Our guest speaker James Russell, a Ph.D.. candidate in aerospace
engineering at CU presented his Mars Society paper on the MDRS as a
space exploration analog, looking at various of the internal and
external factors that an analog has to reproduce in order to be a more
or less realistic facsimile of an other-planet exploration mission. In
particular, with regards to a Mars mission requiring a crew of six, two
and a half year duration, distance and isolation from Earth, including
180 days in microgravity, an analog test bed is crucial to try to
anticipate difficulties and their solutions before the actual expedition
occurs. He made comparisons and listed strengths and weaknesses of a
number of analog test beds including MDRS, polar, underwater, lunar and
LEO, closed-system simulators and discussed the advantages and
disadvantages of each in terms of their abilities to accurately simulate
a mission environment. Each had their merits and flaws with all the
terrestrial bases having the distinct inability to simulate
microgravity, yet with ISS not being able at this point to provide an
adequate substitute.

He also looked at the time-studies of how astronauts spend their time
doing which duties while in space and how MDRS compared to those time
breakouts with a clear discrepancy showing re: the amount of time spent
on doing maintainance/support (hab and life) taking up far more mission
time in space leaving less time for exploration and science work as
compared to the MDRS schedules. MDRS could certainly be arranged to
increase those internal maintenance times as well as an enforced
isolation of predictable time periods on a consistent basis (he
suggested ten days) so as to create a data base of comparable numbers
and variables which are currently sorely lacking in the field and the
literature.

In his analysis of MDRS crew switches he suggested that we develop
manuals and skill sets for experiments to be transferred for long-term
and ongoing studies that exceed the normal crew rotations of two weeks
including the possibility of greater automation and computer-monitored
controls and used the Green Hab as a good model for developing that kind
of system. He will post his study and results later on the web when he
has polished and will submit it to the RMMS website when available.

The business meeting include the fact that we have to nominate some
new Board members and officers (due to the term-limited chair expiring)
for the upcoming chapter cycle and there was a noticeable lack of
time and availability for the current members to be able to take the
roles, especially the president and vice presidency seats. Some
discussion was had that we may have to disband the chapter if those
roles are not filled and at the same time a strong desire was expressed
by all to continue the meetings for our own interests, passions and the
ability to meet with like-minded people for ongoing discussion and
learning. It was decided that we could continue in that capacity
regardless of how the nominations turn out and it was also decided to
put out a request (plea) to the mailing list for any interested persons
to step up for the available positions. We also discussed the
possibility of changing our meeting times to accommodate more people but
did not have a consensus on what time might be best. The results will be
determined at the next chapter meeting at the same place on 11-15-04.

-- Jim Weber