THE ’SALAR DE UYUNI’ AS A SIMULATED MARS BASE HABITAT IN SOUTH AMERICA Natalia Vargas-Cuentas, Avid Roman-Gonzalez To cite this version: Natalia Vargas-Cuentas, Avid Roman-Gonzalez. THE ’SALAR DE UYUNI’ AS A SIMULATED MARS BASE HABITAT IN SOUTH AMERICA. Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2017), Jun 2017, Beijing, China. hal-01635943 HAL Id: hal-01635943 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01635943 Submitted on 15 Nov 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. THE ‘SALAR DE UYUNI’ AS A SIMULATED MARS BASE HABITAT IN SOUTH AMERICA Natalia I. Vargas-Cuentasa*, Avid Roman-Gonzalezb a International School, Beihang University of Aeronautics and Astronautics - BUAA, 37 Xueyuan Rd, Haidian Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100191 b Image Processing Research Laboratory (INTI-Lab), Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades - UCH, Av. Universitaria 5175, Los Olivos, Lima, Peru, Lima 39 * Corresponding Author Abstract The first man to step on Martian soil must be prepared and trained for everything he will face on the Red Planet, knowing what difficulties he will encounter, knowing where to explore, and what actions to take. All these aspects have to be learned here on Earth. That is why it is critical to have analog bases simulating Mars here on Earth. The primary objective of this work is to propose the ‘Salar de Uyuni’, located in Bolivia, as an analog base to simulate exploration missions on Mars. Uyuni's environmental characteristics make it a good alternative when one need to simulate exploration of other planets. In the present work, we can observe a comparison of the main features of the different simulation stations of Mars and the environmental characteristics of Uyuni. Keywords: Analog Mars, Mars, Uyuni, Planet Exploration, Human Exploration, Simulation 1. Introduction simulated Mars base habitats, and we want to propose a The growing interest to explore the Universe, location for the existence of a fifth simulated Mars base discover new planets, has led us to develop scientific habitats located in the 'Salar de Uyuni’ in Bolivia. The and technical projects, to discover the unknown. ‘Salar de Uyuni' is a place that has the climatic, and The exploration of Mars has been a project that has geological conditions that are required and also has a emerged since the beginning of the cold war, the quality of radiation. The salt and lithium that exist in the reasons for exploring the red planet are several, for territory affect the correct functioning of electronic example, ancient astronomers have evidenced the components, a quality that we would find interesting to presence of furrows on the surface of the red planet that simulate in search of a future human exploration would be an indication of the existence of water. On the mission to Mars. other hand, Mars would have a strategic position respect This paper is structured as follow. Section 2 presents to the Sun, contemplating the red planet for human some characteristics of the Mars environment. In expansion in the future. Finally, the existing technology Section 3 one describe different analog Mars station of space exploration can take us to that planet. around the world. Section 4 shows the advantages of In the last years, different projects have come up to Uyuni to be considered an analog Mars station. In make the exploration of Mars come true, first by Section 5 one shows the results. In Section 6 one sending rover explorations like Spirit, Opportunity, interprets the results although the discussion. Section 7 Curiosity and others. On the other hand, there have also present the arrived conclusion of this study. been projects to develop human exploration, with initiatives such as Mars500, MarsOne, and others. 2. Environmental conditions on Mars To crystallize the human explorations on Mars, it has been understood that the first thing to do is to 2.1 General environmental conditions on Mars understand the necessary considerations for a manned Mars is the fourth inner planet in the solar system, space mission, for this, the Mars Society launched the the most distant planet belonging to this group, is Mars Analog Research Station (MARS) project. A mainly composed of rock and metal and have two global program of Mars operations research that natural satellites Deimos and Phobos. includes four simulated Mars base habitats located in The red planet is the second smallest planet in the Australia, Iceland, the Canadian Arctic, Australian and solar system, and it is smaller than the Earth, the the American Southwest. This mission is designed to Martian year lasts 687 days. understand on earth aspects such as the conditions of The Martian atmosphere was destroyed by the