Mars Desert Research Station

Sol Summary – April 11th

Summary Title: Technical setups for several experiments and first EVA

Mission Status: Good

Sol Activity Summary:

We woke up today at 8 am. The Crew Astronomer and the Crew Commander broke the sim for two hours (10-12 am) in order to take the aerial delivery at Hollow Mountain (5 days of late) containing our scientific equipment. We shared meal at 1 pm (tomato soup with bread). The Crew Geologist and the Crew Scientist started their EVA at 2 pm and came back at 3.30 pm. In the meanwhile, the other crew members set up their experiment in the Hab and the Science Lab. The Crew Geologist prepared its plants launched the GreenHab activities. We had to do an emergency EVA (in spacesuits of course) to the Shannon’s trailer from 7 to 9 pm in order to start CapCom session. Indeed, some electronic devices probably consumed all the daily Internet data for this day, that is why we were constrained to exceptionally go to the Shannon’s trailer. At 6.30 pm, we started a group meeting to debrief the day and prepare the day of tomorrow, and also to disable all the electronic devices of each crew member to avoid any further problem with the daily Internet datas. After the evening meal, some of the crew members enjoyed a movie, while others continued to work.Look Ahead Plan: (How are you going to follow up? What’s the plan for tomorrow?)

Anomalies in work: Internet data were consumed par mégarde

Weather: The beginning of the day started to be dégagé and clear. In the afternoon, some clouds added and the wind became more violent ???

Crew Physical Status: Everyone is fine

EVA: (where did you go?)

Reports to be file: Crew Engineer Report, Journalist Report,

Support Requested: The tunnel structure between the Hab and the Science Lab has suffered from heavy gusts of wind, it will be difficult

EVA Report – April 11th

Crew 178 EVA#1 Report 11 APR 2017

Weather: sunny, come clouds, wind
Temperature: around 25°C
Location: 12S0519254 UTM 4250772, elevation: 1365 m
Duration: 90 min
Team: Elke Mergny (crew geologist), Mathieu Vander Donckt (crew scientist)
Purpose:
– Geophysical survey of the area with a ground penetrating radar.
– Collections of ground samples for an analysis with a diffractometer
Outputs:
– Ground penetrating radar: The survey wheel was calibrated and two profiles were collected.
– Collections of ground samples: Three samples collected around the base.

Sol Summary – April 10th

Crew 178 Daily Summary Report 10/04/2017

MDRS Daily Summary Report for sol 0

Summary Title: Fixing Internet and aerial delivery delays

Mission Status: Several technical problems prevent us to start the simulation

Sol Activity Summary:
The Crew Engineer and the Crew Commander started in the morning to fix the Hab’s Internet Connection: it has been a success since we identified that the issue was due to the rotation in the vertical axis of the parable. This rotation varied of a few degrees because of lots of gusts of wind. We then fixed this issue by adding a fastening system with ropes. The rest of the day was dedicated to discover the surrounding areas with ATV’s and rovers to have a better idea of the relief. We also started physical tests (known as the “bip test”) and other physical exercises outside in the framework of the experiment of our physiotherapist. Finally, we passed few hours to fix the aerial delivery delays by calling several customer services. We got the confirmation that our packages will be finally delivered tomorrow at 10 am.

Look Ahead Plan: Internet connection has been fixed and the delivery of our packages should coming tomorrow, we then plan to start the simulation tonight at 6 pm although two of our crew members will have to break the sim tomorrow morning to get our aerial delivery.

Anomalies in work: The technical assistance of HughesNet should still come to install a better fastening system for the parable since our solution is not robust against strong winds.

Weather: The weather was cleared and the sun predominant.

Crew Physical Status: Perfect health

EVA: No EVA

Reports to be file: Crew Engineer Report + Daily Summary

Support Requested:

Mission Plan – Crew 178

Crew 178 Mars Desert Research Station Mission Plan

Mission Statement: Experiencing life on Mars simulation to identify scientific experiments which could be significantly useful, relevant and adapted for the first Human’s days on Mars.

