An Overview of Recent and Future

Lunar/Mars Habitat Terrestrial Analogs

6th International
Agrospace 2014 Workshop
May 22-23, Sperlonga, Italy

Sadler Machine Co.

Photo Courtesy NASA

THE UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA
Controlled Environment Agriculture Center
Systems and Industrial Engineering

Photo Courtesy NASA

NASA Photo
For our purposes: Terrestrial Analogs (or Space Analogues)
are locations on Earth with assumed past or present
geological, environmental or biological similarities and
conditions of that of Moon or Mars and used to prepare for
future human surface exploration missions

Photo Courtesy NASA

NASA has proposed Lunar Missions to the
South Pole of the Moon at Shackelton’s
Crater while Mars areas of interest are
more in equatorial locations

Photo Courtesy NASA

NASA’s Curiosity Rover’s Mars Images

Photo Courtesy NASA

Photo Courtesy NASA
Photo Courtesy NASA
 Assumptions;
•Use of any one terrestrial Lunar/Mars analog environment
cannot reproduce all facets of a future mission
•Polar and high altitude locations are considered to have
the highest fidelity for mission development
•Habitat design will be common to both the Lunar
and Mars applications consisting of 4-6 persons
•A human Mars mission of over 1.5 years on the surface
is the ultimate target
•Given Mars’ CO2 atmosphere, ISRU water, and sunlight,
BLSS will be included

Mission to Mars, 2000 Touchstone Pictures

Numerous prototype habitats
are being developed and
tested, many in analog
environments.

NASA’s Deep Space Habitat

Desert Rats, Flagstaff,AZ

Photo Courtesy NASA

Planetary Surface
Habitat and X-Hab
built for NASA by
ILC Dover

Photos Courtesy ILC Dover

NASA’s Toroidal Lunar Habitat built by ILC Dover and
University of Maine’s Lunar Habitat

Photos Courtesy UMaine

Photos Courtesy ILC Dover
NASA’s Inflatable Habitat built by ILC Dover for NASA-JSC and tested at
the NSF’s McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Below, the University of North Dakota’s
Inflatable Lunar Habitat with membrane envelope and space frame structure.
It is difficult to
find out much about
the Chinese space
program’s Lunar
Palace 1, but they
are making progress
in BLSS and have
initiated closed
system testing with
human subjects.
Mars Society’s Desert Mars Research Station
Hanksville, Utah

Photos Courtesy of Mars Society

The Mars Society’s MDRS supports crews in a Mars analog
environment in Utah’s high desert. Their habitat is spacious,
accessible, and even has support from Elon Musk for their
observatory.

Drawings Courtesy Mars Society

Location of Houghton Crater on Devon Island, a meteor
impact crater and high fidelity Mars analog. The site of both
NASA and the Mars Society’s field camps

Courtesy of NASA
Houghton-Mars Project an international
interdisciplinary research project
supported by the Mars Institute, NASA,
CSA, SETI, et.al., in the high Canadian
Arctic used as a Mars analog.

Photos Courtesy NASA

Mars Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station
Houghton Crater, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada

Photos Courtesy of Mars Society

Mars 500 was a joint effort between
Ruscosmos-ESA-China for a space
psychosocial experiment for long term
isolation of Mars crews conducted
in Moscow at the Institute of Bio-
Medical Problems

Photos Courtesy of ESA

Three different crews were isolated in this mockup of a Mars mission
habitat and vehicles for 15, 105, and finally 520 days to determine the
future problems crews may experience during a Mars Mission.

Photos Courtesy of ESA

Photos Courtesy of ESA

HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), is a joint
effort with the University of Hawaii, Cornell University, and NASA
investigating culinary and psychological aspects of future Moon and Mars
missions on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano at an altitude of ~2400m.

Photos Courtesy of NASA

The University of Arizona’s Biosphere II
Tucson, Arizona

Courtesy of Univ. Arizona

Aerial view of Biosphere II, note the “lungs” to accommodate the expanding
atmosphere during the day as the sun shines on this closed system

Courtesy of Taber MacCallum

The initial crew of Biosphere II that occupied this closed system for two years
while producing their own food, recycling their own water, and revitalizing
their own atmosphere

Courtesy of Corbis
A cut-away drawing of the Biosphere II showing the different biomes
that make up this early Bioregenerative Life Support System

Courtesy of Taber MacCallum

The agriculture biome that supported 8 people for two years, yet this area
was not sufficient and the crew lost weight. This is important in that NASA’s
estimates are that half the calories of a single crew member can be
generated in the size of one unit in the UA-CEAC/SMC Lunar Greenhouse.
This represents a huge challenge for our intensive agriculture efforts.