solar life that would have to be faced on Mars for exploration, wind; therefore it is now composed mostly of carbon also carried out geological, biological, electronic and dioxide, and the red color of this planet comes from iron even psychological investigations. oxide in its soil. [1] In this paper, we want to make a comparison of Its surface is peppered with volcanoes, such as environmental conditions, geologic features, and Olympus Mons, which reaches a height of 21,129 biological attributes that we can see in the four meters, on the other hand, is also composed of valleys such as Valles Marineris. ● Laser Also on the planet are the famous dust storms, which ● Radio Frequency Fields have a duration of weeks or even months that come to darken the sky completely and have winds that can In the following figure, we can observe more clearly reach a speed of more than 150 km / h. the division of the mentioned two types of radiation, the Comparing the most relevant environmental first constituted by particles and the second with an conditions between our planet Earth and the red planet, electromagnetic nature. [3] we have the following table: Table 1. Environmental conditions on Mars and Earth Parameters Mars Earth Mass ( Kg) 0.639 5.97 Gravity (m/s) 3.7278 9.81 Solar UV radiation (nm) λ≥200 λ≥290 Solar particle events (Sv/h) ~ 0.1 - Cosmic ionizing radiation (mSv/a) 100 to 200 1 to 2 Pressure (mbar) 4 - 7 1013 Fig. 1. Radiation spectrum Temperature range (°C) -140 to 20 -90 to 60 Atmosphere Composition In this research, we will focus on the ultraviolet (UV) radiation about non-ionizing radiation.[4] Inside CO2 (%) 95.3 0.33 the ultraviolet radiation we can find the following three N2 (%) 2.7 78.1 bands: ● UVA: It is the closest to the visible spectrum and 02 (%) 0.1 20.9 is not absorbed by the ozone. Its range goes from Ar (%) 1.6 0.9 320 to 400 nm. This type of radiation damages the skin in the long term. ● UVB: It is a more dangerous type of radiation, The environmental conditions of Mars are extreme although it is absorbed almost completely by the because as mentioned earlier this planet is farther from ozone, its spectrum goes from the 280 to the 320 the sun than the Earth, it has an average temperature of - nm. It affects DNA and also causes melanoma and 63 °C, also because of its tenuous atmosphere and the other types of skin cancer. absence of magnetic field the radiation in the red planet ● UVC: They have more energy than other types of is very high. [2] UV rays, which is why this kind of radiation is Experts indicate that the environmental condition extremely dangerous but is completely absorbed that would most affect the human being in a future by the ozone and oxygen of our planet. Its mission on Mars would be the high radiation. spectrum is less than 280 nm. 2.2 Radiation on Mars Because the atmosphere of Mars is composed To talk about radiation on the red planet, we must primarily of carbon dioxide (CO2), the UV radiation first consider that there are two types of radiation: can reach the Martian surface. Ionizing radiation: this radiation carries enough energy to remove an electron from its orbit. Within this kind of radiation, we can see the following: ● Wave radiations: X-rays and gamma rays. ● Corpuscular radiations: Alpha radiation, beta radiation, neutron radiation. Non-ionizing radiation: this radiation does not emit photons with enough energy to cause that an electron is removed from its orbit. Within this kind of radiation, we can see the following: ● Microwave radiation ● Infrared radiation ● Ultraviolet radiation ● Visible light For many years, an important mission for space exploration has been the arrival of humans to Mars, for many reasons, but the most important are: the search for water and possible life on Mars, another important strategic reason is the possibility of contemplating the red planet for human expansion in the future, due to its position in the habitable zone of our solar system. For these reasons Mars analog research stations have been created over time for ground research, in order to be able to develop the knowledge necessary to prepare a future mission to Mars, performing key activities like a “living on Mars” simulation wearing a space suit simulator, developing Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA), testing the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). [6] The most important analog missions and their main objective are described below. Fig. 2. UV radiation in Mars and in Earth 3.1 The Mars Society’s Mars Analog Research Station As can be seen in Figure 2, the cut-off point for UV The Mars Society is an american association that radiation on Mars is given at 200 nm; the primary cause was established in 1998 by Dr.