International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 186 (2024): 103246  

doi: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103246

This experiment systematically examines whether, in safety-critical environments such as Air Traffic Control, the negative effects of increasing automation associated with static automation concepts can be mitigated by adaptable automation. Adaptable automation is a form of flexible automation in which the human operator (rather than the system as in adaptive automation) can decide when and to what extent to delegate tasks. A special focus is on its effects on human perception in terms of perceived autonomy and competence, satisfaction, and human role perception. We conducted two online studies using the same dual-task paradigm. Study 1 was conducted with a novice sample via Prolific (N = 93) and study 2 with an expert sample of Air Traffic Controllers (N = 126). Participants were either supported by static information automation, static decision automation, or an adaptable solution that allowed them to switch between the two automation stages. The findings of both studies are similar. Results indicated that, even when humans rarely switched, adaptable automation could increase perceived autonomy, led to high satisfaction, and had positive effects on role perceptions without impairing performance or workload. Furthermore, satisfaction was found to correlate with performance. From a human-centered perspective, flexible concepts seem to be particularly suitable when automation increasingly takes over parts of a job task not only at the stage of information analysis but also at the stage of decision-making.

© 2024 The Authors, CC BY 4.0, published by Elsevier Ltd.

International Conference on Embedded Wireless Systems and Networks (2024) 

doi: 10.48550/ARXIV.2405.01578

In the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), reliable and energy-efficient provision of IoT applications has become critical. Equipping IoT systems with tools that enable a flexible, well-performing, and automated way of monitoring and managing IoT edge devices is an essential prerequisite. In current IoT systems, low-power edge appliances have been utilized in a way that can not be controlled and re-configured in a timely manner. Hence, conducting a trade-off solution between manageability, performance and design requirements are demanded. This paper introduces a novel approach for fine-grained monitoring and managing individual micro-services within low-power edge devices, which improves system reliability and energy efficiency. The proposed method enables operational flexibility for IoT edge devices by leveraging a modularization technique. Following a review of existing solutions for remote-managed IoT services, a detailed description of the suggested approach is presented. Also, to explore the essential design principles that must be considered in this approach, the suggested architecture is elaborated in detail. Finally, the advantages of the proposed solution to deal with disruptions are demonstrated in the proof of concept-based experiments.

© 2024 The Authors, CC BY 4.0

Frontiers in Space Technologies  5 (2024) : 1366591

doi: 10.3389/frspt.2024.1366591

The establishment of a permanent lunar base is the goal of several space missions, such as NASA's Artemis program. The feasibility of a lunar base is highly dependent on the supply of clean water, which can be recycled within the life support system or extracted in-situ on the Moon. Contamination of the water by lunar dust is an unavoidable problem due to the fact that lunar dust covers the entire surface and has adhesive properties as well as a very fine particle size. It is therefore important to study and characterize water contaminated by lunar dust in order to develop a safe water supply system. We combined existing studies on the dissolution behavior of lunar regolith in aqueous solutions and performed dissolution experiments ourselves. We conducted dissolution experiments using the Lunar Highland Dust simulant from Exolith Lab (Orlando, United States), which resembles the Apollo 16 regolith and thus the terrain of the suspected Artemis landing sites. Our dissolution experiments investigate the effects of the dust to solution ratio, the aqueous solution used (ultrapure water and 5.5 buffer), the short exposure time (2 min up to 72 h), the dissolved oxygen in the solutions and the particle size of the simulant. As a result, this study provides a characterization of lunar dust contaminated water and compares the results with the World Health Organization (WHO) and NASA requirements for drinking water. For all test batches, the lunar dust contaminated water exceeds the requirements for pH, turbidity and Al concentration.

© 2024, The Authors, CC BY 4.0

2024 19th Wireless On-Demand Network Systems and Services Conference (WONS) IEEE  (2024)  :   33-40

