SPEAKER 1: I'd like to introduce
our guest this morning who
is coming to talk to us
about Mission to Mars, Laura
Parkinson Lark,
a former Googler.
Welcome back.
LAURA LARK: Well, hello.
Many of you may remember
me as Laura Parkinson,
though I am now Laura Lark.
So I was actually a Googler
for about five years.
I worked on the Muppet
Team and in Cormistan
until I left last
January to go to Mars--
but not really Mars,
we'll get there--
to join HI-SEAS Mission 5
as the Mission Specialist
in IT and Media/Outreach.
My crewmates had shorter titles.
So let's talk about Mars.
Mars is really far away.
So if, at their
farthest, if Mars
were at the back of
the room, the moon
is somewhere around the
middle of my nostril.
Sorry.
If my face is the earth--
important premise-- and Mars
were at the back of the room,
the moon would be
somewhere around the middle
of my nostril, and
the ISS is probably
so close to my skin you couldn't
fit a hair between it and me.
So it's much, much farther
than we've sent humans before.
So this carries a
couple implications.
So teams on Mars would have
to be much more autonomous
than teams on the ISS
or even on the moon.
You know, you can't have
teams of people sitting
in mission control watching
your every move and telling them
what to do.
They're going to be
operating on their own.
They're going to be much less
in control of mission control.
So it also means that if
you send a team there,
and they don't get
along, or they're not
effective for some reason,
that's really expensive.
Because it's so expensive
to send them there
in the first place.
So NASA has identified
some gaps, including--
gaps in what we know about
how to send people to Mars--
including some to do
with team cohesion.
And to help fill these
gaps, NASA funds HI-SEAS.
So HI-SEAS is basically
a psychological study.
They're looking at
team cohesion and team
selection for long
duration space missions.
So to do this they run
simulated, long-duration Mars
missions.
They've got a habitat.
They select crews and
put them in the habitat
and collect a bunch of
data and see what happens.
So there have been
five crews so far.
Crews 2 through 4 were--
they focused on crew cohesion.
For Crews 5 and 6--
so I was Crew 5.
Crew 6 goes into the Hab,
I think, in February.
They're focusing
on crew cohesion
still and also crew selection.
And so their goal
is to figure out
how to choose and support
teams so that they'll
be cohesive and
highly performing
in Mars-like conditions.
So when we talk about
Mars-like conditions,
usually what people talk
about is isolated, confined,
and extreme.
That's the acronym you see, ICE.
So the conditions at HI-SEAS
are isolated and confined.
They're not extreme,
because last I checked,
it's not legal to
put human research
subjects in mortal danger.
But the information
gained from HI-SEAS
can be combined with
information from the ISS
or crews in the Antarctic
bases or even missions in Nemo,
the underwater laboratory, to
get a holistic picture of how
to send teams to Mars.
So let's talk about the Hab.
So this is a picture
of the HI-SEAS habitat.
So it's on Mauna Loa
volcano in Hawaii.
As you can see,
it's quite visually
and physically isolated.
It's pretty far off
a main road that
is not traveled
very much, way up
in the middle of
these lava fields,
so not a lot of green visible.
It's at 8,200 feet
elevation, about 10 miles
from the caldera of Mauna Loa.
Did not prove to be
a problem for us.
And it's also chosen for its
geological similarity to Mars.
So actually, the Johnson Space
Center Mars Regolith Simulant,
a.k.a., fake Mars dirt, is
mined about 20 miles from here.
So the Hab itself, it has about
1,200 square feet of space,
1,000 feet usable.
And it consists of this dome
here and an attached storage
container.
They're connected by a
little tunnel sort of thing.
And it's all our living space.
We've also got our solar panels
that we get our energy from,
our water tanks.
You can see our waste water
tank/evaporation field.
So this is the
set up of the Hab.
Inside, we've got basically one
big area for living, working,
eating, meetings, everything
we need to do, exercise.
Half a desk each.
And then upstairs, we've
each got a private room.
Studies show that privacy is
important, psychologically.
This is my room.
So you can see about enough
space for a desk and a bed.
Basically, everybody
gets a wedge
of the pie in the upstairs.
And of course, because
we are on Mars,
you have to suit up to leave.
And I'll get to that later.
So the crew were the
lucky ones who got to go.
But there's a whole system of
people supporting the mission.
And in a way, this is part
of what's being studied.
Because the current
paradigm of mission control
and a crew that is
in close contact
all the time and very much
controlled by mission control
isn't going to work when you're
as far away as crews will be.
So we have a team of
people there to assist
us called Mission Support.
It's about 30 volunteers
from around the world.
They take shifts.
We've got a first
tier support that's
there to answer questions,
get us information,
help us solve problems,
for 12 hours a day.
