Future Martian missions are expected to involve significantly more EVA time per crew member as compared with Apollo missions, as per NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Extravehicular Activity Roadmap: 2020. This might result in greater risk of injury and fatigue among other complications, resulting in astronauts failing to return to base.
If an astronaut is incapacitated, the nearest rover is alerted by the base and redirected to perform a preliminary diagnosis and assess the damage. The base then receives an audio-visual of the astronaut and prepares to dispatch suitable supplies for rescue and recovery, based on the EVA Injury Matrix. Biosensors in the suit provide data on vitals to both the rescuing rover and dispatch team.
On arrival, the rescue team sets up hardware (ropes & pulley systems) adjusting angle, height lowered and length according to the terrain. The astronaut navigates the system to locate and extract the incapacitated crew member from narrow gorges or deep craters via visual aid. First aid, including bandages, syringes and pills, is administered and oxygen tanks are replaced before transport back to base camp.
Metrics:
Distance between incapacitated astronaut and the nearest rover
Time taken for the rescue team to reach the site
Accuracy of pulley placement and navigation - minimise the number of attempts to extract astronaut from terrain
% of astronauts successfully rescued through repeat simulations
Duration: 8-10 hrs
No. of Assets: 6
