Mars Desert Research Station

Journalist Report – February 16th

Journalist report, 02/16/17 – Sol 4: Martian birthday.

I woke up today with a strident but nice “happy birthday” from Victoria, late for the awakening as usual. It is a bit special to celebrate your birthday so far from home. I wouldn’t be able to gather a lot of friends, or to phone anybody for a long time, just a couple of mails from well informed relatives, who knew how to contact me. But anyway, everybody here was happy to wish me a happy birthday, and it was a pleasure to spend it on Mars, going around for my second EVA. I didn’t regret at any time being here instead of being at home.

Our preparation was more efficient than yesterday, everybody knowing what to do, so that we left on time. We were going to explore a canyon called Candor chasma, and left the base by pairs in our electrical rovers. After twenty minutes, we reached the entry of it. The place was absolutely stunning. Along with my crewmates, Louis, Xavier and Victoria, we walked in the bottom of it, for about an hour and back, in a beautiful landscape. Sadly, I had a lot of trouble with fog during this time. Because of the heat, and the sweat, it accumulated on the helmet, forcing me to shoot most of my photos blind at the time.

Hopefully, back on the rover, it went better. We climbed a hill, giving us a nice view on the surroundings and the MDRS, got lost, travelled a bit on the rovers, and finally had a little time left to shoot photos and videos. Then, we went back to the hab, to have lunch, and eat the beautiful birthday cake Simon had cooked for me.

The afternoon was more quiet. Everybody working on his own. Mouâdh prepared for the deployment of the seismometer, planned for tomorrow. Simon repaired the balloon, Arthur launched the first water analysis with aquapad… And to make this day happier, Mouâdh just learned he was accepted in CalTech for next year!

Next day, I will not be part of the third EVA, which goal is to bury the seismometer in the hole we dig yesterday.

Astronomy Report – February 16th

ASTRONOMY REPORT
SOL 3

NAME: Mouadh Bouayad CREW: 175
DATE: 02/15/2017

SKY CONDITIONS: clear.

WIND CONDITIONS: no wind

OBSERVATION START TIME: 10:30 pm

OBSERVATION END TIME: 11:00 pm

SUMMARY: I went to the observatory tonight, but the battery of the rotation motor was not charged enough. So it worked for few minutes and then stopped. I hope tonight it’ll be fully charged, and we’ll do observations (I plan first on observing Mars and Venus).

OBJECTS VIEWED: few stars naked eye again.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED: The battery was still not charged enough.

GreenHab Report – February 16th

Green Hab Report – Sol 4
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)

Date : 02/16/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a very sunny day again ! As I was in EVA this morning, Mouadh has checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 40 Celsius degrees around 10 :20 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 12.3 Celsius degrees. He switched on the cooler (on step 2) and the GreenHab temperature was brought down to 26 Celsius degrees at 4:00PM while it was 16 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. I kept the cooler on (at the first step). Mouadh watered the seedlings this morning, and I did this afternoon too.

Status: The existing seedlings in the green hab are continuing to grow well. There are spinach, lettuce, radish, and beans growing very well in the small pots.

The lettuces are growing well too.

We had a small issue with the Vegidair yesterday so I had to des-install it and I have tried again today.

Planned activity: As I wrote yesterday, I decided to take the natural fertilizer and the seeds sent for the Vegidair and to plant it in plastic pots I have in the greenhab, and to compare the growth of each pots (in the Vegidair in the Hab, and in the greenhab). It was done this afternoon, I will compare each growth.

EVA Report – February 16th

EVA Report
EVA#2, Sol 4

Crew members: Louis Maller (EVA leader), Xavier Rixon, Victoria Da-Poian,and Louis Mangin (EVA buddies)
Habcom : Arthur Lillo

Departure time: 9:04 AM
Return time: 11:48 PM

Location: North of the Hab (12N 521000, 4251000) in Candor Chasma, and South (12N 519500 4248500)

Purposes:
– Around the Hab exploration
– EVA training for newcomers
– PR photos inside the picturesque Condor Chasma
– Training in basic non-vocal communication inspired from diving procedures
– Ergonomy test for the new generation ORA-2 Optinvent glasses (confort, screen visibility, autonomy)