And then someone on
24 hours a day in case
we have a real emergency.
So we also have our technical
and engineering support.
These are the people who set up
the network, who actually built
the Hab and can help us.
For example, at one point, our
water tanks weren't leveling.
And it turned out to be an
undocumented one-way valve.
So they help us with
this sort of issue.
We also have a
geologist on staff
who helps us both with our
assigned field work as part
of the simulation and
just with questions
that we have about the
area around the Hab.
Of course, there's
mission management,
who actually make
sure things run,
gets us water deliveries,
this sort of thing,
and the primary researchers.
So there are many studies going
on during each mission on us.
And there's a team
of researchers
conducting these and then
assorted external partners.
So both media-- like
you can see here
a couple of people from
"The New York Times,"
as well as our project manager,
and a local mission support
person, and various
external researchers
who some of the
crew worked with.
And I will say, with
this sort of thing,
it's very important to have
some local mission support
since, practically, we are
a bunch of people living
on Earth, not on
Mars, and need people
to do things like drive
up food every so often
and take away garbage and
be there in case one of us
needs to be driven to the
doctor in a non-emergency way
or something.
So let's see, here you can
see a couple of our engineers
and the crew inside the Hab.
So a major aspect of the
mission and of the isolation
was our communication setup.
So at its farthest, Mars is
about 24 light minutes away.
So this means real
time communication
would be impossible.
So to simulate this,
we communicated
with Mission Support, with
our friends and family,
with everybody outside
the crew, through email--
they had a delay of 20
minutes put in each way--
and through an online tool that
also both introduced a delay
and tracked our
communications for research.
We also had no access to
regular interactive sites
that you might like
to use, like Google,
which can make problem
solving pretty difficult.
So when we needed information--
so with the exception of
a few sites like Wikipedia
that we did have access
to-- because if you
were going to Mars you would
download and bring Wikipedia.
So with the exception of that,
if we needed information, say,
you know, I'm running
into some issue.
Can you search
around, see if you
can find someone who
has the same problem,
tell me what they said?
I need to describe my problem
to Mission Support in such a way
that they will be able to
search around on my behalf
and get me information back.
So this was really
an excellent exercise
in clear communication.
And it definitely
went both ways.
So we had to be clear
with Mission Support.
They also needed to
be clear with us.
So I remember once,
early in the mission,
we were quite water-constrained.
The company that had delivered
water to the previous crew had,
on short notice,
announced that they
weren't willing to drive up
the road to the Hab anymore.
And so we had about--
our tanks were about
half full, and we
had no water delivery
scheduled or way to get water.
So we were conserving
pretty heavily.
We were down to about 2
gallons per person per day
and had been there
for maybe a week.
It was starting to get smelly.
And we get an email from
Mission Support saying
the water truck is coming.
And I have never
seen this crew work
together so well or so quickly.
Everybody sprang into action
and got their showers in,
got laundry going, drained
the water from the tank
so that we could
water the plants.
And in about half an hour,
we drained nearly all
of our remaining usable
water from the tanks.
So 40 minutes later--
20 minutes here,
20 minutes back--
we get a second email
that says the water
trucks are coming to see if
they can get up the road.
It was an emotional
roller coaster that day.
So fortunately for us they
were able to get up the road.
They weren't there
to deliver that day,
but they came a few days later.
We had an emergency
tank that, lucky for us,
was cleaned for
the first time just
before our mission started.
So we were able to transfer
some water and not run dry.
But it illustrates
the importance
of clear communication
in both ways
when your only method is email.
So the communication delay also
meant that, to a large degree,
our social support had to
come from inside the Hab.
So we were allowed
as much communication
as we wanted with
family and friends,
encouraged to email with them
or transfer video files even.
Though I think
people didn't end up
taking much advantage of
that, because there's really
not a lot of audio
privacy in the Hab.
So even something as simple
as, hi, I had a fine day.
How are you?
It feels really awkward when all
of your crew is sitting there
and can hear you.
But so it means
that the crew really
becomes each other's
family, friends, colleagues.
It is a self-contained
social network.
And all of your
support tends to come
from that, which makes
maintaining relationships
with each other really,
really important.
So as I tell you
about the mission,
I'm also going to tell
you a few conclusions
that I drew that I think
may be relevant to life
here at Google.
And this brings me
to the first one.
So one thing that I found
underlaid a lot of our success,
both as a team in maintaining
our relationships as a group
and individually
with each other,
and in our successes
with our assigned tasks,
our geological field
work, or getting
data for the researchers,
was our mutual commitment
to doing so.
So early in the mission,
we sat down as a crew,
and we wrote a mission
statement for ourselves.
