Hi, I'm Sylvester Little Jr. and
welcome to Boiler Bytes, the show that
gives you an in-depth look at what's
happening on the Purdue campus.  It's been
43 years since Purdue graduate Eugene
Cernan left the last boot print on the
surface of the Moon.   As NASA sets its
sights beyond the moon, researchers on
earth are beginning to investigate what
it would take to send a manned mission
to Mars.  Recently a Purdue doctoral
student participated in one of these
unique research projects.
8 months of an unchanging
landscape.  There is little evidence of
any civilization, no animal life, plant life.
So up there it's an ideal location to
pretend like you're on Mars.
HI-SEAS is the Hawaii Space
Exploration Analog and Simulation.
There on Mauna Loa, a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, they put crews of astronaut-like individuals
to see how they fare with the
psychological and social challenge of
being isolated and confined in such an
extreme situation for a long duration - as
if they were on Mars.  I signed up for the
HI-SEAS program...it just really spoke
to my interests...I am
an Aerospace Engineer and a Biomedical
Engineer and I've always been interested
in how to keep astronauts healthy and
thriving and such an extreme environment.
I would say for the most part, we were a really good group and we fit together well.  There were some
issues that needed to be addressed over
time, but we tried to really address them as soon
as possible and not let them fester over the long duration of 8 months.  We arrived in Hawaii for a couple
weeks of training and then were sent to Mars.
I went in October 2014 and came out in June 2015...so an 8-month mission.  I almost relished in the idea of being
away from everyone for 8 months so that I could focus on my research and have this really honest and observable
perspective of myself and my
capabilities.  And to be away from everything
and really see who I am and what I
like to do and how I interact with
others in this limited environment.   We
had a small habitat about 8,000 square
feet - so  a modest one to two bedroom
apartment shared with six others for
this long duration of 8 months.  One
of the challenges of being in such close
proximity is having alone time.   You never
can be alone truly...even in our small
private quarters we had rooms with very
thin walls so there is no sound proofing
available.  You could always hear what was going on.  On the mission I was the chief
scientist so my primary objective was to
communicate with the other researchers
all around the U.S. and make sure that we
are performing and facilitating their
work and providing all the data.  Many of the studies were questionnaire-based to ask us
about how we're feeling and experiencing
the environment.  But we also had a lot of
different instrumentation in the habs...so
cameras that were watching our
activities, sociometer badges that we had
to wear around their necks that measure
the proximity to one another and the
volume of the production of our voice, so
they could see who's hanging out with
who, and how that evolves over time.
In the habitat, our typical day would start out kind of like on earth, have some coffee and breakfast.
Ask each other how we slept or look at our data from our wristbands and see quantitative information on
our sleep.  Then from there, we might
prepare for an EVA.  Which was probably my favorite
part of the missions, going out in the
mock space suits and charting out the
volcanic terrain, exploring some of the
lava tubes that are cave-like structures.
And then in the afternoon, we'd actually
spend a lot of time doing and
energy-intensive things when the Sun was
out so maybe cooking or using the
treadmill.  We would come together for
dinner and maybe do some social
activities, play board games or watch a
movie or just get back to our research often times.
Throughout this whole time we're doing
surveys, explaining how we feel,
monitoring our interactions, we'd have to
check in and say how was our most recent
interaction.  Was it frustrating?  Was it satisfying?  Was it helpful?
We missed a lot of holidays starting in
October...we had Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, and New Years.   The list just goes on and also I missed my sister's wedding...
which is really difficult.   One of the
moments where I actually had a bit of
privacy was when he crew was really
understanding about how I needed to make
a private video for my sister - a toast to
her and her husband on their wedding day.
It's definitely one of the worst things about the mission is missing your special day.  I raise this glass to you Kayla,
my little sister, my brother-in-law Lee and your precious daughter Mara.
NASA CONTROL:  "3-2-1...
and zero and liftoff on Space Shuttle Atlantis."
I think I saw my first space shuttle launch when I was about 5 years-old and from then on, I was mesmerized by the whole
idea.   Here at Purdue I'm in my final year
pf PhD studies in the School of
Industrial Engineering.   I studied data
driven health monitoring, so I was able
to collect data while I was there on the
mission.  And I'm investigating the concept of
stress and what it means for the
performance of athletes and astronauts.
It's been confirmed over the years, my love of research and pursuing knowledge and
discovery in science and engineering, that I really want to be contributing to the space
program one way or another.  Well, I'm currently applying to be an astronaut.  There's a call for the 2016 class.  That would be a dream obviously.
Besides that, I'm looking to continue my
research and academia.
I really enjoyed being able to be confined
with so many other talented scientists
and engineers who have such similar
interests and that was a rewarding
experience in itself.   And to test myself
in this confined environment and see if
I have what it takes to maybe be an astronaut some day.
If Jocelyn is selected to be an
astronaut, she will continue a rich
Purdue tradition that's already produced
23 astronauts - the most of any public institution.
That wraps up another Boiler Bytes.   Check us out online at boilerbytes.com
See you next time!