Summary:
For most of the team on EVA today, this one was a first EVA, meant to train them, get used to the spacesuit and different EVA gear.
We left almost on time, after an EVA prep a lot shorter thanks to the work of our engineer who gave a lot of thought into how to optimize the process.
The engineering check was also optimized and thus swiftly done, so we could leave on the EVA by 9:14
We used the rovers and were due north, found the road leading towards condor chasma without any problem, and as I remembered the spot quite well, parked not far from the entrance of the canyon. We started exploring the canyon at approximatively 9:40 We descended into it and explored for something like an hour, taking pictures and videos on the way. It is a really out-of-the world scenery, that I was glad to explore a second time. Some crewmembers experienced heavy fogging inside their helmets, which makes walking in this canyon where the footing is a bit tricky all the more challenging. After a while, I decided to turn back, thinking mistakenly that the road further south would be closer to the canyon and allow to take some shots of it from above.
Instead, we rapidly lost the road as it meanders in riverbeds, so we stopped, did a pause for some pictures over a quite beautiful landscape and then went back. We had some time left, so I decided to head for white rock Canyon on the South, from where I was certain that it would be possible to take some shots from the ridge. Unfortunately, I had misjudged the distances, which are greater south of the Hab, and we stopped not far from a ridge… which was two-meters deep. I then decided that the EVA had lasted enough, especially since the walk in the canyon had been tiring for everyone, even if the ride on the rovers had taken care of the fogging issue.
Therefore we were back at the Hab a bit earlier than expected (11:48) but had an interesting EVA, which, aside from the pictures, was the occasion to test basic functions of the glasses (displaying the time), and assessing how high the issue of screen visibility was (and the discomfort of not being able to use sunglasses).

Sol Summary – February 16th

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 4
SOL: 4

Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO

Summary Title: Canyon Exploration and Birthday Party

Mission Status: Successful second EVA, aimed at exploration. All systems go, work on experiments ongoing

Sol Activity Summary: sport, science work on different experiments, EVA, birthday party

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow will be our third EVA, intended at deploying the seismometer and doing more work on the balloon.

Anomalies in work: /

Weather: very sunny, hot, ground dry

Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well

EVA: EVA to explore the Candor Chasma successful, then failed to find the White Rock Canyon

Reports to be filed:
– Commander report
– Operations report
– Journalist report
– GreenHab Report
– Science report
– EVA request
– EVA report
– Astronomy Report

Commander Report – February 16th

Dear Earth,

The whole crew is now aware of what the exterior world looks like.
Indeed, Victoria, Xavier and Louis Mangin went out of the Hab with
Louis Maller leading the EVA#2. Reminiscence from Mission 164 was
useful to find the gorgeous canyon called Candor Chasma. This EVA was
dedicated to exploration, and the new electrical rovers Phobos and
Deimos are perfect for that purpose: less risk of losing one
crewmember than with the individual ATVs (helpful when you are in
charge of a non-expendable crew).

Sol 4 brought a festive atmosphere to the MDRS: 21 years ago, our
favorite journalist-photographer-cameraman-community manager Louis
Mangin was born far away from here, on a pale blue dot called Earth.
Thus, he will no longer be the only one in the crew being proposed a
glass of water in American restaurants. However, we had no alcoholic
beverage here to celebrate, only a powder supposed to give you orange
juice when rehydrated (I have my doubts about it). Anyway, Simon’s
baking skills saved the party when he took his delicious birthday cake
out of the bread machine. Louis’ gift was to learn how to play the
card game known as “Barbu” in France, which basically means “Bearded”.
Note for future Mars-Mission commanders: a card game involving the
whole crew is an excellent way to divert them from preparing a mutiny.

Otherwise, we spent a typical afternoon full of work: science, DIY,
reports writing, bread baking, dish washing, nap to recover from the
EVA… The crew keeps busy, making good use of all the facilities of the
MDRS. The only thing I can criticize about it: we spend less time
together since some of us work in the Science Dome or in the GreenHab,
while last year only the Hab was usable on Mission 164. Not
necessarily a bad thing though, sometimes having a break from the rest
of the group can be useful for the general mood (otherwise we could
turn mad quite quickly…)

Ad Astra!

