Ramon Crater: From the expedition basis door, a few small steps to the left, an autonomous clamp passed.
Some giant leaps to the right are solar panel arrays.
Rocky, hilly, colored landscapes with red.
Deliberately resembling Mars.
Here at the Ramon crater in the Southern Israeli desert, Team six – five men and one woman – have started simulating how it feels like living about a month on the red planet.
Their Amadee-20 habitat is tucked under rocky outcrops.
In their sleep, eat, and do experiments.
Outside they are wearing an artificial suit suit equipped with cameras, microphones, and independent breathing systems.
“We have a motto failed quickly, failing cheap and has a steep learning curve.
Because for every mistake we made on earth, we hope we don’t repeat it on Mars,” said Gernot Gromer, Director of the Austrian Space Forum.
The Austrian Association runs a project along with the Israeli space agency and local group D-Mars.
A number of Mars probes have recently attracted astronomical fans throughout the world with Robotic Rovers such as NASA’s perseverance and, for the first time, the ingenuity of the helicopter, offering a glimpse of the surface of the planet.
But the mission of manned is likely for more than a decade.
With Amadee-20, which should have occurred in 2020 but was postponed because Covid-19, the team hoped to bring new insights that would help prepare the mission, when it came.
“Habitat, nowadays, is the most modern analog analog research station on the planet,” said Gromer, standing next to a 120 square foot structure (1,300 square feet) shaped like two big and connected yurt.
Six team members constantly on the camera, their vital signs monitored, their movements were traced to analyze the favorite places to gather.
All this to better understand human factors, said Gromer.
Outside, engineers and other specialists work with drones and rovers to increase autonomic navigation and map in a world where GPS is not available.
Overall they will do more than 20 experiments in the fields, including geology, biology and medicine and hope to publish several results when completed.
“We are six people who work in a tight room under a lot of pressure to do a lot of tests.
There must be a challenge,” Alon Tenzer said, 36, wearing a space suit that carries around 50 kg (110 lb) from the equipment.
“But I believe Kruku that we can overcome the challenge.”
In the rocky Israel crater, scientists simulate life on Mars
