesday evening.

The moment the first pea plant was harvested data collection for CO2 sequestration was terminated as the number of active plants is reduced. With the harvesting of the first 48 plants and air lock transfer, Matthias activated the blower and opened all valves to reset SAM to a nominal 450-500 ppm CO2. This gives us a nearly equal baseline from which the CO2 levels will again rise for the second half of the experiment.

And when the final plant was harvested, the blower was turned off and all valves were closed. In the second half of the experiment Matthias will continue with his measured food consumption, exercise, and sleep schedule such that his activities and associated CO2 generation will be nearly identical, day for day, to the first week in SAM.

As such, we will have, for comparison to our predictions, one week with pea plants and one week without. Without giving away the core of our publication, we are seeing a very strong correlation to the presence of the peas, somewhere between 35-50% reduction in CO2 from our predictions. This estimation is wide, at this point, as we have run quick calculations based on just one of the four sensor arrays, and not yet taken into account the four very different volumes of air in which each sensor sits.

As stated in prior entries related to this project, the end goal is to understand a) the amount of CO2 produced by one human crew member over an entire day, and b) the amount of CO2 processed by one dwarf pea plant, or the CO2 sequestration by one square meter such that we can ultimately inform future space fairing entities the number of food cultivars required to offset the CO2 produced by a crew.

SAM team members Matthew Rusek-Peterson, Luna Powell, Matthias Beach, Linda Leigh, Atila Meszaros, Griffin Hentzen, and Kai Staats.

The SAM team arrived on-site at 6 am, Luna Powel, Atila Meszaros, Griffin Hentzen, and Matthias Beach immediately diving into a list of TODOs before the solo, sealed mission began. Kai Staats joined them to replace the pump on the water manifold and configure the SIMOC Live and Vernier sensor arrays. While SAM has since April 2023 seen five crewed teams and 31 individuals for more than 126 total person days, or 3038 total crew member hours—there is always something more to prepare for the next human-in-the-loop experiment.

SAM is an active research center, ever growing in its capacity to support a diversity of experiments. With a series of foundational bioregeneration experiments completed this spring and summer, this solo crew member, two weeks stay is the culmination of more than seven years research, development, fund raising, and construction.

Master of Science candidate at the University of Arizona Atila Meszaros’ thesis experiment is the demonstration of the capacity for the sequestration of carbon dioxide and production of oxygen by a single food cultivar, in this case, a dwarf variety of pea developed by Dr. Bruce Bugbee at Utah State University.

SAM has from the start been guided by the original experiments conducted by the “Biospherians” from 1986-1990, while they were designing and then constructing the Biosphere 2. While several of those individuals did stay inside the Test Module, the prototype for the Biosphere 2 that now serves as the controlled environment (greenhouse) for SAM, Linda Leigh remained inside for three weeks without outside air, food, or water.

At 10:57 am Matthias Beach hefted his personal duffel bag, shook hands with Director of Research Kai Staats, and was ushered into SAM through the airlock by Linda Leigh (photos at bottom), continuing her tradition of seeing all of SAM crews into and out of SAM. Matthias’ stay will be the longest mission in SAM to date, and the first long-duration in which the pressure vessel will operate in Mode 0, unpressurized and sealed. In this manner we minimize the leak rate by essentially negating the pressure differential from inside to outside, with all valves closed and blower off. With four internal air handlers the temperature remains relatively constant, thereby reducing the expansion and contraction of the internal air from day to night.

As noted in the previous post there are 144 pea plants growing in hydroponics. At the close of six weeks (from seed) they are at a peak maturity, meaning they will, in theory, provide the maximal uptake of carbon dioxide and production of oxygen. However, our math models suggest that these 144 plants will provide between two-thirds and three-fourths the CO2 sequestration required. This is by design, for we prefer to see Matthias’ CO2 production be reduced by an observable amount rather than brought to zero, where we would not know precisely the number of plants that did in fact offset his CO2 production.

In this manner we can take his personal CO2 production baseline over 58 hours (conducted earlier this year), establish an hourly rate, multiply by 7 days [14 days x 24 hrs x ppm per hour], and quickly gain a ballpark approximation for his peak level. We then monitor the real CO2 over this seven day period and compare: subtract the actual CO2 level after one week from the estimated peak, divide by square meters of plants or by the number of peas plants, and we have a rough estimate for CO2 sequestration by dwarf peas.

Finally, to validate this model we go one step further. On day 8 Matthias will harvest all of the peas, conduct a series of measurements (size, shape, mass) to assist in Atila’s research, retain some of the peas for his consumption, and then pass all remaining biomass through the airlock for external processing by Atila and Luna. As such, his second week will see Matthias without external air injection or CO2 sequestration of any kind. As we already know his baseline, we have estimated the ceiling and know that he will be within a safe level.

This final week gives us a comparison of our model vs reality, and a solid understanding of SAM itself in the context of plant growth with computer controlled CO2 injection, human CO2 generation, and then sans any scrubbing at all. This three prong approach provides a vital understanding as we look to a future in which we are living off of this planet and among the stars. And as with Biosphere 2, it also gives us a deeper appreciation for how our animal functions do interact with the plants of Earth each and every day.

Enjoy a few historic photos of the B2 Test Module, and Linda Leigh’s 1990 three weeks stay inside, followed by the informal gathering to send Matthias into his sealed mission.

