[00:00.960 --> 00:02.800]  Hi, I'm Scott Bybin.
[00:03.220 --> 00:06.080]  And I'm Elizabeth Jane Cole.
[00:07.220 --> 00:08.900]  Oh, what is happening here?
[00:10.200 --> 00:11.680]  Wait, did it just quit?
[00:12.260 --> 00:12.500]  Oops.
[00:13.120 --> 00:13.840]  Hold on a second.
[00:16.100 --> 00:17.500]  Keynote just crashed.
[00:18.620 --> 00:18.860]  Oops.
[00:19.160 --> 00:23.180]  As they say in Spaceballs, even in the future, nothing works.
[00:24.080 --> 00:24.460]  There you go.
[00:25.040 --> 00:25.580]  Hi, everyone.
[00:25.860 --> 00:26.460]  Welcome.
[00:27.020 --> 00:29.420]  We are the... I'm Scott Bybin.
[00:30.200 --> 00:32.220]  And I'm Elizabeth Jane Cole.
[00:32.480 --> 00:33.220]  Yes.
[00:33.420 --> 00:41.660]  And we're the co-founders of Off-World Voyage, which is an analog astronaut training facility.
[00:41.960 --> 00:48.840]  And the title of our talk is Designing a Plant-Based Mars Base or...
[00:49.700 --> 00:56.480]  Can training for Mars exploration also solve for adaptation to climate biodevastation on Earth?
[00:56.600 --> 00:57.400]  Question mark.
[00:57.400 --> 00:58.320]  Yes.
[00:58.520 --> 01:01.420]  And hopefully, we'll be answering these questions in this talk.
[01:02.100 --> 01:02.520]  Okay.
[01:03.360 --> 01:17.440]  So one of our favorite inventors of all times, futurist, mathematician, general genius, is Buckminster Fuller, who said, You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
[01:18.100 --> 01:22.500]  To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
[01:23.640 --> 01:27.360]  It is the ultimate DIY ethic.
[01:27.680 --> 01:28.420]  There we go.
[01:30.000 --> 01:30.520]  Yes.
[01:30.600 --> 01:30.720]  Hi.
[01:30.820 --> 01:31.780]  I'm Scott Bybin.
[01:31.860 --> 01:33.640]  I'm an inventor, a self-taught engineer.
[01:33.640 --> 01:37.880]  I do a lot of stuff at the intersection of science and art.
[01:38.080 --> 01:40.640]  I play around a lot with consciousness.
[01:40.640 --> 01:46.820]  And I'm really into preserving the environment of Earth and beyond.
[01:47.740 --> 01:50.020]  I do a lot of stuff in creativity.
[01:50.380 --> 01:54.160]  I really like helping people get to their creative selves.
[01:54.160 --> 01:56.560]  And I like exploring that myself.
[01:56.560 --> 02:05.420]  I'm a big fan of governance systems that develop for autonomy.
[02:05.760 --> 02:08.240]  Also, collaboration.
[02:08.660 --> 02:15.340]  I'm very into collectivism and other kinds of alternative economic experiments.
[02:16.660 --> 02:17.460]  Yeah.
[02:17.880 --> 02:22.920]  So I've been living off-grid in Philadelphia for the past four years, almost.
[02:23.220 --> 02:30.620]  So I'm off the electric grid and the water grid, and that's been a pretty big adventure.
[02:30.840 --> 02:42.700]  I'm only generating electricity using 800 watts of solar and 10,000 watt-hours of battery.
[02:42.700 --> 02:50.220]  So I'm trying to prepare for future of space exploration where resources are very scarce.
[02:51.060 --> 02:53.200]  I do a bunch of other projects.
[02:53.420 --> 03:04.780]  Off-World Voyage, Ancient Scan, Mandelbot Ecotech, Groucho Fractal, Telepathetique, Music on Mars, Anahata Metaverse, and with Liz I do the Evil Twin Booking Agency.
[03:04.780 --> 03:07.340]  And my space projects.
[03:07.940 --> 03:12.700]  I've been really into this whole analog astronaut community.
[03:13.260 --> 03:22.280]  We did a mission at the Mars Desert Research Station with Liz a few years ago, and we're going to be doing more missions in the future.
[03:23.380 --> 03:26.920]  We founded Off-World Voyage, which is what we'll be talking about today.
[03:27.260 --> 03:42.360]  And Music on Mars is a project I've been working on where I designed an audio process prototype to simulate the acoustic properties of Mars, and I composed a piece of music to go with that.
[03:43.300 --> 03:55.840]  Also with Liz, I'm on the core committee of the Journal of Space Analog Research, which is an academic journal studying analog space missions, or space analog research.
[03:56.040 --> 03:56.440]  Here we go.
[03:58.420 --> 04:09.920]  And hey, I'm Elizabeth Jane Cole, also an analog astronaut, alum of the Mars Desert Research Station, Crew 286.
[04:10.160 --> 04:20.940]  I was the crew journalist, and I reported on our crew's efforts to produce sustainable, nutrient-rich vegan food for Mars exploration.
[04:20.940 --> 04:31.060]  Also very useful on Earth, and covered a lot of other interesting projects that our crew did, which Scott will also get into further in the talk.
[04:31.980 --> 04:36.460]  Student pilot in training, co-founder of Evil Twin Booking Agency.
[04:36.520 --> 04:43.960]  We represent a lot of scientists, activists, journalists, and help them reach broader audiences.
[04:44.380 --> 04:46.620]  Many of the people we work with have spoken at HOPE.
[04:46.620 --> 04:54.600]  And yeah, also co-founder, sorry, core committee member of the Journal of Space Analog Research.
[04:57.700 --> 04:58.340]  Okay.
[04:58.940 --> 05:02.760]  Maybe you want to talk a little bit about the overview effect and what that is?
[05:03.040 --> 05:03.440]  Sure.
[05:03.880 --> 05:14.620]  The overview effect, it's a cognitive shift that's been reported by many astronauts who have flown and viewed the Earth from above.
[05:14.620 --> 05:18.600]  The term was coined by author Frank White.
[05:19.510 --> 05:40.520]  And this particular cognitive shift has been shown to affect in the long-term how astronauts see ourselves in relation to Earth, and especially with respect to long-term environmental behaviors and habits.
