Mission 38th in Habitat Marte - May 8th to 12th 2020

 

It is Happening in Mars analog research station Habitat Marte, the 38^th mission from May 8^th and finishing May 12^th 2020. The 38^th edition presents participants from Greece, Kenya, Colombia, Angola, United States and Brazil.

The members of the mission 38 are Eleftherios Karagiannis  (Greece), Nuria Ali (Kenya), German Sarmiento (Colombia), Julio Rezende (Brazil) and Davi Souza (Brazil). The mission presents the following invited researchers: Eva Blaisdell (United States), Marco Romero (Angola) and Eldridge de Melo (Angola). 

This virtual mission is about sustainability in space habitats. During the mission is discussed operational and research issues related to management of space habitats, food production, sanitation (water supply, sewage and waste) 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 addition, respiratory allergies (runny nose and sneezing) that would occur during physical missions in Habitat Marte, could be seen as a symptom of coronavirus, generating a worry about.

Based in this scenario, a proposed innovation for the continuity of Habitat Marte were virtual missions. The last five missions have already taken place according to this methodology.

In virtual missions, participants are invited to operate in remote activities related to the Habitat Marte protocols and research themes associate to space and sustainability, observing how Habitat Marte would contribute to solutions related to isolation during the coronavirus times. We realized that the actions of Habitat Marte may present guidelines 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 Habitat Marte is the only Mars analog habitat in operation in South hemisphere. Since December, 2017 just happened 37 missions with 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.