A McMaster University research team says despite rain and colder-than-expected weather, their expedition to Iceland was a success and they were able to map lava tubes with the drone-mounted system they developed.
As CBC Hamilton reported in July, the McMaster Deep-space Analogue Research Expedition (DARE) team spent a year planning an expedition to unnamed lava tubes near the popular Surtshellir lava cave to test their technology.
The mission took over two years to plan, Michael Holden said, and “seeing all of that come together,” was the best part.
He spoke with CBC Hamilton alongside his teammates Daniel Young, Harry Wu and Harmil Kalia, who all went on the trip.
Holden, the club’s outgoing president, served as the drone’s main pilot. Young was responsible for software, Wu was in charge of electrical and Kalia led a side project growing different plants.
Having trained with a wilderness first-aid business, the crew camped outside the lava tube for about 10 days.
The team flew their drone named Canary three or four times each day, pairing off and alternating between flying inside and waiting outside the caves.
For Young, the best part of the trip was the first time the team entered a cave. “It was just seeing the size of it and realizing we were finally there.”
Iceland’s geography similar to moon or Mars
Inside the caves it was pitch dark. Some passages were only double a person’s height. Others were significantly wider.
You’re kind of enveloped in a dark silence,” Kalia said.
With headlamps, they could see that the walls and ceilings of the cave were lined with rock formations. Kalia said some were glassy but others were rough and likely formed by slow moving lava.
“I thought that these formations told a cool story,” he said.
Iceland’s geography has made it popular for analog missions, which refer to experiments in environments similar to those in outer space.
While they had to map a few tight corners by hand, Canary worked well, Holden said, adding he never crashed the drone — something he had wanted to avoid.
The team mapped different caves with Canary and made maps by hand. Young said they’re still working to visualize all the data but plan to share maps of the lava tubes in addition to publishing a report on their expedition.
Going forward, the team hopes to modify the drone using some lessons they learned in Iceland. For example, when flying in the lava tubes, water dripping from the ceiling posed a risk to the electrical components.
The team installed a cover in the field but said the next version of Canary will likely have something like that from the start.
Team hopes Canary could one day work off-planet
Michael Holden, a McMaster University student and president of the Deep-space Analogue Research Expedition team, demonstrates the drone he and his colleagues will use to map tunnels in Iceland.
Canary consists of a store-bought quadcopter drone and plastic chassis on which electrical components attach. Using LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which measures distances, Canary can map spaces.
The vision is that people will one day be able to use Canary to scan places for potential hazards before they enter.
“You can think of it a little bit like the old adage ‘canary in a coal mine.’ That’s why it’s called Canary,” Holden said in July. “Send it in beforehand, and it gives them a warning and an idea of what’s going on.”
The team hopes that one day, with modifications such as a different form of propulsion, the tool could be useful in space exploration and on other planets.
McMaster DARE to continue work on Canary, and on new underwater drone
Rain on the first day soaked through their shelters and temperatures below five degrees celsius were cooler than the group packed for. The members said they’d pack warmer gear next time, but that overall, the trip was a success.
Going forward, Holden and Wu are stepping back from their roles with McMaster DARE to focus on other work. Both are starting their fourth year of the engineering physics program. Young, a fourth-year mechatronics student, will be the new president and keep working with the team as it takes on new projects including an underwater drone.
Kalia, a fourth-year arts and science student, said his next step is to work with his sister Vasu, a new McMaster life science student, to examine his research based on growing chickpeas and radishes in different volcanic soil conditions outside the caves.
For a while, Holden said, the team had to fight the perception that they just wanted a vacation in Iceland. Now that they’ve returned with results, “I’m hoping that that’ll not only attract a lot more members to join our team, but also allow us to grow in size and in scope of what we do.”