Thanks to a drone, they will save an astronaut lost on “Mars”… in Utah
For three weeks, their horizon will be limited to this red rock, so similar to that of Mars. Seven students from
Isae-Superaero will, from February 20, reconfine themselves to advance space science. To achieve this, they will integrate the American Mars environment simulation station, deployed in the Utah desert.
They will conduct a dozen experiments there, one of which will focus on geology. The Crew 263 will thus probe the surroundings of the station using a laser spectroscopy instrument, in particular in partnership with the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology of Toulouse. “He lends us the instrument which is on the same principle as the one on Supercam. We said to ourselves that if we could do it on a rover, why not test it in the Utah desert with a portable model”, explains Marine Prunier, president of the Mars Club of Isae which is part of the adventure.
Sleep and rescue program at
With his acolytes they will also test the Dreem headbandwhich makes it possible to analyze the quality of sleep and to correlate it with its cognitive abilities.
They will also put themselves in the shoes of an astronaut, faced with a disaster scenario, that of getting lost on Mars. On the border between science and fiction. A good way to test the role that a drone could play in finding him. While a first engine of this type flew last year on the red planet, they will test thanks to a device from the French company Parrot, the possibility of going to rescue a lost astronaut, to find him thanks to a thermal camera. and guide him to the life base.
“We are doing our bit to facilitate the future potential of man in space,” continues Marine Prunier, who already claims to have learned a lot by talking to all the scientists who will use the results of their research.