The third crew to enter the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars sealed the outer airlock hatch today, March 10, 2024 at 10:00 AM. Friends, family, and colleagues were welcomed to tour the SAM facility as the crew prepared for their six days and five nights journey to the South Pole of the Moon. Christopher Cokinos, Liz George, Julie Swarstad Johnson, and Ivy Wahome entered SAM carrying their personal bins.

Read the full story at samb2.space/2024/03/10/crew-imagination-i-enters-sam/ … and the continuing story of SAM design, construction, research, and visiting crews at samb2.space/blog.

Inclusion II, the second crew to enter SAM, the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars, sealed the outer airlock hatch today, May 10, 2023 at 10:05 AM. Interviews with the French Televisions commenced at 8:30 AM and continued until 9:45 AM when one by one, Bindhu Oommen, Keridwen Cornelius, Sahda Haroon, and Andy Squires entered SAM carrying their personal bins.

As with the first crew, this marks an extraordinary point in my professional life.

Read the full story at samb2.space/2023/05/10/second-crew-enters-sam/ … and the continuing story of SAM design, construction, research, and visiting crews at samb2.space/blog.

Today the very first visiting research crew entered SAM. Five years and five months from concept to design, fund raising, construction, the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM) is now operational. This represents the single largest project I have ever undertaken, and the most diverse, creative, diligent team I have ever employed. We have built the world’s only operating, hermetically sealed and pressurized other-world habitat analog. This is something for which I am truly proud (and totally exhausted).

Inclusion I was welcomed by three television crews, two radio crews, Linda Leigh of the original Biosphere 2 mission, Executive Director of Biosphere 2 Joaquin Ruiz, Deputy Director of B2 John Adams, and more than 60 persons watching the first closure of this unique hermetically sealed, pressurized habitat. Interviews commenced at 5:00 AM and continued until 10:00 AM when one by one, Cassandra Klox, Eiman Jahangir, Bailey Burns, and Sheri Wells-Jensen entered SAM carrying their personal bins.

Read the full story at samb2.space/2023/04/27/first-crew-enters-sam/ … and the continuing story of SAM design, construction, research, and visiting teams at samb2.space/blog.

I was at my car, loading for a trip to town, when I set my half-full water bottle on the hood. I reached into my pocket to grab my keys, my arms full, when I heard the bottle vibrating. My car was not running, rather sitting perfectly still. When I saw what was happening, I set everything down and grabbed my phone to record.

It appears the inherent motion of the water coupled with the rounded bottom edges of the bottle, concave surface of that portion of the Subaru hood, and half full water enabled that trapped kenetic energy to translate into motion. What’s astounding is how the dual-cycle standing waves in the water (meaning, the waves repeatedly return to the same position and height, amplifying the motion) “walk” the bottle down the car’s hood. The motion of the water in the bottle is essentially in equilibrium, the waves casting their energy against the inside of the bottle balanced by the forward “walking” motion invoked by the pull of gravity over an ever-so-slightly sloped surface.

But when that surface changes, the system is imbalanced, the bottle is no longer stable, and topples over the side.

I reset the bottle at the top and without any effort on my behalf, it did it all over again. So much fun!

My former high school physics professor Dan Heim found this worthy of investigation and included a full explanation as the topic for his weekly science essays at Sky Lights.

Astrophysicist Dr. Paul Sutter interviews SAM Director Kai Staats from within the Biosphere 2!

“This week on Space Radio I had the opportunity to catch up with my good friend Kai Staats. Kai joined us from the grounds of the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 as we talked about his newest project, Space Analog for the Moon and Mars. Among other topics, we discussed the removal of perchlorates from the Martian soil and how Methane could potentially be used.” — Dr. Sutter

After two and a half years in research and development, networking and team building, chasing dollars and fund raising, this is the day we can officially say, “SAM IS BEING BUILT!”

SAM is a hi-fidelity, hermetically sealed analog and research center composed of a crew quarters, airlock and hub, and greenhouse with temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide level controls. When complete, SAM will include a half-acre Mars yard for pressure suit, tool use, and rover tests. Located at the world renowned Biosphere 2 outside of Oracle, Arizona SAM is built around the original Test Module, a 480 cubic meter sealed greenhouse with automated, gravity-fed pressure regulation system designed and built by Taber MacCallum, William Dempster, and fellow Biospherians in 1987.

This week I have moved from my residence in Cascabel, Arizona to the Biosphere 2 where I fully anticipate long, back-to-back days of physical labor and further development of this exciting program. It is likely that my own blog entries will be few and far between for the coming year, but I will be posting regular updates about our progress at samb2.space/blog/.

I hope to see you there!

There was a period in my life, from 2012-2015 when I was adept at producing a regular series of essays. I was weekly sharing stories of my travels, adventures, meetings, and interactions with the world in so many ways. I felt, at that time, that my life was rich, dynamic, and impossibly full. Yet, now, I am working more hours each day, more full days each week than in the past decade and the richness of my engagements is equally fulfilling, even if in a different way. Yet, the stories are internalized, always on hold, for the process is each day unfolding.

When a day in Palestine, Tanzania, or South Africa is a day worth describing, a day working on Python coding leaves one wanting to get away from the keyboard, not closing the day with more typing. What’s more, there is a fear of ridicule for sharing the process if the process is one already tested and proved true or false, for in research the goal is not to rediscover, but to discover anew.

To share the process is to share potential success or potential failure in the making. And that is hard to do.