The Cordoban Marilo Torresjournalist and airplane pilot, is the first women Spanish chosen to join a select group of specialists who will complete a analog space mission in the module HI-SEAS simulation on Big Island (hawaii). At 52 years of age, she alternates her work as a civil servant with belonging to the international community of similar astronauts.
Mission IMI OLA
The mission in question, named IMI OLAwhich in the Hawaiian language means “seeking a better life,” will take place between February 22 and 28 in a habitat located on the largest volcano in the world, Mauna Loa, at an altitude of 2,470 meters. It is an environment that reproduces hostile conditions similar to those of the Moon either Marsand where the experimental participants live with limitations almost identical to those of the astronauts.
Accompanied by scientists of various nationalities, Torres will serve as vice commander and, in addition, will investigate the effect of spatial procedures, both normal and emergency, in the crew members. Among others, it will be tested team skill and diligence in the face of extreme events such as a micrometeorite impact or a coronal mass ejection from the Sun.
HI-SEASacronym for Hawaii Space Exploration Analogis currently run by the institutions Blue Planet Research and EuroMoonMars/Eurospacehub, although it was home to five successful missions long-duration NASA simulation missions (up to 12 months) and subsequent similar missions in collaboration with multiple space organizations around the world. planet.
Mariló Torres and the role of women
Since 2022, the year in which she debuted as commander of the pioneering Biogender Venus mission, composed entirely of women and developed in our country, Mariló Torres has become an advisor and collaborator of Astroland, the first Spanish Interplanetary Agency and headquarters of the Ares Station, located inside a Cantabrian cave. She is promoter of the future female in the spacea firm defender of the active role of middle-aged women in today’s society and advocate of the role of people with training in the Humanities within a space exploration sector dominated by STEM profiles.