MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

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Sol Summary – January 20th

MDRS Sol 5 Summary
20/01/17
Summary Title: Hot Snow and Cool Cats
By GreenHab Officer Richard Blake
Mission Status:
Captain‘s log:: Stardate 002017J1 – We have … encountered some kind of … frozen liquid. It coats everything … crunches beneath your boots. It may … hamper the mission, but we will … push on ::end log.
Sol Activity Summary:
Dawn’s rays illuminated a pristine white landscape, draped in a thin blanket of snow. It was the first time we have seen a snow covered Martian landscape and gave us the perfect opportunity to break out the cameras and attempt to capture the beauty of our natural setting.
Michaela and Idriss went on an EVA (described below) to attempt to collect some extremophile samples, despite the snowy and muddy conditions. They were successful in their mission and they also succeeded in driver the rover in these difficult conditions, which was something the crew has attempted for the first time.
When Michaela and Idriss got back to the Hab from their EVA, the whole crew donned their exo suits and exited the airlock to join them. The aim of this mass EVA was to take photgraphic advantage of the snowy conditions. Niamh (aka Midas) worked her magic and captured a number of stunning shots of both the team and the landscape.
Around midday a pair of bipedal aliens parked their speeder a short distance from the Hab. They quickly fortified a position inside our GreenHab, spending a good few hours studying our technology. When they retreated, we found to our delight that they had somehow improved our life support systems, leaving the GreenHab capable of supporting our plants overnight!
As the sun shone down around us in the afternoon, it turned the beautiful white snow to a muddy slush, leaving the ground as muddy as it was when we first arrived. This will slow any EVA progress in the near future, but hopefully a few sunny days will dry it out again.
Idriss has been hard at work trying to get the 3D printer up and running again. Hopefully his efforts will be rewarded and his goals of printing bricks achieved in the coming days (if not hours!).
Roy has also taken over the Science Dome, using the facilities to begin studying the many rock and soil samples he has collected over the past week. A number of interesting features were found, including a fascinating iron nodule in one sample.
Michaela is continuing to attend to her students‘ project and her projects in collaboration with the Czech Masaryk and Mendel Universities. I will be helping her out on these, as they involve a lot of GreenHab related activities.
Tonight will conclude with Irish culture night, where we are sure to eat many a potato, joke about leprechauns and cry that we can’t sate ourselves with a nice Guinness.
Look Ahead Plan:
With the GreenHab heater fully functional now, more seedlings can be grown, transplanted and left in there permentantly.
The geology lab-work can also begin in earnest with Roy and myself logging and recording data on the samples collected. I will also continue helping Michaela with her numerous projects.
Depending on weather and ground conditions, an EVA will be conducted by Roy to collect more samples relevant for his research and Michaela will try to capture a few videos/photos for outreach purposes.
Idriss will be continuing his 3D printing work, and either still be troubleshooting or printing bricks like Pokemon Go prints money.
Anomalies in work:
Aliens took over the GreenHab for a few hours, however they seem only to have upgraded our life support systems in there. No other anomalies to report.
Weather:
Landscape was snow covered in the morning, and overcast. It warmed up a little in the afternoon, and the sun even poked his head out for an hour or so. Snow has mostly melted now.
Crew Physical Status:
Tip top – though I suspect the isolation is getting to a certain crew-mate. We may not be safe for much longer… 😉
EVA:
An EVA was conducted in the morning, when the ground was still not too muddy. The purpose of this was to collect some hypolith samples for Michaela. The snow had melted enough to allow for a few promising samples to be collected.
Reports to be filed:
Sol 5 EVA report
Sol 6 EVA request
Journalist’s report
Operations report
Support Requested:
None today

