Alba Sánchez Montalvo counts the weeks left until the morning of March 31 dawns, the day on which she will begin the two weeks of her planetary mission on Earth. She will live, along with seven other researchers, at the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert, which brings together, quite faithfully, the orographic, geological and temperature conditions of life on Mars.
In the prototype cabin designed to, supposedly, reside on the red planet, the team of young “astronauts” will be “locked in” who will recreate a mission: they will experience isolation, stress, rationing of water and (freeze-dried) food, and walks in intergalactic suits. “Everything is the same as an expedition to Mars, except for the exposure to radiation and the absence of gravity,” explains the Spanish scientist who follows in the footsteps of the Catalan engineers who already experienced it last spring (Women are also from Mars, 04/12/2023).
For eight months a year, the Mars Society organization, whose objectives are to explore the possibilities of colonizing the red planet, welcomes young volunteers to learn about the expeditions. It has two stations, the MDRS in Utah, and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in the North Pole, specifically, in the Arctic archipelago of Canada.
Sánchez Montalvo was born in Granada in 1996, to a Civil Guard father and a real estate agent mother. His education was public (and he appreciates the quality of it, something he has been more aware of living outside of Spain). First in Atarfe, municipality of Vega de Granada (Doctor Jiménez Rueda school and Vega de Atarfe institute). Then, at the University of Granada (Biotechnology and master's degree in Cellular Immunology). She also participated in the first edition of the Talento Mujer 4.0 program. of the UGR Talent Incubator on topics of leadership and teamwork “fundamental keys in research.” Upon completion, she set out to continue with a doctorate. “I searched many places and started sending emails, my current thesis director responded immediately and gave me very good vibes.” Since June 2020 she is at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Research at the Catholic University of Leuven.
The last year has been crazy. In addition to facing the final stretch of the thesis, she was selected to attend some very select meetings, the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, which invite promising young scientists to meet the Nobel Prize winners. They have been organized since 1951 in Lindau (Germany).
“It was an incredible opportunity to spend a whole week with 40 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology, Medicine and Chemistry. I was able to be with almost everyone because in addition to giving conferences and workshops they were accessible during coffee.” Sánchez Montalvo knew all the profiles because, as a scientific communicator (@immunominuto), she summarized the achievements of each of them. She spoke with chemical engineer Frances Arnold (2018 award winner) or with researcher William Kaelin (2019), who discovered how cells perceive oxygen. “Kaelin began his presentation by showing his school grades, which were not excellent, to exemplify that anyone, with passion and perseverance, goes far.”
In spring it is time for his Martian trip for which, since October, he has been preparing with training. “I always told my friends that what I was experiencing, because it was unheard of, was a 'simulation' of a non-real life, but when they caught me in MDRS I laughed, because this is already a complete simulation."
