VOLCANO — Kyla Defore chugged extra water and laced up sturdy hiking boots last week, but there was still no getting around it. ADVERTISING VOLCANO — Kyla Defore chugged extra water and laced up sturdy hiking boots last week, but
VOLCANO — Kyla Defore chugged extra water and laced up sturdy hiking boots last week, but there was still no getting around it.
The day-long hike she soon embarked on over the jagged flanks of Mauna Ulu could only be described as treacherous.
“The lava rock is really, really hollow,” Defore, a 28-year-old senior at the University of Hawaii at Hilo said this week, recounting the experience. “You’re walking out there, and it’s really crumbly. You have to be really careful. And it’s hot — you’re dehydrating really fast.”
Defore was field support for a team of geologists and scientists who braved the beating sun and rugged terrain for about two weeks this month, as part of research ultimately preparing for a manned mission to Mars.
The team is with NASA’s ongoing Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains (BASALT) project. They are on island through today developing protocols and methods for collecting rock samples on the Red Planet which could host life, all the while avoiding contamination.
Mauna Ulu, located on the east rift zone of Kilauea in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, is blanketed with a thin, crumbly lava rock known as shelly pahoehoe — thought to be analogous to the mostly basalt terrain of Mars.
“What we’re doing here is establishing and verifying what works and what doesn’t work for when astronauts do go there,” said John Hamilton, an astronomy faculty member at UH-Hilo. “It’s how they are going to really efficiently use their time and do useful work and we’re doing it here under real simulations. So this program is defining what they’re going to do when they get there.”
“You have to be prepared,” added UH-Hilo student, Michael Bailey, volunteering with BASALT as an instrument lead. “You can’t just pack up and take a ship to Mars and think everything is going to run smoothly. You have to have a game plan to know what you’re getting into. So it’s vital to do studies like this in a controlled environment.”
Hawaii Island isn’t the only Martian analog site. The BASALT team conducted a similar field simulation last summer at Craters of the Moon National Monument, a vast lava flow and cinder cone-covered preserve in the Snake River Plain of Idaho.
Other field simulations are slated for the future and researchers say a human trip to Mars could happen around 2030.
Defore and Bailey are among about 10 UH-Hilo students volunteering this week with the BASALT project. Defore said her role was simple. She spent Friday tagging alongside the simulated astronaut crew handing out bags and carrying lunches.
And yet as a geology major mulling a career in the industry someday, she said the experience was invaluable.
“My favorite part was just being out there,” Defore said. “I’m learning so much from these scientists and learning the importance of things (such as) how these organisms are growing even without much sunlight. (I’m learning) Just watching these geologists go out there and being careful not to contaminate anything.”
Other students are volunteering at a simulated mission control center erected at the nearby Kilauea Military Camp which communicates with the field crew under a time delay. UH-Hilo student Niki Thomas, who has transcribed feed from the science team in the center, said her role “might seem a little trivial … but becomes integral to making decisions in the field.”
Student Colin Milovsoroff, also working in the center, said he’s enjoyed working on a large-scale project that “feels really important.”
“It’s really cool to be involved,” Milovsoroff said. “I really enjoy being part of something with so much vigor … I feel like I’m really making a difference.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