Sol Summary – January 19th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for Sol 4
Crew geologist Roy Naor
Summary Title
Mars can be harsh but with Team PRIMA everything is under control!
Mission Status:
It’s Mars Northern hemisphere winter now and snow started falling from the thin CO2 atmosphere above us. However, Team PRIMA is a anti-hibernation crew and steaming up work as mission continues.
Sol Activity Summary:
When you are at the extreme, planning ahead might be the one thing that can do the trick and save ya’. As We have left two of our faithful rovers on the windy Plato of the mighty Tharsis Rise, towering above the vanguard first Martian permanent station, we had to plan a rescue mission to retrieve our tools, given the constraints of impending snowflakes. However, the EVA time in the Martian anoxic and radiative outdoor is expensive and we could not let ourselves spend this cost only on logistics. Hence we pulled from our science task list one of our prestige experiment that we were sent for to conduct on Mars. It was an experiment designed by Israeli high school youth to detect variances in rock type along the colorful slopes west to MDRS. Using remote sensing data, the students targeted coordinates along the slopes where there are noticeable change in color between two layers. The astronauts were directed to transect the slope bottom to top to take pictures and collect small sample from each different color rock. For the mission of retrieving the two ATVs the crew selected two of his brave scientists: crew geologist Roy “rocks for breakfast” Naor, for his knowledge of geology field work for conducting the students experiment, and GreenHab officer Richard “endolith for supper” Blake, for his bravery in fulfilling missions under stressful conditions and his high driving capabilities, as an Australian outback person (the rest will be told in the EVA summary ahead).
On the side of our innovative ISRU 3D printing project we are still having unsolved issues. It proves again that once you’re on Mars you can work only with what you have. Luckily enough, our crew Berber engineer Idriss “the dude” Sisaid, is the best man for the job, finding Macgyver solutions to force the printer into actions. More to come on this frontier. Our fine artist Niamh “all she touches is gold” Shaw working hard on creating our most important product- Team PRIMA outreach to the world arsenal of high quality media products. Our fearless leader, crew commander Michaela “multitasker” Musilova (MMM) is on the go with her students’ GreenHab experiment, and several other projects, while also working hard on managing the communication with earth and mission control to maintain our needs and duties.
Look Ahead Plan:
Team PRIMA holds to its mission statement to prove the concept of ISRU 3D printing of interlocking building blocks filled with local Martian regolith, as means of future technology to build more habitats on Mars, other than the vanguard MDRS.
Anomalies in work:
When the thin CO2 Martian atmosphere yield before the decreasing temperature and forced to give up on the bits of water vapors it holds, snow started to precipitate on the dry red planet and made the isolated crew reschedule all planed EVAs
Weather:
Morning frost stopped the common Requiring Slopes Lineae (RSL) from wetting the hills and making them slippery, at noon the snow came up and proved that this arid planet holds many more faces and mysteries than we previously withhold.
Crew Physical Status:
The crew is in good shape and eager to science the sh@#% out of all things on Mars.
EVA:
As planned, Rick and Roy (R&R) headed transecting the steep slopes of the foot of the Tharsis Rise. They were running on a mission against time to sample each change in color while the coming snow blows in the back of their neck (not literally as they were given the state of the art space suites). They succeeded in their mission and got back to their lost rovers. The road back on the mighty plato was much easier than the day before as the slime on the road was frozen solid. They reached back to the Hab not a minute to soon before finely snowflakes have touched the ground and colored the red planet white velvet.
One small EVA for the two men, but one giant leap for our understanding of the Martian environment- the samples will now undergo “field tests” to check if they hold different properties. The crew will take the samples back with him to Earth and send the rocks to the students in the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, where they will be analyzed by the youth scientists. We believe that by doing this experiment Team PRIMA will inspire their imagination and thirst to learn science.
Reports to be filed:
sol 4 summary
Eva report
Eva request
Commander’s report
Operations report
 H&S report
Support Requested:
 We asked previously these two questions several times, which have not been answered yet:
– Does anyone know where exactly the GPS are kept at MDRS? We haven’t come across them yet. Thanks!
– Rick made an inventory of the spices in the kitchen on sol 3, which was sent on sol 3. Please let us know that you have received this and stored it somewhere. Many thanks
Outside Hab January 19th 2017 Niamh proudly waves her Irish flag.
Outside HAB January 19th 2017 MDRS environs Is So Like Mars.
Northing Easting January 18th 2107 Roy and Michaela on EVA.
Main Airlock January 19th 2017 Idriss Michaela and Niamh on EVA.
Main Airlock January 18th 2017 Roy and Rick on EVA.
Outside HAB January 19th 2017 Michaela on EVA.