doi: 10.23919/WONS60642.2024.10449602

In the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), the effective operation of IoT applications relies heavily on the functionality of sensors. These sensors are prone to failures or malfunctions due to various factors, including adverse environmental conditions and aging components within sensors. To mitigate the impact of faulty sensors on system performance, notable research has focused on employing machine-learning techniques to detect faulty sensor data. In this context, due to the scarcity of real faulty data records and challenges in generating them even in controlled environments, researchers often model faulty data to create synthetic datasets containing normal and abnormal data for evaluating fault detection models. Our empirical investigation reveals that the current modeling approach to simulate faulty sensor scenarios does not adequately reflect the complexity of real-world faulty sensor behaviors. Therefore, to improve the efficacy of fault detection algorithms in practical applications, it is imperative to investigate sensor fault models further. To address this gap, we conducted a comparative analysis of existing fault models and proposed a novel composite approach for modeling faulty sensor behaviors that can more effectively capture real-world sensor behaviors. Our focus was to evaluate how different fault models impact the effectiveness of anomaly detection algorithms when tested in real-world scenarios. The evaluation included algorithms trained on synthetic datasets derived from various fault models, assessing their performance in identifying real-world faulty data. We also provide diverse labeled datasets, including normal and abnormal data collected from real-world applications.

© 2024 International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)

IET Networks 13 (2024): 66-110

doi: 10.1049/ntw2.12094

Infrastructure-less networks connect communication devices end-to-end by managing links and routes independent of fixed networking facilities, relying on dedicated protocols running on end-user devices. The large variety of infrastructure-less concepts and related aspects can be confusing both for beginning Ph.D. students as well as experienced researchers who wish to get an overview of neighboring areas to their own research foci. Frequently discussed topics such as different types of sensor, vehicular, or opportunistic networks are covered. The authors describe different networking concepts by looking at aspects such as the main properties, common applications, and ongoing research. Furthermore, the concepts by common characteristics such as node mobility, network density, or power consumption are compared. The authors also discuss network performance evaluation by describing commonly used metrics, different evaluation techniques, and software tools for simulation-based evaluation. The references given in each section help obtain in-depth information about the presented topics and give hints about open research questions, which can be a starting point for your own investigations.

© 2024 Author(s). CC under 4.0

npj Microgravity 9 (2024): 81

doi: 10.1038/s41526-023-00329-5

Protecting the Martian environment from contamination with terrestrial microbes is generally seen as essential to the scientific exploration of Mars, especially when it comes to the search for indigenous life. However, while companies and space agencies aim at getting to Mars within ambitious timelines, the state-of-the-art planetary protection measures are only applicable to uncrewed spacecraft. With this paper, we attempt to reconcile these two conflicting goals: the human exploration of Mars and its protection from biological contamination. In our view, the one nominal mission activity that is most prone to introducing terrestrial microbes into the Martian environment is when humans leave their habitat to explore the Martian surface, if one were to use state-of-the-art airlocks. We therefore propose to adapt airlocks specifically to the goals of planetary protection. We suggest a concrete concept for such an adapted airlock, believing that only practical and implementable solutions will be followed by human explorers in the long run.

© 2024, The Authors, CC BY 4.0

Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 6 (2023): 1252897

doi: 10.3389/frai.2023.1252897

As part of the Special Issue topic “Human-Centered AI at Work: Common Ground in Theories and Methods,” we present a perspective article that looks at human-AI teamwork from a team-centered AI perspective, ie, we highlight important design aspects that the technology needs to fulfill in order to be accepted by humans and to be fully utilized in the role of a team member in teamwork. Drawing from the model of an idealized teamwork process, we discuss the teamwork requirements for successful human-AI teaming in interdependent and complex work domains, including EG, responsiveness, situation awareness, and flexible decision-making. We emphasize the need for team-centered AI that aligns goals, communication, and decision making with humans, and outline the requirements for such team-centered AI from a technical perspective, such as cognitive competence, reinforcement learning, and semantic communication. In doing so, we highlight the challenges and open questions associated with its implementation that need to be solved in order to enable effective human-AI teaming.

© 2023, Author(s). licensed under CC BY 4.0

Algorithmics of Wireless Networks, 19th International Symposium on Algorithmics of Wireless Networks (ALGOWIN 2023), Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023)

In wireless sensor networks, much energy is wasted during connecting and control processes. This is particularly true for the neighborhood discovery process carried out in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) before the communications between devices. However, the fixed duration of this process has a critical energy cost when the number of neighbors is low or when only a few neighbors are required by the application. In order to address this issue, a novel protocol called WUBBLE is proposed to leverage wake-up radio technology to start and end the discovery process. Wake-up radio enables additional communications between devices with an ultra-low energy overhead. WUBBLE is validated by combining analytical analysis and experimental measurements, and results show that half of the energy could be gained to discover 90% of the neighbors.

