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Duckweed-Eating Martian Cave Mice
Meet the Mousetronauts | Read the CBS News Media Report:

Mousetronaut Joystik
Mousetronaut Joystik prepares for her next feast.
How best to effectively demonstrate basic Advanced Life Support Systems in a small, remote location or educational setting? Requirements of space, mass, and logistical factors for many remote research facilities severely limit any sort of full-sized human CELSS/ALS setup. Likewise, building such a full-sized system for educational use would be quite expensive. Nevertheless, the need for such a system for analog testing use is essential for future Martian endeavors, especially those within the Martian underground.

The CEMSS, a miniature bio-regenerative life support analog, will contain two female mice, and several trays of the aquatic plants lemna minor, (duckweed) and water fern, (azolla). This is an experimental analog of a hypothetical Martian Cave colony, and all environmental variables will be tracked and recorded during the length of a two-day experiment. This part of the project will investigate the feasibility of utilizing lava tube caves on Mars as possible habitats and resource locations for future human explorers.

The CEMSS and its cargo spent two days in Skylight Cave, a lava tube near the Central Oregon resort of Black Butte at the end of September, 2002. The Unit was placed on a scaffold, beneath one of three unique 'hornito' openings within Skylight Cave, a moderate sized lava tube cave. Power was provided via photovoltaic solar cells charging a bank of batteries, connected to the CEMSS by an umbilical cord going into the cave. On the surface, support equipment included a portable weather station and computer data logging equipment. Click Here to view the front page photos from the Bend, Oregon "Bulletin" daily newspaper.

Duckweed harvest
Duckweed harvesting operation.
Duckweed and waterfern, two aquatic "Flat Crops" were selected due to these species rapid growth, high nutritional value and water treatment features. And in the case of waterfern, as an atmospheric nitrogen fixer. The mice will be fed an exclusive diet of duckweed and waterfern starting a week before and on through their trip to inner space. Frederick has converted his backyard into a flat-crop production facility, and has been harvesting and drying these small plants for several months.

In the cave, the living duckweed and waterfern convert CO2-rich "mouse-breath" into breathable oxygen. A series of timed fans and vents insure a constant air flow. The CEMSS unit likewise includes a small thermoelectric cooler/heater that will provide a stable temperature for the two Mousetronauts.

Variables tracked included oxygen and carbon dioxide levels within the unit as well as temperature and relative humidity. The weather station recorded environmental conditions on the surface and within the cave itself. The CEMSS portion of the Mars Cave study is a precursor to a larger, human-scale experiment slated for the summer of 2003 in a cave in Arizona. Our first of several "Mouse Missions to Inner Space" is scheduled to begin its 48-hour run over the weekend of 27 September, 2002. In the following months, we will continue to run more extensive and lengthy trials of the CEMSS unit, culminating in a two-week mission sometime in the late winter or early spring of 2003.

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The Caves of Mars Project is funded by a NIAC Phase II Grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
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