So of course, there
are things that we
were supposed to do
because it was our job,
but we decided to
decide for ourselves
as well what was
important to us.
And we decided
that, as a crew, we
were committed to being a
cohesive team, high quality
outreach, and getting good
data for the researchers.
So high quality data.
And this provided a very
important foundation
for the rest of the mission.
It meant that if I am having
an issue with somebody,
I need to take them aside.
Whether it's just that we
need to talk and resolve
miscommunication, or I need
them to change their behavior
in some way, I know
that they're going
to be right there with me,
solving the problem with me,
working with me.
Because we already
committed to each other to
do so in a really
wholehearted, genuine way.
So I encourage teams that need
to accomplish something like--
I mean, not exactly
like this-- but need
to accomplish something
serious together,
like probably all of you,
to come up with principles
that you can all
be really genuinely
committed to together.
And I don't mean
goals like, OK, what
are we getting done in the
next month or something,
but core values like
being a cohesive team.
Back to the fun stuff.
So I'll tell you a little
bit about Hab life now.
So as you would need on
Mars, all of our food
had to be shelf stable for three
years and somewhat realistic.
So that meant mostly
freeze dried food.
Cans would be too heavy.
It would be too
expensive to send.
They're unrealistic.
So lots of bags and cans of
odd looking stuff like this.
I think we have here milk,
freeze dried salmon, chicken
cubes, beef crumbles,
soup, and mozzarella.
So surprisingly, it
was actually not too
hard to make delicious
food out of this.
They smell really weird but
when rehydrated are delicious.
So I think one of
the Hab favorites
was deep dish
pizza, for example.
It turns out, it's pretty easy
to make decent tomato sauce.
You throw in the powder
tomato, the dried
onions, and just keep
doing that and some spices
until you sop up the water.
The cheese, if you bake
it after rehydrating,
it sort of loses its
crunchy inner core
and gets a lot more palatable.
So the exception to this
is food that we grow.
So we had a few systems
for doing so in the Hab,
actually mostly
not by the window,
both because that's
ineffective and unrealistic.
We had a couple of
hydroponic systems.
A crewmate of mine
used to work on Veggie,
which is the system they use on
the ISS for growing vegetables.
So he got them to
send us a prototype,
and he was working
with that, as well
as its earthbound,
outreach-focused counterpart,
Growing Beyond Earth.
So we had those
in the Hab and got
quite a bit of
produce from them,
as well as just some grow
lights in the back that we
could grow stuff with.
So we had not a lot, but enough
for a bite every so often,
of various greens
and peas, beans,
even a few tomatoes that
were an occasional treat.
I remember once, Earl, my
crewmate who works on Veggie,
and I were--
we'd harvested about a
month's worth of leafy stuff,
and we were making a salad.
And Jay smelled
it from his room.
So upstairs, door
closed, he comes out.
Are you cutting lettuce?
So it really was a treat.
So we did not bring all of our
food with us to begin with.
We probably could
have lived off of what
was in the Hab to begin with.
But we got three or four
what we call resupplies
throughout the mission,
a.k.a., Hab Christmas.
So you can see here a
pretty typical resupply.
We've got tomato
flakes, beef crumbles,
I think some strawberries,
and in the back,
the all important toilet paper.
So for the resupplies,
we'd submit our requests
for what we wanted a month,
about maybe two months
in advance.
And then the resupply would
be for two, three months.
So we were planning
many months ahead
but did get to have some input
as far as our taste in food.
If you were actually
going to Mars,
the crew would probably
know each other
for years ahead
of time and would
be able to help plan
the food that gets sent.
But it turned out that,
for each resupply,
there tended to be
something that we
didn't budget perfectly.
One resupply, it
was paper towels
that we were really
looking forward to.
Another, I think it was onions.
And once, it was bananas.
Two crewmates of mine were
really looking forward
to the freeze dried bananas.
We'd been out for a
month or something.
And they loved the
freeze dried bananas.
So my crewmate and I
who were out picking up
the resupply that day.
You know, we'd get to where
it is, and there's a big box,
and it says bananas.
And it's 20 pounds
of freeze dried
bananas, which for reference,
the box is maybe this big.
Like, I could fit in that box.
It's a lot of bananas.
So we tell them over the
radio, we got bananas.
And as we're bringing
them back up--
it was dark at the time.
And I see-- we have this
LED strip in the Hab,
and they turned it on to
be a rainbow strobe light.
And the Hab was pumping out
Gwen Stefani, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
There was a lot of excitement
in the Hab that day.
So another way in which the
mission was somewhat realistic
was in our limited resources.
So these are our solar panels.
With very little exception, all
of our energy came from these.
So cloudy days, we'd
need to conserve.
Sunny days, less so.
