LMAH Mission IV Blog Post – Joseph Clift

 

Hello and welcome to our Lunar Mars Habitat (LMH) blog. My name is Joseph Clift and I am a crewmember of Mission IV. I received my B.S. degree in Bioengineering from the University of California, Riverside. Currently, I am pursuing my M.S. degree in Space Studies here at UND. My tasks during this mission are to observe the effects of our eating habits and nutrition on our performance and biological clocks, as well as preparing the ourselves and our equipment for the EVA missions.

Internally, our tasks will range from doing our classwork, module maintenance and evaluation, to food growth and harvesting. Externally, we will be testing remote vehicle operation, habitat inspection and repairs, a balloon launch, and a night-sky observation EVA (extra vehicular activity). The external activities will all be performed while we are inside our mock spacesuits.

My other projects include observing the physiological aspects during the duration of the mission. I am working towards testing what methods could be done to maintain the same level of optimum performance throughout the mission. Additionally, I will be testing reduced caloric intake during the mission. The goal is to maintain a diet that is on average, less than 2,000 Calories per day. This experiment is to see if reduced caloric intake can translate to less payload mass without making performance sacrifices.

Mission IV is providing an excellent opportunity for exploring and studying potential solutions for future human spaceflight. I will be documenting these for future posts and my own records. It is my hope to use these experiences for future application in the space industry as an explorer and inspirer in either (or both) NASA and private space industry.

Thank you for reading and visiting. Feel free to contact me at joseph.clift@und.edu for any questions or information regarding the mission.