A gaggle of 9 Catalan researchers will take part within the Hypatia I mission on the Mars Research Desert Station within the Utah desert (United States), the primary of a Catalan feminine and interdisciplinary collective, to hold out analysis in scientific tasks and “simulate how it could be a manned mission to Mars”.
At a press convention this Wednesday on the Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, the doctoral scholar in Planetary Sciences at MIT and one of many promoters of the initiative, Mariona Badenas, defined that the mission will run from this Sunday till April 29. , and that in these days they are going to be capable of give “visibility” to girls within the house and scientific subject, in addition to work on their scientific tasks simulating that they’re on Mars.
He has indicated that the identify of the mission is in homage to Hypatia of Alexandria, a thinker from the start of the fifth century who stood out within the fields of arithmetic and astronomy, and that’s exactly the target of the mission: to advertise scientific vocations amongst ladies and younger individuals, in order that they see shut “references” of various ages and profiles.
Investment of fifty,000 euros
The mission might be shaped, along with Badenas, by the biologist and popularizer Carla Conejo; the researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Ariadna Farrés; the distinguished researcher on the Institut de Ciències del Mar Laia Ribas; the journalist Núria Jar; the principle researcher for Icrea on the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute, Neus Sabaté; the engineer at Airbus Cesca Cufí; Product Owner and information analyst at Scopely, Anna Bach, and Physics and Mechanical and Electronic Engineering scholar Helena Arias.
The initiative has a worldwide price of round 50,000 euros and has the assist of the Generalitat, the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, the Fundació Banc Sabadell, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google, NASA, ICREA, the Fundació Catalana per a la Research and Innovation, isardSAT, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, the CSIC and Airbus, amongst others. The aim is to make a second version in 2025.
Conditions much like the purple planet
The biologist Carla Conejo has defined that through the mission they are going to be in a small and remoted base in a “distant place within the Utah desert” that has climatic and geological circumstances comparable to people who could possibly be discovered on Mars and which can enable them, amongst different issues, simulate extravehicular exits, perform a communications protocol with Earth and act in emergencies.
In addition, he has indicated that they should handle points akin to easy methods to eat –with dehydrated meals and calculate the quantity of meals, since it will likely be limited– or easy methods to use water, since they should allocate it each for their very own consumption as to domesticate the greenhouse and private hygiene.
Installation of GPS and era of iron-based batteries
The different members of the group have defined that, among the many analysis tasks that they are going to perform, there may be one which offers with easy methods to set up GPS to have the ability to transfer round Mars and preserve communication with the bottom; or generate Martian batteries primarily based on the iron current on the planet and utilizing the urine of the crew members to acquire power and develop meals.
Another of the tasks might be extra centered on data and experimentation and can take care of the investigation of the unicellular organism Physarum polycephalum, known as ‘Blob’, and a digital camera has been designed that may assure the research with out jeopardizing the safety of the bottom.
Lastly, the journalist Núria Jar has highlighted that this mission goals to “change the narrative and that science can be defined by girls” and has insisted on the significance of ladies and younger girls having the ability to see how they too could be astrophysicists, mathematicians or engineers just like the members of this group.
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