Construction

Following the test trolley runs, the Reduced Gravity Simulator was disassembled and taken down for a final coat of paint. Each component was labelled, cleaned, and painted. With the cooler temperatures the paint needed two full days to dry. Matthias, Luna, and Kai developed a system to lift the massive armatures to their higher, final position.

Following a full day of removing the basalt (simulated Mars regolith) by Matthias and Luna, each took turns tossing a pull line over the Mars yard roof support structure (we won’t mention the number of tosses required), then pulling a 600lbs nylon line over. With two pulleys for a 2:1 block and tackle lift, Kai used his climbing harness and belay device to hold the armatures steady between lifts by Matthias and Luna.

Once at the height of the small angle iron shelf already secured to the building support beams, the top and bottom U bolts were fastened. As with the first, lower position, aligning the ends of the armatures was relatively simple. Using the nuts on the U bolts themselves, the armatures were moved with a high degree of accuracy, to within 1/8th of an inch tip to tip.

The four sections of track were replaced, the machine screw holes aligning perfectly.

In this new, higher position, the original test trolley is a bit awkward to sit upon, but remains functional as an overhead system. The first gravity-offload will be built and tested soon.

In October of 2023 the SAM team conducted an extensive, module-by-module test of the pressurized SAM to determine where the primary leaks were occurring. This process has been implemented several times, primarily after each major renovation or expansion of the facility.

There are five approaches.

LISTEN
If you can hear the leak, that means it’s big. But that does not mean it is easy to fix. While have often walked toward and in a matter of minutes isolated the internal leak point, the convolution of the walls, seams, and junctions might find the air escaping behind a panel or fixture, thus requiring a considerable effort to apply a patch.

INCENSE – LOOK
If the leak cannot be heard, we use incense. This trick was handed down to us from the original Biospherians who used incense to find the smallest of leaks. It works like this—wear a carpenter’s mask, the kind without a vent, so that your breathing does not stir the air. Light an incense stick and walk slowly through the habitat, stopping for minutes, sometimes, at places where you believe there might be a leak. Stand still. Let the smoke rise and look for the smoke being sucked into a seem, behind a patch, or out a corner. It will do a right-angle turn that makes it clear you’ve got a problem.

INCENSE – SMELL
Using the incense again, this time have someone on the outside such that they can sniff for the incense. While the human nose may not compare with that of a canine, it remains highly sensitive and can detect incredibly minute traces of that distinct incense smell. Trace the exit back to the origin (which can be challenging), patch, and try again.

ULTRASOUND
We purchased an ultrasound generated and detector. This proved remarkably valuable, as the generated is held inside of SAM while another team member is outside. We use this much as we do the incense, where the sound can travel around corners and through tubes. It is complimentary to the incense, and used in tandem.

THERMAL IMAGING
It would seem that a thermal imaging camera would be a top-pick, but in fact it is the least effective. This is in part due to the fact that you must have a fairly high degree of temperature differentiation and a high volume of air escaping to “see” a leak directly. If this is the case, it would likely be heard (#1 above). Rather, we look at the materials (aluminum, glass, caulking) with intent to locate reduced or increased temperature of structural elements due to the passing air. This has proved difficult, and less than valuable.

The SAM team enjoyed an incredible work week, an all-hands-on-deck, sunrise to sunset (and beyond) engagement with Matthias, Luna, Sean, Bindhu, and Kai engaged in a non-stop effort to complete the SAM Operations Center and Mission Control, as well as advance the Mars yard into its next stage of development.

*Bathroom*
– shower tiles are grouted and cleaned
– sink is installed
– vanity light is installed
– toilet is set
– sliding doors and new head are hung

*Kitchen*
– countertop brackets are installed
– countertop template (plywood) is set
– butcher block is in-house; needs to be cut
– induction cook top arrived; waiting to be installed
– sink and faucet arrived; waiting to be installed

*Conference Room*
– 65″ TV installed
– 5.1 home theater speakers installed, cables run
– chairs and conference table cleaned
– “The Martian” watched !!!

*Mission Control*
– 4 mission control desks are installed
– LCD projector installed
– silver screen installed
– sound bar installed (and it sounds amazing!)
– all sheetrock work completed, painted
– IT rack assembled (needs to be reduced in size)

*Misc*
– all electrical breakers replaced
– fibre optic drop, ethernet, and WiFi are working with asynchronous 200 Mbps
– floors are washed (a few times)

*SAM*
– reduced gravity simulator removed and painted
– TM and 40′ hatches inspected, temp patched
– TM outlined on the Mars yard workshop floor
– hydroponics rough layout established; plans made
– Mars yard boulders moved (not an easy task)

This week we will:
– re-install the RGS at its working height
– build the gravity-offload rig (and test)
– remove the prototype Mars yard and basalt (ugh!)
– prepare for delivery of a 20′ section of our sculpted Mars yard on Thursday

We kicked butt and got a LOT done! And this next week we again have our work cut out for us!