© 2023, The Authors (  CC BY 4.0  )

AOWI-conference of the German Psychological Society (2023)

The AOWI-conference of the German Psychological Society took place in Kassel from 12^th to 15^th September, 2023. The AOWI-conference aims to gather psychologists interested in the work, organisational, business and engineering psychology to exchange their views on current research. Lara Watermann presented, on behalf of the project team, first insights from the psychological experiment of the project under the title "Human-AI Teams in a Mars Habitat: The Influence of the Perception of an AI as a Team Member or Tool on Trust and Affect".

Abstract

Question
The progress of artificial intelligence (AI) leads to autonomously acting technical systems. These could even function as independent team members in a team of humans and AI. In the space context, we investigate to what extent the perception of an AI as a team member has a positive influence on the trust and affect towards this AI. 

Research Design
Data will be collected experimentally in a Mars habitat. Together with an AI, subjects (N=82) will repair a life support system. For this purpose, the Wizard-of-Oz method is used and the AI is presented at the beginning as either a team member or a tool. The data will be analyzed with a mixed ANOVA and T-tests.

Results
The data collection takes place from January to March 2023. We hypothesize that the AI perceived more as a team member will elicit higher trust and more positive affect. Further, differences in human communication are expected.

Limitations
The sample consists of laypersons and should be replicated with Expert:ins. The interaction was conducted using the Wizard-of-Oz method without actual AI.

Implications
The results can be used to design AI in high-risk organizations so that people not only feel comfortable interacting, but also have an appropriate level of trust in the AI.

Relevance/Contribution
Much research related to human-AI teaming takes place in virtual environments in a military context and is based on written communication. It is unclear to what extent these results can be applied to other contexts and types of communication. With our investigation, we aim to expand the field of research to include new findings that take place in an analog environment, in the context of space travel, and are based on voice control.

52^nd International Conference on Environmental Systems (2023)

 online: https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/94682/ICES-2023-258.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

One of the most important components of a habitat for long-duration missions to Mars is the life support system (LSS), which will most likely include bio-regenerative elements. Since the lives of the crew members depend on the LSS, it is important that they can trust it. Therefore, a human-centered LSS that can be well understood and controlled by the crew is required. In this interdisciplinary work between space engineering, electrical engineering and psychology, the air revitalization component of a human-centered LSS, a photobioreactor (PBR), is being designed. This PBR is integrated into the Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA) facility at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen as part of a future LSS prototype. The PBR, as well as the MaMBA facility, are equipped with multiple sensors which are monitoring various environmental parameters. To provide sensor information to the crew in a preprocessed and user-friendly way, we are designing a graphical user interface (GUI) that can also be used for interaction with the PBR. All three components together, the MaMBA facility, the PBR and the GUI can then be used to test and determine human-factor-related constraints on the operation of a LSS under realistic conditions. This work presents the preliminary design of both the PBR and the GUI and gives first results on the operation of the PBR.

Acta Astronautica  210 (2023): 162-175

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.05.021, preprint available open access https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.15415

Astronaut crews and ground control support teams are highly interdependent teams that need to communicate effectively to achieve a safe mission - despite being separated by large distances. Team communication quality with its facets clarity of objectives and information flow, is a key coordination process to achieve high team performance and task satisfaction. Especially in interdependent teams working in extreme environments with time-delayed communications, the team's success is threatened if communication is ineffective. In this study, we hypothesized that communication quality affects two key team outcomes, performance and task satisfaction, and that these effects can be explained by increases in workload (effort and frustration). Hypotheses were tested during the AMADEE-20 analog Mars mission hosted by the Austrian Space Forum. The analog astronauts (AA) were supported by an On-Site-Support (OSS) team and a remote Mission-Support-Centre (MSC) team. The MSC was the only contact line for both AA and OSS, and the communication between them had a one-way time delay of 10 min. Our study consisted of three runs in which members across the three different multiteam systems had to exchange information to solve an interdependent task. We measured communication quality, effort and frustration, task satisfaction, and team performance. Results show that clarity of objectives and information flow positively impacted multiteam system performance. Furthermore, clarity of objectives reduced experienced effort and this in turn enhances team performance. High levels of information flow reduced experienced frustration, which in turn enhanced task satisfaction. Our findings show that these facets of communication quality are essential for multiteam systems that work separated from each other by a distance. We stress that specific (team) communication training for astronauts and support personnel will be key to effective teamwork during future Mars missions, and thus to overall mission success.

