Crew Inclusion I – Days 3-5
Days 3, 4, and 5 captured in photos by Crew Commander and Chief Photographer Cassandra Klos.
Crew Inclusion I – Final CapCom Report
Greetings CAPCOM,
“I’d like to share the important take-away from my daily mission report as the opening of today’s communications.
“For the past 5 days, I have watched four people who met a week ago in person live together in close quarters in a Habitat that at times has felt scary, inaccessible, and exhausting. But we have also seen the great in this place: found work arounds, engineered things, problem solved, got creative, reflected on our life on the Moon, and made some damn good bread.
“On the eve of our final day in space, I am proud of my crew for how much we have adapted and all that we have learned. I am proud of them for believing in our mission, even if at times that felt daunting and frustrating. I’m proud of Sheri for playing and recording instruments in the lung. I am proud of Bailey for sharing her Rubik’s Cube wizardry. I am proud of Eiman for making sure we’re all in good health after taxing EVAs. I am proud of Sheri for making the Hab more inclusive for blind astronauts of the future. I am proud of Bailey for showing us her passion about ECLSS engineering. I am proud of Eiman for willing to great creative with recipes and food (and for bringing the weird robotic seal, I guess). I am proud to be their commander and I am glad they are my new analog family.
“The adaptability and perseverance of Inclusion-1 gives me hope for the success of future crews at the SAM Habitat.” –Cassandra Klos
Please find the following attached reports:
- Inclusion 1 Mission Schedule (please review today and tomorrow)
- Commanders Daily Report
- Medical Officer Daily Report
- Accessibility Officer Daily Report
- Engineer Officer Daily Report
The Engineering spreadsheets and photos will be sent late, as we are working hard to get everything done before egress tomorrow.
Thank you,
Cassie, CO
> On May 1, 2023, at 5:00 PM, Eric Shear
>
> Hi, crew. The comm window is open and we are ready to receive your reports.
>
> In Tucson, it’s 86 degrees F (30 deg C) with 12% humidity and 14-mph (23-kph) winds. The moon is at 82% illumination. It looks like we’ll have a full moon during the Analog Astronaut conference.
>
> Today’s science news is a bizarre exoplanet that “breaks” all the rules of orbital mechanics. It’s just a sensational headline, as anyone who understands orbital mechanics would know. As written by Brian Koberlein in Universe Today, the exoplanet WASP-131b is a gas giant with a density lower than that of Saturn, and orbits its star at an inclination of 160 degrees. One theory about how this planet got into this odd orbit is the Kozai Effect, which describes dynamical interactions between the planet and its star that might have shifted its orbit over time. This is similar to how Pluto is thought to end up in its inclined orbit, but that doesn’t seem like a good explanation for bigger planets.
>
> Eric Shear
> —
> ME, Chemical Engineering, University of Florida
> M.Sc, Earth and Space Science, York University
> HB.Sc, Physics and Astronomy, York University
Crew Inclusion I – EVA with Sheri Wells-Jensen
Dr. Jensen has completed a sample return EVA while wearing a fully pressurized space suit. As a woman who is blind, she relies heavily on audio cues to navigate the world. But when in the pressure suit, the sound of the air moving from the umbilical into her helmet drowns all but the radio communications, making it nearly impossible to hear the crunch of the basalt beneath her boots, or the tap of her cane against the rocks. She must rely entirely on tactile feedback, and did so expertly.
Sheri has concluded what just might be a world-first. The smile on her face says it all.
Crew Inclusion I – Days 1-2
Crew Inclusion I has completed their first two days in the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM) at Biosphere 2. These early hours bring the realization that this is their new home for nearly a week, and that there is much to learn beyond the training provided by the SAM staff. They must find a balance between dedication to their research objectives, maintenance of the complex SAM pressure vessel, and preparation of food, water recycling, care for the hydroponic lettuce and soil-bed herbs, time with crew and time alone too.
All photographs (top and below) are for SAM promotion only, credit Cassandra Klos (@cassandraklos).
Crew Inclusion I enters SAM!