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!

Each of the five interior doors at the SAM Operations Center now celebrates one decade in human space exploration, with Mercury-Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, and ISS in bold, large format prints. We are proud to make five generations of technological advancement and scientific endeavor central to our new Operations Center and Mission Control.

This was our holiday gift to ourselves, something out of the ordinary, something that will for many years to come give visitors reason to smile when they enter our facilities. We thank Ann Persnel and the team at West Press of Tucson for their expert printing and installation.

The reduced gravity simulator (RGS) at SAM is installed and operational with a single-axis test trolley. This marks completion of one of the most unique and advantageous components of SAM when coupled with pressure suit and rover mobility research. In it’s current state the RGS allows the SAM team to safely test various configurations of trolley and gravity-offload rigs before elevating to the nominal operating height. Once the gravity-offset rig is integrated, the entire 50 (15m) foot assembly of welded, tubular steel armatures and raceway will be raised to 12 feet (4m), providing a variable reduction in apparent weight from Mars (1/3) to Lunar gravity (1/6) to microgravity.

Once again we thank James Parker and the master welders at the University of Arizona welding shop for a perfect fabrication of the five RGS armatures.

Learn more about the history of reduced gravity simulators and the RGS at SAM and watch a video of the test of the static trolley.

The SAM Operations Center is well underway with three weeks completed. The storage room is painted, floor down, and shelves built. The workshop walls and floor are complete, with workbenches to be installed soon.

Last week Matthias and Luna built a quick prototype of a Mars yard wall section, the intent to visualize the avrage height and angle of a small section of what will be sculpted concrete over expanded steel. With the close of this week Matthias installed the final sheet of steel paneling on the sliding door then trimmed west wall roof sheets (installed in July 2022) while Luna painted, and Kai installed the new power distribution panel.

It’s been a long, hot summer followed by a far too warm September and October with a series of projects in the SAM Mars yard renovation that took far more resources than anticipated. With Matthias Beach in the lead, Sean Gellenbeck, Tasha Coelho, Mason Robbins and Natasha Nichols worked sequentially for the removal of all no-longer-needed electrical conduit, chasing new electrical wiring through the conduit that was retained, installation of a new electrical power distribution panel, mounting all new, outdoor rated electrical sockets, replacing the mostly defunct lighting (as one would expect after thirty five years), and a complete reconstruction of the west wall in order to install new steel siding.

The end result is incredibly rewarding as the Mars yard superstructure is very well lit, with isolated circuits on every wall, and a clean power distribution panel on a brand new backboard. With the new roll-up doors and steel roof overhead, the building is now completely secured from the weather, and from the critters too.

If one on my team members asks for the whereabouts of a tool more than once, then we have a breakdown in our organizational system and are wasting time. Stop and fix the system!”

Small, well organized teams can run circles around a larger, comparable entities, especially when their overhead is low and assets are well managed. Small teams respond to changing environments with less drag, and set course corrections by direction of a single leader or a raise of hands. But the means by which any size team organizes its “stuff”, analog and digital, determines if it holds accumulating assets or a growing burden.

SAM started with Kai Staats, Trent Tresch, a broom, two angle grinders and a face shield, two orbital sanders and a box of sand paper. Fast forward nearly three years and SAM is defined by a half acre of land, some 9,000 square feet in building space, and ample tools and supplies to fabricate just about anything in wood, plastic, or metal.

While we have maintained a regimen of organization, returning tools to their respective bins each evening and conducting a total inventory with the close of each week, we made due with the funds raised in each phase of development. We used plastic bins for tool storage and unused sheets of steel covered with cardboard as our workbench, just inside the north bay door of the Mars yard structure.

With advanced funding secured in July we saw an opportunity to improve our organization and related efficiency. We acquired a Husky mobile tool cart and a few more power tools to replace those yet on loan from our staff members. We gave new life to a discarded Biosphere 2 metal shop workbench topped with two sheets of recycled plywood. For us, this was a dream-come-true—our very own workbench and a dedicated tool cart.

The half day spent in building the workbench paid for itself in the first week. With the complete re-organization of every tool, bolt, nut, and washer; every strand of wire, every plumbing fitting, and every tube of silicone (Thank you Luna!) have dedicated, labeled bins and drawers.