Science In The Wild [MAARS] Mars Atacama Research & Simulation expedition. Photo by Benjamin Pothier
source: Benjamin Pothier/Hervé Studio, Trailer M.A.A.R.S. Atacama’s Journey
M. A. A. R. S.: Learning to become Martians
The Atacama desert in Chile is one of the harshest environments on Earth. It is so dry that the central sector can go through periods of up to four years without any rainfall. As for the land, it is so arid, so deprived of water and nutrients that it is almost sterile. Yet, the desert harbours the world’s largest supply of Sodium Nitrate, a well-known fertilizer.
The area seems to be as intriguing as it is inhospitable. It’s in the Atacama desert that the oldest artificially mummified human remains have been found. And while most cultures around the world primarily preserved the dead elite, the Chinchorro performed mummification on all members of their society. But the reason why i mention this extraordinary desert today is because it is one of our closest analogues for Martian surface conditions.
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The paste-faced head of a Chinchorro child mummy is held straight by a stick that emerges from the top of the skull. Photo: Enrico Ferorelli, National Geographic
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Science In The Wild [MAARS] Mars Atacama Research & Simulation expedition. Photo by Benjamin Pothier
Benjamin Pothier, an artist, anthropologist and PhD Candidate in the Planetary Collegium research group at Plymouth university recently joined a team of scientists and explorers including astronaut candidates for an expedition to the Atacama desert and a hike to the Ojos Del Salado Volcano, a nearby active volcano that boasts the highest lake in the world.
The 15 day trip, called M.A.A.R.S which stands for Mars Atacama Analog Research & Simulation, offered the group the opportunity to conduct a range of experiences and measurements for scientific purposed and future space missions, including the test of Astronauts Gloves (gloves are, it seems, one of the main engineering challenges of space missions.)
Pothier documented the Atacama journey in a short video that not only reveals amazing landscapes but aso touches upon issues such as survival in hostile environments.
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Refuge #3 at 5837 meters, Atacama. Photo: Benjamin Pothier
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Atacama team during an approach. Photo: Thomas Edunk
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Dr. Horodyskyj repairing a weather station at 4800 meters, Himalayas. Photo: Benjamin Pothier
Hi Ben! Is the possibility of actually living on Mars a plausible one? I thought we’d only send robots to mine for us there?
Well, as far as I know there are still many challenges to overcome before any human will be able to first go to Mars (and come back safely) .
I was recently invited to deliver a talk about my experience of participation to Art expeditions in extreme environments and a Mars Analog astronaut training, at the Earth without Humans II symposium. It was co-organized by Kapelica Gallery, the European Space Agency and Ars Electronica.
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The Crowd & The Cloud, Sherpa Science
And it’s probably also one of the reasons why Herve.io co-produced my latest project, including a 360 film shot during the Astronaut training in the Atacama.
And we will show the project for the first time during the Balance-Unbalance 2017 conference in Plymouth (UK) from August 20th to 24th
All of those experiences and my interest in techwear even lead me to collaborate closely with a very technical bag brand from Berlin, BAGJACK, which is almost mythical in the techwear scene (Even William Gibson is a hardcore fan…) And we developed together a bag prototype for my expeditions, based on an existing model but with some new featured that I designed. We plan to release a very limited series of those bags, and for me it’s definitely at the border of design and art. I hope to collaborate more closely with innovative brands in the future in order to develop those kind of super cool hybrid projects.
I was reading an interview of you in which you explained: “I’m working with an artist based in the Netherlands who is doing space art and we are going to send a photograph from the Mars Curiosity Rover test site to the moon through a radio telescope, and then, another radio telescope on earth is going to receive the image.” Could you give us more details about that?
Sure, amongst other colleagues I already knew, I had the chance to meet for the first time Daniela De Paulis, an amazing artist based in the Netherlands, at the last Computer Arts Conference in Paris. We discussed about her work and I discovered that she was actually the artist who developed a very innovative Space Art project that I knew already through the various contemporary art “scenes”. She has worked on this technology in collaboration with the radio amateur community and people from Dwingeloo radiotelescope in the Netherlands.
To quote her official statement :
(…) a live radio transmission performance between the earth and the moon. During the live show the digital images of the seven colours of the spectrum are sent as sound signals to the moon from a radio station located in Brazil, the UK or Switzerland and received back from Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands. The performance also includes a live video connection with radio amateurs based at Dwingeloo radio telescope.
(…) Communication Moon Relay was a military project by the U.S Navy using the technology ‘Moonbounce’, also called Earth-Moon-Earth. This is a radio communications technique developed shortly after WWII which allows sending radio signals to the Moon and receive them back as reflection. Communication Moon Relay grew out of many ideas and concepts in radio espionage. Some impetus for the project was provided by the post-war efforts to develop methods of tracking radio signals, particularly those originating in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
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And there will be alterations and glitches on the image that will come back, because the surface of the Moon isn’t smooth, it’s not flat. I’m sure it will be quite cool visually, but I also find it very exciting mentally. The way I see it , it’s a kind of “Baudrillardian” Space Art. And you know, that’s typically the kind of projects I like to engage into… I’m not a headbanger, but to quote one of my colleagues at the Planetary Collegium, “I like heavy mental” … hahaha….
I would like to thank my family for their support all along those years. The Dr Ulyana Horodyskyj and the PoSSUM Team, as well as the other members of our Team, including Thomas Edunk who was my very cool team mate in the Atacama expedition and who provided some of the expedition photographs.
Thanks Ben!
Source: We make money not art