My time at the:
The Mission Statement:
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is an analog Mars habitat built and operated by the Mars Society, a space advocacy and research nonprofit. Every 2-3 weeks, a new crew rotates in to live an immersive simulation Mars mission while performing geological tests, horticulture, behavioral studies, and all other manners of research.
The goal of the facility is to provide an accessible analogous testbed in pursuit of the technology, operations, and science required for human space exploration.
MDRS Crew 236 - Cradle of Martians: (December 19, 2021 - January 1, 2022)
MDRS 236 Mission Patch
I was also conducting my own research aboard the station: continuing my Earth-Mars Signal Propagation surveys from the previous mission, but this time with marginal funding from the Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR).
With this financial backing I was able to use a commercially produced antenna and develop a mount that allowed for much higher fidelity data collection. This yielded far cleaner results, which confirmed my hypothesis and proved the value of my concept! Love it when a plan comes together.
Planet so nice, I visited twice. Not only that, I missed my own graduation to be a part of MDRS Crew 236! Who wouldn't?
I served as this crew's Journalist, in charge of chronicling the crew's day-to-day, conveying everyone's research discoveries to the layman at home, and producing marketing materials to inform and inspire others to follow our journey. On top of that, the station suffered so many mechanical anomolies during our rotation that we all took on the mantle of Engineer.
I served as this crew's Journalist, in charge of chronicling the crew's day-to-day, conveying everyone's research discoveries to the layman at home, and producing marketing materials to inform and inspire others to follow our journey. On top of that, the station suffered so many mechanical anomolies during our rotation that we all took on the mantle of Engineer.
MDRS 236 Mission Patch
With this financial backing I was able to use a commercially produced antenna and develop a mount that allowed for much higher fidelity data collection. This yielded far cleaner results, which confirmed my hypothesis and proved the value of my concept! Love it when a plan comes together.
Read my reports from Mission 236
Explore my Signal Prop. research
Left to right: (top row) Executive Officer and Health and Safety Officer Cesare Guariniello, Crew Journalist Ben Durkee, Crew Scientist Tyler Nord, Crew Astronomer Dylan Dilger, (bottom row) Commander Kasey Hilton, Crew Engineer Pavi Ravi, and GreenHab Officer Vladimir Zeltsman
Left to right: (top row) Executive Officer and Health and Safety Officer Cesare Guariniello, Crew Journalist Ben Durkee, Crew Scientist Tyler Nord, Crew Astronomer Dylan Dilger, (bottom row) Commander Kasey Hilton, Crew Engineer Pavi Ravi, and GreenHab Officer Vladimir Zeltsman
Projection of all EVA expeditions done by Crew 236
MDRS Crew 218 - The Next Giant Leap: (December 21, 2019 - January 4, 2020)
MDRS 218 Mission Patch
Like the others, I also brought a personal research mission aboard the station. Armed with a 70cm Yagi antenna and some scripts I scrapped together, I set out to test whether the local geology had an observable effect on signal propagation, specifically on the frequency band NASA uses to communicate between Martian orbiters and surface craft.
These two weeks bestowed a littany of valuable engineering lessons on me that I still harken back to. But more importantly, it forged some lifelong friendships.
During my junior year of undergrad, I was given the opportunity to spend my winter break on Mars - or at least the premiere simulation of it on Earth.
Which worked better for me logistically anyway, the commute to Mars would've set my education back years.
I was to be the Crew Journalist, the teller of stories, the taker of pictures, the eyes and ears for those watching our mission from home. Every night, I would steal away to a new nook somewhere in the facility and wax lyrical about the day's happenings.
Our internet bandwidth was tightly controlled and access was limited to a single hour every night, so I had to cull and compress the images worth sending while we all prepared to submit our reports during the transmission window.
I was to be the Crew Journalist, the teller of stories, the taker of pictures, the eyes and ears for those watching our mission from home. Every night, I would steal away to a new nook somewhere in the facility and wax lyrical about the day's happenings.
Our internet bandwidth was tightly controlled and access was limited to a single hour every night, so I had to cull and compress the images worth sending while we all prepared to submit our reports during the transmission window.
MDRS 218 Mission Patch
These two weeks bestowed a littany of valuable engineering lessons on me that I still harken back to. But more importantly, it forged some lifelong friendships.
Read my reports from Mission 218
Explore my Signal Prop. research
Left to right: Health and Safety Officer and GreenHab Officer Shefali Rana, Commander and Crew Astronomer Cesare Guariniello, Crew Journalist Ben Durkee, Crew Scientist and GreenHab Officer Jonathan Buzan, Crew Geologist Pat Pesa, and Crew Engineer Luz Ma Agudelo Urrego
Left to right: Health and Safety Officer and GreenHab Officer Shefali Rana, Commander and Crew Astronomer Cesare Guariniello, Crew Journalist Ben Durkee, Crew Scientist and GreenHab Officer Jonathan Buzan, Crew Geologist Pat Pesa, and Crew Engineer Luz Ma Agudelo Urrego
Projection of all EVA expeditions done by Crew 218
Detecting Earth-Mars Signal Propagation:
I would route the signals from this antenna into my laptop through an RTL-SDR dongle which defined the antenna's sensing into information readable by software.