[05:43.580 --> 05:52.940]  And it's long been a joke among astronauts that if you weren't an environmentalist before going to space, you will be one by the time you get back to Earth.
[05:52.940 --> 06:16.980]  And this was brought up in an academic study that interviewed many astronauts who had flown, flown multiple missions, and that looked at some of the different changes in like attitude and also like behavior, especially with respect to like diet, resource conservation, 
[06:17.200 --> 06:21.540]  et cetera, that different astronauts who had flown reported upon coming back to Earth.
[06:25.600 --> 06:26.560]  Okay.
[06:27.600 --> 06:37.480]  So the term generally used in the aerospace world for these types of trainings is space analog research.
[06:37.880 --> 06:40.740]  So analog as in analogous.
[06:45.210 --> 06:49.450]  And what are analog astronauts?
[06:49.450 --> 07:05.990]  Well, one of the things that we do is train for exploration off-world, like on other planets, Moon, Mars, Asteroid Belt, wherever.
[07:06.350 --> 07:09.410]  There are different types of facilities that are out there.
[07:09.410 --> 07:17.890]  You have ones that are just designed to simulate the surface of other places.
[07:17.890 --> 07:22.410]  We have ones that are pressurized, ones that simulate weightlessness.
[07:22.410 --> 07:36.690]  The ones that we actually focus on are facilities that are similar to... that have a similarity to the geology of other planets.
[07:37.830 --> 07:44.150]  And some people will say that what we are doing is Mars LARPing.
[07:44.150 --> 07:45.330]  Yes.
[07:46.870 --> 07:54.190]  But that's actually not what we're doing because we are actually conducting science and research while we're in our missions.
[07:55.230 --> 07:55.750]  Okay.
[07:56.370 --> 08:03.270]  One of the things to keep in mind is that Mars is one of the most hostile environments to humans that one might imagine.
[08:03.270 --> 08:08.790]  So, Mars' atmosphere is 170 times less dense than on Earth.
[08:09.250 --> 08:17.770]  The atmosphere, what there is of it, is mostly... it's mostly carbon dioxide, so 97% carbon dioxide.
[08:18.530 --> 08:26.470]  And temperatures can range between negative 250 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit over the course of a day.
[08:27.590 --> 08:35.410]  If we can figure out how to survive on Mars, we can really do anything.
[08:35.690 --> 08:46.050]  And considering the impact that humans have had on Earth, these are... these are things that we might want to start solving for.
[08:46.350 --> 08:49.470]  So that we can actually preserve our planet here.
[08:50.670 --> 08:55.590]  And, yeah, the best way to do something is to start doing it.
[08:55.910 --> 08:57.210]  Then practice, practice, practice.
[08:58.350 --> 08:58.450]  Okay.
[08:59.790 --> 09:07.670]  Analog astronaut... or space analog research is a growing field for future of space exploration.
[09:08.510 --> 09:15.090]  There are varying degrees of fidelity in these... in these habitats, as I was mentioning.
[09:16.410 --> 09:24.370]  Fidelity being how accurate it is to the conditions that one might experience elsewhere.
[09:26.770 --> 09:28.590]  And... okay.
[09:29.870 --> 09:30.330]  And...
[09:30.790 --> 09:36.510]  So, some of the active space analog research facilities...
[09:36.510 --> 09:39.750]  Some are sort of government-based.
[09:39.750 --> 09:47.590]  There's Luna in Cologne, Germany, which is operated by the European Space Agency.
[09:48.170 --> 10:00.450]  NASA, of course, runs a variety of different habitats, including Chapea and Hera, both of which are in Houston, Texas, in enclosed areas.
[10:00.450 --> 10:07.130]  And they do a lot of sort of like missions that test out the effects of isolation on crew members.
[10:07.130 --> 10:10.790]  The independently run and academically run programs.
[10:12.350 --> 10:22.150]  One of which... some of which are the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, in a desert that is a geologic analog to Mars.
[10:22.530 --> 10:24.690]  That is where Scott and I did our first mission.
[10:27.230 --> 10:33.690]  And some of the research done at Mars Desert Research Station includes growing different kinds of food.
[10:34.570 --> 10:36.550]  Also research on crew dynamics.
[10:37.350 --> 10:45.850]  And next habitat would be Mars Flashline, which is also run by the Mars Society.
[10:46.370 --> 10:50.710]  Flashline is in Nunavut, Canada, which is a polar desert.
[10:50.710 --> 10:59.870]  And it also has... it's at an angle where it has a similar level of solar radiance as Mars does.
[10:59.870 --> 11:03.810]  So it could be a very useful habitat for like experiments with growing crops.
[11:04.830 --> 11:06.650]  It's a pretty extreme environment.
[11:07.330 --> 11:13.350]  Another example would be SAM, which is a space analog for Moon and Mars.
[11:13.350 --> 11:18.790]  And SAM is pressurized and hermetically sealed.
[11:19.570 --> 11:26.590]  And so everything carbon dioxide, humidity, oxygen levels, etc.
[11:26.830 --> 11:27.510]  are regulated.
[11:27.770 --> 11:30.150]  It has a fully functioning airlock.
[11:30.330 --> 11:37.450]  Pretty high fidelity as close as you can get to Mars without like dropping the temperature to negative six degrees Celsius or reducing gravity.
[11:38.610 --> 11:55.850]  Cool kind of research you could do at SAM would be testing the capacity for going from like a fully plant-based carbon dioxide sequestration, you know, to supplant or fully replace physiochemical carbon dioxide sequestration.
[11:55.850 --> 12:04.130]  And Lunaris in Poland is built inside an old military base that is totally isolated from the outside world.
[12:05.970 --> 12:24.430]  And another example would be the Austrian Space Forum run missions in all different parts of the world, including some really interesting environments that are Mars analogues.
[12:24.430 --> 12:36.190]  They also have some reduced gravity simulators, such as this reduced gravity treadmill that our human is experimenting on right now.
[12:37.450 --> 12:43.510]  And CHAPEA at the Johnson Space Center is a 3D printed habitat.
[12:43.510 --> 12:51.690]  And they recently hosted, I think, a year-long mission with a crew of six or eight people.
