Building the Human Model While Pursuing Life in Space

Space exploration has been a theme throughout Ruben Montenegro’s life and career. He has trained astronauts at NASA and moved to Texas’ Space Coast, where he witnessed SpaceX launch the largest rocket in human history from his front door. And recently, he spent a week with the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program at a site on the Mauna Loa volcano chosen for its similarities to Martian terrain.

Today, Ruben’s passions and profession have merged. He now works with the firm’s human performance team using data—including his own from the HI-SEAS program—to strengthen astronaut training.

Read more about Ruben’s journey, what it’s like to be in a real-world simulation of life on Mars, and how Booz Allen’s work is shaping the future of space exploration.

Ruben’s first dream of a space career started with a visit to a Navy recruiter. But when a vision test cut short a future as a fighter pilot—where many astronauts have gotten their start—he made a career pivot to engineering.

“My mindset was, if I can’t fly it, then I’m going to build it,” he remembers.

Building things runs in Ruben’s family. “I have a very different background than most people,” he says. “I started in construction and still have a commercial driver’s license, just in case.” That hands-on experience operating heavy machinery has paid dividends again and again in Ruben’s career, and he believes that one day it could come in handy operating robotics on a mission to the International Space Station or beyond.

“Moving from construction to IT was difficult,” he continues. “I never had a chance to do summer activities. School ended for the year, and I'd go work with my dad. But that was great because it gave me my work ethic.” 

Ruben’s work ethic propelled him through two engineering degrees, work as a systems engineer and solutions architect, and—early in his career—a coveted job at NASA.

“It was super cool to be around astronauts every day,” he says. “It’s like every kid’s dream.”

Today he’s a chief technologist on Booz Allen’s BrightLabs team, working with NASA to develop what the team is calling a human model.

“When you go into space, we need to understand everything about you as an individual that could impact you—food, coffee, sleep,” Ruben says.

For example, if astronauts only get four hours of sleep instead of the recommended seven or more, how will that impact their cognitive performance and ultimately impact the mission?

Inspired by his work on the human performance team, Ruben started monitoring his own body, wearing an Oura ring and an Apple Watch to gather and analyze metrics about his own wellbeing.

Tracking became particularly useful when he came down with COVID-19 and ended up experiencing brain fog and fatigue.

“I was able to look at my data and assess how my body was performing from an analytical and statistical standpoint,” he says. “I could see the impact of when I got rest or didn’t. I also started having educated conversations with the extended team that helped me apply the data I was gathering, from my doctors and physician assistant to the human performance team and my wife. Without this all-star team supporting me, all that data would have been useless.” 

Located on the side of a volcano, HI-SEAS mimics what life is like on Mars. “It’s a seven-day analog simulation,” Ruben explains. “You’re on Mars. Communication is delayed, you get one gallon of water per day. You live, cook, work, and exercise in a 1,200-square-foot habitat with people you met a couple of hours before. Did I mention you only get one shower every seven days?”

“If you want to be an astronaut, the program is a great place to start.”

During those seven days, Ruben shared space with a former Navy SEAL and Ph.D. candidate, a molecular biologist from NASA, a general physician, and a college freshman studying aerospace engineering. “My crew members all want to be astronauts, so they all took it very seriously,” he says.

Ruben’s Martian experiment gave him plenty of data for the human performance project. “There hasn't been much work done for an extended stay at 9,000 feet that people have captured biometrics for,” he notes.

“For two weeks before and one week after HI-SEAS, we tracked all my biometrics. The data leading up to the mission was eye-opening and allowed me to prepare optimally for the experience, both mentally and physically. There were so many lessons learned from this experience, we're currently writing a white paper on it." 

For the past few years, Ruben has continued to strive closer to his dream of being an astronaut but recognizes he still has a way to go. “I have to get my pilot’s license and get scuba certified,” he says. “I need 500 to 600 hours on a plane, which is costly.”

In addition, he’s focused on extraterrestrial infrastructure, such as lunar data centers, that represent a groundbreaking step in the evolution of data management and compute infrastructure. “Who better to build it than the person who might need to use it one day,” he says.

Ruben mentions the film “A Million Miles Away,” about José Hernández, who was raised by migrant farmers and went on to become the third Latino astronaut to go into space with NASA.

“I was really lucky to see him talk,” Ruben says, “and he stressed how you have to really want something to achieve it.”

Ruben’s advice to anyone who wants to pursue their dream?

“It's not really about where you begin,” he says, “but where you want to end, where you want to plant that flag. It’s grit and grace—you need that determination, you have to push it, but you need to be humble, too.”