Sol Summary – January 18th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for Sol 3
“The beauty and hidden treachery of Mars”
Mission Status:
We’re overcoming the various challenges Mars is throwing at us and we’re still roaring with laughter. In summary: another fine day on Mars with Crew 173 – Team PRIMA.
Sol Activity Summary:
If there’s a lesson that we’ve learned today, it’s that most things work in a yin and yang kind of system on Mars. Each time we rejoiced that something got fixed/is working again, then something else came along and spoilt our joy. Our euphoria of having the toilet problems fixed got replaced by water pump leakage problems in previous days. Today, instead, aliens decided to steal some of our sources of power and gas. While the electricity was restored (under clearly some kind of peace treaty), the aliens are still entertaining themselves by cutting us off from our heat source. Currently, we’re huddling together to keep warm as the night is coming. In a similar way, my students’ spinach is growing extremely well under their experimental conditions, but Idriss, our crew engineer, is still trying his best to fix the 3D printer. That is not all, the beauty and hidden treachery of Mars is found in every element of our life here. Like it’s trying to trick us into thinking we can live here peacefully and then it hits us from a new unexpected direction. For instance, when we were about to exit the airlock, we got hypnotized by the beautiful landscape. We were so distracted by it, that we didn’t notice an alien come and open the hatch. Luckily, we were all suited up, so there were no casualties, but it was a close one… And then came the exploratory and thrilling EVA. Mars fooled us again. We left under the naïve illusion that the weather is great, the roads should be good and thus we should be able to drive these greater distances in good time. Ha. Little did we know what was ahead of us…(described below). Nevertheless, we showed Mars yet again that it can’t get rid of us that easily. We are here to stay and help colonize it in the future. Take that Mars!
Look Ahead Plan:
Apart our ambitious colonisation of Mars plans, we are planning on doing at least one EVA  tomorrow (weather permitting): one to go a bit of biological sampling in the surroundings of MDRS (ideally endoliths for myself) and another to retrieve the ATVs, which had to be left “sacrificed” today, so that we could return to our Hab safely before sunset. Activities in the Hab will include starting a couple of new experiments in the GreenHab, continuing with existing projects (for example Niamh’s artistic and outreach videos, my Slovak students’ project and 3D printing) and time-permitting attending to some of my projects in the Science Dome.
Anomalies in work:
The 3D printer stopped working and Idriss is still troubleshooting it. We are all also suffering from our helmets fogging up all the time, which makes driving on ATVs and walking on any kind of uneven terrain extremely difficult and even dangerous.
Weather:
Today the weather was very delightful again: sunny and very warm. We are very grateful for that, as our adventurous EVA described below would have not been possible under any other conditions.
Crew Physical Status:
All crew members are doing fine. One of them is still recovering from a cold.
EVA:
The original plan for the EVA was to go prospecting the carbonates in the Dakota sandstone and lower Mancos shale East of the Hab, all the way up to Skyline Rim (Northing : 4251500  Easting: 515000 Zone : 12 S) using ATVs there and back. However, the road called Copernicus highway ended up being in a very bad condition. It was worse than a rollercoaster ride. Even out of simulation I wouldn’t have wanted to drive on it. We were nevertheless on Mars and had to do as the Martians do, so we proceeded with great caution to get to our desired geological samples. With fogged up space helmets and heavy life support units, this ended up taking nearly three times as long as we initially anticipated. Thus, Roy and I had to improvise. The long story short is that we drove all the way to the cliff edges above MDRS, parked the ATVs there for the night and had to hike down to MDRS to make it back safely before sunset. This was also much trickier than anticipated, as the faulty helmets and general space gear made it quite a thrilling hike. We are tough earthling cookies, so we made it all right and showed Mars again who’s boss. We were actually very successful with retrieving some good carbonates and endolith samples during our exhilarating quest, so we had more than just a good story to tell at the end of the day 
Dr Michaela Musilová

