SEDS Forums

At the last meeting, the tent we'd talked about at the first meeting turned into a tent and a rover. There was discussion about buying or otherwise acquiring a bus or van, and making the inside into a Mars simulator.

Advantages: We get a nifty simulator. We have a means of transportation to the SEDS convention in November. We start out with something impressive.

Disadvantages: We actually would have to raise money. Dru thinks he'll get to live in the rover rent-free next year. (perhaps we should let him, but insist on his wearing a spacesuit every time he goes outside)

Ok, we're postponing the rover until we get actual money -- which will probably happen after the semester starts, at least.

So....ideas about the tent?

There was an interesting article at the NASA story's page discussing the use of force fields for protecting astronauts against overexposure to direct cosmic radiation. Now, I don't think we can make a force field, but we should probably take radiation protection into account.
...and t.v.... it needs a t.v...

There are several design considerations when making a life-sustaining habitat for use outside of earth's atmosphere. Most importantly it must be able to support life (astronauts always make the engineer's job much harder by needed to be kept alive and other similar requirements). There are the obvious things like oxygen, water, temperature control. But also more subtle things like micrometeroid protection, radiation shielding, and waste management. I think also for application to Mars we must consider that there are numerous unpredictable and dangerous dust storms on Mars. This will likely factor into venting controls and airlocks. I think this is doable if we begin with a simple enough structure/habitat, like that of an actual tent with a beefed-up structure and insulation. Those are my initial thoughts, let me know what you think.

If you want to get technical, it's theorized that the dust storms on Mars generate a fair amount of static capable of knocking out communications and any other unprotected electronics equipment (even astronaut life support systems ). But, yeah, it would not be a bad idea to start with a commercially available tent for a basic frame and material. If the tent fabric is porous, we would have to make it impermeable in the presense/lack of alien atmosphere. Also, if we make this thing as real as possible, how do we test and recycle air in the tent? Would we use standard oxygen tanks, say, like divers, or would we use medical? Am I going too deep?

I suspect that, at least for now, we'll have the thing held open by a fan, for cost reasons. Also, since pretty much any tent fabric is porous, we'd have to replace so much that it would be cheaper just to start from scratch -- I suspect that the fabric is the bulk of the cost of the tent anyway, and they're none too cheap.

As for whether a rigid frame is needed, does anyone want to do an analysis on that? (:

I think that the tent needs a rigid frame, but should be collapsable. This would have the greatest applicability to the space program. They prefer things to occupy very little room during launch and transit.

Instead of starting from scratch. Since our goal is to demonstrate capability, we could start with a commercial tent and overlay the fabric exterior with some sort of plastic and/or aluminium sheets. This would simulate the radiation protection and thermal control as well as the impermiability. I think that there is no need for it to be very similar to an actual habitat for Mars/Lunar use. It should just be a representation of what is possible for use.

I have heard of an inflatable habitat/airlock that might do the trick. the wall is a metal skin with collapsable tubular stringers. The stringers are filled with a high-pressure gas to add stiffness and shape to the habitat. This might be a good approach, also.