MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

MDRS is a project of:

Commander Report – February 22nd

Dear Earth,

Yesterday, we agreed to take a day off for mid-rotation: Sol 10 was
the first Sol without EVA.

As usual, we woke up at 7 AM to do our physical training, but for the
first time we had breakfast without the hurry of the EVA preparation.
The idea behind this day off was to take time for ourselves. We played
card games, watched TV series, baked bread, took a nap after lunch,
wrote personal e-mails… Despite the weekend-like frame of mind, we
could not resist the inertia of the mission, so at the end of the Sol
everyone had worked on his experiments.

We are now on the brink of the second half of our mission here. I feel
that everyone has taken his marks, and the different personalities
seem to be more in accord than in the beginning. Indeed, the splitting
of the team during the EVAs was sometimes used as some sort of
confessional, where we talked freely about our relationship with the
other crewmembers. It allowed us to steer clear of tensions before
they happened, and to maintain a very friendly atmosphere in the Hab.
I am always pleased to see how we manage to abandon ourselves in
passionate debates, on the deepest subjects (geopolitics, religion…)
as well as the most trivial questions (TV series, imperial VS metric
system…). Definitly the best crew ever!

Ad Astra!

Arthur Lillo,
Commander of the friendly Crew 175

Green Hab Report – February 22nd

Green Hab Report  – Sol 10
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)

Date : 02/22/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a very sunny day and warmer than yesterday. I checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 35 Celsius degrees around 09:15 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 17.6 Celsius degrees. I switched on the cooler (on stage 3).

The GreenHab temperature was 30 Celsius degrees at 4:30PM while it was 17 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. I 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. I harvested 2 radishes and I planted 2 new.

The Vegidair has been installed 5 days ago and is functionning very well (cf photos). We were able to see taller sprouts of lettuce and of « roquette » today in the Vegidair than in the similar pots I put in the GreenHab.

Sol summary – February 22nd

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 10
SOL: 10
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: Restful Sol
Mission Status: day for rest today, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, rest, science work on different experiments
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow there should be an EVA, work on experiments promising for productive EVAs.
Anomalies in work: /
Weather: beautiful and sunny in the morning, very strong wind all afternoon
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well
EVA: /

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

Sol Summary – February 21st

SOL: 9
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: The winds of Mars are blowing
Mission Status: interesting exploration EVA, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, EVA, science work on different experiments
Look Ahead Plan: Windy weather in the following days will not allow for balloon deployment, and other outdoor experiments are not ready for outdoor testing, therefore no EVA tomorrow, which will be a more restful day.
Anomalies in work: /
Weather: beautiful and sunny in the morning, very strong wind all afternoon
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well
EVA: EVA #9 checked on the seismometer, found a good spot for deployment of the balloon and took some PR pictures in beautiful White Rock Canyon, experienced no fogging!

GreenHab Report – February 21st

Green Hab Report  – Sol 9
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)

Date : 02/21/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a very sunny day and warmer that yesterday. As I was in EVA this morning, Xavier has checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 30 Celsius degrees around 09:45 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 12.9 Celsius degrees. Xavier switched on the cooler (on stage 2). The GreenHab temperature was 25 Celsius degrees at 5:30PM while it was 17 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. Xavier 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 Vegidair has been installed 5 days ago and is functionning very well (cf photos). We were able to see more sprouts of lettuce and of « roquette » today in the Vegidair but not in the similar pots I put in the GreenHab.

EVA Report – February 21st

EVA Report
EVA#9
Crew members: Louis Mangin (EVA leader), Simon Bouriat, Victoria
Da-Poian and Louis Maller (EVA buddies)
Habcom : Arthur Lillo
Departure time:  9:15 AM
Return time: 12:15 AM
Vehicules: 1 rover (deimos) and 2 ATVs
Location: North of the hab, South of the hab (12N 518500, 4250000) and
white Rock Canyon (12N 520250, 4247500).

Purposes:
•       Looking for an acceptable location near the hab to deploy the
balloon for 24 hours.
•       Seismology experiment: collection of data and verification of the
instruments’ good functioning.
•       White Rock Canyon exploration, shooting of “official photos”, with
flags, banners.

Summary:
To begin with, we had a problem with Louis Maller’s earplug. We
realized a bit late that he was not hearing habcom properly, as we
were already in the airlock. That is why we ended up being 15 minutes
late, Louis having to change his earplug.
The engineering check was pretty fast, Victoria and Louis just forgot
to check the oil on the ATVs, so that we lost maybe 2 minutes.
We began by looking for an acceptable place to let the balloon for a
whole day, visible from the hab. We measured the distances with our
feet, and found the spot to attach it, north from hab.
We went back to the vehicles and headed south. We stopped to check the
seismometer that had moved, at 9:45. We discovered that the plastic
plate we put over the captor was touching it. We fixed it by adding
rocks under its sides.
15 minutes later, we reached White Rock canyon. We managed to go
halfway up of it, shot photos of the team for communication purpose,
with our flags, and with our school’s banner. Then we kept exploring
the site as most of us were not part of the previous expedition who
had been here. We spent less than one hour and a half there, then went
back to the base at 11:20, shot a photo of the hab, and came back.
To end with, we used the compressor for the first time, and spent
about 20 minutes discovering the process and inflating all tires that
needed to be.

