UND’s inflatable Lunar/Mars Habitat completed its ninth mission on Monday.
A crew of four UND graduate students spent two weeks in the habitat, conducting several NASA-sponsored experiments and other university research.
UND’s Chair of Space Studies Pablo de Leon said the experiments included using a portable E-E-G device worn inside the space suit…and nutrition research.
“These experiments are important, as NASA is moving to longer-duration missions and will need to come up with strategies so they will be able to cope with long travels into space that will be months in duration,” de Leon said.
de Leon says results will be analyzed in the next few weeks.
It was the first mission in more than a year-and-a-half. The mission was originally set for April 2020, but got postponed because of coronavirus concerns.
“We are happy that this (mission) kind of marks, at least for us, the restart of operations in this kind of research,” de Leon said. “We had a big backlog of experiments that we were unable to do just because of COVID.”
The inflatable habitat is just west of I-29 near University Avenue…and is supported by a NASA grant.
The four-member team crew consisted of UND students Sophie Bielawski, Jacquelyn Emery, Will Green and Steven Russell. The team was led by de Leon, assisted by Travis Nelson.
(Photo: UND)
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