Mars Audio Log #10.” I’m Gary Jordan and I’ll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts, all to let you know what’s going on in the world of human spaceflight and more. We’re back with another audio log from the CHAPEA crew. CHAPEA, or Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, is a yearlong analog mission in a habitat right here on Earth that’s simulating very closely what it would be like to live on Mars.
It was also nice to hear about the nature. Nature seems to be something that is a constant theme in our check-ins with the crew, whether it’s Anca really loving interacting with the gardens or just really wanting to run as soon as she gets out the beach will being a wonderful thing to look forward to. And even trips together to different parts of the world. It seems like Kelly and Anca really want to go to Scandinavia.
So now let’s switch gears and we’re going to talk with Dr. Lauren Blackwell Landon on the habitability of the Mars Dune Alpha habitat. Alright, Dr. Lauren Blackwell Landon, thank you so much for coming on Houston We Have a Podcast today.You have a very interesting role, habitability of Mars Dune Alpha, but I’m sure just like many of the other special guests we have here, this is really not your only role.
The other cool thing I always want to tell people about is this 1,200-square-foot sandbox that mimics the Mars surface. And the crews go out and do these EVAs on the Martian surface. They also have virtual reality EVAs that they’re doing, and they can simulate going through the air lock and they put on their suits, and then there’s dust mitigation. So all of this is affecting how they’re experiencing the habitat.
Another example is windows. So windows are always kind of a fun thing from the NASA histories, right? So back in the early days of NASA, they famously designed this capsule without a window, and the astronauts were not happy about that. So they pushed back and they said, “We need a window.” And so now we see that the cupola on the ISS is really psychologically supportive, right? So crews look down, they take pictures about it all the time.