If we had multiple
cloudy days in a row,
we had a backup generator we
could run to keep critical Hab
systems up and running.
And if, for some reason,
we weren't able to go out--
for example, we had some pretty
heavy sustained winds at one
point--
we had hydrogen fuel cells
that would kick in as a backup.
So we weren't actually in--
we had lots of
redundancy and weren't
in danger of our systems
going down or anything.
But mainly our power
was from solar,
which ended up being less
constraining than the water.
So since HI-SEAS is a
psychological study,
they are simulating
things well enough
to be relevant psychologically.
So for example, our
water was limited,
but we weren't exercising
recyclers that came from tanks.
So it was sort of up
to us to limit our use.
I think possibly, again,
for legal reasons,
they are not allowed to
tell us not to use water.
So we ended up using
about five to six gallons
per person per day.
For reference, this
is about 5% of what
the average American uses.
So we did this with a few
methods, including, you know,
bucket bathing rather
than showering.
So we were allowed eight
minutes of shower per week,
but often chose to use
that in a couple bunches
with a little bit
of bathing between.
This is, you can see
here, our dishes set up.
So we've got our grime
bucket, our soap bucket,
our rinse bucket that allows
us to do a whole dinner's
worth of dishes with only
a couple extra gallons
because we can move everything
left as we go and reuse
the water as it gets dirtier.
So it was up to us to come
up with this sort of system
to conserve.
And one important way--
or thing that we had that
allowed us to do so--
was that we had
composting toilets.
So we had a couple
of these in the Hab.
It was up to us to
keep them happy,
which was important to both
their and our quality of life.
So we turned them a couple of
times a week, put in microbes,
and then emptied
them once a week,
one of the more glamorous
aspects of living on Mars.
It was actually a
somewhat coveted chore,
because although it's
not super pleasant,
it can sort of end up
being a bonding experience.
You know, you either
end up with someone
who's really OK with it,
and then that's kind of fun,
or who's entertained by
not being OK with it.
And then that's just
fun for both of you--
for one of you.
So it was a somewhat
coveted chore,
because it took less time
than the other chores.
And it ended up being kind
of fun, at least for me,
because I didn't really mind it.
So in addition to the resource
conservation and shelf staple
food, we had to
exercise quite a bit.
So this was both
for our own health,
because we're in this very
small space for a long time,
and we need to keep our
hearts healthy and such.
But also because
on Mars, you would
have to exercise
quite a bit, we think,
to maintain your bone
density and muscle mass,
and also your health since you
would be in a confined space.
So we had about
an hour and a half
allocated each day to exercise.
I think on the ISS
it's even more.
It might be two or
three hours per day.
But so the simulated, the
time drain, and the energy
drain of having to
exercise that much.
So lastly, both for our own
psychological well-being
and health as a group community,
we had quite a lot of fun
together.
So we'd watch movies, play
games, have special dinners.
We had a couple
of hibachi nights
where two crew members
would get out the griddle
and marinate some
of the beef cubes
and then chop it all
up on the griddle
and throw things at each other.
This is a picture of one
of our open mic nights.
So we had a couple of these.
We would sort of
rearrange the Hab
and turn it into a coffee shop,
take out some of the tables
that we used for some
of research tasks
and performed things
for each other.
So it was really up
to us to make the Hab
a lively social environment.
And that was one of the parts
I enjoyed most about it.
AUDIENCE: Are those donuts?
LAURA LARK: Yes.
Yes, they are.
We made some donuts.
We had flour and
yeast, which you
could argue is more
like two-year shelf
stable, but would
probably be good enough,
especially if you kept it
in the right conditions.
I also had a sourdough starter
for most of the mission.
And then it got too cold for it,
and also I stopped feeding it.
And one of these things
probably killed it.
So I get asked a lot,
what do we do all day?
So we're cooped up in this dome.
We're pretending to be on Mars.
What's our actual job?
So first and foremost,
we are lab rats.
We are the subjects of
the primary research.
So as part of this, we
give spit and hair samples.
These will be measured after
the mission for stress hormones,
to study both how this varies
monthly throughout the mission,
and how it varies
throughout the day.
So on certain days, we'll
give several spit samples
throughout the day.
And those will give
you the daily rhythm.
And then every month, we shave
a little bit of our head.
So I have a bald
spot for science now.
We also wear sociometric badges.
So these measure our
proximity to each other--
only four hours a
day, not all the time.
So these measure our proximity
to each other and the volumes
of our voices and
are also connected
to heart rate monitors.
So we hear that
from this they can
tell whether we're
having an argument
or whether we're
avoiding each other.
Though I think they may be
more accurately detecting
whether we're
playing video games.
So we also wear,
24/7, Act watches,
which have accelerometers
and light sensors,
as part of a sleep study.