Commander Report – February 21st

Dear Earth,


We are currently living our ninth Sol on Mars, and fortunately the
weather was kind enough with us to allow a three-hour EVA.

Louis Mangin, Louis Maller, Victoria and Simon went out at 9 AM and
began by looking for a good place to anchor the balloon (this maneuver
being planned for a later and less windy EVA). The plan is to let the
balloon fly during an entire Sol, at about 80 meters of height (260
ft) and attached to a heavy rock. During the night, it will slowly go
down, and we will pick it up on the next morning to recover 24 hours
of atmospheric data. To conduct that experiment, we need a long period
with less than 10mph of wind, so we keep our fingers crossed for the
next Sols.

The EVA team finally found the right place, in a plain North-East of
the Hab, visible from its windows. After that, they took two ATVs and
a rover to explore and take pictures at White Rock Canyon, which was
discovered during yesterday’s EVA. Meanwhile, Xavier learned by heart
the datasheet of our electric supply, Mouâdh prepared a delicious rice
with tomato sauce (rice is the only food we have in large quantity,
beside the tremendous amount of snacks of all kinds), and I made a new
funnel from cans, for the refilling of the ATVs’ oil.

The wind rose around 11 AM and went on during the whole Sol. It was as
if the Hab could be blown away at any time. Sometimes the noise
covered our usual musical ambiance, but the work continued,
undisturbed by the elements. We had an important debate in the
afternoon, about our rationing of the breakfast, until we found a
brand new jar of active yeast well hidden on the shelves (our previous
jar vanished with yesterday’s bread). We are saved!

My report was almost over when we realized that the sky was finally
Mars-like: the orange-red clouds in the evening sky were spectacular
and gave us an impression of fireworks’ grand finale, after the wind
storm.


Ad Astra!

Arthur Lillo
Commander of the stunned Crew 175

GreenHab Report – February 20th

Green Hab Report  – Sol 8
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)

Date : 02/20/2017

Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a nicer day than yesterday! I checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 27 Celsius degrees around 11:00 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 6.8 Celsius degrees. I switched on the cooler (on stage 1). The GreenHab temperature was 21 Celsius degrees at 5:30PM while it was 12.6 Celsius degrees in the tunnel. I watered the seedlings this morning and this afternoon too.


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 Vegidair has been installed 4 days ago and is functionning very well (cf photos). We were able to see more sprouts of lettuce and of « roquette » today in the Vegidair but not in the similar pots I put in the GreenHab.

Sol Summary – February 20th

SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 8
SOL: 8
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: White Rock Canyon
Mission Status: interesting exploration EVA, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, EVA, science work on different experiments
Look Ahead Plan: As this weather should improve in the following next few days, the crew is looking forwards to further testing of the balloon.
Anomalies in work: heavy fogging, maybe due in part to the very humid air
Weather: foggy in the early morning and then improved a lot
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well
EVA: EVA #8 checked on the seismometer and explored the White Rock Canyon.

EVA Report – February 20th

EVA Report

EVA#8

Crew members: Mouâdh Bouayad (EVA leader), Arthur Lillo, Louis Maller and Xavier Rixhon (EVA buddies)

Habcom : Simon Bouriat

Departure time:  9:05 AM

Return time: 11:20 AM

Vehicles: 1 rover and 2 ATVs

Location: South of the Hab (12N 518500, 4250000) and white Rock Canyon (12N 520250, 4247500).

Purposes:

  • White Rock Canyon exploration
  • Seismology experiment: verification of the instruments’ proper functioning

Summary:

We did the engineering check, and we filled the black tank to 90%. It took us about 20 minutes to complete the tasks. After that, we took the tank out of the rover Phobos, took Deimos and two ATVs.

We first went to check the seismology experiment, South on the Main Road, and the seismometer had slightly moved; we moved it back the way it should be. Otherwise everything functioned. We then took the rover and ATVs again and headed to White Rock Canyon. As there was fog in the helmets, we had to drive quite slowly.

After 15 minutes, we finally arrived to the White Rock Canyon. We pulled over and went to explore the canyon at 10:05 AM. After 40 minutes of exploration, we figured out that Xavier didn’t have air supply anymore. Therefore, we plugged one of Arthur’s air pipe to Xavier’s helmet, and I decided to go back to the Hab. They thus had to walk together back to the rover. Once there, we put Arthur’s pipe back where it belonged.

We left the White Rock Canyon at 10:45 AM, and arrived at the Hab at 11:05 AM. We then finished the engineering check of the rover and ATVs. It was quite hard to refill the ATVs with fuel. We then got back to the Hab, at 11:20 AM.