The 2019 analog Mars mission season at the Desert Mars analog Ramon Station

With NASA's announcement in 2019 of going back to the moon with the Artemis program, and the plan of building a Moon base in 2028 as a milestone for Mars colonization, there is an urgent need in providing methods to sustain a human crew on the Moon and Mars for substantially long periods. The Beresheet spacecraft hard landing on the Moon, April 2019, has inspired the Israeli public, children and adults alike, and the Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station (D-MARS) non profit organization was established during Beresheet developmental stages. It is dedicated for establishing an international planetary analog research center in the Negev desert, Israel. D-MARS aims to promote space-related education, science and technological innovation via space simulation or analog mission infrastructure. The Ramon Crater in the Negev desert was chosen for its Mars-like geomorphology and geology, isolation and hyper arid climate conditions allowing for a Mars simulated environment. The D-MARS habitat is a scalable deployed portable structure. It can support six analog astronauts (“Ramonauts”) living in isolation during few weeks of an analog mission. The habitat has a science lab that includes a biological safety cabinet and additional equipment to perform geo-biological experiments internally, a single hydroponic tray, a common room, six wood encased sleeping pods, kitchenette, a small restroom. D-MARS members have performed Mars analog missions during 2018-2019. During the 2019 field campaign (February - March 2019), several analog Mars missions were performed: An 11-day main analog mission; a three-day”Landing on Mars” simulation mission to prepare and put into operation the infrastructure and technological equipment, simulating a crew in a landing phase on Mars; a two-day medical analog mission that included several medical emergency simulated events; a dedicated high school student group performed a three-day analog missions as part of the Young Astronaut Academy (YAA). The YAA program promotes STEM and the love of space and science. During all missions, all simulated extravehicular activities (EVAs) were done in a dedicated sim spacesuit, when operating outside of the habitat. The Ramonauts were in fairly complete isolation and communicated only with Mission Support Center (MSC), via text/image, in a dedicated webserver, with a 10-minute delay, each way. During the main 11-day mission various scientific experiments included soil analysis, environmental microorganisms metagenomics, isolation and characterization, rover utilization for external mapping and situational exploration, various psychological analyses of crew's wellness and more. This paper describes the 2019 Analog mission season, detailing the various missions and their objectives, impacts, lessons learned and future forecasts and plans.