On the way to Mars

On the way to Mars: two young Mexicans will go to the NASA analog mission in Utah

This is Danton Iván Bazaldua Morquecho and Tania Robles, two students of the UNAM that will be immersed in the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) of the Mars Society, a United States association dedicated to the promotion of the exploration of the planet red in the desert of Utah.

They will be part of CREW 187 LATAM-II, along with five other crew members, including three students from Peru and two from Colombia.

The analogous mission that takes place on Earth tries to replicate the conditions that astronauts will face on Mars, which is why it is carried out at the Mars Desert Research Station, where the environment, vehicles and space suits are approximations of the that would be the real mission, except for the atmosphere and gravity.

                What will they do in the analogous mission?

The CREW 187 LATAM-II will undertake projects on virtual reality, cultivation of plants in Martian soil, remote sensing, monitoring and testing of space suit equipment, as well as scientific dissemination and even psychology.

They are also going to test a prototype of a space suit developed by Colombians, whose objective is to be used in a real mission in Space.

The university students will be equipped with a drone, which will not only be used to monitor the surface of the soil, but also to observe the EVA (extra vehicular activities), prevent accidents, and as a tool for the exploration of the habitat; the images will serve as a complement to make reports and dissemination.

According to the university students, the idea of ​​the remote perception project is to sweep images with a drone and then process them in an algorithm to detect patterns in the ground that help to better understand the characteristics of the surface where the simulator is located. in the desert of Utah. They intend to implement it in Mexico, because there is no remote sensing satellite and an alternative is the drones