Welcome to Life on Mars. Right now, this may be the closest any human will get to living
on a Martian outpost. ​​HI-SEAS is an analog astronaut research station. So it basically
simulates what it would be like to be an astronaut on the Moon and on Mars. All without leaving
the safety of Earth. And even though they're still on Earth, these Analog Astronauts take
their role pretty seriously. We wear spacesuits to conduct field work,
we go on EVA's or extravehicular activities like space walks, we have rationed food
and water. We have a time delay for all communications on Earth. Researchers from all over the world,
in fields from astrophysics to engineering to geology, come to this white dome to test
their experiments and see if they’ve got what it takes to live on another planet.
HI-SEAS is one of the most unique research stations in the world , sitting on an active volcano
in Hawaii, about 2,500 meters above sea level. Researchers can stay at the habitat for weeks
to months at a time working and living there. The goal? To understand how to survive in
a place where no humans have lived before... which is why this site was chosen. Part of
it was because it looks and feels like you're on another planet. There's almost no vegetation
here because of the altitude. So it's this isolated, difficult, harsh environment where
you are completely separated from civilization as we know it. But from a geology perspective,
the volcanic terrain around us is actually directly relevant to both the Moon and Mars.
That’s because HI-SEAS is surrounded by lava tubes, underground channels that once
carried molten lava and are now home to extremophiles. Both the Moon and Mars used to be volcanically
active and contain very similar terrain, so studying this environment on Earth allows
for an opportunity to practice scenarios astronauts might encounter on future missions. Overseeing
every aspect of the habitat is Michaela Musilova. I also have always wanted to be an astronaut.
I've been dreaming of that since I was eight years old. While she’s not an astronaut
yet, Michaela is often the commander of analog missions. And as the Director of HI-SEAS,
is responsible for crewing them. After having about 30 missions under my belt, I found that
the more diverse the crew, the more successful the mission. I choose analog astronauts
from a variety of backgrounds, not just, say, scientists, engineers, and doctors but I also
like to have artists, and educators, journalists, and people who think out-of-the-box.
I'm going to cut it for science. Oh!
With increasing interest in returning to the Moon and one day even setting up a station
on Mars, people from all over the world put their ingenuity to the test at this white
dome. Everything from what kind of food are astronauts going to eat during these long-duration
missions, what technologies are they going to need, for example, in situ resource utilization
technologies. These are technologies for us to be able to, extract water from the soil
on Mars and have our own source of water there. We tested a drill that is meant to be used
for collecting biological samples, but in a rocky environment. And now there’s even
a familiar face researching the secrets of the universe. So my research is on supernovae. Supernovae
are not just interesting, exotic phenomena that we think are cool because they're exploding
stars, but they also tell us a lot about our universe. Stars fuse elements within their
cores and then inject them into their surroundings upon explosion, meaning that they shape the
chemical composition of their surroundings. When Carl Sagan says we are star stuff, I mean he was right.
We literally are the stuff of stars.
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
I feel really excited, to be honest. I feel a little nervous, but mostly just excited. I've been preparing for months.
I started by doing altitude training. So there's a hypoxic room, which is basically an oxygen
deprivation room that simulates various altitudes.
Come on into the altitude room.
And then I also flew in zero gravity in a
weightless environment and learned how to scuba dive. All this training is going towards
preparing Sarafina for a two week long analog Mars mission. HI-SEAS is a really cool opportunity
to actually do field work with supernovae. That includes EVAs — any activity outside
of a spacecraft or habitat— which, for Sarafina, is where her research really begins. So I
will be using a handheld laser induced breakdown spectrometer to basically analyze the composition
of Xenoliths, which are a particular type of a rock that is found in volcanic environments
that's some of the oldest rocks on earth. And by analyzing them and learning about their
elemental abundances and what they're made up of, we can then correlate them with the
supernova that was potentially responsible for their formation.
By hunting for certain elements in almost untouched volcanic rock, Sarafina is working towards
matching them to supernova ejecta, which might just explain how the solar system was formed.
NASA rovers are already doing something similar on Mars, which is why this is such a unique
opportunity for an astrophysicist here on Earth. I get to do science in a completely
new way that, frankly, most astronomers don't do. This is more of a geophysics spin on astronomy.
And so it's neat because I get to merge these different fields, learn about new science
techniques, and then hopefully get some cool results from them. After Sarafina wraps up
her work at HI-SEAS, her supernova research will continue. Ultimately, I hope to publish
a paper on this. We don't really understand the progenitors of supernovae. The composition,
the evolution and the structure of those stars in modeling and simulating them is very difficult
to do. It was once described to me as the wild west of astronomy, because people are
trying a lot of different things but there's not a lot of rules for how to do it.
HI-SEAS is a testbed for unconventional approaches to technologies and research. The revolving
door of analog astronauts that stay at the habitat are asking different questions, but
they all have one thing in common. For as long as I can remember, I wanted to become an astronaut.
I remember looking up at the stars as a little kid and dreaming about going to space.
One of the reasons why I share about my journey, about my training, about my dreams is so that
I can serve as a source of representation for other young girls, other young people
of color, who maybe have the same dreams. Who knows if I'll ever get to Mars or to the
Moon, fingers crossed, but who knows?