UND all-female crew finishes 10 day “space” mission Friday (Released by UND – J. Pedraza – Public Relations)

WHO: An all-female international team of three graduate students boarded the University of North Dakota’s Inflatable Lunar-Mars Habitat (ILMH)

WHAT: 10 day sealed mission aboard the UND ILMH concludes

WHEN: CREW IS SCHEDULED TO EXIT ILMH 11 a.m. FRIDAY

WHERE: UND ILMH located in industrial park west of I-29 off University Ave. (behind National Weather Service building).

Background: Last week, the three-woman crew boarded the UND Aerospace ILMH for a 10 day “space mission”.

The crew performed a variety of experiments mainly related to the psychology of what happens in the isolation of space missions and how such isolation affects crew cohesion, according to ILMH PI Pablo de León, a faculty member in the UND Department of Space Studies and the lead investigator on this third ILMH mission. De León also is director of the UND Space Suit Laboratory with several NASA grants under his belt, including a recent grant to expand the ILMH.

“What we’re trying to simulate here is a high isolation mission, meaning that there will be no extra-vehicular activities, no ‘space walks,’ during the 10 days,” he said.

The crew:

The three crew members—all master’s degree candidates in space studies—and their roles on the mission are (in alphabetical order):

*Carolyn Newton, Weeki Wachee, Fla. – Newton, with an undergrad degree in human factors, is working with how personality and humor affect individual stress in isolation and confinement. Her areas of interest are space human factors and space psychology.

*Poonam Josan, Amritsar, India, is an aerospace engineer who will research how confinement in the ILMH—there won’t be any extra-vehicular activities as there were on previous ILMH missions—and sunlight affect mood and circadian rhythms (sleep). Her areas of interest are mitigating technologies for vestibular and neuromotor behavior in the reduced gravity planetary environment.

*Brittany Zimmerman, San Bernardino, Calif., and Stevens Point, Wis., a mechanical engineer, will be in charge of the mission’s bio-regenerative life support systems. She’ll study the use of plants to keep the crew healthy. Her areas of interest are engineering biospheres and life support systems for long-duration spaceflight with an emphasis on hybrid bio-regenerative and physical-chemical systems. Zimmerman is using the mission experiment she’s in charge of as part of her master’s thesis; she graduates in August.

The mission controller is Sophie Orr, a physical anthropologist and master’s space studies student from Palo Alto, Calif. Her primary interest is in human physical adaptation to spaceflight. For this mission, Orr basically supports the crew, performing the tech setup and the meal plans—including gluten-free and vegetarian meals—prior to “launch,” and mission support during the mission. Orr also is proctoring the on-board scientific questionnaires among other tasks. She’s on standby 24/7 during the mission to assist with crew needs.

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Contact:

Juan Miguel Pedraza, Writer/Editor

National Media Relations Coordinator

Public Relations Group

Division of University & Public Affairs