[12:52.070 --> 13:05.850]  And they studied crew dynamics, isolation, and lots of other factors and challenges that humans would experience on the voyage to Mars.
[13:08.210 --> 13:08.930]  Okay.
[13:10.210 --> 13:14.610]  So, side quests can lead to things.
[13:16.150 --> 13:19.030]  It's always good to take non-traditional pathways.
[13:19.530 --> 13:27.290]  It's a kind of crazy story how we found ourselves in this whole community of analog astronauts.
[13:27.290 --> 13:30.470]  But strange things happen.
[13:30.730 --> 13:42.150]  And it's often good to listen to these very seemingly random things that happen around us and think, huh, it's the safe pathway that we want to take.
[13:43.730 --> 13:47.390]  So, how we got into all this in the first place.
[13:47.850 --> 13:55.510]  So, Liz and I had been going around trying to visit some of these facilities.
[13:56.190 --> 13:59.390]  We were in Hawaii, and we tried to visit high seas.
[14:00.630 --> 14:05.290]  And while there, I was doing some recordings of volcanoes.
[14:05.450 --> 14:09.070]  I'm on Fissure 8 right over here on Big Island.
[14:09.090 --> 14:17.070]  And I'm using a geophone, which is a very sensitive microphone that is usually used to detect seismic activity.
[14:17.070 --> 14:25.350]  So, I'm listening to the bubbling and ticking and clicking of the earth on top of a steaming volcano.
[14:26.570 --> 14:32.610]  But while we were there, we were trying to visit, as I mentioned, high seas.
[14:35.250 --> 14:45.170]  We got up to the gate, and we'd been trying to get in touch with the university contacts that were managing the space.
[14:46.590 --> 14:50.730]  And we finally got in touch with one of the people running the program.
[14:50.730 --> 14:53.730]  And we asked, oh, can we just go up and take some photographs?
[14:54.490 --> 14:57.810]  And they said to us, absolutely not.
[14:58.010 --> 14:59.730]  Do not go up there, please.
[15:00.470 --> 15:01.810]  That's sort of like, oh, phooey.
[15:02.090 --> 15:02.310]  Okay.
[15:02.590 --> 15:03.590]  We're thwarted.
[15:03.710 --> 15:11.470]  And we thought, well, maybe we'll make some other phone calls and figure out how to actually get up there.
[15:11.470 --> 15:17.230]  But while we were making some phone calls, the volcano erupted.
[15:17.750 --> 15:18.270]  Yes.
[15:18.630 --> 15:22.290]  Here we are at Mauna Loa, and it became very dangerous.
[15:22.310 --> 15:24.930]  And so we did not want to go up there.
[15:26.150 --> 15:26.730]  Yes.
[15:27.010 --> 15:32.830]  And you can see where we are in relation to high seas.
[15:33.150 --> 15:33.290]  Okay.
[15:33.470 --> 15:38.710]  So there's that arrow, high seas, and there we are, not very far.
[15:40.750 --> 15:45.030]  Yeah, it's not as scary as it looks, or was it?
[15:45.810 --> 15:46.310]  Okay.
[15:47.690 --> 15:54.550]  So anyway, how did it come to be that we were able to get onto one of these missions?
[15:55.230 --> 15:57.250]  And Liz can tell the story.
[15:59.230 --> 16:04.110]  One morning I was woken up by a call from our dear friend, Roger Gilbertson.
[16:04.110 --> 16:08.130]  Roger produced a film called Who Killed the Electric Car?
[16:08.770 --> 16:12.590]  And we met while working on that film.
[16:12.830 --> 16:17.130]  Roger is also a polymath, and he was one of the first hires at SpaceX.
[16:17.810 --> 16:20.770]  And I ended up being their first communications person.
[16:21.230 --> 16:31.010]  Anyway, Roger calls me and says, Liz, Scott, I am going to be the crew commander for an upcoming mission at the Mars Desert Research Station later this year.
[16:31.010 --> 16:34.710]  Would you like to apply to join the crew?
[16:35.030 --> 16:36.690]  And we said, yes, absolutely.
[16:37.030 --> 16:37.470]  Yes.
[16:37.690 --> 16:38.130]  Yes.
[16:38.270 --> 16:39.350]  We said yes.
[16:39.530 --> 16:42.770]  And then he said, wait, don't you want to hear any details?
[16:43.110 --> 16:45.010]  And we said, no, we know exactly what it is.
[16:45.150 --> 16:45.970]  Yes, please.
[16:47.250 --> 16:48.950]  So I was like, okay.
[16:49.430 --> 16:54.750]  So we wound up applying and pitching a few research projects.
[16:54.750 --> 16:58.530]  I wound up pitching the three different things.
[16:58.730 --> 17:04.690]  One is LiDAR scanning the campus of the Mars Desert Research Station.
[17:04.850 --> 17:15.530]  The second one is using the regolith around the base to do 3D printing.
[17:15.530 --> 17:22.030]  So I've designed several different open-source 3D printers and I wanted to test it out there.
[17:22.270 --> 17:36.030]  And then the final one was to test out my audio process prototype, the music on Mars filter that simulates the acoustic properties of Mars.
[17:36.030 --> 17:44.550]  And yeah, anyway, several months later, we were part of mission 286.
[17:45.630 --> 17:47.510]  And this is the mission patch.
[17:47.950 --> 17:52.970]  Some of the artifacts on mission patch include a film strip.
[17:52.970 --> 18:07.390]  That one is to signify the documentary film that is being made about space analog missions and other things by Hugo Saugier.
[18:07.950 --> 18:15.410]  Above that is the MetalBot SURFA 2, which is one of the 3D printers that I've designed.
[18:15.630 --> 18:22.870]  It's designed originally as a bike powered 3D food printer, but it can be used for other things as well.
[18:22.970 --> 18:26.730]  And there's a telescope up top, upside down.
[18:27.430 --> 18:32.710]  I was supposed to be the crew astronomer, but I wound up getting too busy with other stuff.
[18:33.090 --> 18:37.250]  And the bioreactor over here...
[18:38.330 --> 18:42.770]  Those bioreactors are designed by our crew scientist, Guillaume Gego.