Sol Summary – January 17th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for sol 2
The report was written by Idriss Sisaid
Chasing the carbonates with ATVs and solving basic problems.
Mission Status:  (How are things going?)
Things are getting better (things always get better once the toilets are unclogged). The sun has kept on shining today and dried up the soil. This enabled us to get on our all terrain vehicles (ATVs) and discover the area. The 3d Printer has however had a few problems as the cartridges were faulted.
Sol Activity Summary: (What did you learn/do today?)
We learnt how to use the ATVs with style and how to speak properly on the walkie talkie, mumbling before speaking which doesn’t lead to calling ones own name repeatedly until the end of times. Three crewmembers went out on an EVA to find some carbonates for a geology project. On our way we learnt new ways of cleaning the helmet when it gets too blury (like cleaning it with a brush hold in place with the teeth or by its own home-grown brush also known as a beard) in order to see correctly. The crewmembers successfully collected some samples for further analysis. The 3d printed blocks project had still a few problems and couldn’t get further prints as some hardware elements were of bad quality (the cartridge, the nozzles, and in fact, the whole 3d printer) which led us to unmount the cartdriges and use a different printing system. Growing food on Mars is slow but we are getting there! New seeds arrived today from a new supply and we will be able to grow more plants.
Look Ahead Plan: (How are you going to follow up?  What’s the plan for tomorrow?)
We look forward to finally printing a few blocks so that we can begin our first tests. We also plan to start analysing some samples collected during our EVA and we hope to be able to find more samples.
Anomalies in work:  (Any problems?)
Latest update of the evening: the toilets are again clogged and, therefore, so are our emotions. We do hope to find an alternative solution and not bring up again discussions on alternative and efficient solutions for delivering and getting rid of solid packages in a confined environment.
Weather:
Today was very sunny and dried most of the soil around the hab. Clear skies but still low temperatures (~0-5°C)
Crew Physical Status:
As the saying goes, laughing is good for one’s health, and we laughed a lot! We started the day very healthy until the toilet told us to cry again.
EVA: (where did you go?)
We took 3 ATVs and went to a small canyon about 5 miles east from the Hab where we sampled some rocks for a geological analysis.
Support Requested:
·        We need better cartdriges for the 3D printer. We would like some functionning ones for the next ressuply.
·        We are still looking forward the Internet token.

Sol Summary – January 14th

Crew 172 is officially done with our two week Mars analog simulation. We made it back to Earth from Mars safe and sound. Wow! What an unique, fun, and interesting experience on the Red Planet these last thirteen sols. We hope you have enjoyed and learned from our story.

The next crew rotation, Crew 173, has been debriefed and trained on all the MDRS systems, and are ready for their two week mission to begin. They seem like a capable bunch with all their experience and expertise. Godspeed to them!

Before Crew 172 signs off, we would like to thank the following people and organizations that helped us complete our mission:

Ilaria Cinelli, B.Eng. M.Eng. PhD Student – Commander

  • Scholarship: The Mars Society
  • Sponsor: The Italian Mars Society
  • Affiliation:
    • National University of Galway (Ireland)
    • Aerospace Human Factors Associations [Part of the Aerospace Medical Association]
    • NeuroKinetics Health Services, Inc.
    • Sana Health, Inc
    • Space Generation Advisory Council

Pierrick Loyers & Gwendal Henaff – Scientist & Health/Safety Officer

  • GSSI for the collaboration and the loan of the Ground Penetrating Radar and M. Brian Jones
  • MSI and M. Christophe Norgeot for the technical help
  • National Instruments and particularly M. Yacine Addou for participating to the 3D cartography system by sending us a NI myRIO
  • INSA Toulouse and The Physics Engineering Department, Dr. Vignolles, Dr. Lassagne, Dr. Grisolia, Dr. Balayssac, Dr. Maranges
  • Foundation INSA for the sponsoring and the technical equipment
  • The CROUS Toulouse for financing our flight suits
  • Planete Mars and M. Souchier for believing in this project and for their incredible help with sponsorship

Nicholas McCay – Journalist

  • Experience 360 for the virtual reality headsets
  • The Space Channel for the cameras to document our experience
  • Affiliations:
    • SpaceportLA
    • Mars City Design

Troy Cole – Engineer

  • Affiliations
    • Astronauts 4 Hire

Patrick Gray – Green Hab Officer

  • Affiliations
    • Students for the Exploration & Development of Space (SEDS)
    • WayPaver Foundation
    • UNC-Chapel Hill

Anushree Srivastava – Biologist

  • Affiliations
    • Mars Society – Mars 160 Mission

We would also like to thank the Mars Society, the Mars Desert Research Station, along with all the individuals who volunteered their time as CAPCOM & Mission Support.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank our families and friends for believing in us for this unique endeavor. We would not of been able to do this mission without your full support. Thank You! Crew 172 signing off

