Living on Mars: What's It Like to Live on the Red Planet?

Andrzej Stewart talks with Ana Guzman about Living on Mars

Ana Guzman, ideaXme space ambassador interviews Andrzej Stewart, HI-SEAS 4, simulating living on Mars, Chief Engineering Officer, aerosystems engineer NASA and aspiring astronaut.

Stewart has extensive experience in spacecraft mission operations; spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control; modeling and simulation; and software development and maintenance. He earned Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and has received many awards from Lockheed Martin and NASA for mission success.

Discover how Andrzej plans to surf with the aliens and journey to Mars.

Ana Guzman ideaXme space ambassador and Andrzej Stewart aerosystems engineer and aspiring NASA astronaut — Ana Guzman, ideaXme space ambassador, left and Andrzej Stewart aerosystems engineer and aspiring NASA astronaut, right, Photo Credit: ideaXme

Ana comments:

Speaking with an aspiring astronaut who has “lived” on the Red Planet

During this interview, you will hear that Andrzej Stewart has lived on Mars – well a simulation of it. In my interview with Andrzej, he describes his experiences living in the habitats of the HI-SEAS and HERA simulation missions for living on Mars. For a few years now, NASA has collaborated with the University of Hawaii in the HI-SEAS Mars simulation missions to study the effects of living with a small crew in confined spaces on human behavior and psychology. Simultaneously, NASA has run the HERA asteroid simulation missions in a more controlled environment onsite at the Johnson Space Center.

Investigating psychological affect of living on Mars

A significant challenge in long duration human spaceflight to Mars is its psychological effects to the human brain. Can a small crew of humans maintain a productive and collaborative environment within a confined space for extended periods of time?

Living on Mars with people from across the world

There is international representation within the crews of the HI-SEAS missions. Andrzej describes the benefits of working with a crew from different backgrounds and cultures. It provides different points of view into problem solving and executing tasks. Developing ways crew members can live in close quarters for long periods of time while getting along is key to mission success.

Feeling comfortable living on the Red Planet

One of his most surprising discoveries was that he felt very comfortable living in the habitat and did not miss nature that much. Indeed surprising! The experience of reacclimatising to every day life on Earth was a challenge for him though. Something as simple as grocery shopping felt a bit foreign to him as he returned to normalcy.

Andrzej Stewart pictured above is an aspiring NASA astronaut and aerosystems engineer — Andrzej Stewart aspiring astronaut NASA and aerosystems engineer, Photo Credit: HI-SEAS 4

Andrzej unknowingly started on the path to being an astronaut upon receiving a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas. He had toyed with the idea before, but it wasn’t until he saw the IMAX film “Space Station 3D” that he realized it was an endeavor he would like to explore. And so, a career in spaceflight commenced.

He has already contributed to spaceflight outside of Lower Earth Orbit as a spacecraft mission controller for NASA’s Mars orbiter fleet in the past and now working in Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center supporting the Orion space program.

Orion is the vehicle that is designated to take astronauts back to the moon and eventually Mars.

Andrzej’s plans to be an astronaut and live on Mars

Even though Andrzej was not chosen during the last astronaut class selection, he has not lost hope and is determined to try again. If he is chosen in the future, he is quite willing to fly anywhere NASA sends him – including Mars. He expressed the importance of studying Mars to better understand Earth. Since Mars is the closest comparison to our planet and it is untouched, scientific studies there can unlock some of the mysteries here on Earth.