MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

MDRS is a project of:

Journalist Report – May 16th

Crew 181 Journalist Report 16 May 2017

Journalist Report 16 May 2017

Prepared by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist and Artist in Residence

Images by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist and Artist in Residence

Sol 3

Our EVA is planned for late afternoon so we got to sleep in!!!  We didn’t actually sleep in that late, but just knowing we could was a wonderful luxury. 

Speaking of EVAs, let me describe the process of getting out the door on Mars.  It starts with figuring out what to wear under your suit … light enough to keep cool (not really possible on Mars, but a goal) and heavy enough to keep the suits from scratching.  Our suits are bright orange with lots of pockets … handy for holding radios, lens caps, and rock samples.  Once you have the suit on and zipped up, you take a radio and headset, check that they work, and secure the headset with a bandanna or headband (also helps keep hair out of your face … no pushing hair out of your face or scratching your nose inside a helmet).  Next is the air circulating backpack.  Someone helps you into the backpack, which weighs about 30 pounds, and brings the helmet ring down over your head.  Once strapped into the backpack, a helmet is placed over your head and locked into place on the ring.  Two hoses from the backpack are screwed into the helmet to circulate air.  Gloves on and you’re ready to go.  Into the airlock for simulated pressurization (in our sim, pressurization is achieved in one minute) and then out the hatch door and you’re walking on Mars!

Journalist Report – May 15th

Journalist Report 15 May 2017
Prepared by Juan Jose Garcia
Images by Juan and Janet
Sol 2
The morning started off with the first EVA of the mission. The astronauts shuffled out of the airlock than Avishek and I could photograph them. We stepped outside and monitored their progress from the science dome. The window in that building frames their explorations quite scenically.
We split our allotted EVA time in to two time slots so we could all get a chance to feel out the suits and test out the terrain.
The first team was Charlie, Cassie, and Janet. They found a dinosaur bone (yes, seriously)
The second team would later find no dinosaur bones.
After the first EVA, I made lunch for everyone. Rice, chicken, and re-hydrated peas. Cooking transports one back home. It is very much an Earth activity. If one doesn’t look out the windows too often, the HAB feels like a very fancy space base out of some child’s imagination. But it’s real! Charlie fixes the Air (bless him) in the suits. Over lunch he drops some more knowledge about drones, rocket ships, and combustion on other worlds.
It’s when you take a peak outside the circle windows at the intense landscape and the distant imposing mountains that makes the homeyness of the HAB even more welcome and bizarre. It’s like we are at sea. Especially with the strong wind gusts, it feels like the ocean.
Olly Burn landed today with the help of Cassie. Olly is a British photographer come to pursue a personal project with us here at Mars. Olly’s ship left London, Earth a couple of days ago and was visible in our atmosphere around mid day.
We introduced ourselves to Olly and got to know about his work. Olly showed us his Hasselblad camera with a 50-year old lens identical to the ones used on the Moon!
Later this evening, Olly, Avishek, Cassie and I suited up. We went in the airlock. It was very much a moment resembling crews packed in the Apollo ships. A cool diffuse light poured through the front window of the airlock. The walkie-talkie’s beeping and the muffled voice of our comrade Charlie made the experience more real and more serious. The airlock door heaves open with the wind and we step into a bright wash of light and a windy world.
Covering the terrain was similar to exploring the bottom of the sea. The land is like rubber at parts. The squishy fragmented sand is unlike anything I’ve encountered in nature in New York or Miami back on Earth. Strange egg-like rocks, immovable, jut out of the red land.
The sky was overcast and menacing. The wind picked up on the hills. Climbing the final hill in front of the HAB became intense when just like in the beginning of the Martian movie, the wind started picking up dramatically. It would topple you off your feet. The top of the hill became a wind tunnel. Cassie signals for us to return to the base.
Charlie and Janet have chili with re-hydrated beef and impressive biscuits. Olly joins us for dinner.

Journalist Report – May 14th

Journalist Report 14 May 2017
Prepared by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist
MDRS Sol 1
 
Let me introduce you to our crew.  We are a crew of five, our commander Cassie Klos (also artist in residence), Charlie Rogers, our Engineer and EVA engineer, Avishek Ghosh, our Green Hab Officer, Juan Garcia, artist in residence, co-journalist and Health and Safely officer, and me, Janet Biggs, artist in residence, co-journalist, and crew astronomer.  As you can see, we are heavy on the arts in our crew.  While being built to support scientific inquiry necessary for the human exploration of Mars, MDRS has always embraced the intersection of science and art … but with the emphasis on science.  This is their first experiment of a crew with the emphasis on art.  We will see how it goes!
Up until now, we have only been a crew of four.   Avishek’s flight from the UK was delayed and he had to spend the night in Denver.  He caught a bus and arrived in Grand Junction at 5am this morning.  Our commander took the shuttle pod (Hab car) to go pick him up.  The rest of us are having a lazy morning, getting used to our new home, talking Mars and tech, and making plans for once we go into sim!
After a few home repairs (realigning the front Hab door) and clean up (downstairs area of the Hab and kitchen), we learned that shuttle pod (again, Hab car) needed some oil, so the Commander and crewmember Avishek will be touching down shortly…
The shuttle pod has redocked and we are now a complete crew!  Charlie made our first meal of Martian Mac and Cheese!  After lunch Commander Cassie talked logistics, ideas, and expectations.  Our ideas run the gambit from playing a game of Martian hide and seek, building a runway to host possible visitors, to following each other around obsessively documenting every step.
But for now, we are busy preparing.  Tomorrow morning, we go into full sim and officially land on Mars!!! 

