Moonbase Analog Missions and Lunar Agriculture Simulations Being Conducted on Hawai’i Island
As the Artemis era of Moon exploration gains momentum, the youngest island in the Hawaiian archipelago (composed largely of cooled lava rock similar to lunar regolith) is contributing to the effort to return Humans to Luna, as reported in the May 2024 PISCES Newsletter: Space Exploration and Analog Simulation (HI-SEAS), which runs a 111-m2 geodesic dome located at 2,500 m elevation on the north slope of Mauna Loa, is forming crews for 6-day ($1,100) and 2-week mission analogs ($2,200); UH Hilo ‘Lunar Vulcans’ team conducing experiment under $1,500 NASA MINDS grant on growth of Hawaiian ‘canoe plants’ (those brought to the island by its original Polynesian inhabitants) within basalt mediums, watered via hydroponic capillary-action irrigation