END TRANSMISSION

Sol Summary – January 1st

Crew 172

Today we arrived on Mars…Ok maybe not THE Mars, but southern Utah sure looks like the Red Planet. Our transport vehicles were not named Orion or Dragon, but instead Caravan and Suburban. Our seven Marsnauts are a diverse group from all over the world: three Americans, two Frenchman, one Italian, and an Indian. We are separated by eight years, the youngest being 22 while our commander is the oldest at 30 years young. Seeing desert in every direction and for as far as the eye could see, The Habitat was a welcoming sight. This is the moment, at least for me, when everything became “real.” Of course planning for six months, taking multiple flights, and spending quite a pretty penny on this experience is “real,” but when you actually see a two story hab, science dome, and greenhouse – the tingle of excitement washes over you.

Our “home” now consists of only 6 things: the Habitat, the science dome, the observatory, the greenhouse, a solar panel and ATV(s). We were given a tour of our home for the next 2 weeks, and all of the necessary systems training. Highlights are the water tank, both airlocks, EVA suits, and the daily routine we have now established. Next, on the docket was a pre-mission briefing with the local support staff. We all went over the procedures for EVAs, detailed our research projects and limitations, and the funnest part of our time on Mars – training on the ATVs. These vehicles will be our primary mode of transportation in the coming 14 days, other than our trusty two feet, so training was useful for all of our crew members. We are going to finish cleaning the hab tonight, and mentally prepare for the next fortnight. Our last planned activity of Sol 0 will be watching “The Martian.” Sure it may be corny, but hey we are on Mars and need all the help we can get!

Tomorrow morning we will wake up IN SIM on the Red Planet.

Daily Summary Report – December 30th

SOL: 12
Person filling out Report: Anselm Wiercioch, XO
Summary Title:
Mission Status: Complete
Sol Activity Summary: Cleaned hab, composed final report
Look Ahead Plan: Training new crew tomorrow
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: High 38F, Low 26F, Humidity 36-69%, Wind avg 2mph, Gust 3mph,
Clear and sunny
Crew Physical Status: Alive and well
EVA: None
Reports to be filed:
– Sol Summary
– Journalist’s Report
– Science Reports
– 6-8 Photos
– EVA Plan
– Operations Report
Support Requested
– None

Daily Summary Report – December 29th

SOL: 11

Person filling out Report: Anselm Wiercioch, XO

Summary Title: Last EVA

Mission Status: Winding down

Sol Activity Summary: Received water, EVA to Lunar Plains

Look Ahead Plan: Cleanup tomorrow for next crew

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: High 45F, Low 11F, Humidity 34-72%, Wind avg 0.8mph, Gust

2.5mph, Clear skies

Crew Physical Status: Anxious to get back to civilization

EVA: None

Reports to be filed:
– Sol Summary
– Commander’s Report
– Science Reports
– 6-8 Photos
– EVA Plan
– Operations Report

Support Requested
– None

Daily Summary Report – December 28th

SOL: 10
Person filling out Report: Anselm Wiercioch, XO
Summary Title: Final Countdown
Mission Status: Working in final EVAs
Sol Activity Summary: Candor Chasma EVA, Spacesuit testing
Look Ahead Plan: EVA to Lunar Plains
Anomalies in work: Out of water
Weather: High 43F, Low 12F, Humidity 35-67%, Wing avg 1.1mph, Gust 2.5mph, Sunny
Crew Physical Status: Functional but feeling the isolation
EVA: Follow up to Candor Chasma
Reports to be filed:
– Sol Summary
– Journalist’s Report
– Science Reports
– 6-8 Photos
– EVA Plan
– Operations Report
Support Requested
– None

Daily Summary Report – December 27th

SOL 09

Person filling out Report: Anselm Wiercioch, XO

Summary Title: 70% of the way there

Mission Status: Ramping up for science

Sol Activity Summary: Lot of green hab work, staying inside

Look Ahead Plan: EVA to Candor Chasma, Commander’s data acquisition

Anomalies in work: Many martian visitors driving around

Weather: High 38F, low 11F, Humidity 30-62%, wind avg 3.5mph, gust

4.5mph, clear skies and sunny

Crew Physical Status: Fully functional

EVA: Postponed due to martian traffic

Reports to be filed:
– Sol Summary
– Journalist Report
– Science Reports
– 6-8 Photos
– EVA Plan
– Operations Report

Support Requested
– None

:)