Mission Start Date: 9th April 2017 to 23th April 2017

Crew members Aurian d’Avernas – Crew Commander Calogero Montedoro – Crew Executive Officer/Biologist Damien Mertens – Crew Engineer Elke Mergny – Crew Geologist Mathieu Vander Donckt – Crew Scientist/Journalist Nathalie Dupont – Health and Safety Officer Quentin Thomas – Crew Astronomer

Introduction:

Our team is composed of 7 master students and PhD students from the UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain) in Belgium, coming from the fields of mechatronics, electronics, civil engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, health sciences and human sciences. It is the 7th MDRS crew from the UCL.

Aurian d’Avernas

He is currently following his second year of master in mechatronics engineering and will design and study to types of telecommunication relays (omnidirectional and unidirectional) to ensure a proper radio network cover around the base, in order to double radio transmission range and to face any relief variations. Moreover, as Crew Commander, he will manage the team and ensure a good team spirit, the relevance of each experiment and their feasibility, and will oversee solutions of any potential problem during the expedition.

Calogero Montedoro

He is graduated in neuropsychology, in cognitive neurosciences and in biology. He currently pursues a PhD thesis in the biology of behavior. As GreenHab Officer, we will ensure the management of the greenhouse to conduct experiments in the field of life sciences: recycling of urea to grow rice plants. He will also be interested in the relief of the Red Planet throughout geomatics studies, using a drone for 3D mapping of surrounding areas.

Damien Mertens

He is following his third bachelor year in electrical engineering and applied mathematics. As Crew Engineer, he will be the station technician and will check and report water, electricity, vehicles and other technical statuses. He will also perform an experiment in the marking of risk areas using sound beacons to prevent automatically any crewmember in EVA from approaching any dangerous zone.

Elke Mergny

She is graduated in civil engineering and is now PhD student at the Université of Liège. She will ensure daily the localization of the crew during EVA’s following the weather forecasts. As Crew Geologist, she will lead an experiment in geophysics, by collecting geophysical profiles using a ground penetrating radar to map underground structures of Mars.

Mathieu Vander Donckt

He has always been passionate about sciences and is currently in the first year of master in chemistry. He plans to continue his studies in planetary sciences. As Crew Journalist, he will daily inform the general public and will lead, as Crew Scientist, an experiment about X-ray diffraction to characterize and better understand Mars’s undergrounds.

Nathalie Dupont

She is currently following her last year in physiotherapy and rehabilitation. She will be responsible for the safety and health of the crew and will lead an experiment about muscle wasting during a Mars mission.

Quentin Thomas

He is currently in 3rd year of bachelor in physics. As Crew Astronomer, he will be responsible for the use of the Musk Observatory at MDRS, to capture, among others, nebulas and galaxies M65 M66 NGC3628 M51 M97 M81 M82 and will conduct an experiment in the field of astrophysics and particle physics: the detection of muons.

Mission Summary Report – March 31st

Crew 177 Mission Summary Report

March 31, 2017

Crew 177, Lone Star Highlanders, a team representing McLennan Community College, from Waco-Texas, stationed at Mars Desert Research Station, MDRS, from March 26th until April 1st, for a one-week rotation as a part of McLennan Community College Mars 101 program with the main goal of providing an introduction to analog field research and training in all aspects of MDRS sim.

The team consisted of eight participants, six students conducting independent projects, and two faculty members serving a Commander and Co-Commander. Projects conducted by students were engineering and biology related.

Pitchayapa Jingjit is a freshman at McLennan Community College. She is planning to transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a degree in science in hope to attend a medical school. Her research project is trying to find bacteria producing antibiotics in order to combat the antibiotic resistance crisis. She collected soil samples containing bacteria from a different point of interest around the Mars Desert Research Station and bring those samples back to McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas to begin the laboratory work. Furthermore, she conducted a microbiology EVA to find the presence of Gram negative enteric bacteria and Gram-positive staph bacteria in the HAB and the Green HAB. As expected, she found both Gram positive and negative bacteria in both the HAB and the Green HAB.

Caleb Li is a sophomore year student of McLennan Community College, majoring in Electrical Engineering. He was planning to design a LED digital clock that put on the air lock to optimize the crew member’s experience while waiting to go out to do EVA. He was using the FPGAs on the Basys 2 Board to implement the clock function, time counting function, and alarm system. On Sol 4 he installed the clock in the air lock. The afternoon EVA crew used his posted instructions to operate the LED clock when they returned to the Hab. He will continue working on the alarm system and more advanced functions back to the school.