[18:42.770 --> 18:53.710]  And in those he grew billions of new friends, edible purple bacteria, which sadly we did not get to eat.
[18:54.350 --> 18:55.050]  Yes.
[18:55.370 --> 18:59.770]  And below that is one of the LiDAR scanners that I have.
[18:59.950 --> 19:03.010]  It's an industrial LiDAR scanner that I travel around with.
[19:03.010 --> 19:08.870]  And yeah, at the bottom is the Mars Desert Research Station.
[19:10.170 --> 19:13.950]  And here is the campus map.
[19:14.150 --> 19:16.590]  It's a pretty big area.
[19:17.130 --> 19:21.230]  It is geologically similar to Mars.
[19:21.230 --> 19:30.790]  It is a Jurassic era, I guess, area.
[19:31.730 --> 19:32.170]  Yeah.
[19:32.750 --> 19:38.330]  And it's also on super high elevation, but at one point it was under the ocean.
[19:38.330 --> 19:43.910]  So it's a kind of testament to how geology changes over time.
[19:45.110 --> 19:49.270]  And smack dab, kind of in the middle, is the Mars Desert Research Station.
[19:50.010 --> 19:52.550]  It's really in the middle of nowhere.
[19:53.750 --> 19:54.230]  Okay.
[19:54.690 --> 19:59.710]  And this is the campus map that I put together.
[20:00.030 --> 20:08.430]  So I wound up LiDAR scanning the entire facility over the course of the few weeks that we were immersed.
[20:09.850 --> 20:11.090]  I mean...
[20:11.090 --> 20:11.610]  There we go.
[20:12.190 --> 20:12.690]  Yeah.
[20:12.990 --> 20:18.430]  So, first, we're kind of zipping around.
[20:18.590 --> 20:22.050]  And we can see that it is powered by solar panels.
[20:22.310 --> 20:25.450]  And off in the distance you see a telescope.
[20:25.730 --> 20:27.470]  There are two giant telescopes.
[20:27.630 --> 20:28.550]  You can see one over there.
[20:28.750 --> 20:34.470]  And there is the science dome in which we conduct science.
[20:34.770 --> 20:35.390]  Yes.
[20:35.390 --> 20:36.130]  And research.
[20:36.810 --> 20:42.590]  Between the different parts, you wind up seeing these tubes.
[20:42.850 --> 20:47.750]  They are supposed to simulate the pathways in between parts.
[20:47.910 --> 20:49.630]  That's the RAM, which is our workshop.
[20:49.930 --> 20:53.590]  Right next to it you see some electric carts.
[20:53.930 --> 21:00.190]  And that is the Mars Desert Research Station Living Hab, which we lived in for two weeks.
[21:00.190 --> 21:01.550]  And next to it is a greenhouse.
[21:04.780 --> 21:07.980]  You can kind of see the scale of this place.
[21:07.980 --> 21:10.140]  It's pretty amazing.
[21:10.760 --> 21:15.140]  It's a low-fidelity facility, so it is not pressurized.
[21:15.140 --> 21:27.960]  However, as part of the simulation training program, we cannot exit unless we are wearing a space suit or EVA simsuit.
[21:28.220 --> 21:34.260]  And off here in the distance was the first of two EVA concerts.
[21:34.820 --> 21:39.500]  Liz did the LIDAR scanning of all these folks, these astronauts.
[21:39.720 --> 21:46.040]  Here I am, kind of in a glitchy mess a little bit, playing my synthesizer.
[21:46.140 --> 21:47.920]  So you can kind of get an idea of the scale.
[21:49.320 --> 21:53.100]  Okay, this is us and the crew inside of the Science Dome.
[21:53.320 --> 22:02.640]  I wound up actually performing the first concert in the Science Dome in its 20-some-odd year history.
[22:03.660 --> 22:09.080]  I was allowed to do it because I was not just doing art, I was also doing research.
[22:10.100 --> 22:12.660]  They are very serious about research in here.
[22:12.860 --> 22:22.020]  Usually the facility is open to astronauts in training, to academics, to engineers.
[22:22.720 --> 22:27.380]  And you guys can apply as well if you are interested in conducting research there.
[22:28.320 --> 22:38.400]  Here we are practicing donning and doffing, which is putting on and taking off our sims spacesuits.
[22:40.620 --> 22:42.340]  Here we are in the airlock.
[22:45.000 --> 22:51.320]  And this is a little sample of what the Music on Mars filter sounds like.
[22:51.500 --> 22:57.020]  So basically I did a concert during an EVA at sunset.
[22:57.660 --> 23:02.680]  And I don't have a reference to it, but you can kind of hear the muffled sound.
[23:04.860 --> 23:20.220]  So one of the things about the acoustic properties of Mars, because of the carbon dioxide atmosphere and the thinness of the atmosphere, sound travels differently.
[23:20.600 --> 23:21.060]  Here we go.
[23:21.400 --> 23:23.400]  I'll just let you hear a sample of this and I'll explain it.
[23:36.450 --> 23:42.150]  So sound on Earth travels at 343 meters per second at sea level.
[23:42.430 --> 23:45.690]  On Mars there are two different speeds of sound.
[23:46.190 --> 23:53.990]  So we know this because there are two sets of microphones that are on the Perseverance rover.
[23:53.990 --> 23:58.090]  One has a range between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz.
[23:58.270 --> 24:02.450]  The other one has a range between 20 hertz and 50 kilohertz.
[24:02.770 --> 24:19.970]  And so with these microphones, the SuperCam team from the Perseverance rover recorded the sounds of lasers zapping rocks and the sound of the Opportunity copter whooshing.
[24:20.830 --> 24:36.390]  And so with those sound samples, they are able to do impulse response recordings that allow them to discover that sound travels on Mars at two different speeds.
[24:36.670 --> 24:45.350]  So between 20 hertz to 240 hertz, sound travels at 240 meters per second.
[24:45.350 --> 24:59.230]  However, the pitch increases from 240 meters, sorry, 240 hertz and up, sound travels at 250 meters per second.
[24:59.570 --> 25:12.470]  And then another interesting thing that happens is that it completely attenuates at five kilohertz, meaning that we only hear the low end of the audio spectrum.
