Posts
May 15, 2012
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11:24 AM | End of an adventure...
Woke up this morning to the following email: Dear HI-SEAS applicant,I am sorry to say you have not been selected to be on the first HI-SEAS crew. Frankly, all of the interviewees were very highly qualified, and all would have made excellent crewmembers. Our final selection was driven by the need for a range of backgrounds and skill sets – and even so, it was a very difficult decision to make. We would be delighted if you would let us keep your data on file for future missions.If you
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May 12, 2012
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Information on the HISEAS project has been relatively light, with the main website containing little information on the actual field site or habitat. Today I was surprised to find a publicly available 2011 NASA Astrobiology Institute report on the search for potential locations for the HISEAS habitat.The report includes several photos taken by the Project Investigator of HISEAS, Kim Binsted, with the captions "Potential site for HI-SEAS habitat."Potential H-SEAS habitat location. Credit: NASA
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3:51 PM | No word yet!
No word yet regarding HISEAS!Woke up to this email:Dear HI-SEAS applicants,The panel needs just a little more time to review your interview recordings. Please be patient. This would be much easier if you weren't all such excellent candidates!Given this is Mothers Day weekend, I wouldn't expect them to have a decision until early next week.While we all wait in breathless anticipation, are there any more HISEAS finalists lurking in the shadows of this blog? Already two others have […]
May 10, 2012
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2:05 PM | The Interview Recap
All of the interviews are finished! According to the HI-SEAS selection committee their last interview was Wednesday and I am now free to talk about what went on in the actual interview.The interview was conducted via Skype and the panel consisted of: Kim Binstead, University of Hawaii, Jean Hunter, Cornell UniversityBryan Caldwell, Cornell UniversityDean Eppler, Johnson Space Center Desert RATS program No surprises in the composition of the panel. Cornell and Hawaii are the host
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May 02, 2012
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7:38 PM | Interview done!
Well the interview is done!I can't talk about the exact interview questions as they are still interviewing people, but I can share that they plan to have The Final 8 ( 6 crew members and 2 alternates ) selected by Friday of next week!One of my answers was not as refined as it could have been, but overall it went fairly smoothly.Next Thursday after the interviews are concluded I will post a brief summary of the interview, what I knew ahead of time, and my take on it.
April 30, 2012
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12:59 AM | Interview arranged!
Just got my interview day/time! Dear HI-SEAS Applicant, Your interview time is set for 5/2/2012 at **** EDT. If this doesn't work for you, please let us know ASAP. If you haven't already, please let us know your Skype ID (preferred) and/or phone number, so that we can call you. Looking forward to talking with you, and all the best, Kim Binsted HI-SEASIf allowed, after all of the interviews are over I will post a follow up with what questions it involved to give you an idea of [...]
April 27, 2012
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5:47 PM | Passed my flight physical!
Just passed my flight physical for the finalist stage of the HiSEAS mission and received my Medical Certificate Second Class!Honestly, when I heard "Class 2 Flight Physical", the little kid in me was expecting something along the lines of the astronaut selection scene in "The Right Stuff":(Copyright 1983 The Ladd Company.)The reality however was what you'd usually expect when you go to the Doctor's office for your normal checkup.I actually asked the physician what was the difference between a [...]
April 20, 2012
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2:27 PM | Accepted as a finalist!
First there were 750.....Then there were 150....Now there are only 30....6 will go to "Mars"Woke up this morning to this email: "Dear HI-SEAS Applicant,Once again, thank you for your interest in the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, and for your patience as we have given the large number of highly qualified applicants due consideration. You have been selected to move on to the next stage, which will involve a telephone interview, references and a medical examination."Needless [...]
March 28, 2012
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12:07 AM | Another Mars Analog!
Do you have a really cool Mars analog experiment that you want to run? My friends at the Austrian Space Forum are running a Mars analog simulation in the Sahara desert in 2013 and are looking for more experiments: http://www.oewf.org/cms/mars2013.phtmlThey have a lot of cool projects, and brought some great crews out to the MDRS simulation. Check it out if you've got an experiment to run! (Their crew is already pre-picked, they're just looking for additional experiments)
March 18, 2012
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2:19 PM | Holidays on "Mars"
NOTE: Sorry for the long delay since the last post. Had some problems with Blogger that were causing my posts to bounce! Enjoy your St Patrick's Day? One fun aspect of long duration isolation missions is holidays. Be it birthdays, national holidays, religious, or cultural ones, crews usually find some way to celebrate.ISS crew celebrating Halloween. Source: NASACelebrations help break up the monotony of everyday life. While living in a hostile environment seems glamorous from the [...]
