Today we went out for a short reconnaissance EVA just before dusk. At  the end we took a look at the telescope observatory next to the Hab. Photos really do not make any justice to how incredible this place is. Weather is great, snow has melted and we all very excited for the things to come.

Today at 12:30pm MST (Martian Standard Time) the MDRS Crew 109 arrived to the station via the pressurized rover. We relieved the 5 Crew 108 members that have been in the station since Dec 3.

I am currently in route to the MDRS. I am carrying with me over 100 lb of gear. The whole crew should arrive to Grand Junction, CO today. We will “land” at the MDRS by tomorrow after a 158 miles/2-3 hours journey.

Bottom-line: we will have cloudy, cold, humid, and windy weather during most of the MDRS Crew 109 rotation. However, we may have some clear nights to look up to the sky.

Do you want to see what we are up to? These webcam video feeds come directly from the MDRS Hab

I am very excited to introduce the the MDRS Crew 109.  This crew will be doing a Mars analog simulation from Dec 17-Jan 1 at the MDRS site in the middle of the desert near Hanksville, Utah.

S. Lee, J. Kim, M. Lee, K. Yoo, L. G. Barajas, and R. Menassa, “3D Visual Perception System for Bin Picking in Automotive Sub-Assembly Automation,” International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA 2012), Saint Paul, MN, 2012.

J. A. Alcazar and L. G. Barajas, “Estimating Object Grasp Sliding via Pressure Array Sensing,” submitted to the International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA 2012) Saint Paul, MN, 2012.

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Crew 109 has been selected by the Mars Society; this crew will run from Dec 17-Jan 1. Leandro was chosen to be the Chief Engineer and Robotics Specialist. He will responsible for maintaining all systems necessary for routine Habitat operations including power, water, electrical, plumbing, ATV, and Green Habitat […]

NASA was honored for its technology transfer achievements by the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC). The team members of the partnership from the NASA Johnson Space Center and from General Motors were recognized for the design of the humanoid robot, Robonaut 2,  for aerospace applications and automotive manufacturing.