Sol Summary-04
Earth Date: 02.02.2017
Finally the day was here when our Commander Mamatha joined us 🙂
should mention it as the most awaited day of our mission!! After a
long night of discussions about how to pick her, how to communicate
with her, who should go and when to go, it was decided that Saroj and
Arpan would go to pick her while Sneha and Arun will stay in the hab
performing the experiments. Saroj known as our official driver, not to
forget the second in command was planning the activities to be done
while they were away.
It must have been a long night for Arun as he worked all night reading
materials for his geological research. As morning came in, the crew
woke up as usual and started with the normal duties. Water supply to
the hab was still and issue, water was filled in vessels and stored
for use. Last night we had received instructions on how to clean the
filter, Saroj was trying hard to download and read them, unfortunately
he was not able to download all the steps as the internet was very
slow this morning. Three crew members had breakfast together while the
fourth was asleep. After breakfast and some discussion about the day,
some music, jokes and fun. It was a fun filled day as we were excited
about the arrival of Commander. Sneha went to the green hab watered
the plants spent time doing her experiment. Saroj and Arpan prepared
lunch. It was an early lunch as they had to leave to Green River.
After the operations check, the reports were prepared. After lunch
Saroj and Arpan got ready to leave to pick up Mamatha. The second in
command was so excited that it was decided the two men would follow
the protocol and wear jump suits to receive the commander !!! Sneha
did comment that when the Commander sees this, she would also love to
wear the jump suit and join the team before driving to Mars 🙂
After they left, it was a very long day on Mars, Arun was reading his
materials and noting the places for his next EVA. Sneha remained in
the hab and was trying to make some bread for the next few days. The
bread turned out to be disastrous 🙁 The long day came to an end when
Mamatha arrived on Mars. There is excitement, screams of joy, reunion
of friends after 2 years. Its really exciting now.
MDRS is a project of:
Green Hab Report – February 2nd
Green Hab report
Written by : Sneha Velayudhan
Sol 04
Earth Date: 02.02.2017
Functionality: Its a nice sunny day on Mars. Temperature at around
10:20 AM was 2 deg. C outside, while the green hab temperature was 22
deg. C and the misian Mars lamp temperature was 19 deg. C. The
temperature was again checked in the evening at 5:30 PM, inside the
greenhab the temperature was 30 deg. C, it was around 22.4 deg. C
under the misian Mars lamp while the outside temperature was 9 deg. C
and windy.
Status: The temperature was monitored and seedlings were watered.
Special attention was given to the fenugreek seeds sowed yesterday as
a part of botany experiment. It was found that the soil in the pots
was mostly dry. In order to maintain the adequate moisture in the
soil, the pots were watered in the green hab and under the misian Mars
lamp. Some amount of water was poured into the tray beneath the pots
to maintain regular moisture.
By the evening the temperature was monitored again and the seedlings
were watered. The fenugreek was watered with fixed amount of water and
Vit. D ranging from 0.1 gm to 1 gm both in the green hab and under the
misian Mars lamp. The root growth was measured and tabulated
accordingly.
Planned activity: The seedlings will be monitored for growth along
with the temperature and humidity.
Crew Photos – February 1st
Sol Summary – February 1st
Journalist report Sol 03
It has been just corn flakes for the breakfast ever since we
landed on Mars, so we started our day with pasta for a change which
happens to be one of my favourite dishes! I appreciate the extra
efforts Italians put to get the perfect recipes and how particular
they are with the cooking. I recollect our commander Mamatha’s
experience with her Italian friend who accidentally spotted the over
cooked pasta during lunch break and presented mamatha a timer clock
the next day with a tag just 10 minutes!!! The breakfast discussion
was about our geologist Arun and scientist Saroj’s previous night star
trail photo session inside tunnel which turns out to be hilarious! We
had a laughter riot when Saroj recalled how Arun was scared of Martian
cats attack!! Yes we heard stories of the Martian cats spotting from a
very close source 😉 They did also spot a beam of light near the solar
panel area, it must be of an alien spaceship!! Amidst chaos and in the
verge of getting to the hab quickly, Arun had his heart in the mouth
after dropping his camera. He was relieved after finding out just the
UV filters was shattered!
Post breakfast crew biologist Sneha sowed the germinated
seeds in pots. She will be studying the effects of Vitamin D on the
growth of plants. Each set of pots have been placed in misian Martian
lamp and greenhab area. By noon, Arun and Saroj left for the planned
EVA, the primary goal was to collect rock samples with mineral
composition to help Arun with his geology research. We were expecting
quite a lot of pictures of the activity but sadly it turns out the SD
card was forgotten!!! I guess there is a camera curse and the team
intends to remove the same using age old Indian technique “kala teeka”
(removal of bad omens).
Sol 04 is going to be an exciting day, as our commander will be
joining us. Can’t wait to start the planetary protection studies.
Green Hab Report – February 1st
Green Hab Report
Sol-03
Earth Date: 02.01.2017
Written by : Sneha Velayudhan
Functionality: as the climate on Mars is beautiful, the green hab
temperatures are high that we had to switch on the coolers twice
today. The temperatures were noted as 28 degree centigrade while the
outside temperature was 1 degree centigrade at 10:10 AM. By 12:20 pm,
the temperature rised to around 45 degree, the cooler was switched on
to decrease the temperature. The temperature was brought down to
around 30 degree. In the evening temperatures were noted, the green
hab was 18 degree while the outside temperature was 9 degree
centigrade.
Status: The botany experiment started with 2 sets of pots, 10 each
prepared with earth soil and marked with 0-0.9 grams of Vitamin D.
Five different types of Martian soil, each type of soil were prepared
in 2 pots and marked for the variety. A mixture of earth soil, the
different tryps of Martian soil was prepared in equal ratio and filled
into 4 pots. Each of the respective sets such as the 10 pots of Earth
soil, 5 pots of mars soil, 2 pots each of the mixture of Earth and
Mars soil were consolidated. The germinated fenugreek seeds were
delicately sowed into the pots. One set is placed in the green hab
and the other under the misian mars lamp. All plants including the
newly potted seedlings were watered twice today.
Planned activity: The growth of fenugreek will be monitored along with
the other plants in the coming days.
EVA Report – February 1st
EVA Report:
SOL: 03
Date: 02/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Sai Arun Dharmik
Crew members involved in the EVA: Sai Arun Dharmik and Saroj Kumar
EVA leader: Sai Arun Dharmik
Begin: 11:45 Hrs
End: 15:15 Hrs
Type of EVA: Deimos + 1 ATV (300) + Walking
Purpose: Collection of rock samples to be measured magnetic susceptibility
UTM Coordinates: Northing: 4255600 , Easting : 518400
Summary: We started the EVA at 11:45 am. The temperature was around 12
degree Celsius outside the Hab and the sky was clear. We have
collected few samples from the URC North site area on our route to
Lith Canyon. The samples collected at URC North site were primarily
transported due to weathering, hence we cannot attribute them to that
location. Later we collected few samples of sandstones and shales near
the Lith canyon region. The samples will be analysed tomorrow
(02.02.2017) and a detailed report will be sent.