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CHILL-ICE II: Longer, better, deeper

Since the CHILL-ICE II (Construction of a Habitat Inside a Lunar-analogue Lava tube in Iceland) campaign, these Icelandic missions have formed the backbone of ICEE.Space’s high-fidelity analogue astronaut campaigns.

From "Surviving in Space", to Lunar Living

The initial missions of CHILL-ICE, Luna and Lava, were focused on the set-up of a temporary habitat on, or rather underneath, the simulated lunar surface in the lavafields of West-Iceland. Both missions were completed successfully, showcasing that our in-house geologist’s wild dreams of subsurface living as an option for future lunar survival is noto only feasible, but a potential residential goldmine in terms of natural scientific research opportunities. 

At the same time however, these two short proof-of-concept missions were exactly that: Short, and merely a proof-of-concept of human survival. Humans can survive with minimal amounts of sleep for a day or two, exist with little or suboptimal food choices, and knowing the mission only lasts just under 60 hours, means a lot of leniency in interpersonal relations, and enough patience and stress tolerance to stretch for most of the mission. 

Future humans, in a semi-permanent lunar habitat however, will be cohabiting on a much different scale. More intricate mission planning, daily scheduling, getting into a daily rhythm, and creating a work-life balance, that was something still lacking during the initial two missions of CHILL-ICE. 

CHILL-ICE II returned to Hallmundarhraun with exactly this purpose, covering a full week inside a lava tube, nearly 200 m away from the nearest surface access points. It changed the way we view subsurface survival in space, and proving that residing inside lava tubes from safety, logistical, and scientific perspectives vastly outway the costs.

– RESEARCH –

From into the Earth
To into the universe.

As the first analogue astronaut campaigns inside a lava tube, the CHILL-ICE missions always see a strong link between the natural and pristine environments of the subsurface of Iceland and the research taking place. This includes rover operations and human-rover collaborative exploration, scientific instrument testing, human psychology in deep isolation, crew cohesion, modifications to spacesuit simulators, the habitat, and significant upgrades to the power and communications systems - 200 meter inside a cave, under the Earth, is not the easiest environment, even when not wearing a space suit yet. At the same time, the CHILL-ICE II campaign coincided with some of the bigger explosive events in the semi-continuous eruption of Fagradalsfjall on Suðurnes, and high solar activity allowed for bright aurora displays - even in the lightness of Icelandic summer. This allowed our expedition team and on-site mission support personnel to not only explore the cosmos, but also some of the most magical places Earth has to offer.

ENTRANT

ENTRANT is a specialised, non-invasive, wearable device developed by researchers from Masaryk University to measure Stress Entropic Load (SEL). 

SEL is a novel, thermodynamic-based marker of stress that quantifies the total amount of entropy produced by the overall human body in response to one or multiple stressors over a specific time interval. It allows for a much more precise and complete measurement of what actually goes on inside an astronaut’s body when performing tasks in an exceptionoal environment.

Lunar ZEBRO

The Lunar Zebro is a small, six-legged, and largely autonomous robot developed by students from the TU Delft in the Netherlands, with the specific purpose to explore the surface – and maybe subsurface – of the Moon. 

It moves using six C-shaped legs, allowing it to navigate the rugged lunar and Icelandic terrains. During CHILL-ICE II, three small rovers were deployed and operated by the crew to assist in exploration of the habitat, its direct surroundings, and aid in navigation, without any of the crew members having to go outside.

PORIS

Lava tubes can provide unique insights into the type of volcano that formed it, but also can give us hints about the environment present during its formation, and what happened to the sheltered inside after.

The PORIS instrument (Portable Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) incorporates a microbolometer imaging array as a detector, which can be used to find silicate minerals and carbonates and do a scan of its surroundings, even in low-light environments. This is extremely useful for places on the Moon that do not usually see sunlight, such as the inside of lava tubes, or permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles.

BORP Suit and HUD

During CHILL-ICE II, one of the unique aspects was that our crew was settled in complete darkness, 200 m away from any light sources, inside a lava tube. This means that any time you go outside with a space suit, you are right where the science objectives are. 

One of the projects saw a collaboration between the BORP Spacesuit simulators and an Augmented Reality Heads-up Display (HUD), developed by Texas A&M and International Space University students to help astronauts navigate, communicate, and assist in tasks during EVA.

Search-and-Rescue

This study focuses on those things that any mission commander would absolutely dread; a medical emergency during an EVA.

At the same time, analogue astronaut missions, such as the CHILL-ICE II campaign, are exactly the type of trial runs in which can prepare and see how humans react in case there is an actual emergency scenario – and oxygen is running out. 

This study provided an analysis of psychological, cognitive, and social performance aspects of the crew’s behaviour during a simulated emergency.

Human and Environment

There were several research topics, both in-house from ICEE.Space, and external researchers, that were looking at specifically how our crew behaved, the impact they had on the environment, and vice versa; how the dark, alien, and isolating environment of a lava tube affected our crew.

Psychological experiments, such as High-performance Teams and Vigilance were looking at emotional intelligence, empathy, and awareness of the surroundings, ANICE was a dietary research to assess physiological and psychological impact of food intake, which was luckily significantly improved, as most meals were based on LYO Foods dinner and breakfast options. 

Introducing the CHILL-ICE II Analogue Astronaut Class

Dr. Malica Schmidt

CHILL-ICE II Mission Commander

Cody Ball

CHILL-ICE II Chief Engineer

Prof. Dr. Alejandro Gómez San Juan

CHILL-ICE II Lead Scientist

Aláine Lee

CHILL-ICE II Back-up crew and CAPCOM

Margot Issertine

CHILL-ICE Back-up crew and Medical Specalist 

Mission Control Centre

Consisting of 2 systems engineers, 3 flight directors for 24/7 support, 6 scientific PI’s, logistics, 3 Rescue Team members, rover operations, flight planners, and our first artist-in-residence.