[25:13.870 --> 25:15.110]  And here we go.
[25:16.330 --> 25:19.110]  And so I was testing this out with my thing.
[25:19.270 --> 25:29.570]  And in the future, you'll be able to hear the comparisons between the Mars version and the Earth version when I release this.
[25:30.030 --> 25:33.230]  Here I am collecting regular samples for 3D printing.
[25:34.210 --> 25:36.790]  I have a space bucket.
[25:37.470 --> 25:39.610]  No, it's actually just a regular bucket.
[25:39.610 --> 25:42.450]  I'm outside of the Science Dome.
[25:42.990 --> 25:47.610]  And I'm struggling to adjust my headset.
[25:49.210 --> 25:49.570]  Oops.
[25:50.650 --> 25:51.170]  Oh, wait.
[25:51.890 --> 25:52.330]  There we go.
[25:52.930 --> 25:53.090]  Okay.
[25:53.490 --> 25:56.290]  And Liz is drone mapping the terrain.
[25:57.710 --> 26:03.690]  And here is some LiDAR scanning I was doing with my homemade LiDAR scanner.
[26:05.130 --> 26:15.550]  And yes, this is Hugo Saugier, who is making a documentary film about his grandfather, who was one of the founders of the European Space Agency.
[26:15.550 --> 26:19.410]  And so he was including our adventure at the Mars Desert Research Station.
[26:20.030 --> 26:20.870]  And this...
[26:20.870 --> 26:21.230]  Okay.
[26:21.770 --> 26:27.030]  So, after we did this mission, we were...
[26:27.870 --> 26:32.570]  We felt like we wanted to continue doing more missions, but we wanted to go deeper.
[26:33.250 --> 26:40.510]  And part of that was that we wanted to have an ecologically sustainable, all-vegan mission.
[26:40.510 --> 26:55.530]  So, we actually did bring our own food with us, but a lot of the food that's provided at the Mars Desert Research Station is a typical space agency kind of fare.
[26:56.310 --> 27:01.110]  It's like a lot of dehydrated food and other stuff like that, but nothing incredibly nutritious.
[27:02.210 --> 27:18.910]  So, I thought to myself, like, well, what if we were to have an all-vegan diet in space, or on Mars, and the base were to be ecologically sustainable, and that it would also feature all the different weird governance exercises and other types of things that we're into.
[27:19.270 --> 27:21.850]  And we thought, well, let's just create it ourselves.
[27:24.010 --> 27:24.450]  Okay.
[27:27.410 --> 27:28.650]  And here we go.
[27:31.350 --> 27:42.690]  So, introducing Off World Voyage, which is dedicated to the development of space analog research habitats that also address climate bio-devastation on Earth.
[27:43.210 --> 27:50.350]  They are science-based, all-vegan, zero-waste, intermediate fidelity, and all other kinds of stuff.
[27:50.970 --> 27:52.650]  And here we go.
[27:52.870 --> 27:54.350]  Well, why do people become vegan?
[27:54.510 --> 27:56.250]  It's one of the questions that people ask.
[27:57.570 --> 28:05.450]  Respect for sentient beings, care for the environment, better health, everyday life of boycott of animal agriculture.
[28:06.210 --> 28:18.950]  And some people believe that it is for karma-free telepathic communication with inter-dimensional entities and its extraterrestrials, which may or may not be the case.
[28:18.950 --> 28:28.950]  Anyway, why does it make sense to do an all-vegan, plant-based space analog research mission?
[28:29.250 --> 28:36.310]  Well, one is that it is the least impactful diet that we can have.
[28:36.310 --> 28:45.950]  It consumes a lot less electricity, uses a lot less energy, a lot less water.
[28:46.310 --> 28:50.450]  It's much better in terms of dealing with resource scarcity.
[28:52.410 --> 28:54.050]  And here we go.
[28:54.350 --> 28:56.790]  I'm going to show you the base.
[28:58.030 --> 29:00.090]  And this is the Mars...
[29:00.090 --> 29:04.610]  This is the Off-World Voyage Mars Tesseract Habitat 1.
[29:05.310 --> 29:10.490]  Mars stands for Mars Analog Research Station, which is a fractal.
[29:11.470 --> 29:13.010]  Okay, check it out.
[29:14.010 --> 29:22.010]  So, Michael Flood and I spent a month and a half working on the designs of these habitats.
[29:22.550 --> 29:38.330]  We did everything in Blender, in terms of actually doing the base design, and then we did all the engineering inside of it as well, and a few other programs.
[29:40.530 --> 29:45.590]  So, you can kind of see... get some idea of the scale in a moment.
[29:47.610 --> 29:50.490]  There you see some of the astronauts on the berms.
[29:50.550 --> 29:56.890]  So, the giant domes are... of the Tesseract 1 are 13 meters in diameter.
[29:57.110 --> 30:04.410]  Like, right behind you, you see the Green Hab, which is where we grow food and all that other stuff.
[30:04.410 --> 30:10.810]  And the other domes are both 6 meters in diameter and 5 meters, respectively.
[30:13.610 --> 30:13.750]  Okay.
[30:14.950 --> 30:17.470]  So, let's talk a little bit about the Green Hab.
[30:17.970 --> 30:23.870]  So, inside of the Green Hab, we're going to be doing hydroponics, aeroponics.
[30:23.870 --> 30:25.810]  We'll be growing algae.
[30:26.430 --> 30:35.730]  We're also going to do experiments in greywater purification and other stuff.
[30:36.010 --> 30:40.070]  And we will also be growing fungi.
[30:44.320 --> 30:44.920]  Okay.
[30:46.980 --> 30:52.840]  So, this is just a simulation as to what it will look like when we build these out.
[30:52.840 --> 30:58.020]  Our plan at this point is to do the first inaugural mission sometime next year.
[30:58.280 --> 31:05.020]  We're currently looking at locations in Australia, in the middle of nowhere, in the outback.
[31:05.220 --> 31:08.080]  And there are some other locations we're looking at in Portugal.
[31:08.560 --> 31:14.540]  And possibly, we'll do something in the United States in the near future as well.
[31:15.960 --> 31:20.960]  And this is the interior of the donning and doffing dome.