So in addition to the
actual physical metrics,
we do quite a few
team activities.
So here's one, for example.
They are sometimes
games or things
that we need to do to
calibrate the equipment.
And through these and through
surveys associated with them,
the researchers are
measuring our communication
with each other,
our interactions
with each other, how
well we're cooperating,
this sort of thing.
I also get asked
if we're recorded.
And we were asked to record
some portions of our life.
So for example, all of our
meetings were recorded,
and they'll be analyzed
for who's speaking up,
who's being heard, how
are we interacting.
And also, all of our EVA data is
both audio and video recorded.
And then we bundle that up and
send it to the researchers.
And lastly, they get a lot of
information through surveys.
So we did a lot of surveys,
more than 1,000 each.
First thing when we wake up,
last thing before we go to bed,
we fill out surveys.
These are everything from
self-perceived stress
to surveys asking
about how we're doing,
treating us as a
family to describe
what happened this week,
what was most difficult,
in these different ways.
So that's where a lot of
the data for the study
is coming from.
So we also had
quite a bit of time
allocated for personal projects.
So mine, I brought a drone.
And I basically focused on
what it could be used for.
So I used it to build models
of relevant parts of the area
around the Hab, used it for
scouting both to try and find
things and to look at
an area without having
to go there first.
This is a model that
I built with it.
And it turns out you can
do all sorts of things.
Once you've got an
elevation model,
you can compute
elevation profiles
from that, slopes,
changes in elevation,
volumes, all kinds
of useful stuff.
Other people on the
crew were working,
like I said, on Veggie.
One person was working on
manufacturing molecules
in a constrained lab, like
you might have on Mars.
Useful for things
like medicine--
since one challenge for
long duration spaceflight
is that a lot of medicine has
a shelf life of less than you'd
probably be out there.
So being able to manufacture
this sort of stuff in situ
is pretty important.
Others were looking at
optimizing our resource usage
in the Hab, sampling
lava tubes for what
might be growing there, 3D
printing, bunch of stuff.
And lastly, we spent quite
a bit of time on EVA.
So EVA stands for Extra
Vehicular Activity.
This is when we suit up
and go outside the Hab.
But it's not that simple.
So if we want to go outside
the Hab, the day before,
we have a meeting.
We plan what we're going to do.
We practice it if necessary.
We write up a request, and we
send it to Mission Support.
If they approve it, then
the next day, about a half
an hour before we're
scheduled to go out,
we gather our personal
equipment, batteries, water,
whatever we need,
suit up, get ready,
and we still can't go outside.
Because if you were
actually on Mars,
the outside pressure
and the inside pressure
are very different.
And the outside pressure is
not so suitable for humans.
And if you just open the
door, the people inside
would probably not thank you.
So we simulate decompression by
sealing off a part of the Hab
and waiting for a little while.
So once we decompress, we--
well, I mean, for a
defined little while.
So once we decompress,
we can go outside.
We follow the route that
we planned ahead of times.
We're constrained by the
time that we requested.
We come back in.
We recompress.
And we're still not
done, because we need
to de-brief with each other.
We need to process a lot
of the data from the EVA,
write summaries, send
them to Mission Support.
So going outside,
although it's quite
autonomous in the
actual execution of it,
is still highly
controlled, as it probably
would be if you were on Mars,
given that going outside
is one of the more dangerous
things you would have to do.
And throughout the
whole thing, we
stay in contact with
each other via radio
and are required at all
times to be in contact
with the person inside the Hab
who's called Hab Com, or IV
for Intra Vehicular.
So this brings me
to the second thing
I'd like to talk to you
about, which is this process.
So we found-- we had a great
number of successful EVAs
and a great number
of unsuccessful EVAs.
And found that the
successful ones were usually
due to good execution
of this process.
And when we had an
unsuccessful one,
it was usually because we'd
failed somewhere in here.
So I think usually
when people think,
I have something critical
I need to do, I'll plan it,
and then I'll do it.
But there's more
to it than that.
So for example,
once we were trying
to measure cross-sections
of lava tube.
We were trying to validate
a digital method that we
wanted to use for future tasks.
And so we were choosing
cross-sections to measure.
And that turned out to
be really contentious
when we were out in the field.
One person would say, this
is the cross-section we need.
Another would say, it's
too close to the opening.
There's too much
ambient light here.
And there's really--
it's not the place
to have a discussion like this.
You need to have had
that kind of discussion
before you go out.
And when you go out, it's
just time for execution.
And we figured out
when we got back in,
it was because the
different people out
had different ideas
of what problem
we were trying to solve with the
data that we were collecting.
So we hadn't done
a good enough job
of defining the
problem that we had.
