Mars | EPFL Graph Search

Mars is the fourth planet and the furthest terrestrial planet from the Sun. The reddish color of its surface is due to finely grained iron(III) oxide dust in the soil, giving it the nickname "the Red Planet". Mars's radius is second smallest among the planets in the Solar System at . The Martian dichotomy is visible on the surface: on average, the terrain on Mars's northern hemisphere is flatter and lower than its southern hemisphere. Mars has a thin atmosphere made primarily of carbon dioxide and two irregularly shaped natural satellites: Phobos and Deimos. Geologically, Mars is fairly active, with dust devils sweeping across the landscape and marsquakes (Martian analog to earthquakes) trembling underneath the ground. The surface of Mars hosts a large shield volcano (Olympus Mons) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System (Valles Marineris). Mars's significant orbital eccentricity and axial tilt cause large seasonal changes to the polar ice caps'

Biomechanics at the workplace under hypogravity conditions

Tatiana Volkova

The main goal of my research is to establish guidelines for workplace design based on human biomechanics: specifically sitting workplaces and handling areas in 1/6G-1/3G (Moon, Mars) conditions. Such a workplace could be used in long-term space missions in order to maximize worker performance and minimize the risks of musculoskeletal injuries.Research objective is to formalize a baseline workplace design based on best practices limited to the tasks: operating a computer, assembling/maintenance operations.Proposed steps:1) Data collection and methods definitions2) Measurement and simulation of the human fatigue in the variation of sitting postures and handling areas (identification of typical poses, 3D simulation, graph analysis)3) Optimization of the workplace design based on human biomechanics (motion capture, factor analysis, optimization) 4) Simulation of workplace design in different environments (validation methods).Scientific & technological novelty: 1) Measurement of human muscular fatigue as a function of workload in reduced gravity conditions and integration of the results into the design model2) Modeling of the biomechanics of human movements in the workplace in reduced gravity conditions;3) Developing of sitting workplace design in reduced gravity conditions - taking into account human biomechanics.This research addresses problems revealed by workplace design in confined conditions found in Earth or near-Earth facilities in extreme environments including in underwater conditions, remote & non-remote locations and Low Earth Orbit (LEO), habitat simulators. Human-centered design strategies and biomechanics issues for creating an effective workplace design for long-term missions will also be addressed. The recommendations for design, maintenance, and usage of this workplace in different gravity conditions (1G, 1/6G,1/3G) will be provided. The design optimization of such a workplaces design based on human biomechanics will be done with the help of numerical simulations and digital human modeling. Physical experiments will validate these results by means of the suspension system, underwater experiment and possible by parabolic flights. This work may have a significant impact on workplace designs for both Earth and Space projects. Keywords: biomechanics, workplace, posture, extreme environments, human-centered design, Moon/Mars exploration, comfort conditions, task performance, reduced gravity, digital human modeling, motion capture

EPFL2022

A Generic Framework to Produce Probabilistic Rainfall Scenarios Incorporating Climate Change