Elijah Espinoza is a freshman Mechanical Engineering student at McLennan. He is at MDRS working on a robot with Victoria LaBarre. His part of the robot is an arm that is attached to the robot that can pick up various objects such as rocks. The robot is in the early stages of a long project that will eventually be able to go out on its own and rescue an astronaut that is hurt. It is designed to be a rescue ambulance called the Emergency Medical Service Rover (EMSR). He is using a Vex competition kit to power the arm. On SOL 5 he and Victoria went out to the Cow Patty Field and tested the robot to observe how it moved on the terrain and how it picked up different sized rocks. The robot Elijah and Victoria are working on is a progression from Victoria’s project last year. Elijah plans to continue to work on the project when they get back to McLennan.

Victoria LaBarre is a sophomore student at McLennan Community College, majoring in electrical engineering. This is her second time coming to MDRS. On her first trip in 2016, she tested prototype one of the Emergency Medical Service Rover (EMSR) and conducted two human driver tests. When fully realized, the EMSR will be able to automatically go out into the field and retrieve an injured astronaut to bring them back to the Hab. This year, 2017, prototype two was developed and tested at Mars by LaBarre and her partner Elijah Espinoza. LaBarre worked on the drive train and the programming of the robot. The robot’s strength and dexterity were tested in Cow Patty field by picking up different sized rocks, which were then brought back to the Hab to be measured.

Esteban Ramirez is a first-year student at McLennan Community College majoring in Biomedical Engineering. His project dealt with energy concerns a Mars exploration would have. The amount of available energy to a crew or device is what gives them the ability to carry out their jobs on any space expedition. His project tested the feasibility and consequences of providing a bike generator for a Martian exploration to increase efficiency and health of the crew. Once arriving at MDRS various tests were done on the generator bike to calibrate and fix problems with the battery. Multiple tests on crew mates were done and data was collected such as voltage created, time spent, and calories used. These data will be analyzed and aggregated to find correlations between efficiency and various other variables such as height, weight, and age. Conclusions will be presented at McLennan Community College on Scholar Day.

Joseph Quaas is a freshman computer science student who came to MDRS in order to develop a virtual reality simulation of the MDRS site. The simulation is to consist of a basic rescue operation consisting of the user learning the location of a person, who is need of assistance, driving the rover to their location, and bringing them back to the hab. There were some developmental problems during the week concerning the implementation of certain 3D models and scripting, but good progress was still made on the project. The entire premise of virtual reality, especially a sim based upon a real-life location, is to immerse the user in a virtual environment that is as close to the real-life version as possible. During his time at MDRS, he saw and got the feel of many locations around MDRS and made adjustments to the landscape in the sim in order to make the sim more accurate.

Becky Parker is a Marketing Professor at McLennan Community College. Her project is the preparation of a marketing plan for recruiting student and faculty participants for future Mars missions as well as other travel courses. She used her time at Mars to take photos and videos of the mission to be used in marketing materials and to conduct interviews with each participant. She led a brainstorming session in order to get student input for the plan.

Dr. Otsmar Villarroel, chemistry professor at McLennan Community College, served as the crew 177 commander. He enjoyed her second rotation at MDRS designing the every day’s activities during crew’s mission. He also led planned EVAs for Orientation, Geology, Chemistry and independent projects.

We would like to thank the Mars Society and McLennan Community College for allowing us being part of this invaluable experience. We are deeply thankful for the opportunity.

Otsmar J. Villarroel/Crew 177 Commander

EVA Report – March 31st

EVA Report: EVA #9

Filled by Otsmar Villarroel, Crew Commander

Crew members: Pitchayapa Jingjit, Esteban Espinoza, Caleb Li, Otsmar Villarroel

Location:

12 N 518524 4249129

12 N 518172 4250624

12 N 518158 4253775

12 N 517738 4254864

12 N 518230 4250725 (outside the hab)

Time: departure at 3:00 pm. Estimated return at 5: 30 pm

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes approximately

Vehicles: 2 ATV’s and 1 Rover

Purposes:

The purpose of this EVA is the collection of soil samples surrounding the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) to bring back to McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas in order to find bacteria producing antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance crisis.

Summary:

Twenty one soil samples, 5 g each approximately, were collected to bring them back to McLennan Community College to begin soil dilution process. Samples were collected from five different places around MDRS. The goal for this research is to find unique and effective antibiotics available to cure resistant bacteria.

