Habitat Marte releases an international mission with participants from 6 different countries

Will happen from April 30^th to May 4^th 2020 an international mission in Mars space analog station Habitat Marte. In the 37^th edition the participants are from Europe, Latin America and Africa (France, Poland, Greece, Angola, Brazil and Argentina).           

The members of the mission 37 are Julio Rezende (Brazil), Eldridge de Melo (France/ Angola), Agnieszka Elwertowska (Poland), Maria Kondoyanni (Greece), Arturo Escobar (Argentina), Marco Romero (Angola) and Davi Souza (Brazil). 

In the virtual mission will be about interdisciplinary research applied to sustainability in space habitats. During the mission will be discussed  operational and research activities related to management of space habitats, food production, sanitation (water supply, sewage and waste), energy and education.

Was observed that COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to carry out missions in Habitat Marte in person, considering the possibility of disease spreading if one of the participants be infected and transmit to other. In view of this scenario, a proposed innovation for the continuity of Habitat Mars were the virtual missions. Missions 33, 34, 35 and 36 (March-April 2020) have already taken place according to this methodology. The mission 36 was also transmitted to everyone in the internet.

In virtual missions, members are invited to participate in remote activities related to the Habitat Marte protocols and research themes associate to space and sustainability, observing how the research station would contribute to solutions related to isolation during the coronavirus period. We realized that the actions of this quality educative initiative (Goal 4) it is a good example for this challenging moment.

In Brazil, in semiarid of Rio Grande do Norte State, is operating the Mars analog research station Habitat Marte. The station is the only Mars analog habitat in operation in South hemisphere. Since December, 2017 is completing 37 missions with more than 1000 hours, 120 participants and more than 80 days. During the simulation missions, the analog astronauts follow protocols and routines of a space station. In Extravehicular Activities (EVA) are used spacesuits to simulate to be in Mars or Moon landscape.
Information: juliofdrezende@hotmail.com/ +55 84 99981-8160.