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MDRS mission for crew 311
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Every year, the ISAE-SUPAERO MARS Club organizes an MDRS mission with a new crew. The Foundation is proud to once again be able to support this project, which contributes to the Institute’s international reputation and enables Club students to get involved in the OSE L’ISAE-SUPAERO student social outreach program.
Crew 311 entered the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the Utah desert on Sunday February 16, 2025 for a 4-week stay.
What is the MDRS project?
The primary objective of the project is to carry out a similar mission in the desert of Utah, USA, within a recreation of a Martian space base called MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station). The crew is made up of 7 students from ISAE-SUPAERO, all driven by the same objective: to advance science and research in the field of space. During the four weeks of isolation in the station, the crew simulates life on Mars and conducts some fifteen scientific experiments, ranging from equipment testing to technology demonstrations, as well as research into human factors.
For the past 10 years, this mission has been carried out annually by various ISAE-SUPAERO crews. Every year, we aim to make the project more professional and recognized. With the help of numerous companies, laboratories (CNRS, …) and space agencies (CNES, ESA, …), we are able to carry out meaningful experiments and provide data to researchers to advance research into human space exploration.
What was your project this year?
Célyan Ferret
This year, we set ourselves a number of objectives which we succeeded in achieving. First of all, we were able to transmit to researchers the data from all the experiments on board the station. We also consolidated the links between our mission, our crew and the space agencies. In particular, the 311 crew has strengthened its collaboration with CNES, and more specifically with the Spaceship FR program, dedicated to the development of technologies for lunar and Martian exploration. This collaboration has proved fruitful, as several experiments supplied by Spaceship FR have been taken on board the station and successfully completed. This scientific and financial partnership is set to be extended over the coming years.
We have taken over some of Crew 293’s experiments, such as Orbital Architecture (which flew on board the ISS as part of the Axiom3 mission) in partnership with a researcher from KTH. We have also established new partnerships to integrate new scientific experiments, such as TWINS2 with Paul Sabatier University, Neo’Pouss with a Toulouse-based micro-pod company, and MEDES.
In addition, popularizing science is one of our major objectives. Aware of the impact our project can have on young people, we set up an experiment with several middle and high school classes, in collaboration with the ISAE-SUPAERO OSE program. The students, transformed into researchers for the duration of the experiment, drew up a scientific protocol and had the joy of discovering first-hand the results of the experiment they had imagined.
What do you take away from this mission?
The MDRS mission has many advantages. Thanks to the continuity between past and present crews, each new crew benefits from the experience of its predecessors to drive the mission forward. Teamwork is at the heart of the project. For the students involved, it’s a unique opportunity to work as part of a crew, get to know each other better, develop their collaborative work skills, share their passion for space and gain professional experience in a sector they’re passionate about. Funding from the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation has enabled us, among other things, to finance the rental of the station, which is one of the project’s major items of expenditure.
Photo credit: MDRS – crew 311
Any final word?
The entire 311 crew would like to express its deep gratitude to the Foundation’s donors, who for many years have actively supported the success of this mission. This invaluable support enables the ISAE-SUPAERO crews to push back the frontiers of the project ever further, amplifying its impact on students and the space community alike!
To read all 311 crew mission reports: click here