To explore the moon and Mars in the future, astronauts may need to get up and move closer to the lava tubes, the geological structures that flowed through the lava long ago.
These caves are a great place to study the geological history of this world and they can be safe areas to settle. To understand what the next generation of astronauts might face exploring these tunnels, scientists around the world are using the extreme or analog environments found on our planet to determine better spacesuits and technologies so that astronauts can carry these useless structures as comfortable as possible.
Michaela Musilova said in a statement, “Studying in suits under the EVA barrier complicates everything and it takes three times longer.” “We need extensive training on Earth to figure out our best methods and create the best EVA suits on Earth so one day we will be able to do this kind of research on the Moon and Mars.” Musilova is the director of HI-CES, Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. The “space-base” is located on the Mauna Loa on Hawaii’s Big Island and was created to mimic a rocky environment that astronauts may one day encounter on the moon or Mars.
In the habitat people live there for day, month and even year-round missions, which mimics what it might like to separated from the rest of humanity for such a long period of time. The project’s research is being presented at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in 2021, with a special focus on the activity of extra vehicles in lava tubes. The session is being held on April 28, and will also look at the results of the EuroMoonMars project research, which includes HI-CAS, as well as locations in Iceland, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the Utah Desert. Both projects are covered by the International MoonBase Alliance (IMA).
“We need to learn a lot more about how people communicate in these challenging situations,” Musilova said. One of the strangest things to know from their long-distance judgment is the crew members who were experiencing “earth-shattering”, where he felt very much that he was somewhere else in the world, such as on a busy city street corner far from Hawaii. Human missions to the moon are expected to resume over the next few years, so the knowledge gathered in these similar settings will come in handy very quickly.
