Mars simulation mission commander back in Waterloo
Posted Jul 27, 2015 11:36:12 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Waterloo grad is back in the region after eight months simulating life on Mars.
Martha Lenio served as commander of the NASA HI-SEAS mission that sent six researchers to live on a Hawaiian volcano, where they tested what it would be like to survive on the red planet.
Crew members lived in a dome, where they grew their own food, re-used water, and harnessed energy from solar panels.
Lenio says the mission has made her realize how much water gets wasted everyday:
“We were just so conscious of how much water we used all the time, watching people do dishes now where they’ll leave the tap on and walk away, I’m like, ‘Ahh, stop! That’s good water!'”
Lenio says that although life on Mars is possible for a fixed time, we couldn’t survive there forever:
“In terms of the power systems, we’re pretty well-sorted — we’ve got solar energy and all sorts of backup energy — but the rate at which we use water, and the rate at which we generate waste without recycling it, makes me think that we really haven’t figured out how to fully use everything.”
After all that time in isolation, Lenio says it feels good to be home again:
“Just to be outside and feel the sun and the wind on our skin — we haven’t felt that in so long. To eat real food again [is great], because the freeze-dried food… it was pretty good, and people were creative, but you get tired of not having crunchy food, or really fresh, juicy fruit.”
Watch the crew’s video on how living in the HI-SEAS Mars simulation Dome has changed how they view energy and water use, and how life on Mars can help life on Earth:
