Mars Desert Research Station

Sol Summary – February 24th

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 12
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: Outlandish landscapes!

Mission Status: successful EVA in the morning, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, EVA, science work on different experiments
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow there should be an EVA, hoping for less windy weather for balloon deployment, and other experiments can also be tested outside.
Anomalies in work: 3D printer being troubleshooted
Weather: beautiful and sunny in the morning, but quite cold and with irregular blasts of wind
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well

EVA: tried to deploy the balloon on the location we had identified north of the hab, but failed because of heavy and sudden gusts of wind. Then we headed north, scouted for interesting places, took some pictures, and were particularly stunned by the place aptly named “The Moon” on the MDRS Map. Truly out-of-this world. We felt like Apollo astronauts as our vehicles and boots lifted up fine gray dust. Weather cold and windy but blue sky and absolutely no fogging in helmets, so we could fully enjoy the wonders of our Mars.

Reports to be filed:
– Commander report
– Operations report
– Journalist report
– GreenHab Report
– EVA #11 report
– EVA #12 request
– Science report
– 3D Printer status report

3D Printer Status
We have set to the task of making the 3D printer work, as we had some free time on our hands. We found the task more difficult than we had previously thought. Indeed, last year, when Arthur and I were on the station the 3D printer was perfectly working. It had no problem calibrating, and all the material was inside the box (with the possible exception of the Gap Gauge, sandpaper and Allan Wrench, citing by memory as this was one year ago).. It had a USB key in which we had put the executable for the printer and a few printable files.

When we opened the box again today, we found the printer in a sorry state. The scraping spatula, the quick start guide, the pliers, the casing and its content (including USB key)… had disappeared.

The cube glue is almost empty. There is only one cartridge left (which seems logical as it the other one has probably been used up), but it wasn’t operational.

We first decided to repair the cartridge, as we found it in three different pieces which is not its normal state. We then tried to calibrate the printer. We think that one of the three knobs that are supposed to maintain the plate is broken. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to repair it and we couldn’t calibrate the plate so our test print failed. One of the issues might be a malfunction of the printing head as the melted plastic does not seem to come out of it and as the color of the plastic is mostly grey even if it is a black colored cartridge. This is the next step we will look forward to fix the printer but it’s an issue we still have to work on. We also hope to fix the knob maybe directly by using glue.

Journalist Report – February 24th

Journalist report, 02/24/17 – Sol 12: Freezing cold.

I took part in today’s EVA, which goal was to test the balloon, the connected glasses, and explore in the Northern part of the desert. I was going out with Xavier, Simon and Louis. After the classical checks, a water refill, we began by trying to deploy the solar balloon at the spot we marked few days ago, just a few meters away from the hab. After having fixed it to the ground, we started to inflate it. But a strong wind was blowing on the ground, making it very hard to control it. We struggled for a few minutes, before we decided to abort the experiment. It was a bit damaged by the wind, and we put it back in the engineering airlock, before leaving on the rovers and ATVs. During this whole time, Louis was trying a local network, generated by his phone, that was broadcasting his glasses’ view in order to let habcom see what he we seeing. We found out that its range was limited to a dozen of meters, so that it is only usable during the engineering check, but worth it.

The second part of the EVA was more about adventure: as we spent less time than expected on the solar balloon, we had a lot of time remaining for exploration. That is why we went far away from the station. We reached a place called “The moon”. The ground went from white, to yellow, to grey, in only few hundreds of meters. I was very disturbing, as we never experienced such a landscape before. It clearly didn’t seem that we were on Earth already… We stopped in front of Sanjerooni Butte, a flat mountain, detaching strictly from the ground, with its vertical sides, with Skyline Rim as a background. This whole view was absolutely stunning, but one thing was disturbing our contemplation: the cold. The temperature was very low this morning, even if the sun was bright and the air dry. It seems that the photos are shot in the middle of summer, but I took half of it without feeling my fingers…

The afternoon was full of science as usual, I spent a lot of time working on my morning shots, as my teammates were working on their own. We recently unboxed the 3D printer of the station. I must have been broken because we had to struggle just to turn it on, and are already calibrating it. Tomorrow we might take another shot with the balloon. Let’s hope that we will be luckier than this morning.

Louis MANGIN, crew journalist MDRS 175

Sol Summary – February 23rd

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 11
SOL: 11
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: North of the Hab
Mission Status: successful EVA in the morning, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, EVA, science work on different experiments
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow there should be an EVA, the good weather should allow for balloon deployment, and other experiments can also be tested outside.
Anomalies in work: /
Weather: beautiful and sunny in the morning, quite cold because of the wind
Crew Physical Status: One crewmember has some stomachaches, rest of the crew feeling wait
EVA: dug the seismometer hole a bit deeper, explored north of the Hab, did some maintenance on the tunnel extension.

Reports to be filed:
– Commander report
– Operations report
– Journalist report
– GreenHab Report
– EVA #10 report
– EVA #11 request

Crew Photos – February 23rd

Journalist Report – February 23rd

Journalist report, 02/23/17 – Sol 11: Mid-rotation.

Today’s EVA was supposed to be quick: they had to bury the seismometer a bit deeper, explore the north of the map, to test the sextant, before going back to do a few tasks around the hab. We started a bit later today, because we planned our EVA for 9:30 instead of 9:00, the objectives being light. It was led by Victoria, followed by Arthur, Mouâdh and Xavier, who shot today’s outdoor photos. They started by going south, to fix the seismometer, which sensor had moved because it was touching its shield. It took less than half an hour to dig a deeper hole in the ground, and then to attach its cable back. At the same time, Arthur was using his sextant in this known location to check the coordinates it gave to him. By the way, we use a sextant, the former marine instrument, because a compass would not work on Mars, where the magnetic field is not stable.

The team then went north, to explore this region we had not visited yet, and to have new results for the sextant, that Arthur checked after, in the hab, with the map. According to the photos they showed us, the weather was nice, and the landscapes were beautiful. They remained there for less than an hour, before coming back. At the same time, Victoria mandated me to take care of the plants in the greenhab. It is the first time I did it, and it was very pleasant to be alone for a while in the little module, surrounded by plants. The desert is very dry, so that even during EVAs, we never see any tree, or any big plant, only a few burnt grass, but nothing green. This is why having the Vegidair in the living room is also pleasant: we regularly check the lettuces growing there, and it is a good feeling to know that we are not the only things alive in the neighbourhood.

The EVA ended up with the crew removing the plastic from the wall we built almost two weeks ago. The strong wind from the past few days damaged it a lot, so that its cover was at the time hanging only due to three surviving clips and a little rope. The metallic structure was very resistant, but the plastic covering it was too weak to support the wind. We may try to repair it during an EVA, but it seems hard, because of the precision it requires. We now will have to close our eyes when we leave the hab to reach other modules not to see the landscape…

Tomorrow, wind is supposed to calm down at least in the morning, so that we may use the balloon during the EVA, even if we might not leave it for 24 hours, Louis will also bring the connected glasses for a second test. I will be part of it, and hope that the weather does not restraint us another time.

Louis MANGIN, crew journalist MDRS 175

Commander Report – February 23rd

Crew 175 Commander Report 23Feb2017
Dear Earth,

We began Sol 11 with the usual physical training on lower deck, followed by a generous breakfast. Despite the rationing of the food, we insist on absorbing as much energy as possible during the first meal of the Sol, particularly for the crewmembers going on EVA, since they are performing physically exhausting tasks outdoors.
Victoria was an excellent EVA leader this morning, taking initiatives, showing commandership and caring for her EVA buddies Xavier, Mouâdh and I. We discovered a very interesting area north of the Hab, at the crossing of Main Road and Tank Wash, full of gorgeous red hills. We took measurements with the sextant to determine our position on the map afterwards.
In the afternoon, we did a second work out inspired by Louis Mangin’s rowing training, and everyone worked on his experiments. Simon and I did some DIY: we recycled the only raw material we have large amount here, which is empty cans of dehydrated food. In the end, the cans were turned into winches for the balloon’s ropes and into a compass to report the sextant measurements. No rest for this crew of engineers!