© 2023 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

preprint licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Philosophical Transactions A 379 (2021), 2188

doi: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0568

There is strong interest in lunar exploration from governmental space agencies, private companies and the public. NASA is about to send humans to the lunar surface again within the next few years, and ESA has proposed the concept of the Moon Village, with the goal of a sustainable human presence and activity on the lunar surface. Although construction of the infrastructure for this permanent human settlement is envisaged for the end of this decade by many, there is no definite mission plan yet. While this may be unsatisfactory for the impatient, this fact actually carries great potential: this is the optimal time to develop a forward-looking science input and influence mission planning. Based on data from recent missions (SMART-1, Kaguya, Chang’E, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO) as well as simulation campaigns (e.g. ILEWG EuroMoonMars), we provide initial input on how astronomy could be incorporated into a future Moon Village, and how the presence of humans (and robots) on the Moon could help deploy and maintain astronomical hardware.

 This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’.

© 2020 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract PEX.2-0002-22.

Bibcode: 2022cosp...44.3186A

Leading space agencies have the intention to bring humans to Mars in the next decades, and some private companies push for sooner deadlines. In fact, promises and plans to land humans on Mars have recurrently been announced since the end of the Apollo era, but have remained largely incomplete or even abandoned. At the University of Bremen, we are convinced that human Mars exploration will happen and that it will have a huge impact on both humankind and on the Martian environment. Given that even optimists do not see humans on Mars before the 2030s, we believe that now is the right moment to research possible scenarios for human Mars exploration and settlement, and to study the consequences for Earth, Mars and humankind. To this end, we have formed a new research initiative "Humans on Mars - Pathways to a long-term sustainable human presence" at the University of Bremen. Our approach to human Mars exploration is transdisciplinary and human-centered. On one hand, humankind has experienced tremendous progress and increase in welfare since the Apollo era. On the other hand, we see unambiguously the immense impact of increasing population and welfare on the environmental pollution and associated climate changes. In a nutshell, while the development of new technologies has been the main driver of progress, it has also put Earth in danger. We here argue that human Mars exploration can be instrumental in leading a change from a technology-centered toward a human-centered society, thereby solving our most pressing problems on Earth. Specifically, the thin CO2 Martian atmosphere, the scarcity of energy sources and water, the difficulties to produce food and consumables, and the need for cooperative human-robotic crews, pose challenges whose solutions will enormously benefit Earth. In short, the mindset emerging from thinking under the severe constraints on Mars could be the key to making our presence on Earth sustainable. In this talk, we will present our vision and report on the progress made in selected areas, starting with the shifts in experience and demands on new ways of interaction which come with humankind's expansion to Mars. These include the interactions of the humans on Mars with the humans on Earth on one hand and their habitat and swarm of robots on the other. We will present our efforts in in-situ resource utilization, which focus on sustainable bioproduction, the extraterrestrial fabrication of metal alloys, the production with impure materials and the harvesting of energy from space radiation. 

Journal of Space Safety Engineering  9 (2022), 145-153

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsse.2022.02.005

Human space flight demands systems like habitats that provide a livable environment for humans on long duration missions on other planets. This challenge includes the layout of several life support subsystems according to comfort criteria, including air management and the ventilation of supply air. A main goal of the ventilation system is to ensure a comfortable room climate with fresh air while being able to remove waste heat of other habitat systems. In this project we propose a ventilation distribution for a habitat laboratory using the design of MaMBA (Moon and Mars Base Analog) as an example geometry. We evaluate its performance with different exhaust configurations and boundary conditions via numerical simulations with OpenFOAM 6s’ buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam solver. Comfort criteria are set according to literature values to ensure a good mixing of the supply and ambient air with a low probability of uncomfortable drafts. First results showed that a cooling system with only one cooling loop, the room ventilation, does not provide an acceptable solution. Therefore a secondary cooling loop, rack ventilation, is proposed. It absorbs the heat of the electrical devices like the scientific instruments, inside the racks, and releases heated air at the rack's bottom in the direction of the room exhaust vents. The combination of two cooling loops can fulfill most of the comfort criteria and should therefore be integrated in the design of the habitat's ventilation system.

