Mission 7 started

Yesterday, April 25, Mission 7 started at the LMAH with three crewmembers. Stefan Tomovic, Commander, Peter Henson and Jared Peick will be performing experiments and testing equipment during the next two weeks.
For more insight about this mission see the UND Today story by David Dodds.

A team of three volunteers is scheduled to enter UND Space Studies’ Inflatable Lunar Mars Habitat (ILMH) at noon, Thursday, for the unit’s seventh NASA-funded “space” mission. The crew will reside inside and conduct a series of experiments and other scientific research until they exit the ILMH at noon,Thursday, May 9.

The crew comprises Peter Henson, a mission specialist, from Carrington, N.D.; Jared Peick, a mission specialist, from Penacook, N.H.; and Stefan Tomovic, mission commander, from Pretoria, South Africa. All three crew members are students in UND’s Space Studies Department, part of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Studies.

From left to right, Peick, Tomovic, Henson.

 
“This habitat is the only system of its kind in the nation on a university campus,” said Pablo de Leon, an Argentine aerospace engineer and Professor in the Department of Space Studies. He’s also director of the UND Human Spaceflight Laboratory. De Leon noted that the project is funded by the North Dakota NASA EPSCoR grant.

The ILMH project attracts students from around the world to join this prestigious scientific effort. Students are largely responsible for constructing, assembling, and maintaining the ILMH.

“Over the last few years, we have been upgrading the planetary habitat, and now, we have four research modules, plus the living quarters, which allow us to perform complex simulated missions,” De León said. “We are constantly receiving requests from external institutions who want to perform their experiments at UND. This project is positioning in the forefront of analog planetary research, as NASA is looking to return to the moon and travel to Mars.”

Travis Nelson, a research assistant with UND Space Studies and a veteran crew member of an earlier ILMH mission, said mission IV will focus largely on Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA), a specialized rover for transportation outside the Habitat; geology; microbiology; and exercise and human performance of the crew members.

Planned activities and research experiments:

·   Electroencephalographic (EEG) Neurocognitive and Physiological Monitoring

·   Technical fault analysis of space vehicle subsystems

·   Plant production (10 varieties) and assessing planetary soil compositions

·   Psychology, behavior and mental health in isolated environments

·   Task complexity and memory function

·   EVA Performance and Physiological Monitoring

·   3-D printed habitat external tile repair

·   Planetary surface rovers for human assistance

·   High-altitude ballooning with crew assembled payloads

·   Retrieval and identification of soil and mineral samples

·   Analysis of soil samples for microbial life

Crew, experimenters and mission control staff prior to the start of the mission 7.