Author Archives: wilsonzak
A return home and sunset
I went back to the hab today briefly. Walking outside the hab is still unnatural feeling after having to be in a space suit there for 8 months. It was strange to walk in. It has an interesting sort of dusty smell, that I assume it had all along but since I never left I […]
R & R
It’s been an incredibly busy few days doing media interviews and debrief. Done with debrief now and on to the important stuff.
Exit day Schedule and live stream
It’s coming down to the end, just a couple more days. We will be leaving the dome Saturday morning (the 13th) at 8am Hawaii time (noon mountain time). We have a day of media interviews, a skydive with the Golden Knights and a BBQ/pool party planed for that day (fingers crossed the weather holds). There […]
Thoughts on Leaving Mars
We are down to less than a week in the dome; we get out Saturday morning. Hard to believe we’ve been here for eight months, the time has mostly flown by. It’s been a fantastic experience and I’m so happy I got the opportunity to do it. My first post was about things I was looking […]
3D Printing Garage Sale
With less than a week to go we are starting to pack up all our stuff. As part of that I put all the parts that I’ve printed and aren’t being used out on the table today and let my crew mates pick though them. As of today I’ve printed 715 indivisual pieces and many […]
Comparing Mars Analogs – HI-SEAS vs MDRS
I’m the only member of the current HI-SEAS crew that had spent time in another Mars analog (which is how people in this field refer to these simulated Mars missions) before starting at HI-SEAS. In the fall of 2009 I spent two weeks at MDRS (Mars desert research station) in Hanksville, Utah (aka the middle […]
Exit Plans – T minus two weeks
With just two weeks left on Mars the plans for our exit are starting to firm up. We will be exiting the dome on the morning of June 13th after 241 days in isolation. First order of business is a breakfast of all the fresh foods we’ve been missing for the past eight months along […]
Facebook update
I just discovered that my blog hasn’t been cross posting my blog posts for a number of months. A few highlights of what I’ve been up to while I’ve been on “Mars”: We’ve gotten a lot of media coverage – Vice, BBC Radio 4, Material FM, The New Yorker, Vox, Tech Times part 1 and […]
We’re in Vice
We just had an article about us published in Vice as part of a series about space analogs.
Print your very own Martian habitat!
I completed a model of our habitat that I’ve been working on for a while. I uploaded it to Thingiverse, so people can print their own (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:811113). I’m also printing a bunch to give out for outreach.
Almost Mars 