page_title: Desert Research and Technology Studies
section_title: 2011 test
hierarchical_section_title: Desert Research and Technology Studies / 2011 test
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the Deep Space Habitat/Habitat Demonstration Unit (DSH/HDU) as it will be configured for the 2011 field test. Crew sleep, eat and "live" in the top section, called the Loft, which was designed by University of Wisconsin students. The Hygiene unit is to the right of the main floor and the airlock is to the left. The analytical lab (Geolab) and workstations that enable a crewmember to communicate with EVA crew during a traverse are located below the Loft.
context_page_description: NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies is a group of teams which perform an annual series of field trials seeking to demonstrate and test candidate technologies and systems for manned exploration of the surface of the Moon, Mars, or other rocky bodies.
  Desert RATS began in 1997, reviving Apollo-style lunar exploration training from decades earlier. The field season takes place for around two weeks each year, usually in September, in planned locations surrounding Flagstaff, Arizona. Some tests have also been conducted near Meteor Crater. These activities are designed to exercise prototype planetary surface hardware and representative mission scenario operations in relatively harsh climatic conditions where long distance, multi-day traversing activities are achievable.
context_section_description: In late August/Early Sept 2011 D-RATS made their 14th trip to the Arizona Desert to continue testing the technology NASA will need to enable multiple destinations for future human exploration including the Moon, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), Mars moons, and ultimately the surface of Mars.  The team continued testing hardware including the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU), and the Centaur Robotic assistant vehicle system.
  As part of the eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge, an attachable inflatable habitat "Loft" designed and built by undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will be joined to the HDU and provide crew quarters for the astronaut/geologist crews.
  One of the operational concepts that were explored in the 2011 field season was the effect of communication time delays.  This is not a big deal for lunar explorers as the time lag is only a couple of seconds, but at a near-Earth asteroid the time lag might be a minute or more, making normal conversation impossible. At Mars, it is much worse, the lag can be up to 20 minutes each way.  Effective strategies for communicating under these conditions include utilizing text messaging, specific voice protocols, and a relay crew member that is not participating in the EVA.
caption: The Deep Space Habitat/Habitat Demonstration Unit (DSH/HDU).
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