Tomorrow morning, Monday, October 13, we will embark on a mission like none other at SAM–we will engage in the mission we envisioned nearly five years ago when Trent and I first put orbital sander to rusted metal.

At 10:00 am SAM team member Matthias Beach will enter the Space Analog for the Moon & Mars for a duration of two weeks. In a process referred to as “bioregeneration” the carbon dioxide he produces will be converted to oxygen by 144 pea plants grown in four hydroponics racks of our own design and fabrication.

This simple yet effective demonstration lays the foundation for long-duration human space exploration, a means to revitalize air in other-world habitats while producing nutritious foods. Over the past two years we have demonstrated our ability to grow herbs, tomatoes, wheat, quinoa and peas with computer controlled CO2 injection, nutrient monitoring, and a scalable sensor array for data acquisition.

With SIMOC we monitor temperature, humidity, pressure, CO2, and VOCs using low-cost, commodity sensors and home-grown software. And as a participating member of the World’s Biggest Analog we delivered sensors to eight habitats on four continents, establishing a global data collection system for real-time air quality monitoring by the Austrian Space Forum, Vienna, October 13-27.

In just a few hours Matthias enters SAM to do something simple–breathe. But to get there required five years effort by some forty volunteers and staff, through incredibly challenging and equally rewarding days. As Matthias closes the hatch my team will celebrate our accomplishment while we embrace a passion for science and a desire for a world better than what we have today.

We are five years in, yet tomorrow is just the beginning! —Kai Staats, MSc, Director of Research for SAM at Biosphere 2, University of Arizona

Born of the Analog Astronaut Community, the World’s Biggest Analog (WBA) is a volunteer-based, two weeks mission in which 16 Moon and Mars habitats across 5 continents will attempt the largest synchronized analog mission ever attempted. Three years in the making, the WBA is supporting and raising awareness for new and existing analogs globally, and creating a global education program that aims to target underserved communities. Hosted by the Austrian Space Forum, the WBA brings together 200 scientists from 25 countries for this unique opportunity.

SAM Director of Research Kai Staats brought SIMOC Live to the WBA as one of the proposed science projects. SIMOC Live is a real-time air quality monitoring extension to SIMOC, an agent-based model and Mars habitat simulation with educational web interface. Once accepted in 2024, the all-volunteer SIMOC team composed of Ezio Melotti, Franco Carbognani, and Shantanu Parmar worked to prepare a fully revised Raspberry Pi image and semi-automated configuration that enables each sensor array, no matter its location on Earth, to direct its data stream to a central repository on server. The Mission Control Center hosted by the Austrian Space Forum is then able to monitor the air quality for all of the habitats on a single computer monitor.

As such, one or more SIMOC Live sensor arrays was shipped to eight habitats on four continents such that a live data broadcast will provide a single-monitor in the Austrian Space Forum’s mission control the ability to monitor the air quality across all represented habitats, in real-time. Learn more …

Crew: Matthias Beach, Jim Colletto, Andy Greco, Aubry Poilane, Ciaran Trevino, Terry Trevino, and Rhett Woods.

Devon Island is a place that has inspired hundreds to visit and study its unique environment, resembling something out of a sci-fi movie and, more importantly, Mars. On this island sits the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, perched on the rim of Haughton Crater, an ancient impact site from some 30+ million years ago.

I have recently returned from there, having been chosen as part of The Mars Society’s Advance 1 (‘A-Team’). Our mission: to get to the facility, secure the perimeter, open it up, do any maintenance and upgrades we could accomplish in seven days (which got condensed to five due to weather), prepare it for the following two teams (Crews 17 and 18), and exit stage-left upon Crew 17’s arrival. We were positioned to set them up for the best possible scenario: maximizing [their] research. This approach seemed to work really well, despite the hiccups in getting to the island from Iqaluit.

We were able to get a record amount of work done, including [installation of] a new ventilation system, hot-water heater, baseboard heaters, trash bagged and hauled out, and de-winterizing ATVs. As XO and electrician, I was tasked upon arrival to establish power to the facility, catapulting me into becoming very intimate with [the] generators and power cabling system very quickly! Both generators (‘Gen-A’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’) fired up, thankfully, eager to work again after their long slumber. The rush of excitement radiated through my veins, knowing full well that we were critically reliant on this working!

Three of us ventured down to collect water from a crystal-blue stream of ice melt about half a click from the Hab, filling our jugs before heading back. While the others worked on installing a new header tank and water heater, I got familiar with the place by locating tools, going through bins and cabinets, and mapping out cable runs for the three baseboard heaters I was tasked to install. After a couple of days and a few helping hands, all heaters were wired and mounted on the walls with thermostats to each heater. I was also privileged to assist fellow ham operator Jim Coletto in setting up the ham radio station, requiring me to climb the tower and string antenna cable from the top of the Hab down to another tower a few dozen feet away. Amazingly, he was able to reach over 320 contacts in at least a half dozen countries—truly astounding!

On the final day, I stood at the edge of the crater minutes before our ride came, marveling at its vastness and how sad I was to leave. I was just getting used to this fast-paced environment, my amazing crewmates and the 24 hour sun. None of us ventured into the crater on this trip, but next year I’ll be sure to make that happen. I believe that in order to thrive off-world we will need more of these types of remote stations to research and study ways of doing so, for the sake of expanding humanity into the cosmos.

Now back to SAM!