Journalist Report – March 31st

Journalist Report by Victoria LaBarre

March 31st, 2017

The crew gathered around for breakfast, then half set out on an EVA to Candor Chasm. The crew out on EVA spent a long time in Candor, traveling along the bottom of the Chasm and up the cliff-side. The EVA Crew found a cave in the cliff-side and took note of large/long strata of gypsum along the bottom of Candor.

The second half of the crew spent most of the day cleaning and cooking. Our greenhouse officer’s project experienced a setback after he mistakenly connected the negative wire to the positive terminal and vice versa. This ended up melting his battery, and making it unusable.

The good news is that our health and safety officer’s clock still works and the half of the crew that went out on EVA used it to time their depressurization in the front door’s airlock.

The two crew members who built the robot went ahead and prepared the robot for travel and packed it back into the suitcase since the arm’s gear is broken completely.

After lunch, the second half of the crew, set out on a microbiologist EVA in which they collected soil samples from the Gypsum Fields, the area surrounding the Hab, the Cow Patty fields, Ancient Sand Dunes, and the Creek Bed. These samples will later be taken to a lab at McLennan Community College and stained to find bacterial colonies in hopes of finding the area of inhibition, and thereby discovering bacteria that may prove useful for developing antibiotics.

After dinner, the entire crew split up and cleaned the Hab. The crew vacuumed, mopped, windexed the windows, cleaned the shower and packed up all our projects and rooms. Dished were washed, the kitchen and stove were wiped down and our cook took inventory of the pantry. All the trash was thrown out and the refrigerator was cleaned out.

Sol Summary – March 31st

MDRS Daily Summary Report for SOL 6, 31Mar2017

Person filing out Report: Victoria LaBarre

Position: Crew OX and Crew Chemist

Summary Title: Clean up

Mission Status: Concluding experiments and EVAs and cleaning Hab for next crew

Sol Activity Summary: Packed up robot, clock and bike generator, Microbiologist EVA, cleaned entire Hab

Look-Ahead Plan: request ability or help in handling toilet issue/End simulation and go back to Grand Junction.

Anomalies in work: Nothing out of the ordinary

Weather:

-Morning: Overcast, windy

-Afternoon-Sunny, windy, showers

Crew Physical Status: Crew is healthy

Commander Report – March 31st

Crew Commander Report by Otsmar Villarroel/Crew 177 Commander

March 31st/2017

Today, March 31st is our mission’s last day. This week has been definitely unique. Thanks to McLennan Community College, Mars Desert Research Station, and my crewmates for this opportunity.

Today afternoon was used to conduct an EVA led by Pitchaya Jingjit. She collected twenty-one different soil samples from five different places of interest around the MDRS location with the purpose of bringing back to McLennan Community College, in Waco-Texas in order to find bacteria producing antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistance crisis. Jingjit was accompanied by Caleb Li, Esteban Ramirez, and Otsmar Villarroel.

Geologists, Espinoza and Li, worked in the science lab during the afternoon.

They use the regolith samples collected during geology EVAs and performed Sieving analysis on each of their samples. They use different trays, each with a different mesh size. Back on McLennan Community College campus, they are planning to perform spot test analysis for the following: Carbonate properties, oxide, iron, Uranium, and Potassium.

Dinner consisted of salmon and mashed potatoes. After dinner crew members started cleaning the MDRS facilities and already started to pack and getting ready to return to Earth with the satisfaction of being part of this experience.

See you later Mars! And one more time, thanks to everybody that makes it an awesome experience.

Geology Report – March 30th

rew 177 Geology Report March 30, 2017

Crew 177 Geologist Report

Dear Mission Support,

Today is a sunny day, and we are ready to head to the geology stop “The Little Canyon”. After the delicious pancake breakfast, Becky, Esteban, Pitchayaba, and I went on the two Rovers and one ATVs with the measure tools – rope and tape.

Our mission for today’s EVA is to measure the height of the little canyon. About 15 mins, we have arrived the little canyon, and I climbed to the top of the canyon and throw the rope down to the cliff, but I held the one end of the rope, and then Esteban made a mark on the rope. We took some great pictures and videos over there. After we came back to the HAB, we measured the length of the rope, the height of the little canyon is around 18 feet. It was a great experience.

Caleb Li