Journalist Report – May 13th

Journalist Report 13 May 2017

Prepared by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist

Images by Juan Garcia, Crew Co-Journalist

MDRS Pre-Sol

 

Crew change-over 1

We arrived on Mars yesterday!!! 

Accompanied by an adrenalin pumping soundtrack of Led Zeppelin’s Immigration Song (we tried to find the Karen O version, but couldn’t … a tradition from our Commander’s previous mission) and of course David Bowie’s Life on Mars, we arrived at MDRS in a swirl of dust … which continued long after our spaceship (van) landed due to the 50k/hr winds!  We excitedly entered the Hab, but crew 180 was nowhere to be seen.  They were out and about, enjoying a little “out of sim” time in the Martian landscape.  Once they realized we were here, they joined us in the Hab and introductions were made.  Crew 180 was excited about their experience and kept saying how they wished they could stay!

They showed us the Martian ropes and told us about the projects/research each worked on and what they had accomplished.  Each outgoing crewmember paired up with their incoming counterpart and went over how the mars station functions … from the solar panels, generator, science lab, and Green Hab to the ATVs, filing reports, and most importantly for us right now, the water system and food.  We were low on both! 

But enough of practical concerns … there were new space suits to try on, mission patches, name tags, and nationality flags to attach … and pictures to be taken!!!  Two of the outgoing crewmembers are from Columbia.  Once they learned that Juan, one of our crew members, was Columbian American and wearing a Columbian flag on his uniform, even more cameras came out!

Crew 181 unpacked, while crew 180 filled up the spaceship (van) with their luggage.  It seemed like we had all just met, and suddenly they were off.  MDRS was now ours! 

Of course, we all went to the kitchen first.  Not much food.  Certainly, not enough food to last us for two weeks on Mars!  And not much water too.  When showing us how to move water from tank to tank for consumption in the Hab, we realized we only had one tank left … so no showers for us until the resupply ship arrives!  Plenty to drink, but our Commander, put it on the list for our first CapCom communication.  When will the supply ship arrive with new water?   

As crew 180 was jumping in their spaceship to return to earth, they mentioned that they had used up all the internet data allotted for the day.  We are limited to 500MB per day and once it’s gone, it’s gone. 

Oh, and did I mention the food?  As in not too much? Between the lack of internet and lack of food we decided to head into Hanksville for one last earth excursion.  We stopped into the local market and happily the supply ship had reached Hanksville!!!  We loaded up our supplies (I had no idea you could freeze dry beef chunks, broccoli, and blueberries!)  Just looking at the powdered milk … powdered everything, made us run to the local burger and ice cream joint!  After our last meal (and ice cream shakes) on earth, we headed back to Mars.

We spent some time picking our “staterooms” … think closet with plank bed and no windows (except for the commander who has one window … the perk of rank) and putting away our freeze-dried powders in the kitchen, but soon the stars beckoned and we all ended up outside, lying on the ground, staring up at the incredible night sky. 

 

 

Journalist Report 14 May 2017

Prepared by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist

Images by Juan Garcia, Crew Co-Journalist

MDRS Sol 1

 

Let me introduce you to our crew.  We are a crew of five, our commander Cassie Klos (also artist in residence), Charlie Rogers, our Engineer and EVA engineer, Avishek Ghosh, our Green Hab Officer, Juan Garcia, artist in residence, co-journalist and Health and Safely officer, and me, Janet Biggs, artist in residence, co-journalist, and crew astronomer.  As you can see, we are heavy on the arts in our crew.  While being built to support scientific inquiry necessary for the human exploration of Mars, MDRS has always embraced the intersection of science and art … but with the emphasis on science.  This is their first experiment of a crew with the emphasis on art.  We will see how it goes!

Up until now, we have only been a crew of four.   Avishek’s flight from the UK was delayed and he had to spend the night in Denver.  He caught a bus and arrived in Grand Junction at 5am this morning.  Our commander took the shuttle pod (Hab car) to go pick him up.  The rest of us are having a lazy morning, getting used to our new home, talking Mars and tech, and making plans for once we go into sim!

After a few home repairs (realigning the front Hab door) and clean up (downstairs area of the Hab and kitchen), we learned that shuttle pod (again, Hab car) needed some oil, so the Commander and crewmember Avishek will be touching down shortly…

The shuttle pod has redocked and we are now a complete crew!  Charlie made our first meal of Martian Mac and Cheese!  After lunch Commander Cassie talked logistics, ideas, and expectations.  Our ideas run the gambit from playing a game of Martian hide and seek, building a runway to host possible visitors, to following each other around obsessively documenting every step.

