Simulating lava tube exploration research during analog lunar and Martian missions at HI-SEAS in Hawaii 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Musilova ◽  
Bernard Foing ◽  
Henk Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Life Support ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Research Station ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lava Tube ◽  
Geophysical Research ◽  
Lava Tubes ◽  
Varied Duration ◽  
Biochemical Research

<p>Lava tube exploration has become an important part of discussions relating to the search for life on Mars by both humans and robots. On Mars, lava tubes may contain biosignatures and existing lifeforms. Alternatively, on the Moon, lava tubes may serve as sheltered environments for the construction of human settlements. Nevertheless, lava tubes can also be difficult environments for robotic operations and they can pose a safety hazard to humans as well. It will thus be extremely important to prepare for lava tube exploration by humans and robots in analog environments on Earth. The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat is a lunar and Martian analog research station located on the volcano Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The International MoonBase Alliance (IMA) organises missions at HI-SEAS, during which crews of six analog astronauts perform research and technology testing relevant to the exploration of the Moon and Mars. The missions that take place at HI-SEAS can be of varied duration, from several days to several months, depending on the needs of the researchers. They are open to space agencies, organizations and companies worldwide to take part in, provided their research and technology testing will help contribute to the exploration of the Moon and Mars. Since the HI-SEAS habitat is located on lava flows, its surroundings provide valuable access to performing high-fidelity planetary science fieldwork with very little plant or animal life present, and a wide variety of volcanic features to explore, such as lava tubes, channels, and tumuli. This terrain is also ideal for rover and in situ resource utilization (ISRU) testing because of its great similarity to the basaltic terrains on the Moon and Mars. HI-SEAS crews have performed a number of biochemical and geophysical research projects in the lava tubes accessible to them near the habitat. They explored and collected research samples while wearing Extra-vehicular Activity (EVA) analog spacesuits and following strict EVA protocols. These activities are very challenging for the crew, due to the bulky gloves and EVA equipment they have to wear, while performing precise biochemical research that is sensitive to contamination. The crews also have to take into consideration their safety, their limited life support systems during EVAs and a number of other factors relevant to space exploration missions. Further studies will be needed to assess how best to combine scientific goals with human exploration goals during future human missions, which may use lava tubes as a resource as well as a key site for scientific research.</p>

Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: a review on their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Sauro ◽  
Riccardo Pozzobon ◽  
Matteo Massironi ◽  
Pierluigi De Bernardinis ◽  
Tommaso Santagata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Expression ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lava Tube ◽  
Geophysical Research ◽  
Lava Tubes ◽  
Morphometric Characters ◽  
Size And Morphology ◽  
Radar Sounder

<p>Sinuous collapse chains and skylights in Lunar and Martian volcanic regions have often been interpreted as collapsed lava tubes (also known as pyroducts, [1]). This hypothesis has fostered a forty years debate among planetary geologists trying to define if analogue volcano-speleogenetic processes acting on Earth could have created similar subsurface linear voids in extra-terrestrial volcanoes. On Earth lava tubes are well known thanks to speleological exploration and mapping in several shield volcanoes, with examples showing different genetic processes (inflation and overcrusting [1, 2, 3]) and morphometric characters. On the Moon subsurface cavities have been inferred from several skylights in maria smooth plains [4], and corroborated using gravimetry and radar sounder [5, 6] while on Mars several deep skylights have been identified on lava flows with striking similarities with terrestrial cases [7]. Nonetheless, a clear understanding of the potential morphologies and dimensions of martian and lunar lava tubes remains elusive.</p> <p>Although it is still impossible to gather direct information on the interior of martian and lunar lava tube candidates, scientists have the possibility to investigate their surface expression through the analysis of collapses and skylight morphology, morphometry and their arrangement, and compare these findings with terrestrial analogues. In this work we performed a morphological and morphometric comparison with lava tube candidate collapse chains on Mars and the Moon.</p> <p>By comparing literature and speleological data from terrestrial analogues and measuring lunar and martian collapse chains on satellite images and digital terrain models (DTMs), this review sheds light on tube size, depth from surface, eccentricity and several other morphometric parameters among the three different planetary bodies. The dataset here presented indicates that martian and lunar tubes are 1 to 3 orders of magnitude more voluminous than on Earth and suggests that the same processes of inflation and overcrusting were active on Mars, while deep inflation and thermal entrenchment was the predominant mechanism of emplacement on the Moon. Even with these outstanding dimensions (with total volumes exceeding 1 billion of m<sup>3</sup>), lunar tubes remain well within the roof stability threshold. The analysis shows that aside of collapses triggered by impacts/tectonics, most of the lunar tubes could be intact, making the Moon an extraordinary target for subsurface exploration and potential settlement in the wide protected and stable environments of lava tubes.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>[1] Kempe, S., 2019. Volcanic rock caves, Encyclopedia of Caves (Third edition). Academic Press, pp. 1118-1127</p> <p>[2] Calvari, S. and Pinkerton, H., 1999. Lava tube morphology on Etna and evidence for lava flow emplacement mechanisms. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 90(3-4): 263-280.</p> <p>[3] Sauro, F., Pozzobon, R., Santagata, T., Tomasi, I., Tonello, M., Martínez-Frías, J., Smets, L.M.J., Gómez, G.D.S. and Massironi, M., 2019. Volcanic Caves of Lanzarote: A Natural Laboratory for Understanding Volcano-Speleogenetic Processes and Planetary Caves, Lanzarote and Chinijo Islands Geopark: From Earth to Space. Springer, pp. 125-142.</p> <p>[4] Haruyama, J., Morota, T., Kobayashi, S., Sawai, S., Lucey, P.G., Shirao, M. and Nishino, M.N., 2012. Lunar holes and lava tubes as resources for lunar science and exploration, Moon. Springer, pp. 139-163.</p> <p>[5] Chappaz, L., Sood, R., Melosh, H.J., Howell, K.C., Blair, D.M., Milbury, C. and Zuber, M.T., 2017. Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(1): 105-112</p> <p>[6] Kaku, T., Haruyama, J., Miyake, W., Kumamoto, A., Ishiyama, K., Nishibori, T., Yamamoto, K., Crites, S.T., Michikami, T. and Yokota, Y., 2017. Detection of intact lava tubes at marius hills on the moon by selene (kaguya) lunar radar sounder. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(20).</p> <p>[7] Cushing, G.E., 2012. Candidate cave entrances on Mars. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 74(1): 33-47</p>