Another time, we were planning
an emergency route in case
we needed to do a simulated
evacuation to a lava tube.
So if you were on Mars,
occasionally there
are periods of higher radiation.
You know, the sun releases
a bunch of particles.
And here we're protected
by our magnetosphere,
but on Mars you'd need to
shield yourself somehow.
And one suggestion is that
people might hunker down
in a lava tube until it passes.
So we were planning an
evacuation route to a lava tube
nearby.
And because we knew
that this sort of thing
might come day or
night, we needed
to mark it out in a way
that would be easy to follow
at night as well.
So we actually went out ahead
of time, requested a night EVA,
and tested the different
kinds of markers we had.
And it turns out that what
we thought would work well--
we had these super
shiny pieces of tape--
was impossible to see unless you
had it at just the right angle.
Because it would reflect
your flashlight off somewhere
that wasn't your eyes.
But we had these little
orange flags that turned out
to be super fluorescent.
And those worked really well.
So we ended up finding this out
and marking the path with them.
We did a simulated--
or we requested
to practice at night to
make sure that it worked,
which was one of the
odder experiences.
Because it was one
of the times when
we were all outside together.
So usually, two out,
two in, for safety.
But we had gotten permission
to practice this evacuation.
And so all six of us were out
with our supplies at night.
And I was imagining
what someone would
think if they found us, six
people in a line in hazmat
suits, walking across the
lava in the middle of nowhere.
I'd be concerned.
So I think this process
applies to any group that
needs to do something
critical, something that needs
to go right the first time.
So we did EVAs for a
variety of reasons.
A lot of it was
purely operational,
take down the trash,
take down the poop.
This is the pile that we had
near the end of the mission.
I think the last pick up
was around three months ago.
So this is the sort
of stuff you don't
want hanging around in the Hab.
We go down to pick up
resupplies, sometimes check
on our water tank, see
how the levels are doing,
run the generator if we need
to, which we did a couple times.
We were also assigned quite a
bit of geological field work.
This is actually the
main reason that we
go outside is to collect
data of various sorts
on the area around the Hab.
So some of it was
straight up measurements.
Because the geological field
work is part of the study,
a lot of it is focused on
our teamwork while we do it.
The tasks are actually part of
the control between missions.
So each mission
gets the same ones,
which is why I won't tell
you a ton about them.
So like I was
saying, a lot of it
turned out to be straight up
physical measurements of things
around the Hab.
Some of it was mapping
the geological units.
So you know, go see where
flows intersect and try
and figure out what came
first, how old is this.
Some of it was
pretty qualitative.
So look at things
like this that are
these really weird formations.
You know, there's this thing
on the top of the hill.
And last I checked, lava
flowed like a liquid
and obeyed the laws of gravity.
So how did these weird lumps
that are about this big
come to be?
So go look at them and try
and deduce how they formed,
what happened here.
And some of it was more
focused on the inside-- take
samples, come in.
This is a picture of
an olivine crystal
in a chunk of a pahoihoi
flow near the Hab.
We were also working with
a team out of NASA-Goddard.
So this instrument is called
a Mini-LHR, Miniature Laser
Heterodyne Radiometer,
or something.
It measures trace
gases in the column
of air between it and the sun.
So they are looking at CO2
and methane in the atmosphere.
So this had two purposes.
They were actually using
the data from this.
And it was also a study of
how we would communicate
with the researchers behind
it to collect the data,
to fix it when
things went wrong.
It did, at one point,
get out of alignment,
and we were figuring
out how to level it
and what might be wrong with it.
We got to do quite a few
emergency drills, which
tended to be a lot of fun.
And we also got quite
a bit of freedom
to go on exploratory EVAs.
So go out and check out
lava tubes or skylights
or just go see
things that looked
like they might be
interesting on Google Earth,
or that we'd seen
in a drone flight.
And this brings me
to the third thing
I'd like to talk to you about.
So this is us in a lava tube.
That was one of
my favorite parts.
So over and over,
we found that work
that we did for one reason,
whether it was for fun,
just because we thought
it might be interesting,
we wanted to go there, or maybe
we were out with the drone
filming just to film,
we'd find that this work
would be useful in
unexpected other ways.
So maybe we'd happened
to get footage of an area
that we needed to go for
mission-related purposes later.
And now we can
actually make a plan
with some knowledge of
what it looks like there
instead of with whatever we can
glean from Google Earth, which
is not much.
Or maybe we'd actually
been there before.
It's a lava tube that
we've already explored.
So for example, once we mapped
a lava tube system just for fun,
to try mapping, but ended
up knowing the right amount
about it to use it for
an emergency drill later.
So to some extent, I'm
preaching to the choir
here, Google with its 20% time.
But I encourage all
of you to continue
what exploratory work you do.