But for now, we are busy preparing.  Tomorrow morning, we go into full sim and officially land on Mars!!! 

Journalist Report – May 10th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 10 2017

MDRS Sol 12 update

Weird and lazy sol. It rained the whole morning and our EVA was cancelled. It has been the least Martian sol to date. When we imagine water on the surface of Mars, we think of almost unnoticeable streams, not a creek of centimeters wide with water pouring from sky. Okay, maybe once we started terraforming it. Anyways, it was fun to see the dry landscape become so damp.

Since we were trapped inside the hab for almost the complete sol, we spent most of our time writing, reading, playing cards, cooking a Mexican dish called esquite and talking about Harry Potter. It has been the least Martian sol to date, remember? Later we talked about other stuff like evolutionary psychology and politics.

Finally we planned activities for tomorrow and a movie for tonight. One of the crew members has Europa Report in his computer so we will probably watch that soon-to-be science fiction classic. Okay, maybe it is not the least Martian sol to date.

Journalist Report – May 9th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 9 2017

MDRS Sol 11 update

Everything is back to normal. The sim was reinitiated and we continued with our usual duties. Crew Engineer Gabriel Caballero worked with his rover, Grennhab Officer Camilo Reyes researched in the greenhab, and EVA Officer Yair Piña planned his next experiment measuring radiation.

All of us worked in our responsibilities and sat around the table to have lunch and talk about the usual topics, i.e.: how to use system theory and game theory to reduce the corruption levels endemic in all human societies.

After lunch we had visitors. Two journalists from the Autonomous National University of México – UNAM came to interview our EVA Officer; they were really friendly and brought presents for him. Then a small party was formed and left the hab in order to take pictures and collect lichens in the nearby area. 

Journalist Report – May 8th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 8 2017

MDRS Sol 10 update

Our crew member is alive! We are seriously considering calling him the latino Mark Watney. Just kidding, his accident was not that serious and we have never left him behind. Thankfully he is back with the rest of the crew and we are together again. We even baked bread to celebrate.

From our perspective the sol started very early, the dawns at the MDRS are a beautiful thing to see. The two crew members that stayed at the MDRS had to do all the work of six people. It was not a fun morning. Even out of simulation, cleaning, cooking, and cleaning again is a bit tedious. We have a high morale; though, so we did it singing Soda Stereo.

Later during the sol when the rest of the team came back, we were relieved to see everything was fine. We ate our bread caked without yeast and then we went with Shannon to the place of the accident. The ATV is ok; however the rover needs a bit of a fixing. We towed the rover with the help of a local and then we headed back to the station before it started to rain.

Journalist Report – May 6th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 6 2017

MDRS Sol 8 update

Eventful day even when there was no programmed EVAs. The sol started very early with the loud voices of EVA Officer Yair Piña and Greenhab Engineer Camili Reyes talking by internet with friends from Russia. The initial rush of happiness of Yair was then followed by an intense feeling of drowsiness, thou.

The rest of the morning was boring for the mission journalist, he had to clean the hab and wash an Olympus Mons of dishes. Once he was done, he grabbed a cup of coffee and he sat to talk with the rest of the crew about history. As usual the conversation was extremely interesting, there are a lot of things we don’t know about each other’s country history.

Almost immediately after a delicious lunch, the crew was surprised by a strong lighting that hit too close to the base. Coordination with Dr. Shannon Rupert led to taking safety measures till the possible electric storm passed. We took advantage of the “time off” and talked about this scenario in real life and we thought it would be scary as hell.

Then we all proceeded to do our duties and started writing reports with a noisy sand storm as a background.

Journalist Report – May 5th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 5 2017

MDRS Sol 7 update

The morning started with lambada. Part of the Latin-American culture is dancing so the crew members began moving their bodies when Commander Corrales played the old Brazilian song “Chorando Se Foi” with her laptop.

After breakfast we had a long conversation about the future of space exploration in latinamerican countries. We would like to promote and eventually create the Agencia Espacial Latinoamericana – AEL (Latin-American Space Agency). However we have to overcome a lot of political and economic difficulties.

Later we had a short EVA to place petri dishes in the nearby hill, and the heat was so intense that it suffocated one of the crew members so bad he almost fainted. That’s why we decide it to cancel the programmed EVA. We instead talked a lot about the history of our countries and culture. It is always very enlightening to share a good conversation with very intelligent people.

Finally the mission journalist went outside again with the Crew Engineer in order to briefly test his rover and take pictures for his journal article.

Journalist Report – May 4th

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 4 2017

MDRS Sol 6 update

Part of The Mars Society Mission is to communicate and promote the exploration on Mars. That’s why we welcomed the producer of the documentary Hijos de las Estrellas (Son of Stars), who came to film a chapter with us.

We have spent almost the whole day filming, taking pictures and “performing” for the documentary, which is about the space exploration in Latinoamerica. Most of the attention was directed to the Commander and the EVA Officer, thou. The rest of us were simple extras.

Just kidding, it was fun. We had the chance to talk about our projects and the things that we’re more passionate about. We had a very good time and we even invited them lunch. We are looking forward to seeing the documentary on TV, YouTube or Netflix.