March 07, 2012
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7:39 PM | John Carter on "Mars"!
Alan Boyle just posted on his MSNBC space blog about the upcoming John Carter movie: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/05/10586923-john-carter-director-blends-film-fantasy-with-a-real-feeling-for-marsThe John Carter movie is based off the 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs "Barsoom" books. These alternate-history science fiction books depict a heroic Earth man who is transported to a Mars (called "Barsoom" by the natives) populated by savages and beautiful princesses. How is this related to [...]
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2:23 AM | "Mars" tweetup in Austria!
Aouda X suit testing. Credit: ASFThe Austrian Space Forum has announced they will be holding a "Tweetup" for 20 Twitter users to visit a Mars Analog cave in the Dachstein mountains in Austria. The ASF will be testing their Aouda X space suit simulator in these mountain caves, which should make for an interesting tweetup experience.If you're in the area, I would highly encourage you to apply for this Tweetup! Should be a fun education experience:
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March 05, 2012
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2:55 AM | Happy Martian Opposition!
A Happy Martian Opposition to you all!Yesterday, March 3rd, Mars reached the closest point to the Sun in its orbit.This was not however the closest Mars will be to Earth this year. Due to the positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits, tomorrow, March 5th will be the closest the two planets get to one another during this Martian year (each Martian year is about 1.88 Earth years).Go out Tuesday night and take a look at Mars! Since Earth is currently directly between Mars and the Sun, Mars will [...]
March 03, 2012
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3:53 AM | Life in a research station...
"Life at a remote station is life in a test tube; it is an environment in which men and their behavior can be subjected to searching scrutiny. I feel that observations which are made and lessons which are learnt have important implications for the more complicated urban environments in which most of us lead our daily lives." [...]
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3:47 AM | The media and "Mars"!
Seems my blog has attracted a little attention...Space.com included a quote from my blog in their article about the Hi-SEAS mission!Check out their article here: http://www.space.com/14755-mock-mars-mission-space-food.htmlWhich then got picked up by MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46608766/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T1GKt_Wjki8Lots of good press coverage for Hi-SEAS so far! Hopefully this continues into the mission!One experiment I've considered running is testing methods for [...]
March 01, 2012
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10:40 AM | Final Numbers
Well the application deadline is up and they just posted the final numbers.Over 700 people applied to go to Hi SEAS! For comparison, 6372 people applied to join the Astronaut Corp this year. Wonder how many people applied for both? Originally I thought the website said the list of semi-finalists would be announced March 20th, but that deadline seems to have been removed from the website. Probably due to the overwhelming response!They'll be selecting 20 semi-finalists and then whittling it down [...]
February 28, 2012
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8:39 PM | Women on "Mars"
In the modern age of gender rights and equality, it might be surprising to learn there is much disagreement over the ratio of men to women, or even the presence of women at all in a Mars bound crew. Initially space exploration, and indeed exploration in general, was considered primarily a "man's sport." Ernest Shakelton is commonly believed to have advertised his Antarctic expedition as: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return
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February 27, 2012
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10:31 PM | Competition heats up!
So it seems I'm not the only one blogging my HiSEAS application and training experience! Others have begun blogging as well. This one's by Timothy Judd: http://redplanetalohastate.wordpress.com/I wonder how many of the 300 applicants have started a blog? Perhaps not surprising when one of the application questions is:Online ActivitiesList any websites, blogs, etc. to which you are a regular contributor. Describe your involvement and the relevance of your online activities to your
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8:58 AM | Submitted!
Officially submitted my HiSEAS application at 3:52 AM EST, 2/27/2012!Total page count: 20 pages including cover letter and resume.More on my application later. For now... To bed!
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3:28 AM | The Beggining...
Every adventure has a beginning, and this one begins with a blog post. HiSEAS is the "Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue & Simulation", a 120 day Mars analog simulation. This simulation will study the influence of some living and working conditions of spaceflight on humans including: Long term isolation in closed quartersRealistic space-flight cuisine20 minute communication delay with "Earth" A working environment analogous to some areas of MarsAnd much more! The purpose of this [...]
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