Ad Astra!
Arthur Lillo
Commander of the enthusiastic Crew 175

EVA Report – February 23rd

EVA Report
EVA #10

Crew members: Victoria Da-Poian (EVA leader), Xavier Rixhon, Arthur Lillo and Mouâdh Bouayad

Location: -South of the Hab to bury the seismometer (12N 518500, 4250000)
-North of the Hab to do the sextant experiment (at Tank Wash : 518500, 4253500)

Vehicules : 1 rover , 2 ATV
Time: departure at 9:34 a.m
Arrival : 11h27

Purposes:
• Around the Hab exploration
• EVA training for newcomers
• Seismology experiment: dig a deeper hole and bury again the seismometer, the acquisition system and the battery
• Sextant experiment at the North

Summary:
The Engineering Check was quick today, no refill was needed. We did not take the balloon because of the risk of wind. We took one rover and two ATV to go to the plain just North of Camel Ridge, where we dug a hole some Sols ago. At 9:45 we des-installed the seismometer, to dig again the hole, we installed again the seismometer and covered them with dirt and plastic planks to protect them from the bad weather. At 10:10 we finished the seismometer activity. Then we began our exploration: we left the seismometer to go to the North around Tank Wash. The view was absolutely stunning despite the wind we had. On the road we could see the Hab and establish radio contact with HabCom around 10:30. On the road to Tank Wash we stopped twice to make some measures with the sextant for Arthur. We made some pictures also. Then we went to Tank Wash and we did the last measure of sextant experience. Around 11:00, we went back to the Hab. We worked together to put the white tank on a rover (for Shannon), and then we worked on the plastic cover and we took it back from the tunnel because it was unfasten due to the wind we had last days. Then we returned to the Hab around 11:30.

GreenHab Report – February 23rd

Green Hab Report – Sol 11
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)

Date : 02/23/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a very sunny and windy day ! As I was in EVA, Louis checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 30 Celsius degrees around 10:00 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 8.2 Celsius degrees. He switched on the cooler. The GreenHab temperature was 15 Celsius degrees at 6:00PM while it was 3.2 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. Louis watered the seedlings this morning and I did this afternoon.

Status: The existing seedlings in the greenhab 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. The new lettuces I planted are growing very well too.

The Vegidair has been installed 5 days ago and is functionning very well. We were able to see nice sprouts of lettuce today in the Vegidair and some smaller in the similar pots I put in the GreenHab.

Thanks,
Victoria

Sol Summary – February 23rd

Journalist Report – February 22nd

Journalist report, 02/22/17 – Sol 10: Rest day.

Today’s objective was simple: there was none. We have been on the station for 10 days without any real break, and we all needed some time to rest and go on our tasks efficiently. Today’s weather was supposed to be bad, so that we did not plan any EVA. It was absolutely not the case, the weather being great, with a strong wind that almost wrecked our wall, but we stuck to the plan, and stayed at home for the whole day.

The rhythm was cooler, it was time for me to form Mouâdh and Xavier to a popular French card game called “la coinche”. I spent most of my day working on the mid-rotation video, supposed to sum up the first half of our mission. I would like to release it in a few days, and it also interests the French website of the Huffington Post. Xavier spent a long time in the dome, understanding the station power system, -using solar panels along with a thermic generator, to reload batteries- to document it for the next crews. Almost every one of us took a nap in the afternoon, to regenerate after ten days waking up early.

As there is no real fresh news today, I would like to talk about something I only mentioned since we arrived: food. We have to restrain a little to match our supplies. We have almost everything lyophilised, but in different quantities, so that we try to monitor it precisely. We guys are a bit hungry even after the meals, so that we had to find tricks to avoid going mad and rush into the snacks drawer at 4:00 pm or at 11:00 pm. We mostly have sporting habits, so that we eat quite a lot while in France, but here we must limit our dietary intakes because of the little physical activity we have. We found two solutions: we have a quite decent amount of starch, so that the hungry ones can add up a little rice or pasta at the end of a meal. We also are in America, so that there is A LOT of snacks in the kitchen contrary to what we are accustomed to. We spent the first days eating frosting paste, peanuts and different strange meals at various hours, but we quickly realised that if we did not want to gain 15 kg, we will have to find another way to feel satiated. This is where comes our second solution, hiding in the snacks drawer too: popcorn. It is very easy to store because of its size being popped, has almost zero intakes if eaten without anything else, and takes a ridiculously huge amount of volume in your stomach…

To end with, I have to mention our last anecdote, from yesterday night. Xavier was refilling the water tank in the loft, over the rooms, before he left, completely forgetting why he went up. It’s only hearing the water falling out of it that he rushed back to stop it and clean it up. This is only 5 minutes later that we heard Victoria from inside her room saying: “guys it’s raining in there”. Not sure that it helps in team building…

Louis MANGIN, crew journalist MDRS 175