© 2022 International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Safety Article 6 (2022): 21

doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/safety8020021

Firefighters act within extreme environments, work under threatening conditions and are often exposed to goal conflicts (e.g., self-protection vs. mission objective) during their missions. However, what are the consequences of these safety and task goal conflicts, and what countermeasures could help to reduce their occurrence? In an online survey, 340 firefighters were asked about goal conflicts, risky decision making, debriefings and the frequency of difficulties in teamwork during firefighting. Associations between the survey variables were determined by multivariate regression and mediation analyses. Data show that goal conflicts were associated with risky decision making and unsafe acts. Furthermore, debriefings were associated with fewer goal conflicts, as mediated by less-frequent difficulties with teamwork (communication, leadership and shared mental models). Though limited by the cross-sectional design of our study, the results provide evidence that debriefing is a valuable tool to reduce difficulties experienced with teamwork on missions and therefore reduce the occurrence of conflicting goals. Fewer goal conflicts are associated with a decrease in unsafe decisions and, thus, a safer working environment for firefighters. Accordingly, it is recommended to conduct debriefings, with an increased focus on team aspects.

© The Authors 2023 licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Applied Ergonomics 98 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103552

The practical reality and feasibility of Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) are analyzed from an experts' point of view, considering current possibilities of various fields. We aim to find out whether the topics discussed scientifically are also practically relevant, to identify requirements for successful HAT, and to derive further research needs. Intensive guideline-based interviews with 28 experts from different industries are conducted and compared to the results of our literature review. The topics discussed scientifically are also practically relevant. Today's technology is far from being able to meet the practical requirements for successful HAT, as postulated in the literature. Contrary to the Human-Automation Interaction, the concept of HAT is hardly applied in the field. Identified key aspects for successful HAT are converted into a model. Future research needs with practical impact exist especially in the area of heterarchy, system knowledge, anticipation of mental states, and consideration of human needs and emotions.

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advances in Space Research 68 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2021.04.047

Humans are once again preparing to leave Earth and land on the surface of another planetary body. The two objects high on the list for permanent bases are the Moon and Mars. Both have been at the center of attention of many recent spaceflight activities, albeit these have so far been uncrewed. If humans indeed land on either one of them, science can potentially benefit tremendously.

In the past, most spaceflight missions have been implemented by adding scientific instruments after most of the engineering work is already finished. This has often limited scientific studies to relatively scattered, insular topics. However, if prepared appropriately, a research laboratory on either the Moon or Mars can help address scientific questions thoroughly and at a fundamental level.

In this paper we review the main scientific questions relating to the Moon that are still open and develop an overview of the instrumentation that would be necessary for a human astronaut inside a lunar laboratory to help answer these questions. Our primary focus is the Moon, however, we include an outlook to Mars, since we assume that the Moon not only provides a valuable testbed for many technologies to be used on Mars, but that both can be studied with the same habitat laboratory after some specific adaptations.

The research areas we focus on are related to (a) non-living matter (geophysics, geology, materials science), (b) extraterrestrial life (from chemistry of organic carbon compounds to astrobiology), and (c) life inside the human habitat (bioregenerative life-support systems, microbiomes, human physiology). We identify synergies between disciplines, in order to provide a list of priorities to mission planners, and provide a guideline of where further development of equipment would be desirable.

© 2021 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Science  372 (2021), 1271-1272

doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7353

In February, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced the Parastronaut Feasibility Project (1), a plan to make every reasonable effort to send astronauts with disability to space. This idea is a step in the right direction, but ESA is framing the decision as a way to be more inclusive rather than a way to make all astronauts safer and more effective. This short-sighted perspective may explain why the fine print of the announcement limits “acceptable” disabilities to lower-limb deficiencies. By not including a range of disabilities, ESA is discounting the potential of people with disabilities, ignoring the fact that disabilities are in great part barriers imposed by society (2), and missing an opportunity to better prepare all astronauts to adapt to in-flight trauma. To live up to its own standards, provide inspiration to the next generation [including the 15% (2) who have a disability], and improve mission safety, the ESA should broaden its criteria for eligible disabilities.

ESA is planning to make minor adjustments to existing launch vehicles, an approach that hardly ever leads to useful design (3). Furthermore, adaptation to a single disability is a dead end: When a person with a different disability is selected, the whole adaptation process would have to be repeated. As a result, future spacecraft will be as inaccessible in design as the International Space Station and launch vehicles are today.

