UNAM students to participate in analog mission to Mars

The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) has two future astronauts among its thousand students, Danton Iván Bazaldua Morquecho , student of Engineering in Telecommunications of the Faculty of Engineering ( FI ), and Tanía María Robles Hernández , student of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Superior Studies ( FES ) Aragón.

From January 13 to Jabuary28 , Danton and Tania will be part of the Crew 187 (Team LATAM 2) along with three students from Peru and two from Colombia , at the Mars Desert Research Station ( MDRS ) of the Mars Society , an American association dedicated to the promotion of the exploration of Mars, in the Utah desert .

"The crew members will undertake projects on virtual reality, plant cultivation in Martian soil, remote sensing, monitoring, and testing of space suits equipment," said Danton.

The analog mission carried out on Earth aims to replicate the conditions that astronauts will face on Mars, which is why it is carried out at the MDRS, where the environment, vehicles, and space suits are approximations of what It would be the real mission, except for the atmosphere and gravity.

Tanía María Robles Hernández

was selected a few months ago by the International Space University ( ISU ) and the University of South Australia to make a space education and training stay in the Hemisphere Space Studies Program . In 2016, she attended a summer school at Samara University , Russia , and she is a national representative of the Space Generation Advisory Council .

Danton Iván Bazaldua Morquecho

was named an emerging leader of the space sector by the Space Generation Advisory Council of the United Nations Organization in 2016. He made a research stay at the Polytechnic of St. Petersburg , Russia . He participated in the Poland Mars Analogue Simulation 2017 ( PMAS 2017 ).

sg