Spacesuits, Mars Boots and Vegan Roots in the Desert Regolith: Field Testing the Tardigrade v.1 EMU Under Pressure in the Badlands
Scott Beibin,
Elizabeth Jane Cole
The Tardigrade v.1 EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) is designed for pressurized EVAs (extravehicular activities) during space analog research missions that focus on training for Mars and lunar surface exploration. The suit system concept emerged from a collaboration between Dr. Cameron Smith (Smith Exploration Garments), Scott Beibin (Offworld Voyage), and Elizabeth Jane Cole (Offworld Voyage), with the goal of developing a pressurized EMU training suit platform intended for improved human mobility capabilities on rough terrain during EVAs. The system is designed for easy installation and testing of experimental modular telemetry and communication systems, as well as ease of donning and doffing by analog astronauts during immersive space exploration training mission simulations. The presenters will demonstrate the capabilities and features of the Tardigrade v.1 EMU space exploration training suit platform and share a report back from the first field test held in a remote desert location.
Friday 1600 Crystal Ballroom
Scott Beibin is an inventor, researcher, creative technologist, science artist, founder of many projects, environmental activist, and analog astronaut. He is the initiator and cofounder of Offworld Voyage, an organization that focuses on the development of the M.A.R.S. Tesseract space analog research habitat system - a modular and portable design for environmentally sustainable science research facilities intended to support experimental closed loop systems focusing on in-situ resource utilization, plant based food production, and reclamation of metabolic waste. He is a core committee member of the Journal of Space Analog Research, a peer-reviewed publication from the Mars Society dedicated to advancing our understanding of human space exploration through terrestrial analog studies. He is the founder of Mandelbot Ecotech, an open-source hardware project that incorporates ecological sustainability, human autonomy, and decentralized coordination mechanisms into machine design. In his other science endeavors, he 3D scans archaeological sites around the globe using LiDAR, and gathers acoustic field recordings and sensor data through his AncientScan and Archaoacoustic Artifacts projects.
Elizabeth Jane Cole is a cofounder of Offworld Voyage, an organization dedicated to the design of environmentally sustainable training habitats for space analog research missions that include methodologies for in-situ plant-based (vegan) food production, water reclamation, waste management, and off-grid autonomous clean energy production. Elizabeth cofounded Evil Twin Booking Agency, a horizontally run agency representing public figures in science, arts, and activism. She is an alumna of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS Crew 286) where she served as crew journalist, and a core committee member of the Journal of Space Analog Research, a peer-reviewed publication from The Mars Society dedicated to advancing our understanding of human space exploration through terrestrial analog studies. In the past, she has written for Wired Magazine and produced an episode for NPR’s Love and Radio podcast. She is passionate about narrative design, decentralized coordination systems for autonomous and collective action, and practices for staying physically fit in analog missions.