Because in my experience, it
is valuable in unexpected ways.
And in my opinion, that applies
to spaceflight as a whole,
as well.
There has been many,
many unexpected benefits
to life on Earth from
the space program so far.
For example, I think
there was a fuel
valve in the
shuttle-- maybe you've
heard of this-- that
turned out to be just
perfect for the time between
when you need a heart
and when you get a
heart, for little kids.
Like they hadn't figured out how
to make reliable little valves
like that until they
did it for the shuttle.
And now they can
use them for hearts.
Anyway, so I can't tell you too
much about the actual geology
tasks, but I can tell you some
about the various challenges
of being on EVA.
So this is me
trying to, I think,
trying to fit in
that hole, which
is a bit difficult
in these suits
because they're quite
bulky, as suits would be.
We also had some
visibility issues.
So this was one of the ways
in which having the Mini-LHR
there, which was attempted to--
they attempted to build
it for our situation.
But we turned out to have a
lot of challenges with it.
I think this person is
trying to see the screen.
And this person is trying to
see an illuminated dot that
is sort of right at the
base of the barrel there.
Again, an exercise
in communication.
This may be relevant
to you as well,
but we found videos to
be a much easier way
of sending scientific
information than written
descriptions.
So here, we were told
that it is aligned
if you see an illuminated dot.
And so we thought
there must be an LED.
We can kind of squint
and see through the visor
this thing that looks
like it might be an LED.
So I think this person is
trying to see if the LED is on.
Turns out the illuminated
dot is created by a shadow.
So at the end of the barrel,
there's this little hole.
And if it's perfectly
aligned with the sun,
then the sun will
cast this little spot
right on what is a
sensor, not an LED.
And so when we were looking
for the illuminated dot,
we were actually just
making it go away
by shading the whole thing
with our enormous heads.
You can see the visibility here.
I can see so well
that I can't tell
my thumb is in the picture.
And so some of these are
relevant to our suits,
and some of them are
relevant to actual suits.
One of those things is--
actual suits will have
to be pretty durable.
This is my suit.
In the last week or
so of the mission,
we were patching them up.
So you can see, it
gets pretty beat up.
And Earth lava, while
sharp, is still not
as sharp as Mars lava.
Weathering is easier here.
So in case any of you
ever build a space suit,
make it really tough.
Lastly, EVAs happen in
a hazardous environment.
I'm just kidding.
That's not about a
hazardous environment,
although that is my crewmate
at the bottom of a pit.
So one consideration
for setups on EVA
is the communication system.
So because it's important
to have communication
at all times between, basically
between Earth and Mars,
even though it's delayed,
you will need some way
to explore all of the
varieties of terrain
on Mars, especially lava
tubes, because those
are one of the most
interesting places on Mars
as a potential habitable area.
So at the moment, I'm
relaying to Hab Com
what my crewmate in
the pit says to me.
And he's relaying for
the team down the tube.
So communication,
something to be solved.
So the mission ended
on September 17.
We were in there
for 242 days total.
Six people went in, the
same six people went out.
So that's a success in my book.
And we built a team from
this group of strangers.
And I'm happy to take questions.
And please use the microphones.
AUDIENCE: Thanks for sharing.
So you mentioned that
part of Mission 5
was about team selection, also.
Can you tell us a little
about the selection process?
LAURA LARK: Sure.
So I can tell you what I
experienced from the selection
process.
So the first step that actually
involved my interaction
was a whole bunch of
psychological surveys.
So things like everything
from what time of day
you like to be awake to
how you cope with stress.
Just a whole bunch
of different screens.
The second part was an
asynchronous interview.
So it was a system where
it asks you questions.
You have something
like a minute to think
and three minutes to record.
And that was the process.
AUDIENCE: There were six people.
Can you go down into how
those six people operate?
Do they operate as a
single crew of six,
or do they get broken
down to twos and threes?
And was there any
hierarchy, like a team lead
that drives everybody to work?
LAURA LARK: Yeah.
So I'll answer your
last question first.
We had a commander.
That was the extent
of our hierarchy.
So commander, everyone else.
For the most part, we found
that sort of formal authority
not to be necessary.
We did most stuff by consensus.
The exception was EVA, where we
found a formal chain of command
to be really important for
getting things done effectively
and efficiently.
So for the most part,
we operated as--
in work, for the most part,
we operated as a team of six.
Sometimes there would
be certain people
who were more interested
in different things
and would tend to
work on them more.
But we saw it as our
group responsibility
to complete them one
way or the other,
whether that was
a couple of people
are interested and volunteer,
or we all pitch in.
Socially, I think people
tended to break up a bit more.
So we did spend a lot
of time as a group.
We also spent a lot of
time in twos and threes.
