Crew 178 is the 8th UCLouvain crew to take part in the MDRS project since its beginnings in 2001. Our crew is composed of 7 students, PhD and Master.
The rotation that was assigned to us started in March 2017 and ended in April 2017.
Mobile telecommunication relays with drones
This project aims at developing a communication system between crew members taking part to an EVA on Mars and the main station. This system does not need satellites, magnetic fields or antenna. It is based on the use of drones which rely the signal to the station and vice versa. The experiment will focus on […]
Characterization of the environment by X-Ray Diffraction
The characterization of Martian rocks and more specifically, characterization of their hydration is essential for evaluating of the presence of past present and / or futur life on the Red Planet. The objective of this experiment is to evaluate the hydration of the soil with an X-ray diffractometer. The X-ray diffraction is a physico-chemical analysis […]
Study of the renewal of oxygen by photosynthesis
The objective of this experiment is to study the production and consumption of oxygen in a closed loop. Two sealed chambers, interconnected by a conduit, will house respectively a plant and a rabbit. The plant will produce oxygen through photosynthesis and it will be consumed by the respiration of both organismes. Both rooms are connected […]
Spectroscopy
The experiment consists measuring of the electromagnetic spectrum of some brillant stars, and thereafter determining it composition. To do that, we will couple a CCD spectroscope to the telescope of the MDRS. On Earth, the atmosphere interacts with the signal sent by astronomical object. However, on Mars, the atmosphere is one hundred time less dense […]
Ground penetrating radar survey
A ground penetrating radar (GPR) was used for a characterization of the “martian” subsoil. This is a non-invasive, sub-surface imaging technique for, among others, geological applications. In the GPR scanning process electromagnetic energy (in the form of radio waves) is pulsed into the substrate via an antenna at a certain frequency (100 Mhz in this case). These […]
Physiotherapeutic experiment about Muscle wasting on confined space
The aim of this project is to avoid the muscle wasting of the crew members during the stay at the MDRS and evaluate solutions against this problem. Indeed, the stay in a station of 8 m of diameter during several weeks, with few exercies, can generate an important muscular melting, a loss of strength and […]
Detection of muons
The objective of this experiment is to detect muons under “Martian condition”, using a portable muon detector provided by the University of Louvain. Discovered in cosmic rays in 1936 by Carl David Anderson and his assistant Seth Neddermeyer at Caltech, muons are elementary particles similar to electronsbut with higher mass (207 times mass of an […]