Safety Concerns

Spacesuits: The poorly fitting boots and gloves are a concern since they cause crewmembers to slip on inclines. A wider variety of sizes are needed especially for smaller crewmembers. The spacesuits are tolerable because we can duck-tape the extra material at waist level but when that slips it becomes hard to walk. The helmets are difficult to adjust at first but after a few days everyone has adjusted.

Communication: The communication between the EVA crew and the Hab is extremely poor. Even with use of the repeater the communication seems to only work with line-of-sight. If an accident occurred in the field out of line-of-sight, the crew would only be able to contact the Hab and the Flight Surgeon if one EVA crewmember left the scene and drove an ATV or walked within range.

Health Concerns

Labour: The replacement of the generator has increased the physical demand of the crew. Using picks and sledge hammers to anchor the new diesel generator's weather cover has led to small injuries such as sore muscles, blisters and eye soaring exposure to white bellies. Also the higher altitude for the crewmembers does require an adjustment as almost everyone has experienced some form of running out of breath. Two of the crew attempted a 0.5 km jog back to the Hab and found the weight of the spacesuits, the looseness of the helmets and the thin air made the run extremely difficult. But it proved that it is still possible.

Physiological: One EVA a day keeps the doctor away! EVA's are physically demanding and with the added weight of the spacesuits this seems to be a sufficient enough source of exercise. Crewmembers have experience fatigue and sore muscles and this could be mitigated with proper stretching before and after each EVA. On days where a crewmember does not do an EVA, some form of exercise should be mandatory for a real simulation. Our mission is focused on simulation of the field research methodology and coordination of communication with the RST. The fact that we have to run outside to get the new generator working means that full simulation for our crew is not possible. The reason for exercise every day is some form as a mission parameter is because if a crew is to return to Earth from Mars they will have to be able to adjust to the difference in gravity. Also the weightless travel involved before and after the mission is an important parameter to weightlessness countermeasures. Much more can be written (and has been written) about this topic and will be for my Master's Thesis!

Dehydration: Dehydration is the largest health concern in this dry location and high solar UV exposure. The current crew does not take any water on EVA with them. A water supply on future EVA's should be considered critical as the spring season has constantly increasing temperatures. Mild forms of dehydration have been present amongst the crewmembers showing signs of headaches and dry mouths.

Water Bladders: The current status of the water bladders for EVA's is that they are not usable for two main reasons. The bladders are not clean and could be deemed unsanitary and also there are no mouthpieces available. Even if these bladders are used, new mouthpieces are required.

Psychological: The abundance of emails on first arrival was overwhelming. Many directions were coming in and the crew had many questions, specifically on the procedure that the RST wanted us to follow. This caused frustration within the crew and developed a typical psychological mission occurrence called "us versus them" against the RST. With constant relaying of information via email and refinement of procedures the crew is now settled into a good working routine and the working symbiosis has been developed between crew and RST. Isolation is not a problem at all since the six very different personalities and upbringings makes a dynamically sound group. If our stay was at least a month then this could be analyzed further.

Amongst the crew we speak four different languages, English, French, German and Spanish with some additional phrases in a bunch of other dialects, for-shizzle. The crew composition of five Engineering students and one mature adult has been an interesting experience where high energy is coming from the young and experience is coming from the other end of the spectrum. Engineering students as crewmembers are like super soldiers. Students spend an average day trekking across campus with a heavy knapsack on their backs, bundled up if it is winter, and spend the entire day primarily doing two things: listening to and learning from professors and grinding away on reports and homework. If that doesn't sound like a MDRS rotation I'm not sure who would be better as crewmembers! Students are used to long days of work with little sleep and are focused enough to repeat it day after day. An all student crew probably would not work efficiently unless they trained together for a mission. It's almost as if Orson Scott Card's book "Ender's Game" was a direct insight to our mission where the experienced RST and Mission Support are giving us a few instructions on how things are usually done and it is by our work that everything changes and becomes more efficient.

Music music music! Music soothes the soul of anyone if the right selection is played. It is an absolute must for this kind of environment. Songs generate nostalgic environments without any visualization. Music is a comfort blanket.

Radiation: well, it's not quite Mars yet! I assume that ambient radiation from the lack of atmosphere and possible radioactive regolith would cause many human mission health problems. A definite showstopper!