Courtesy of Taber MacCallum

The Biosphere II at sunset

Courtesy of Taber MacCallum

NASA tasked Lockheed in 1992 to identify the best terrestrial analog sites for
their Human and Habitation Systems, they concluded South Pole Station to be one
the best. This is facilitated by the NSF-Office of Polar Programs’ logistical
capabilities in Antarctica. McMurdo Station is their central logistical supply hub.

Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP

Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP
U.S. National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
at the Geophysical South Pole (alt. 2835m)

Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP

Other Polar stations also offer good
analog possibilities such as the
French-Italian Concordia Station at
Dome-C and the German AWI
Neumeyer Station. The stations
that are higher with smaller
crews increase the fidelity of the
analog.

Concordia (alt. 3233m)

Photo Courtesy of AWI

Photo Courtesy of ESA

Summit Camp on the Greenland Icecap is another possible analog location,
isolated, high elevation (3,200m), cold, located relatively close to U.S. and EU,
doing real astronomy. The down side is that snow accumulation is considerable.

Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP

The McMurdo Dry Valleys- 100km
from McMurdo Station

Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are very cold and it is an extremely arid desert
where some locations have not seen precipitation in recorded history, it is
one of the driest places on Earth. Apollo Mission astronauts trained here
in the late 60’s

Dry Valleys Martian Surface

average temperature of -19.80C

Photo Courtesy of NSF-OPP Photo Courtesy of NASA

 Snow on the Polar Plateau has many similar properties to Lunar regolith
and could be used for an analog in habitat development, especially if
a mass based approach is required for radiation shielding
Polar Plateau Lunar Surface
- 830 C recorded Surface temperature (Austral Night) - 112 0 C recorded temp (Lunar Night)
- 400 C at ~ 30 cm depth - 220 C at ~ 30 cm depth
Barometric Pressure ~675mb @2835m Barometric pressure ~620mb @ 9psi cabin pressure.
Lunar Regolith load under Lunar Gravity ~ 275kg/Nm-3 (619lbs)
Snow load under Earth Gravity ~ 330kg/Nm-3 (749lbs)
Crew Isolation 6 months Moon 500+ Mars
Crew Isolation 335 days
4 months continuous light Peak of Eternal Light- over 80% light

Photo Courtesy of NSF-OPP

Photo Courtesy of NASA
Photos Courtesy of NSF-OPP
Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS); the use of
biological approaches for closed life support systems in
space. This includes, but not limited to, crop production,
animal production, and microbial based waste recycling for
food, atmosphere revitalization, and crew waste and water recycling.

BLSS works in concert with physicochemical life support

systems to provide “Dissimilar System Redundancy” and extend
operational life of hardware as well as capitalizing
on ISRU opportunities.

Photos Courtesy of NASA

For our academic purposes, if BLSS is included, it will need to be highly
integrated into any future Lunar/Mars habitat design as one of its dissimilar
redundant life support systems. This was the main “driver” for our Lunar/Mars
habitat design, we had to know what the habitat looked like before designing
a BLSS greenhouse for it. The habitat design in turn was dictated by the
Lunar/Mars surface environment and the challenges that needed to be overcome.

UA-CEAC/SMC Lunar Habitat Design

Copyright UA
The LGH effort continues
at the University of Arizona
with our partners and
funding from NASA’s
Ralph Steckler Space
Grant. We are
adding 3 additional LGH
units and working on our
NASA Outreach efforts
with possibly the
UA Biosphere2 Group

G reenh ou se

R o ve r B io -R ecyc el M od u le
D ock ing H ub M od u el
E n trance/A ir Lock

S to re s/S h op s S o la r C o lel c to rs (S C PS )

B e rth ing
G reenh ou se
Finally, our South Pole Food Growth Chamber
enters its 10th season in operation at the
NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

Thank You!
 THE UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA
Controlled Environment Agriculture Center
Systems and Industrial Engineering
Tucson, AZ
Sadler Machine Co.

Special thanks to;

NASA’s Ralph Steckler Space Grant
University of Arizona Space Grant Consortium
Our friends at Aero-Sekur and Thales Alenia Space-Italia,
et.al.

NASA Photo