First results and Lessons Learned of CHILL-ICE 2021 Field Campaign

During the summer of 2021, the first CHILL-ICE analogue campaign was held in and around the Stefánshellir Lava tube in the Hallmundarhraun lava field, in the West of Iceland. Here we present some of the campaign results of the two analogue missions that made up this research campaign.

After initial EuroMoonMars campagns in 2018 and 2020, the project group, named CHILL-ICE (Construction of a Habitat Inside a Lunar-analogue Lavatube - Iceland) was founded. More than 30 young researchers, students, and collaborators from 16 countries, worked closely together and two short analogue astronaut missions were held. These missions were the main goal of this campaign, where in the future also a stronger focus on the robot-human interfaces and exploration of subsurface cave systems is planned. 

One of the rovers used during the mission was the Lunar Zebro, a student team project from TU Delft. Photo: Bernard Foing.

The two analogue astronaut missions were 55 hours each, as the main focus was on the set up and deployment of the portable and inflatable ECHO habitat inside the lava tube. To ensure a proper simulation, everything of the mission was done whilst wearing space suits, thus being limited in movement, visibility, maneuvrability, dexterity, and even time. The astronauts had an 8-hour EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) window in which all the  components had to be set up/deployed.

 

One of the six astronauts, working on the deployment of all the life-support and scientific systems, was photographed during a secret observation. Photo: Luis Melo.

The four main life-support systems, ECHO (Extreme Cave Habitat One), the space suits, the PVES (PhotoVoltaic Energy System) and the communication systems, were provided by sponsors from Canada (ECHO, Wilson School of Design of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Spain (space suits, Astroland Interplanetary Agency), the Netherlands (PVES, Blinkinglights), and Iceland (Radio system, Reykjavík University). 

The three astronauts of 'Crew Luna' during preparation and suit-testing. Fltr: David Smith, Crew Scientist; Christian Cardinaux, Crew Commander; and Agnieszka Elwertowska, Crew Engineer. 

As one of the first steps towards actual lunar lava tube survival, this first CHILL-ICE mission campaign had a strong focus on scientific research, besides the developed prototype testing. During the mission,  the crew went on EVAs to study the natural environment of the insides of the caves, collaborated with rovers and 3D cameras to map and explore, and took small geological samples for further analyses in laboratories on the mainland of Europe. Being the first mission of its kind, the CHILL-ICE Core Mission Team is thankful for all the support from our many sponsors and collaborators. A special thank you to the Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Reykjavík University, Astroland Interplanetary Agency, Blinkinglights, Space Iceland, GoPro, Lunar Zebro, and Árni B. Stefand and the landowners, for allowing us to study and work in this unique environment. Lava tubes are fragile environments and all research during CHILL-ICE was done with the utmost care for human and environmental safety.

 

ECHO habitat deployed inside Stefánshellir during the CHILL-ICE campaign. Photo: Jamal Ageli