[31:21.220 --> 31:26.980]  This is where we will put spacesuits on and take them off as well.
[31:28.740 --> 31:34.200]  And here's a little tour of the interior that I designed with Michael.
[31:34.560 --> 31:35.100]  Okay.
[31:35.100 --> 31:37.240]  Here we are inside of the Green Hab.
[31:38.220 --> 31:43.740]  And you can see all of the bioreactors for algae on the walls.
[31:44.020 --> 31:48.760]  And there are some electricity generators and pedal generators.
[31:49.120 --> 31:58.020]  Up top, you see the aquaponic or hydroponic towers.
[31:58.440 --> 32:00.320]  Sorry, it's going by so quickly.
[32:02.960 --> 32:09.800]  And this is the laboratory and makerspace slash fab lab.
[32:10.840 --> 32:15.020]  So, it's a dome dedicated to all those types of activities.
[32:15.520 --> 32:17.740]  There's definitely some storage space.
[32:17.740 --> 32:20.200]  We will be recycling absolutely everything.
[32:20.440 --> 32:27.620]  And here's the donning and doffing facility where you see all of our EVA simsuits.
[32:29.520 --> 32:31.240]  And this is the living quarters.
[32:31.560 --> 32:37.240]  There's a kitchen and a flow space, kind of exercise space.
[32:37.440 --> 32:40.840]  And up top, we will be sleeping in these hexi-yurts.
[32:44.700 --> 32:46.700]  And I think that's it.
[32:46.820 --> 32:47.300]  Let's see.
[32:47.660 --> 32:48.880]  More storage.
[32:51.700 --> 32:53.680]  And the sick bay.
[32:53.680 --> 32:54.640]  Okay.
[32:54.720 --> 32:59.440]  Do you want to talk a little bit about the space medicine sick bay that you'll be heading up?
[33:00.540 --> 33:01.200]  Yeah.
[33:01.380 --> 33:12.660]  So, we will be doing a few different sort of biology and human physiology related experiments and projects with the inaugural mission.
[33:13.420 --> 33:20.740]  The suits we will have will be pressurized suits, pressurized simulated space suits.
[33:20.980 --> 33:28.200]  And they will be embedded with biosensors for measuring, obviously, carbon dioxide levels in the suit.
[33:28.200 --> 33:50.860]  But also, different kinds of motion centers, skin response, measuring different kinds of stress markers while we're outside, trying to figure out how to operate tools and move around appropriately in pressurized suits, which is its, you know, its own, you know, skill to acquire.
[33:52.620 --> 34:19.280]  And we'll also be running different kinds of simulated issues and problems throughout the mission, including simulations of, like, viral infections among the crew, possible different sorts of psychological stress, simulations and how to deal with those,
[34:19.480 --> 34:27.540]  with the crew, as well as experiments with, you know, losing contact with mission support.
[34:27.900 --> 34:46.820]  And that will be, you know, an exercise, I guess, in sort of autonomy with the crew, learning how to make difficult decisions and solve complex problems, you know, without outside, without an outside entity instructing you on what to do.
[34:48.980 --> 35:02.400]  And if any of you are interested in plugging into this project, we're enthusiasts of open-source hardware, open-source software, free and libre open-source software and hardware.
[35:03.160 --> 35:10.740]  So if you have any ideas for biosensors or any other things, please get in touch with us.
[35:10.740 --> 35:12.360]  There we go.
[35:13.780 --> 35:14.080]  Okay.
[35:14.800 --> 35:16.720]  So, some of the features.
[35:17.040 --> 35:21.200]  We have a very strong focus on Ecotech.
[35:21.580 --> 35:23.980]  We're going to be doing pressurized EVAs.
[35:24.120 --> 35:27.980]  However, our facilities will be non-pressurized as of now.
[35:29.600 --> 35:36.060]  And we will be looking for locations that have a geology similar to Mars.
[35:37.440 --> 35:38.260]  Yeah.
[35:38.720 --> 35:47.820]  And as you could see from the domes and the platform, we focus on modular and scalable design patterns.
[35:48.220 --> 35:56.420]  So, the base actually is going to be on top of a space frame platform.
[35:57.160 --> 35:57.800]  And...
[35:57.800 --> 35:58.540]  Yeah.
[35:59.840 --> 36:00.340]  Okay.
[36:00.700 --> 36:02.760]  I mentioned the problem-solving area.
[36:03.060 --> 36:03.400]  Okay.
[36:03.560 --> 36:04.740]  So, we've gone over this already.
[36:05.940 --> 36:06.580]  Okay.
[36:06.880 --> 36:17.060]  So, in order to make this a little bit more accurate, we decided to get pressurized spacesuits made.
[36:17.060 --> 36:25.480]  So, here we are with Cameron Smith, who is the founder of Smith Exploration Garments.
[36:25.710 --> 36:32.440]  We went out to Portland, Oregon to his workshop to get fitted four spacesuits.
[36:32.440 --> 36:43.660]  You can kind of see him in the bottom over there using my LIDAR scanner to scan my body so that we could get very accurate fittings.
[36:44.380 --> 36:55.940]  And then, on the bottom right, you can kind of see one of the spacesuits that he inflated in order for me to be able to scan it.
[36:57.280 --> 37:07.700]  We'll be doing pressurized missions in these suits probably up to 3 bar, but I believe that the suits can do either 10 or 15 bar.
[37:08.660 --> 37:09.320]  Yeah.
[37:10.000 --> 37:11.260]  So, yeah.
[37:11.380 --> 37:23.380]  Cameron's been actually taking some of these prototypes up into high altitude in balloons and actually trying them out while he's up there.
[37:24.840 --> 37:26.100]  And, yeah.
[37:26.300 --> 37:31.040]  These are the EVA simsuits that we just had made.
[37:31.160 --> 37:33.860]  These are the off-world voyage suits.
[37:34.100 --> 37:42.300]  The arms are pretty unique in that we can put on and remove the gloves very quickly.
[37:42.980 --> 37:43.980]  And, yeah.
[37:44.060 --> 37:48.640]  It's a couple of new innovations that we collaborated on.
[37:48.740 --> 37:50.180]  So, I'm pretty excited for this.
