When Things Go Wrong On Mauna Loa

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

HI-SEAS is a UofH / NASA simulated Mars mission on the slopes of Mauna Loa. In Hawaii County. The entire article is a good read, but I thought Punawebbers would appreciate a synopsis of what happens when there's an emergency on the island, and the interplay between 911, the military, and civilian medical services:

First, a serious electrical shock from an unshielded circuit breaker (inspected and approved by?):
Stojanovski said she suspects the electric shock may have occurred because the crew member’s fingers brushed against live wiring. “In a regular household circuit breaker, you have a safety panel that covers all the live wiring that’s behind the switches,” Stojanovski said. “Unfortunately, our circuit breaker didn’t have one of those.”

Then, the call to 911:
“Throughout all our training, we’d been told, don’t worry, emergency services knows where you are, they know who you are, and they know how to get to you,” Stojanovski said. “I was like, ‘My name’s Lisa, I’m from the HI-SEAS project, we would like an ambulance please, this is where we are.’ And they were like, ‘You’re from what project? Where are you located?’”

Stojanovski’s call to 911 had been picked up by Hawaii County dispatchers, but help would arrive from elsewhere.

Military medical assistance steps in:
The Pohakuloa Training Area is a U.S. army base of several hundred people, located less than 15 miles from the habitat. Its jurisdiction stretches from Mauna Loa to Mauna Kea—and the HI-SEAS habitat sits nearly in the middle. Like the habitat, Pohakuloa is isolated from the rest of the world. The remoteness requires the military base to operate like a city, complete with a fire department and EMTs.

Then, the transfer to a civilian ambulance for the trip to Hilo Medical Center:
The ambulance drove down the volcano as far it could go; after about 20 miles, the vehicle neared the edge of Pohakuloa’s jurisdiction, a line the first responders aren’t allowed to cross. If they travel beyond this region, the reasoning goes, they leave the Pohakuloa residents at risk.

A hospital ambulance met the Pohakuloa ambulance at this edge, grabbed the crew member, and sped toward Hilo Medical Center, about 30 miles east of the habitat.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...ii/553532/

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[geochem]

Interesting article. Don't know that things went "wrong" - the simulation was intended to test crew/team reaction to day-to-day events on a simulated Mars trip. A lot of good data was generated on a variety of crew responses. We do this kind of research in order to learn what can go wrong on a real mission where costs would be much higher. Assuming that the article accurately reflects what happened (never a good assumption) lots of lessons can be taken from the event:
1) Under no circumstances do you rush into a mission critical exercise until you are certain you have the necessary talents lined up to complete it (project delays are much less costly than project failures...);
2) When you have doubts about mission critical staff, find alternates that you don't have doubts about;
3) Make sure you have adequately trained staff that won't do stupid things like touch potentially live wires and then go into hysterical failure when they do...

[kalakoa]

you have the necessary talents lined up

Structures used for habitation must be permitted;
Permitted construction requires a licensed electrician.

If it's OK for UH and NASA to skirt codes, then it's OK for me too right?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Don't know that things went "wrong"

I thought I’d title the thread as a segue into the article and it’s title. I haven’t checked, but “When Things Don’t Go Exactly As Planned” probably has a few too many characters to fit, although something like “When Things Don’t Go Exactly As Pla” might in fact be even better.

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[geochem]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kalakoa

you have the necessary talents lined up

Structures used for habitation must be permitted;
Permitted construction requires a licensed electrician.

If it's OK for UH and NASA to skirt codes, then it's OK for me too right?

---

does that go for tents too? you have permanent habitation and temporary habitation. Don't expect anyone else to be moving into the Mars habitat anytime soon - and expect it has been better constructed than a lot of (un-permitted) dwellings in lower Puna.

[TomK]

I suspect NASA deliberately built the structure based on the building codes for Mars than those for Hawaii.