Tucked away on the northern flank of Mauna Loa overlooking Mauna Kea is a white-domed structure where NASA is studying what it takes to live on Mars.
Tucked away on the northern flank of Mauna Loa overlooking Mauna Kea is a white-domed structure where NASA is studying what it takes to live on Mars.
This is the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS program, which is aimed at researching issues related to how crews will function on long-duration missions to Mars. HI-SEAS creates missions and recruits crew members who live in the Mars-like habitat for periods ranging from four to 12 months in order to better understand the planet’s living conditions.
Brian Shiro, geology lead at HI-SEAS, will share more about this quest to make human life possible on the Red Planet during the next Maunakea Skies talk at 7 p.m. Friday at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.
During HI-SEAS missions, some of the crew’s activities require them to leave the habitat and conduct extra-vehicular activities while wearing simulated space suits to approximate the encumbrances astronauts would face while exploring the surface of Mars. This helps to identify and test best practices for future field explorations on the planet.
Funded by NASA, these missions also include supervision by a remote support team via an imposed 40-minute round trip communications delay, replicating real-life Mars-like communication conditions. Shiro will take the audience through the day-to-day life of a HI-SEAS mission.
As a collaborator on this project since 2012, Shiro leads the development, assignment and evaluation of geological field tasks given to the HI-SEAS crews to gauge their team performance under realistic mission constraints. He has experience in more than a dozen field expeditions from the Arctic to the Antarctic and many tropical destinations. He currently is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he applies geophysical exploration techniques to study lava tubes, seamounts and subsurface resources that could support life on other planets.
Hosted by planetarium technician Emily Peavy, ‘Imiloa’s monthly Maunakea Skies program includes observational highlights of the current night sky over Hawaii, with the audience able to view prominent constellations and stars visible during this time of year.
Maunakea Skies planetarium presentations are the third Friday of each month. General admission tickets are $10 or $8 for members (member-level discounts apply). Pre-purchase tickets at ‘Imiloa’s front desk or call 932-8901.
‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, located at 600 ‘Imiloa Place on the campus of UH-Hilo, is a world-class center for informal science education. For more information, visit www.ImiloaHawaii.org.