Xavier Beuchat

The present work addresses the problematic of forecasting impacts of climate change on future rainfall regimes and their consequences on urban stormwater infrastructures. Researches carried out allowed to develop an integrated framework for producing high resolution probabilistic rainfall projections suitable for studying hydrological processes at the scale of urban drainage. Downscaling is at the core of the methodology as the predictions of the numerical General Circulation Models (GCMs) employed by the climate scientific community to model climate evolution are too coarse for hydrological impact studies. The proposed downscaling approach respects the scales of the physical processes characterizing precipitations and consists in three steps: i) Daily rainfall series at the location of interest are downscaled from coarse-gridded monthly GCMs projections (scale of weather events); ii) The generated daily series are further downscaled to the hourly time-step (scale of storms dynamics); iii) Finally, hourly series are disaggregated to sub-hourly level (scale of raincells). Daily downscaling is achieved by a statistical procedure, based on Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), seeking to relate large-scale atmospheric variables, corresponding to the scale of GCMs, to local daily rainfall series. The proposed methodology is assessed using three contrasted situations in Switzerland (Geneva, Sion and Säntis) and is shown to perform well in reproducing historical rainfall statistics (including extremes and inter-annual variability) in the present-day climate; furthermore, projections were shown to be consistent with the simulations of physically-based dynamical models (i.e. Regional Climate Models). Projections for the second part of the 21th century indicate considerably drier summers, but no significant tendency toward more extreme events was detected except for Säntis. Finally, extensions of the methodology were presented allowing to downscale other atmospheric variables than rainfall. Sub-daily rainfall downscaling is achieved using a stochastic hourly rainfall generator based on Poisson clusters model which aims at conceptualizing storm dynamics in a simple way. To provide sensible results such generators have to be fitted on historical rainfall statistics computed at different levels of temporal aggregation. In the present context, this raises a fundamental problem as the required fitting statistics at the sub-daily time-scale are not available for the future. Shortcomings of existing methods led us to develop a novel approach based on Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) which were so far seldom used in hydrology. The proposed MARS models are conditioned on climate and fit thus particularly well in the general downscaling framework. In addition, atmospheric predictors allow to account naturally for seasonal variations meaning that a single MARS model holds for the whole year, whereas existing models are specific to each month of the year and are therefore not robust against the seasonal changes that might induce global warming. The methodology was applied to generate hourly rainfall series from daily data simulated by the GLMs at Geneva for the end of the 21th century. Climate change was found to impact significantly summer storm dynamics: raincells are predicted to be shorter but more intense, and storms are projected to be less frequent. A frequency analysis made on the simulated hourly rainfall series revealed a significant increase of hourly rainfall return levels. Hourly rainfall series are further disaggregated to the 10-minute level using a cascade-based model. Using case studies in the Geneva area, the performances of this sub-hourly rainfall disagreggator (in particular the reproduction of extreme values) were shown to be equivalent when fitted on statistics derived from the temporal levels 10-minute to 1-hour (sub-hourly fitting set), or from the 1-hour to 3-hour levels (supra-hourly fitting set). In consequence, the supra-hourly statistics of the hourly rainfall series generated by the stochastic Poisson clusters model can be used to fit the disagreggator model in order to simulate 10-minute rainfall series. Projections of 10-minute rainfall at Geneva for the end of the 21th century indicate an increase of extreme events intensities. Uncertainties in the proposed downscaling procedure are dealt with using, whenever feasible, probabilistic models (i.e. GLMs, hourly rainfall generator, MARS model and sub-hourly disagreggator), and relying on a large number of General Circulation Models projections conditioned on various greenhouse gases emissions scenarios. The present work concludes with a case study illustrating how the developed downscaling methodology may be used to evaluate different strategies of sustainable stormwater management. The Industrial Zone of Plan-les-Ouates (ZIPLO) taken as example is a small urbanized area of Geneva. Urban drainage was characterized using a semi-distributed rainfall-runoff model, and climate change (under the higher greenhouse gas emissions scenario) was shown to increase significantly the peak discharge flows at the ZIPLO outlet. Different sustainable stormwater options were then evaluated in order to limit the peak discharge flows under the joint scenario of climate change and projected urbanization increase.

EPFL2011

Systems engineering and design of a Mars Polar Research Base with a human crew

Anton Ivanov, Claudio Leonardi, Anne-Marlene Rüede, Tatiana Volkova

Mars Polar Ice caps have been known ever since they were first observed by Cassini. Robotic exploration mis- sions, starting with Mariner 9, have confirmed that they are composed of water ice. During later missions, instruments such as Mars Global Surveyor's MOLA have established a detailed topography and have estimated their depth at about 3 km in the thickest part, while detailed internal structure has been investigated by MARSIS from Mars Express and SHARAD from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This analysis proposes to establish a base near North Polar Layered Deposits to investigate Mars' climate, hydrological processes and to test for possible traces of life. The objectives of the mission are to sustain a crew for nine months on the surface of Mars, near the North Pole, and to bring the crew back to Earth safely. During the surface mission, the crew will drill and analyze Polar Layered Deposits in ice samples. Furthermore, because the North Polar region provides an easy access to water ice, this area has the potential of sustaining a long-term human presence. The Mars Polar Research mission shall therefore prepare for long term missions, spanning over multiple crew generations. Indeed, longer duration missions and larger crews should be facilitated by this first mission. This paper describes a mission design for a Mars Polar Research base using systems engineering approach and scenario testing. The goal of the work is to establish a strategy composed of various technologies that have been selected accordingly. The requirements related to crew composition, human physiology and psychology adaptation, quality of com- munication, challenges and prospects of advancing science, as well as optimum habitat design and its usability, are derived and compiled into mass, volume, data and power consumption. A design for the base and mission scenario is also proposed. Given the identified requirements, possible technologies for life support systems, radiation protection, in-situ propellant production, thermal control, air pressure difference compensation and availability of power are discussed and solutions to focus on are recommended. Furthermore, the requirements for a long-term mission preparation are also identified and solutions to include in a first Mars mission with crew are recommended. In conclusion, approximately 110 metric tons and 160 kW are required to enable a Mars Polar mission with a human crew. A two-phase mission is recommended for enabling the testing of key in-situ resource utilization technologies allowing to minimize mass, while ensuring the security of the crew. The use of optimal payload and fairing, a Mars orbit crane system and deployable structures are recommended. Finally, in pre- paration for a long-term presence of humans on Mars, including in-situ testing of key technologies enabling the production of consumables facilitating autonomy from Earth is suggested. The consumables that have been identified as not being able to be tested before a first crew is sent to Mars are food and energy production. These developments may serve as priorities for current Mars settlement programs.

2019