Our team, M.A.R.S. UCLouvain 2021-22, is the 240th crew to take part in the MDRS project since its beginnings in 2001. It is also the 10th team from UCLouvain. Our crew is composed of PhD and Master students.
Our rotation will starts the 28th of March 2022 and will end two weeks later, the 10th of April 2022.
Meet Crew Tharsis, leaving for Mars April 2022.
From top left to bottom right:
Cheyenne Chamart (Crew GreenHab Officer)
Julie Manon (Crew Health and Safety Officer)
Sirga Drouet (Crew Journalist)
Audrey Comein (Crew Scientist)
Julien Meert (Crew Engineer)
Cyril Wain (Crew Commander)
Jean Jacobs (Crew Executive Officer)
Ignacio Sánchez Casla (Crew Astonomer)
Great day at the Eurospace center during which we had the opportunity to discover the different activities proposed: Moon walk, multi-axial chair, free fall, planetarium, Martian village, etc. We greatly thank the Eurospace Center for their invitation and their welcome and recommend to all the space enthusiasts to go and have a look at it!
The space day is an event that M.A.R.S UCLouvain co-organizes with the Mars Society Belgium, Science-infuse, Louvain4Space and the Kot Astro. The objective of this day was to introduce secondary school students to the field of space and to show that UCLouvain offers a large choice of studies in direct relation with this field. This event was also intended to celebrate respectively the 30 years and the 20 years of the return on earth of Dirk Frimout and Frank de Winne. In addition to the meeting and the Q&A session with Dirk Frimout, the students had the opportunity to participate in a water rocket launching contest and to discover a planetarium.
Before our take-off, several members of the Tharsis mission were interviewed in order to discuss the objectives of our mission but also to make discover M.A.R.S UCLouvain to the general public.
When we returned from our mission, we were invited by the newspaper “La Libre” to discuss the outcome of our mission. We had the opportunity to present the results of our various experiences but also the human aspects of this mission: how we lived the isolation, what was the atmosphere within the team, how did we eat, etc.
Health in space is an extremely interesting field of research with many applications. In order to discuss this subject, we had the honor to receive Pr. Philippe Lefevre and Serge Pieters. Both have performed and are still performing experiments in the ISS as part of their respective research. During this event, they explained us all the organization that such an experiment requires and presented us the results that they had already obtained.
For the third consecutive year, M.A.R.S UCLouvain was honored to receive a grant from the “Student Angel Fund”. We are extremely grateful for the support and recognition of our project within the university. We will continue to do our best to share our passion for space with students through various events and conferences organized throughout the year but also to promote the richness of the projects carried out at uclouvain.
Following the success of Michael’s (Founder of Rombio) experiment, we were invited to ESTEC (ESA, Noordwijk) to present our results. It was a unique experience and it allowed us to demonstrate the seriousness of the experiments carried out by the M.A.R.S UCLouvain teams.
M.A.R.S UClouvain is becoming a must. We were honored to be invited to present the results of Michael’s experiment at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Although this presentation was done by videoconference, it was a very impressive and instructive experience for us.
Sound check: OK
Video check: OK
Presentation ready to go!
This summer, we were invited to present M.A.R.S UCLouvain at the Summer Space Fetsival organized in Brussels. In addition to having the opportunity to present the project to the general public on the main stage, we were able to chat directly with you at our booth. We were delighted to be able to explain to you the experience we had during these two weeks of simulation. It was also extremely interesting to be able to discuss with all the other actors of the space domain in Belgium.
This event was the Space to Be! Indeed, during this second day of space organized at the Cinéscope in Louvain-la-Neuve, the participants had the great opportunity to listen to and discuss with three real astronauts: Robert Thirsk, Nicole Stott and Reinhold Ewald. Two members of the Tharsis team also had the honor of playing the role of interpreter for the first two astronauts mentioned above. It was an unforgettable experience for them. We are convinced that this event will also be unforgettable for the more than 400 people who took part in this day. Indeed, in addition to having had the opportunity to meet and listen to the astronauts, the participants were also able to attend a round table organized around new space. During the latter, the public was able to discover the different Belgian companies working in this field and understand the different visions they have of space.
Our closing session marked the end of our Tharsis mission. During this event, we had the pleasure of presenting you a preview of the aftermovie of our mission. We were also very happy with the presence of our sponsors who made this project possible. They had the opportunity to present their company to the public but also to have a stand to discuss further with the public. The evening ended with a drink. It was great to be able to chat with you one last time about our experience. It was also an opportunity for us to introduce the new team: the ARES team which will go on a mission in April 2023. We wish them much success in their mission and will do our best to guide them throughout their project.