[37:51.660 --> 37:52.700]  Okay.
[37:54.960 --> 38:24.800]  So, given the current attack by these kind of, like, right-wing populist forces, these kind of anti-rational forces that are doing things like defunding NASA and defunding the National Science Foundation and trying to crash satellites that are gathering climate data into the Earth's atmosphere.
[38:25.080 --> 38:30.160]  How do we treat this, given this current, you know, this current attack?
[38:30.460 --> 38:34.700]  Well, one thing is that we need to go harder.
[38:34.700 --> 38:48.160]  Because we need a world in which we have good data, in which everybody has access to information and an equal opportunity for education.
[38:48.620 --> 38:53.040]  So, we're pretty uncompromising about science.
[38:53.040 --> 38:53.680]  Thank you.
[38:53.820 --> 38:54.280]  Thank you.
[38:58.120 --> 38:59.300]  Appreciate that, guys.
[39:00.120 --> 39:00.360]  Okay.
[39:05.960 --> 39:13.380]  So, very important things that have emerged in terms of innovations from, you know, from space programs.
[39:13.380 --> 39:15.520]  Of course, GPS is one of them.
[39:16.080 --> 39:18.180]  Various types of spectrometry.
[39:19.280 --> 39:20.540]  Mapping of weather.
[39:20.840 --> 39:21.360]  Velcro.
[39:22.260 --> 39:25.780]  And some people would even say tang.
[39:26.400 --> 39:26.960]  But...
[39:26.960 --> 39:28.800]  Like the drink.
[39:29.080 --> 39:29.180]  Yes.
[39:29.860 --> 39:30.740]  But, yeah.
[39:30.860 --> 39:34.360]  There are lots of innovations that are constantly coming out.
[39:34.580 --> 39:49.900]  One of the things that's been on my radar for a while is the SHERLOC, which is a spectrometer that's on the Mars Perseverance rover that is able to do high-resolution photospectrometry.
[39:49.900 --> 39:51.920]  It's super interesting tools.
[39:52.260 --> 39:56.320]  But, SHERLOC, S-H-E-R-L-O-C, if you want to check it out.
[39:58.640 --> 39:59.280]  Yes.
[40:00.080 --> 40:07.120]  Also, most of the work of NASA is actually earth science, that we're looking at weather patterns.
[40:07.300 --> 40:08.220]  We're looking at...
[40:09.580 --> 40:11.380]  We're looking at...
[40:13.020 --> 40:14.240]  Geological changes.
[40:14.740 --> 40:18.100]  We're looking at agricultural patterns.
[40:18.100 --> 40:20.500]  All these different types of things.
[40:20.680 --> 40:21.100]  And that's...
[40:21.100 --> 40:28.200]  It's very important to have an awareness of what's going on in our world.
[40:28.400 --> 40:30.780]  And for everybody to have access to that.
[40:31.000 --> 40:36.460]  So that we can all analyze it and collaborate on understanding it.
[40:37.460 --> 40:38.120]  Okay.
[40:40.120 --> 40:40.880]  Yes.
[40:41.260 --> 40:41.820]  Okay.
[40:41.820 --> 40:41.840]  Okay.
[40:42.420 --> 40:44.640]  So one of the things, as Liz mentioned...
[40:44.640 --> 40:44.920]  Okay.
[40:45.120 --> 40:48.920]  One of the things Liz mentioned is a real-life simulation role play.
[40:49.960 --> 40:59.300]  So we're going to have a lot of different types of simulations of things that can happen in these missions.
[41:00.100 --> 41:04.140]  For example, solar storms, astronauts getting sick.
[41:04.140 --> 41:08.500]  We're going to also look at time-delayed networking.
[41:08.500 --> 41:34.820]  So we'll look at latency in different ways of coordinating actions that happen in a certain timeline, but are uncoordinated due to the reality of the distance that it takes for information to travel from Earth to Mars, either via line of sight or via a whole network of satellites.
[41:35.040 --> 41:39.060]  So we're going to be looking at that, looking at dealing with latency.
[41:40.820 --> 41:41.380]  And...
[41:41.380 --> 41:41.660]  Yeah.
[41:42.260 --> 41:42.860]  Here we go.
[41:42.980 --> 41:44.980]  Some of the other activities that we're going to have.
[41:49.940 --> 41:50.580]  And...
[41:50.580 --> 41:50.900]  Yeah.
[41:52.600 --> 41:53.240]  Okay.
[41:56.220 --> 42:07.360]  So one of the other things, too, is that we're going to be trying to manage human waste and compost our foods.
[42:07.360 --> 42:14.140]  We're planning to convert a lot of the biogases into usable things.
[42:14.500 --> 42:17.720]  Like, for example, bioplastics and cooking fuel.
[42:18.000 --> 42:21.960]  We're also going to be playing around a lot with mesh networking.
[42:22.200 --> 42:30.140]  I don't know if you guys are aware of Meshtastic, which is an absolutely fantastic project that we really love.
[42:31.740 --> 42:32.220]  And...
[42:32.220 --> 42:32.620]  Yeah.
[42:34.100 --> 42:34.580]  Okay.
[42:38.460 --> 42:38.940]  Okay.
[42:39.040 --> 42:43.040]  We only have a couple of moments, so I have to rush through this.
[42:46.020 --> 42:46.500]  Okay.
[42:46.660 --> 42:47.760]  And this is one of your quotes.
[42:50.020 --> 42:55.340]  Well, I mean, to build on what you said earlier, a lot of the...
[42:56.280 --> 43:09.060]  A lot of what we've gotten out of, you know, space programs, things like GPS, different communications technologies, these are also absolutely public goods.
[43:09.460 --> 43:27.780]  And we may be, you know, in a time when, you know, some of these public goods, like communications technologies, and also, like, access to free scientific data and information become sort of another arena for artificial scarcification.
[43:28.300 --> 43:29.900]  And it's...
[43:29.900 --> 43:43.440]  So it's just so urgently important to make all of this information available to everyone for free and to keep, you know, access to this publishing open.
[43:45.240 --> 43:45.720]  And...
[43:45.720 --> 43:46.200]  Go on.
[43:46.540 --> 43:46.920]  Yeah.
