The University’s Mars Society spent two weeks in March at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the Utah desert to test an aerial reconnaissance vehicle they built to map the Planet Mars.

The MDRS is one of the four planned Mars Analog Research Stations and the second to go into operation. The Mars Analog Research Station project constructs a Mars base-like habitat for crews to live in to conduct geological and biological field exploration under the same constraints the actual Mars environment would provide.

Mike Turner, the Mars Society president and a junior in engineering, said the Mars Society formed last fall with a group of students who all shared a creative interest in space exploration development. Since MDRS allowed the organization to create their own project, he said, it was a good place for them to express their creativity.

Turner said that the Mars Society contacted previous crewmembers from the MDRS for suggestions when its members were deciding on a project. A geologist who was in a previous crew in MDRS suggested they build a cliff reconnaissance vehicle that would assist geologists in their studies of the rock layers in cliffs. Turner said the Mars Society then decided to take it a step further and build an aerial reconnaissance vehicle.

The “Red Flyer” aerial reconnaissance vehicle, constructed by the Mars Society, is a redesigned hobbyist plane with a high-resolution camera capable of rotating 90 degrees to take aerial images.

The software, designed by Randy Moore, junior in engineering, converts the images taken by the Red Flyer and creates a large image map of an area.

The Mars Society, otherwise designated by the MDRS as Team 36, brought the Red Flyer to the Utah station to test its capability to scout for scientific fieldwork.

“It was a pain in the butt to bring it because it was the four of us, plus a 6-foot-long air plane inside a Honda Civic for a 27-hour drive to the Utah desert,” said Mark Hernquist, the Mars Society treasurer and freshman in engineering.

The Mars Society attended MDRS during different weeks in March. The first week the team focused on making the plane work. The second week the team applied the data gathered from the first week and rated its efficiency.

Unfortunately, the Red Flyer crashed on the first day Turner and other members of the organization attempted to fly it. Turner said he recalls the feeling that came over him when Moore, the pilot, attempted to land the plane and it collided with the ground.

“Like right there (I) was just like ‘All my work up in pieces,'” he said.

Moore said he was able to repair the plane the first time it crashed, despite the shortage of materials, but the plane crashed for the second time later on and became inoperable.

Despite the results, Kelly Cole, member of the Mars Society, said the work and effort put into the project was worth it.

“It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” said Kelly Cole, freshman in engineering.

Cole was part of the first all-women crew to be at the MDRS when she participated in the second week’s events.

“Being an all-women crew, it really changed the dynamics because you can be more open with each other and stuff like that than if there were guys around,” Cole said.

Cole said the experience helped her gain confidence in her ability to be able to function and work with professionals.

In the future, the Mars Society plans to design another vehicle based on the lessons they learned at the MDRS.