His two children, seven and four, have been drawing astronauts and rockets on cards for weeks to accompany him during the mission. The aerospace engineer Estel (star in Spanish) Bay He has fulfilled a dream that pursued years ago and, together with eight Spanish scientists from various profiles and ages, will soon leave towards the Utah desert (USA) to manned the new mission analogous to Mars (Hypatia II).
For fourteen days, From 2 to 15 of Febrereitherthe scientists, mostly Catalan, will live, with their feet on the ground, but in the same conditions that would be on Mars. Early in their space clothing, analog crew will not be able day and for two weeks to a challenging environment, the same they would find in the inospitable planet red, in an analogous mission it has, unlike the previous one (Hypatia I)as an objective to analyze the effects of an interplanetary trip on the woman’s body.
«We want to see how the woman’s body reacts in extreme conditions. It is clear that it has different effects than on men, ”says the engineer in statements to ABC. Estel has been selected from more than 50 candidates. She is a aerospace engineer with more than 15 years of experience, specialized in land observation. Apart from the Hypatia project, he is a program manager ‘Phi-Lab Net Spain’ of the European Space Agency (ESA) and member of ‘Women in Aerospace Barcelona’, Platform from which diversity and inclusion in the aerospace industry are promoted.
In the new Hypatia II mission, which will be carried out in the Mars Resert Station (MDRS) in the Utah desert and will start coinciding with International Women and Girl Day in Science, Estel is in charge of health and safety. In statements to ABC, the aerospace engineer expresses her satisfaction for participating in this new ‘inclusive’ mission to the neighboring planet. It is the only one in Spain, manned only by women, and of the few that exist in the world and that supposes for her a special challenge.
Currently only 1 in 10 astronauts are women. The absence of female crews causes a significant bias In available data. For this reason, one of Hypatia II’s objectives is Sant Pau Research Institutehe Sant Pau Hospitalhe Global Health Institute (Isglobal) and the GERMANS TRIAS I HOSPITAL of Badalona.
“From Hypatia we claim a more inclusive and diverse science, which values the contribution of women in research, especially in space exploration,” explains mathematics Ariadna Farrés, Hypatia II commander and researcher at the space flight center Goddard NASA. To explore the impact on the female body of an interplanetary mission, among other factors will be analyzed, how menstruation, nutrition, physical activity, circadian rhythms of sleep and other biological variables related to stress, such as the Heart rhythm, body temperature and oxygen in the blood.
“I want to break taboos”
“It is important to have these data for new approaches,” says Bay, who illusive the missing days to land on his figurative Mars. «For me it is a dream come true. I am very lucky to be able to work on what my passion is, the space, ”says Estel and confesses that one of the reasons that have moved him to candidate to participate in the mission is to be able to explain to the young generations of women that space does not It’s just men’s thing. «I want to break taboos and that when you think about an astronaut, you stop thinking exclusively on an American white man, that women know that They can make space career», He adds to scientist.
She and her companions carry two monitored months with a clock that marks its vital constants daily in different situations. These records will be compared later, according to this newspaper, with those obtained during the days of the mission. “From this comparison, data that will help us will be carried out and the results will be published in scientific journals,” says Bay.
Hypatia II crew will install a tried in the Utah desert, during extravehicular outputs outside the MDRSso that satellites can position themselves with precision and measure the elevation of the land, a technology that is already used to map oceans and glaciers.
Sustainability is, according to project drivers, another of Hypatia II priorities. Among the projects that will be carried out is the piloted by Estel Baywhich will rehearse solutions to improve the energy efficiency of solar panels. “The objective is to prevent photovoltaic installation from losing performance as a consequence of the accumulation of Martian dust on its surface and endangering the life of astronauts,” explains the engineer. From there, they will be raised, according to ABC, “possible solutions to the problem, such as designing folding plates in the style of an origami.”
Loss of muscle mass of the crew
During the mission, various projects will be addressed. One of them will consist of designing a MDRS Virtual Tour To highlight sustainable and circular economy practices that the crew will implement, inspiring sustainable solutions on Earth. Another of the projects will study the loss of muscle mass in the crew.
For the first time, a hypatia mission incorporates a geologist. In this sense, one of the challenges of space trips, which will be collected in other Hypatia projects, is the collection of samples from other planetary bodies such as the moon to analyze them later on Earth. This seeks to optimize the Rock analysis with an X -ray fluorescence gun. Estel Bay trusts the mission “Help to transmit a more inclusive image of space.”
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