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Need to try on a space suit? Going to Iceland


How are you Preparing for a mission to the moon or to Mars? You can’t get land quickly, so you need to find the next best one. And there’s nothing better than our share of an alien world right here on Earth: Iceland.

Famously used by the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s to prepare for their historic lunar voyage, Iceland’s unique features and topography make it the ideal test ground for moonwalkers. mission to other worlds. “You have ice below the surface. You have lava tubes. Daniel Leeb, executive director of the Icelandic Space Agency (ISA), a private research organization not affiliated with the Icelandic government, says you have areas of intense volcanic activity. “Iceland has the most diverse set of terrestrial analogues that are close together and exist anywhere on Earth.”

In 2019, ISA researchers used these features to conduct a test run for a mission to Mars. Participants donned a spacesuit called Mars Suit 1 (MS1), created by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and performed activities that future astronauts could one day do. faced on the Red Planet. The suit offers an otherworldly experience, with the feet very much on the terracotta.

Three “similar astronauts” – a term for performing simulated astronaut activities on Earth – spent up to three hours at a time in MS1.5 suits over three days in Iceland.Photo: Vincent Fourrnier

Now, the researchers have returned to Iceland with an upgraded version of the suit, dubbed MS1.5, that will also be working its way through. This time, the goal of the study, conducted by ISA in partnership with the private company AdventureX, is to test some components of the suit with NASA’s Artemis program, which is hoped to return humans to the surface of the Sun. Moon at the end of this decade.

Activities including climbing in and out of lava tubes and collecting samples from the walls, such as bacteria, could be a key element in lunar missions. The upgraded suit also tested new carbon dioxide sensors and a biometric bra that recorded data from the astronauts, including their heart rate and breathing rate. Some problems arise; The visor, for example, condenses due to temperature changes, which could be more extreme on the moon.

The expeditions focus on finding subsurface ice and exploring lava tubes, both features and activities that will likely be part of future Moon and Mars missions.Photo: Vincent Fourrnier

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