Crew Photos – February 15th

Journalist Report – February 15th

Crew 175 Journalist Report 15Feb2017

Journalist report, 02/15/17 – Sol 3: First time outside.

Today was the day of our first EVA. I was going to go out with Arthur, our Commander, and today also EVA leader, Mouâdh and Simon. We had two goals: find a place to bury the seismometer and if possible dig in there, and try our first use of the balloon. The EVA was planned from 9:00 a.m. to noon. In order not to start late, we had a quick breakfast after the sport session, before suiting up.

Preparing for the EVA was more challenging than expected. Everything that seemed trivial before became a problem. For instance, the only fact that we had to block our earplugs to be sure that they would never fall from our ears during three hours was not that simple, and no earplug means no radio contact, that clearly doesn’t help on the outside. That is why we tried different styles of earplug fixation methods. Mouâdh went straight forward: a cap under the helmet. Arthur used his head lamp. Simon used his engineering skills, building a headband out of bubble wrap. Then, I went through the pragmatic way: tape. Anyway, this small crew, after having dressed up properly, went in the airlock a few three minutes late. Good for a first time.

Our first steps outside were pretty disturbing: the backpack is heavy, the gloves restrain us from any precise movement, and fog accumulates quickly on the glass of our helmets. We had to begin the EVA by different checks: water and fuel level, battery of the rovers, etc… And to refuel what needed to be. This whole time, we were guided on the radio by Xavier, our engineer, in charge of this overseeing this task. I also realised very quickly that having a reflex camera and a video camera around my neck would not help in moving outside. More than this, using the camera was very hard. I prepared before, configuring it to be usable without the visor, but the fact that it was attached to my neck, kept away from my eyes by the helmet and its fog made me shoot more than half of the photos blind, even if the result wasn’t that bad as I discovered afterwards.

After a quick rover trip, we reached a plain in which we deployed the balloon. It went almost surprisingly well for a first shot. The balloon after having been filled up, went up as high as the rope let him. We just did not anticipate the wind that was blowing 20 meters high, preventing our balloon from going straight up. The result was impressive and we had our first graph of pressure and temperature, along with a beautiful shot. We also found the right place for the seismometer, in a dry river bed, and started to dig the hole, in which we will deploy it.

At the same time, in the hab, Victoria managed to start growing the freshly received lettuce in the Vegidair. Louis take a first shot at cooking pancakes and the second at baking bread. We might live abroad, but already have to eat, and cooking will help in diversifying our meals.

Tomorrow will start by another EVA in which I will take part for the second time, with Louis as leader, Victoria and Xavier.

Louis MANGIN, crew journalist MDRS 175

Sol Summary – February 15th

Crew 175 Sol Summary 15Feb2017

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 3
SOL: 3

Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO

Summary Title: Pancakes and EVA!

Mission Status: Successful first EVA, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing

Sol Activity Summary: sport, science work on different experiments, EVA, making bread and pancakes

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow will be our second EVA, more for exploration and PR purposes

Anomalies in work: /

Weather: very sunny, hot, ground dry

Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well

EVA: EVA to explore south of the Hab, successful deployment of the balloon, found a good spot for the seismometer experiment

Reports to be filed:
– Commander report
– Operations report
– Journalist report
– GreenHab Report
– Science report
– EVA request
– EVA report
– Astronomy Report

GreenHab Report – February 15th

Crew 175 GreenHab Report 15Feb2017

Green Hab Report – Sol 3
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)
Date : 02/15/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a very sunny day again! I checked the temperature in the GreenHab twice today. It was around 38 Celsius degrees around 10 :00 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 10.3 Celsius degrees. I switched on the cooler and the green hab temperature was brought down to around 28 Celsius degrees at 3 :30PM while it was 16 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. I kept the cooler on (at the medium step). I watered the seedlings twice today.

Status: The existing seedlings in the green hab are continuing to grow well. There is spinach, lettuce, radish, and beans growing very well in the small pots.

The lettuces are growing well too.

We have received the seeds and the natural fertilizer for the Vegidair, so I was able to install it this morning.

Planned activity: I decided to take the natural fertilizer and the seeds sent for the Vegidair and to plant it in plastic pots I have in the greenhab, and to compare the growth of each pots (in the Vegidair in the Hab) and in the greenhab.

Thanks,
Victoria