Those data were coupled with realtime GPS data recorded by a USB GPS Receiver.
I used RTL-SDR Scanner to tabulate the Gain data coming from the antenna every second, and SpectrumSpy (no longer supported) to monitor the frequency band for anomolies in realtime. My personal code comprised a Python script to collate the Gain data with it's corresponding GPS coordinates, and a Ruby wrapper which connected with Google Maps API to draw the heatmaps.
My research, conducted over the course of two MDRS missions, was title Detecting Earth-Mars Signal Propagation.
To be entirely truthful, I only began this research project to justify my selection for the MDRS 218 mission. Only after I found the application for the program did I begin ideating on this experiment, as having a promising research goal was a prerequisite for joining the team. It was a "jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down"-type situation.
My hypothesis was that the geography of an area has a significant effect on the propagation of signals in that area. I focused my research on the UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) band, specifically targeting frequencies around 437 MHz, as that's the zone NASA uses to communicate from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey Orbiter to landers on the Martian surface.
The utility of this research is entirely for habitat site-selection. Among variables like local climate, access to ice or other minerals, and ease of landing, astronauts could use my technology to survey an area for its receptibility of comm signals to determine the optimal location for an installation on Mars. If my hypothesis proved true.
To be entirely truthful, I only began this research project to justify my selection for the MDRS 218 mission. Only after I found the application for the program did I begin ideating on this experiment, as having a promising research goal was a prerequisite for joining the team. It was a "jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down"-type situation.
My hypothesis was that the geography of an area has a significant effect on the propagation of signals in that area. I focused my research on the UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) band, specifically targeting frequencies around 437 MHz, as that's the zone NASA uses to communicate from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey Orbiter to landers on the Martian surface.
The utility of this research is entirely for habitat site-selection. Among variables like local climate, access to ice or other minerals, and ease of landing, astronauts could use my technology to survey an area for its receptibility of comm signals to determine the optimal location for an installation on Mars. If my hypothesis proved true.
I was funding this research out of pocket, so I would have to keep it scrappy and economical.
The antenna was a 4-element 70 cm Yagi that I put together from PVC pipe, #8 copper wire, and coax cable.
I pored over the book Antenna Design for Mobile Devices for days, but most of the information I needed to put this together came from the gracious help of enthusiasts on HAM Radio forums. I owe them all a drink.
I pored over the book Antenna Design for Mobile Devices for days, but most of the information I needed to put this together came from the gracious help of enthusiasts on HAM Radio forums. I owe them all a drink.
I used RTL-SDR Scanner to tabulate the Gain data coming from the antenna every second, and SpectrumSpy (no longer supported) to monitor the frequency band for anomolies in realtime. My personal code comprised a Python script to collate the Gain data with it's corresponding GPS coordinates, and a Ruby wrapper which connected with Google Maps API to draw the heatmaps.
Surveying the Martian outskirts on Mission 218
The data from Mission 218 were noisy and inconclusive, but compelling enough to pitch the concept to undergraduate research grants. I received a small grant from the Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), with which I purchased a commercially produced Yagi antenna and the material to construct a custom mount to adapt my laptop to the MDRS rovers. This mount was built from aluminum 80/20 and brackets that I 3D-printed at the Bechtel Innovation and Design Center.
This new equipment allowed me to upgrade my data collection workflow on Mission 236: my laptop would stay affixed to a rover piloted by one of my crewmates, while I could walk around surveying with the antenna on a 50 ft tether. This setup allowed me to record data in tighter spaces that the rovers could not fit into, and it eliminated the threat of potential bad data generated by the vibration of the rover, as the antenna was never in contact with the rover while collecting.
Final results in proximity to the MDRS habitat
The final heatmap generated by this new equipment yielded what I consider to be a resounding success! As you can see in the resultant model, there is a clear correlation between the topography of the landscape and the propagation of UHF signals.
There's still a lot of work to be done in terms of miniaturizing the technology (I doubt the intrepid Mars pioneers would want to lug around my [now dead] laptop), but the theory is sound! Should the propagation of communication signals be a serious factor in deciding where to establish a Mars habitat, the surrounding geology would play a huge part, and my work could be used to precisely survey the area and make an informed decision.
A huge thank-you to my crewmates on both MDRS missions for supporting my experiment and helping me troubleshoot errors in-situ. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research for their generous grant, and to the helpful internet folks who helped me understand software-defined radio and antenna hardware.
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