Lunar and Mars analogue research performed at the HI-SEAS research station in Hawaii, part of the EuroMoonMars - IMA - HI-SEAS campaigns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Musilova ◽  
Bernard Foing ◽  
Anouk Beniest ◽  
Henk Rogers
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Active Volcano ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Research Station ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Control Center ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Space Suits ◽  
Varied Duration ◽  
Mission Control

<p>As of 2018, the International MoonBase Alliance (IMA), has been organizing regular simulated missions to the Moon and Mars at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat. HI-SEAS is a lunar and Martian analog research station located on the active volcano Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The missions that take place at HI-SEAS can be of varied duration, from several days to several months, depending on the needs of the researchers. They are open to space agencies, organizations and companies worldwide to take part in, provided their research and technology testing will help contribute to the exploration of the Moon and Mars. The crews are supported by a Mission Control Center based on the Big Island of Hawaii as well. A series of EuroMoonMars IMA HI-SEAS (EMMIHS) missions have been taking place at HI-SEAS since 2019. These missions bring together researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA), IMA, the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), VU Amsterdam and many other international organizations. Crews on these missions perform geological, astrobiological and architectural research; technological tests using drones, 3Dprinters and rovers; as well as performing outreach and educational projects. The EMMIHS missions typically last for two weeks each. During this time, the crew is isolated within the HI-SEAS habitat, which they cannot leave without performing EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activities) in analog space-suits and with the permission of Mission Control. The EMMIHS campaigns aim to increase the awareness about the research and technology testing that can be performed in analogue environments, in order to help humans become multiplanetary species. Furthermore, the research and technological experiments conducted at HI-SEAS are going to be used to help build a Moon base in Hawaii, and ultimately to create an actual Moon base on the Moon, as part of IMA’s major goals. Future missions at HI-SEAS include more EMMIHS campaigns, collaborative missions with ESA, NASA, University of Hawaii, University of South Florida and with companies, such as SIFT and Ketone Technologies.</p>

Intergrating morpho-stratigraphic and spectral units on Mercury and the Moon: Updates from the PLANMAP project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Carli ◽  
Francesca Zambon ◽  
Francesca Altieri ◽  
Carlos Brandt ◽  
Angelo Pio Rossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Imaging System ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Geophysical Research ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Geological Maps ◽  
Planetary Bodies