AUDIENCE: Thanks for sharing.
Can you talk about the
psychological results?
You said that that was what
they were studying of you guys.
And I guess they
probably haven't--
maybe they haven't released
the results publicly.
But at least qualitatively,
from your perspective,
like how people changed over
the time that you were there.
LAURA LARK: The short,
sad answer is no.
Both because the research
is still ongoing,
since the next
mission is part of it,
and because as a
participant, I'm
not privy to the
researchers' conclusions yet.
They'll publish in
probably a couple of years
once the next mission is done.
I know that,
personally, I think I
became a more independent person
as a result of the mission.
I definitely improved
my interpersonal skills.
But I can't say anything
about broader conclusions.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thank you for sharing.
It's been really interesting
hearing about your experiences.
I'm curious to know
what's next for you.
Now that you've come
back, what are you up to?
What's your next step?
LAURA LARK: That's
a great question.
I'll let you know.
AUDIENCE: Do you have
any specific interests?
Are you exploring a wide
variety of different--
LAURA LARK: I
definitely would like
to continue contributing
to space exploration
in one form or another, whether
that's through work, study,
volunteering.
AUDIENCE: I have a question
about your drone project.
So was that useful because
it was higher resolution
than, like, satellite images,
or because terrain was, like,
shifting on Mars?
LAURA LARK: Because what?
AUDIENCE: Terrain
would potentially
be changing on Mars?
LAURA LARK: So for us, we found
it useful exactly as you say,
because it's much
higher resolution.
And also because it's targeted.
So I can't say we were
successful, but at one point
we tried to search for a
lost bottle, for example.
It had fallen down
someone's pant leg.
We didn't recover it.
We did find a bush that was
surprisingly similar in color.
Yeah.
But mainly because we could go
get images of what we wanted,
and they were much
higher resolution
than satellite imagery.
And interestingly,
often easier to spot
things than when
we went in person.
So for example,
there was one feature
where it had a shape that
was not really noticeable
on the ground, because it's
sort of in the subtleties of how
the rocks fall.
But it's really easy to
spot from an aerial image.
So it filled the gap between
ground and satellite.
AUDIENCE: What
surprised you most
about your time in the Hab?
LAURA LARK: That's
a good question.
I have no idea about most.
But one thing that surprised
me was how accustomed I
got to the communications delay.
So I was expecting it
to be weird to come out,
in a lot of ways, and it
ended up feeling pretty normal
except for instant
communication.
So we're so used to, you
know, you send an email.
The person doesn't even
get it for 20 minutes.
And so I'd send emails and get
a response back in two minutes,
and it felt creepy.
Like in a, I didn't know you
were looking, kind of way.
So that surprised me.
AUDIENCE: How did
this experience
affect your relationships
with friends and family
back on Earth, so to speak,
both during and after
this experience?
LAURA LARK: That's
a good question.
So I think that the mission
was particularly tough for me
in that regard, because I
got married about four months
before the mission.
So I guess, in a way, I'm still
discovering the ways in which
relationships have changed.
But it was definitely
a challenge for me
and my husband to figure out how
to be supportive of each other
when being an immediate,
emotional support
or person to vent to
isn't really an option.
And figuring out ways
to stay connected.
So for example, we had
a few movie date nights.
So we'd set a time
to start a movie
and then send a bunch of
email back and forth during.
So it's still delayed.
But if you send enough
of it, it sort of
feels like you're chatting.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thank you for sharing.
What kind of personal effects
are you allowed to bring?
And kind of on the same
note, what did you miss most
when you got there?
And now that you're back,
what do you miss most
about being there?
LAURA LARK: OK.
So we were allowed to bring
two suitcases of anything
except food, though I smuggled
in some astronaut ice cream.
So I brought a
suitcase of clothes,
mostly warm clothes,
a half a suitcase
of craft supplies and a violin.
Different people made
different choices.
I think what I missed the
most, besides, obviously,
people, while I was
there was probably fruit.
And I would definitely say
I miss my crew most now
that I'm back.
But again, people is
kind of a cop out.
So I guess I'd
say I missed the--
we had a really
nicely scheduled life.
So it was pretty consistent.
We had a tool that we used to
communicate what we were doing.
That meant that every
minute of the day was--
we knew what we were supposed to
be doing, including pre-sleep,
post-sleep, lunch--
it was all scheduled in there.
So I think having that tool
and that structure to my day.
SPEAKER 2: Thank you
very much, Laura.
This was a fantastic talk.
That's it for questions.
But I assume you're going to
hang around for a little bit
if the people want to
talk to you offline.
And we encourage you to
stay for the A-Team coming
up next to talk
about your machine
learning resource
here in New York.
[APPLAUSE]