Inclusion I, the very first first crew to enter SAM, the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars, sealed the outer airlock hatch today, April 27, 2023 at 10 AM. Inclusion I was welcomed by three television crews, two radio crews, Linda Leigh of the original Biosphere 2 mission, Executive Director of Biosphere 2 Joaquin Ruiz, Deputy Director of B2 John Adams, and more than 60 persons watching the first closure of this unique hermetically sealed, pressurized habitat. Interviews commenced at 5:00 AM and continued until 10:00 AM when one by one, Cassandra Klox, Eiman Jahangir, Bailey Burns, and Sheri Wells-Jensen entered SAM carrying their personal bins. They left their street shoes on the airlock landing and donned hab shoes provided by Astral Designs.
This event follows yesterday’s arduous 13+ hrs training in which the crew was given a hands-on course in the management of SAM pressure regulation, three-stage water recycling, networked fire detection and alert system, air quality monitoring, inedible food stabilization, A/C and dehumidifiers, hydroponics, and more.
Cassandra Klos, Commander and Crew Photographer, is a fine art photographer, curator, and analog astronaut. Eiman Jahangir, Medical officer, MD MPH is a Cardiologist, scuba diver, space enthusiast, and two-time NASA Astronaut Candidate finalist (2009 and 2013). Bailey Burns, Engineer, is an Aerospace Systems Engineer with Blue Origin, focusing on Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), lunar dust mitigation, and lunar operations. Dr. Sheri Wells-Jensen, Communications officer, Accessibility officer, is a linguist who teaches in the Linguistics/TESOL program at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
Learn more about Inclusion I …
The Mission Objectives for Inclusion II are as follows:
- Understand whether the application of adaptive techniques can mitigate physiologic impact from isolation and mission induced stress during a terrestrial space analog mission.
- A study by Bailey Burns for Blue Origin (under NDA).
- Monitor carbon dioxide levels in SAM.
- SpaceKind Training in an Analog Environment.
- Construct a New Science Fiction through Documentation of Space Simulations, Mockups, and Ephemera
- Human Factors Study with University of Central Florida
- Accessibility Tasks and Experiments
Inclusion I will be operating SAM in Mode 2 (pressurized, flow-through) for the entirety of their mission. The crew will enjoy an all vegetarian diet of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods, with an exciting (from a vegetarian point of view) variety of grains and legumes, pasta, and spices, and opportunity to make home made bread.
Inclusion I is an assembly of motivated individuals who share a common passion for science. We are honored to receive this first team at SAM, with anticipation for their first EVA in a pressurized space suit in our prototype Mars yard, and egress two days before the start of the Analog Astronaut Conference.
Training of the first crew
Crew Inclusion I engaged in a 13 hours training session at SAM, learning from Director of Research Kai Staats, and the SAM design and construction staff Luna Powell, Sean Gellenbeck, Matthias Beach, Atila Meszaros, Trent Tresch, and Tasha Coelho.
This intense process took the team through the exterior and interior of the complex SAM pressure vessel, with elements of design, physics, chemistry, and safety for each component. As this was the first time the SAM team had trained an external crew, the process required patience and good communication on both sides. Given that Inclusion I includes a blind crew member, it was a steep learning curve for how SAM can improve some its form and function to be more readily accessible for a greater diversity of bodies and abilities.
In the end, it was clear that the training process should instead be one and a half or two full days to dive into the depth and breadth of the multi-faceted machine that is SAM.
UA Engineering Capstone team completes Automated Pressure Regulation System
In the fall of 2020 Biosphere 2 Deputy Director John Adams and SAM Director Kai Staats engaged a University of Arizona Engineering 498 Capstone team to design and fabricate a working prototype of an automated pressure regulation system for the inhabitant living space, adjacent to and principally atmosphere separated from the Test Module.
Team 21066 was highly successful in their design and prototype, demonstrating a working model mid May 2021. Once the 1200 sq-ft crew living space is built, a full-scale version will be built.
Core to the design is the ability to:
- Maintain a constant internal pressure greater than the external ambient pressure.
- Compensate for a low internal pressure by drawing from the reserve tank.
- Compensate for over-pressurization by drawing air from the internal space into the reserve tank.
- Be able to release a large volume of air quickly, in the case of a vessel breach.
The year-end product demonstration video is available here.
You can meet the team members Ahmed, James, Meghan, Nathan, Coby, Gustavo, and Arfan at our Development Team page.