[43:47.300 --> 43:47.780]  Yeah.
[43:47.780 --> 43:48.580]  And, yeah.
[43:48.880 --> 43:58.440]  So as we zip through to the end, because we're running out of time, you guys can check out some of these slides later in the recording.
[43:59.220 --> 44:05.620]  You can see some of the things that we're focusing on, especially the mutual aid aspect.
[44:05.620 --> 44:27.920]  And one of the things also that we're predicting is that in the future, the way to get to space will not only be via military or government, but we'll have other types of economic configurations, like DAOs and things that we haven't even imagined yet that will enable us to get out of the Earth's atmosphere and allow us to explore.
[44:29.630 --> 44:37.690]  One thing we're focusing on are lighter-than-air vehicles and airship-to-orbit technology.
[44:37.990 --> 44:54.370]  So rather than having a rocket bring us up to space in six minutes, it is possible to get up to the upper atmosphere over time using lighter-than-air vehicles.
[44:55.130 --> 44:59.210]  That's something we're really thinking about and pushing forward in.
[45:01.250 --> 45:01.890]  Okay.
[45:03.130 --> 45:03.770]  Yeah.
[45:03.970 --> 45:07.870]  So a lot of the work that we're doing will be contributed to peer-reviewed journals.
[45:08.350 --> 45:21.610]  We are part of the Journal for Space Analog Research, which is a Mars Society initiative, which is also in conjunction with the Purdue University's journal.
[45:23.930 --> 45:31.210]  We're partnered with the Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments from Purdue University.
[45:31.210 --> 45:48.370]  So, if any of you are doing research on various aspects of, you know, how humans perform, act, etc., in extreme environments in Earth and in simulated space environments, submissions are open.
[45:49.170 --> 45:49.550]  Yes.
[45:50.450 --> 45:53.490]  And here are some of the other models for support.
[45:53.490 --> 45:57.650]  Currently, we are self-funded, but we're going for grants.
[45:57.670 --> 46:00.890]  And we have a few other ideas as to how to fund this.
[46:01.210 --> 46:06.050]  And we're doing everything at this point in a kind of like scrappy, bootstrapped way.
[46:06.370 --> 46:08.790]  But we hope to grow it in the future.
[46:11.230 --> 46:12.490]  And here we go.
[46:12.490 --> 46:17.950]  So, so far, what we've done is the CAD and systems design, the internal systems engineering.
[46:18.310 --> 46:20.230]  We have the EVA pressure suits.
[46:20.230 --> 46:25.170]  And now we're deciding on where we're going to do our missions.
[46:25.790 --> 46:29.150]  And we're also starting to open up crew submission applications.
[46:29.150 --> 46:33.690]  So, if any of you are interested in participating, please reach out.
[46:34.010 --> 46:38.970]  And here are some of the ways that people can plug in and participate in our project.
[46:40.170 --> 46:42.570]  And, yeah, we've already announced, let's see.
[46:43.230 --> 46:48.130]  The world's biggest analog in fall 2025 is a thing we may participate in.
[46:48.270 --> 46:52.590]  It is a coordinated mission between all the space analog research facilities around the world.
[46:53.990 --> 46:57.830]  You're writing a piece right now on the Mars Desert Research Station mission.
[46:58.110 --> 46:59.990]  We're short on time, so we can skip that.
[47:00.250 --> 47:00.470]  Yeah.
[47:00.690 --> 47:07.090]  And here we have the call papers from the Journal for Space Analog Research and the Analog Astronaut Research Journal.
[47:07.770 --> 47:12.270]  And a huge Hackerly thank you to the organizers.
[47:12.710 --> 47:15.850]  This is... I've been to many hopes.
[47:15.990 --> 47:17.490]  My first hope was in 2000.
[47:18.070 --> 47:25.810]  And I've been coming back every year and very happy to give talks on my projects and make all kinds of contributions.
[47:26.190 --> 47:27.350]  I love this conference.
[47:27.550 --> 47:28.930]  I love 2600 Magazine.
[47:28.930 --> 47:30.790]  I have since I'm a teenager.
[47:31.550 --> 47:34.710]  And yeah, big thanks.
[47:35.310 --> 47:37.410]  And this is how you get in touch with us.
[47:38.510 --> 47:38.910]  Okay.
[47:39.770 --> 47:41.350]  Do we have time for one question?
[47:44.250 --> 47:45.010]  We'll make time.
[47:45.110 --> 47:45.770]  One question.
[47:46.110 --> 47:48.890]  So anybody here want to ask a question real quick?
[47:48.990 --> 47:50.690]  Otherwise, I'll go to the chat room.
[47:51.110 --> 47:55.590]  I'm going to take one here that says, what are some things from training that you adopted into your home or life?
[47:55.590 --> 47:56.190]  Sorry.
[47:56.270 --> 47:56.930]  Say that one more time.
[47:57.270 --> 48:01.910]  What are some things that you've learned through this training that you've adapted into your home and home life?
[48:02.990 --> 48:04.570]  Do you want me to go first or you go first?
[48:06.730 --> 48:20.790]  I would say that the biggest thing I've taken away from the Mars Desert Research Station mission is how important it is to care for your fellow crew members.
[48:21.570 --> 48:22.090]  Absolutely.
[48:22.350 --> 48:23.350]  I think that's a great answer.
[48:23.650 --> 48:23.870]  All right.
[48:23.970 --> 48:24.390]  Thank you again.
[48:24.550 --> 48:25.850]  Give a big round of applause.
[48:26.510 --> 48:27.490]  Really appreciate it.
[48:29.070 --> 48:32.590]  I'll just say the thing that I learned is just to go deeper.
[48:32.790 --> 48:40.250]  If you're interested in something, go as deep as you possibly can and live your life into your ideas.
[48:40.250 --> 48:42.910]  Incorporate them as deeply as you possibly can.
[48:43.530 --> 48:45.630]  And don't worry about the naysayers.
[48:45.790 --> 48:47.970]  Just go for it as deeply as you can.
[48:48.210 --> 48:49.830]  Thank you guys so much for coming.
[48:50.470 --> 48:50.990]  Okay.
[48:51.710 --> 48:54.350]  Huge thanks to Andrew as well for being our Herald.