Instead, development in space should be with, not for, people with disabilities. Integrating astronauts with disabilities that they have learned to live with into spaceflight programs today may help save a non-disabled astronaut with mission-acquired trauma tomorrow. For example, during a proof-of-concept ground mission in 2017, a blind analog astronaut with significant hand deformities helped identify design flaws in a habitat, leading to improvements that benefited his nondisabled successors.

ESA should consider disabilities that include blindness, deafness, upper leg deficiencies, upper limb deficiencies, paraplegia, multi-morbidity, and even cognitive or neurological (sensory and motor) deficiencies. All of these would help prepare for health issues that have been previously observed in astronauts.

© 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

REACH 21–22 (2021) 100038

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reach.2021.100038

Many space agencies have recently agreed on the Moon as the next step in human space exploration, and impressive progress is being made with regard to transportation, particularly launch and lander technologies. Meanwhile, a number of simulation habitats have been built and occupied by volunteer crews in order to study the human factors involved with life on the Moon or on Mars. The number of such habitats is ever increasing, and we believe it to be both necessary and helpful to provide an overview of what is already existing and what lessons in habitat design have already been learned from tests with human inhabitants. In this paper, we therefore review (1) the active analog habitats published in the English-speaking literature, (2) a selection of inactive, but pioneering analog habitats, and (3) a selection of research bases in extreme environments such as Antarctica that have not primarily been built for spaceflight simulations but provide interesting insights nonetheless. Specifically, we explore the architectural concepts incorporated and tested in existing habitats, technologies already implemented, and the scientific questions addressed. Our goals are twofold: (1) provide a guideline to researchers who seek a simulation facility for their research questions, and (2) advise the construction of future habitats for simulations and, ultimately, for missions to the surface of the Moon or Mars.

© 2021 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Frontiers in microbiology12 (2021)

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.611798

The leading space agencies aim for crewed missions to Mars in the coming decades. Among the associated challenges is the need to provide astronauts with life-support consumables and, for a Mars exploration program to be sustainable, most of those consumables should be generated on site. Research is being done to achieve this using cyanobacteria: fed from Mars's regolith and atmosphere, they would serve as a basis for biological life-support systems that rely on local materials. Efficiency will largely depend on cyanobacteria's behavior under artificial atmospheres: a compromise is needed between conditions that would be desirable from a purely engineering and logistical standpoint (by being close to conditions found on the Martian surface) and conditions that optimize cyanobacterial productivity. To help identify this compromise, we developed a low-pressure photobioreactor, dubbed Atmos, that can provide tightly regulated atmospheric conditions to nine cultivation chambers. We used it to study the effects of a 96% N₂, 4% CO₂ gas mixture at a total pressure of 100 hPa on Anabaena sp. PCC 7938. We showed that those atmospheric conditions (referred to as MDA-1) can support the vigorous autotrophic, diazotrophic growth of cyanobacteria. We found that MDA-1 did not prevent Anabaena sp. from using an analog of Martian regolith (MGS-1) as a nutrient source. Finally, we demonstrated that cyanobacterial biomass grown under MDA-1 could be used for feeding secondary consumers (here, the heterotrophic bacterium E. coli W). Taken as a whole, our results suggest that a mixture of gases extracted from the Martian atmosphere, brought to approximately one tenth of Earth's pressure at sea level, would be suitable for photobioreactor modules of cyanobacterium-based life-support systems. This finding could greatly enhance the viability of such systems on Mars.

 © 2021 Verseux, Heinicke, Ramalho, Determann, Duckhorn, Smagin and Avila. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)

Acta Astronautica 173 (2020): 404-413

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.04.026

Habitats must enable astronauts to survive in an extraterrestrial environment, but the challenge is not only a technological one: architecture and engineering should be brought together to create an environment in which a crew can perform optimally. With missions to Mars in mind, crew mental health becomes a design driver equally important to the support of physiological functions. We here suggest a habitat concept, MaMBA (short for Moon and Mars Base Analog), which combines the two requirements. In its basic configuration, MaMBA consists of six upright cylindrical, hard-shell pressure vessels as main modules and two airlocks, which are all connected with inflatablecorridor modules. We present the current state of the design and particularly focus on the laboratory module, of which we have constructed a mock-up equipped with scientific instrumentation. In the long-term, we plan to develop this laboratory module into a functional prototype including subsystems such as the life support system. Eventually, we aim to create a habitat which can serve as a test platform (for technologies, operations, and procedures) and whose usability is continually validated through iterative testing with human inhabitants. The habitat is open to international partners for simulations.

© 2020 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.