<p>The numerous past and present space missions dedicated to the Solar System planetary bodies exploration, provided a huge amount of data so far. In particular, data acquired by cameras and spectrometers allowed for producing morpho-stratigraphic and mineralogical maps for many planets, satellites and minor bodies. Despite the considerable progresses, the integration of these products is still poorly addressed. To date, no geological maps of planetary bodies other than the Earth, containing both the information, are available yet. In this context, one of the main goals the “European Union's Horizon 2020 - PLANetary MAPping (PLANMAP)” project [1] is to provide, for the first time, highly informative geological maps of specific regions of interest on the Moon, Mercury and Mars, taking into account datasets publicly available in the Planetary Data System (PDS) database [2].</p><p>Here, we show the results achieved during the first two years of the project by the PLANMAP “Compositional unit definition Work Package”. In particular, we focused on specific areas, such as Hokusai quadrangle (22°-60° N, 0°-90°W) and Beethoven (13.24°S- 28.39° S; 116.1°- 132.32°W, 630 km diameter) and Rembrandt (24.58°S- 41.19°S, 261.72°- 282.73°W, 716 km diameter) basins on Mercury, and the Apollo basin (10 ° –60 ° S, 125 ° –175 ° W, 492 km diameter) within the northeastern edge of the ~ 2500 km South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the Moon [3]. For this work, we considered the multi-color images acquired by the Mercury Dual Imaging System - Wide Angle Camera (MDIS-WAC) [3] onboard the MESSENGER mission and hyperspectral data provided by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) [4] onboard the Chandrayaan-1 mission. After data calibration and the instrumental artifacts removal, we have photometrically corrected the data to derive multi- and hyper-spectral reflectance maps, afterwards we defined appropriate spectral indices to eventually obtain the spectral unit maps of these regions of interest. In next step, we will integrate the spectral unit maps obtained with the morpho-stratigraphic ones provided by other PLANMAP work packages [5, 6, 7] to merge the information and finally retrieve geological units.</p><p> </p><p>This work is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research grant agreement No 776276- PLANMAP and by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the SIMBIO-SYS project (ASI-INAF agreement 2017-47-H).</p><p> </p><p><strong>References </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>[1] https://planmap.eu/</p><p>[2] https://pds.nasa.gov/</p><p>[3] S. Edward Hawkins III et al., 2007, Space Science Reviews, 131, 247–338.</p><p>[4] Pieters, C. E. et al., 2009, CURRENT SCIENCE, 96 (4).</p><p>[5] Brandt, C. et al., 2020 EGU General Assembly 2020.</p><p>[6] Ivanov, M.A., et al., 2018, Journal of Geophysical Research, 123 (10), 2585-2612.</p><p>[7] Wright, J., et al., 2019, 50<sup>th</sup> Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.</p>

Bringing the Moon to Mankind

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
David Miguel Molina ◽  
P. J. Blount
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Space Program ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
Long Civil Rights Movement

In chapter 3, Molina and Blount offer a contextualization of NASA’s interlocutory role throughout the long civil rights movement by mobilizing these three themes to analyze a series of archival and cultural artifacts. The authors first analyze the rhetoric deployed by the Poor People Campaign’s various mobilizations to show that the American space program was viewed with deep skepticism by the African American community and particularly within the context of ongoing struggles for black freedom. Second, they discuss the “distance” between the tropes of spatial disenfranchisement represented in the civil rights movement and the Moon missions to show how space exploration was portrayed as an acceleration of the marginalization of black spaces.

Consideration of a Grass-Roots Space Program

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Space Program ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Economic State ◽  
New Space ◽  
Human Space Exploration

Human space exploration has historically provided a great many people with a positive vision of the future. At this time, society faces many 21st century problems (global warming, sea level rise, etc.) and could use some of that vision. The economic state of the nations that historically paid for this exploration does not currently allow for a large and expensive new space initiative, like Apollo to the Moon or a trip to Mars. Nevertheless, there have been great strides in computing and resulting social media. Could a very large number of dedicated people self-organize into a grassroots human space program? This story envisions such a movement and the lessons today's students could learn from the attempt.

Effects and Benefits of Space Exploration

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Norma B. Crosby
Keyword(s):  
Space Exploration ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Harsh Environments ◽  
Navigation Systems ◽  
Space Technology ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Transfer Of Technology ◽  
The Cost

It has been more than half a century since humans first ventured into space. While competing in being the first to land on the Moon, they learned to utilize space for human needs on Earth (e.g., telecommunications, navigation systems). Many space technologies were later applied to basic needs on Earth. Space research and development led to the “transfer of technology” in non-space sectors and became better known as “spin-offs.” They have improved global modern life in many ways. This paper discusses the cost-benefit of space technology spin-offs, as well as the relationships between various space agencies, spin-offs, and commercial enterprises. Other benefits that have come out of space exploration such as psychological, political and environmental effects are also reviewed, as well as the potential future benefits of going to space. Technologies developed for harsh environments on Earth and for those in space benefit all and collaborating both ways is the future.

scholarly journals Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loic Chappaz ◽  
Rohan Sood ◽  
Henry J. Melosh ◽  
Kathleen C. Howell ◽  
David M. Blair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Moon ◽  
Lava Tubes

An Approach to Lava Tube Detection in Radar Sounder Data of the Moon

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Donini ◽  
Francesca Bovolo ◽  
Christopher Gerekos ◽  
Leonardo Carrer ◽  
Lorenzo Bruzzone
Keyword(s):  
The Moon ◽  
Lava Tube ◽  
Radar Sounder
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