Preparing to engage the robot during the MDRS mission.
Pawel Sawicki (BioMedEngr MS’22, AeroEngr PhD’23) is exploring the barren landscape of Mars and testing out critical new technologies through a one-of-a-kind experience here on Earth.
Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station, an “analog” astronaut research facility in the remote Utah desert. Operated by the Mars Society, the center gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to test out future space experiments without a long space journey.
Sawicki, a University of Colorado Boulder master’s and PhD alumnus, recently returned from the base, where he spent two weeks as a mission commander with a six-member crew. The team lived and worked under conditions remarkably similar to what NASA astronauts will face on the red planet.
“It was pretty exciting. We lived in the station and to go outside we had to wear EVA suits,” Sawicki said. “We’re simulating life on Mars so we can learn how to design experiments, equipment, and operations for when astronauts really go and face that challenge.”
Along with a series of geological and nuclear experiments was a 30 lb., four-wheel, ground robot provided by Nisar Ahmed, an associate professor of aerospace at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Robots will be important on future Mars missions, but only if users can easily understand their capabilities and limitations, said Nick Conlon, one of Ahmed’s PhD students in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.
Ahmed’s lab is focused on developing methods so a robot can accurately tell operators how well it will be able to do a task. Called Factorized Machine Self-Confidence, the system will give users an easy way to grasp how competent the robot is.
“The objective was to use the robot to take video autonomously in different areas to create a 360 view of the environment, like Google Maps Street View,” Conlon said. “Before the robot starts as task, it analyzes its internal models to report if it can achieve the goal. Can it drive to a certain area, does it have enough battery to get back, can it avoid obstacles? Things like that.”
Conlon delivered the robot to MDRS and demonstrated the technology prior to the analog mission beginning.
While astronauts are likely to be highly trained on their equipment, the goal of this robotics research is to make it possible for regular users to utilize the technology with little trouble.
“People have different ideas of what a robot might be capable of,” Conlon said. “We don’t want them to over trust a piece of equipment and break it or get hurt or drive off a cliff. We also don’t want people to under trust and have it sit and collect dust in a corner. We want people to use it within its limits and want to use it.”
Conlon said much of the research with the robot thus far has been in controlled environments, making Sawicki’s MDRS mission a unique deployment opportunity.
“We’ll be writing a paper from all we’ve learned from this experience,” Sawicki said. “One of the key findings is just how to make the system super robust for a field study, taking it on an EVA, and wearing a spacesuit in the process.”
Although there were some early diagnostic issues, the robot was able to complete all of the requested site surveys, and both Conlon and Sawicki are hopeful the data will be helpful for subsequent MDRS missions.
One unique challenge that will face future Mars astronauts is communicating with home. Due to the massive distance between the red planet and Earth, one way transmissions have a minimum delay of 8-10 minutes. That makes any live calls impossible. The same restrictions are imposed on the analogue astronauts.
“The isolation was definitely a mental challenge. Nick was back in Colorado and when I had to work with him on an issue with the robot, there are no phone calls and you can’t exchange messages quickly. You send an email and wait,” Sawicki said.
Participating in an MDRS mission fulfilled a goal Sawicki had held since his time as a grad student. CU Boulder offers a course called Medicine in Space and Surface Environments that takes students to MDRS, but during his PhD program Sawicki was unable to make it work with his schedule.
He reached out to MDRS after graduating to sign up for a mission on his own and they offered the opportunity to be mission commander.
“My PhD was in hypersonics but I had taken all of these bioastronautics classes and they said you’re a great fit for this mission,” Sawicki said. “I learned the trials and tribulations of what goes into an isolated mission like this, maintaining crew stability, scheduling. It was a great learning experience for me, and a unique opportunity for Ahmed and Conlon to learn about how future astronauts may one day work with, and alongside, autonomous robots.”
The MDRS 297 mission patch, with the team member names and the robot in lower left.