Crew Photos – February 20th
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Journalist Report – February 20th
Journalist report, 02/20/17 – Sol 8: First shower.
Today’s EVA was led by Mouadh, followed by Arthur, Louis, and Xavier. They left at 9:00, refilled the water tank, checked the seismometer, and went to White Rock canyon to explore it. The weather was once again foggy, but it was clearing when they left. The seismometer had moved a bit, because of the rain from the past few days, making the ground softer. Having picked up the USB key full of data, they went back to their rovers and went to the canyon. It was very wet in there. Louis took beautiful photos from above, before Xavier’s backpack stopped blowing air (due to a bad reload as we discovered after). He was almost blind, and more important, suffocating if we were on Mars. That is why, to respect the simulation constraints, they applied a common protocol in diving: Arthur shared one of his pipes with him, on the way back, forcing them to move as Siamese twins. The EVA stopped thirty minutes earlier because of this failure, but the good point was the quick reaction of the team.
This afternoon, we did for the first time another sport session I brought from my rower’s training, to keep the crew fit. Then, I had my first shower after eight days. We managed to save water as much as possible and Xavier and I were the last two ones having had none. We were trusting last crew’s recommendation about it, that was: “take a minimum number of showers”. But now that we are monitoring more precisely our water consumption, the conclusion was clear: it was ridiculous, as a (quick) shower uses less water than a flush… So that one represents around 3% of one day consumption, while flushing represents between 35% and 40%.
Anyway, I now am clean, and already motivated for the next 11 sols that remain! We already have great plans for the following ones, and I am not in a hurry to leave. I will lead tomorrow’s EVA for the first time, which goal will be to find a place to deploy the balloon for a whole day.
Louis MANGIN, crew journalist MDRS 175
Commander Report – February 20th
Dear Earth,
Sol 8: we have been here for an entire week now, and this morning we
woke up with the foggiest weather we had since our arrival.
Mouâdh took the commandership of our morning EVA, leading Louis
Maller, Xavier and I to the southernmost part of our map: White Rock
Canyon. The mist was nearly gone when we arrived there, but on the
inside part of the helmet glass, the fog was terrible. We could only
drive at a very low speed to stay on the Main Road. Despite its not so
impressive size, the canyon was stunning. We discovered orange-red
water when walking along the valley, and lots of colored strata with
various orientations.
Then, the plot thickened: deep inside the canyon, Xavier realized that
its backpack had stopped sending him fresh air. Mouâdh reacted quickly
and wisely by taking the decision to recover to the rovers and to head
back to the Hab. Xavier and I agreed on a solution inspired by our
scuba diving experience to provide him with air: I plugged one of my
air-supply tubes to his helmet, keeping the other one on my own
helmet. That way, Xavier could not only breathe fresh air, but also
see through his helmet, the fog being cleaned by the airstream. We
walked side by side on our way back to the rovers, and then the EVA
team came back to the Hab after almost two and a half hours outdoors,
with the sun finally showing up. This experience was quite inspiring,
indeed afterward we defined some emergency protocols regarding this
kind of situation, likely to happen again if we forget to turn off the
backpack when they are recharging.
In the afternoon, we tried a new physical training proposed by Louis
Mangin, inspired by his usual rowing training. Demanding, but we felt
good after this physical effort, and it was an excellent teambuilding
activity. I am glad to see that even after a whole week in here the
crew is still dynamic and motivated! Ahead of us, we still have about
twelve Sols of mission, which is the typical duration of a rotation at
MDRS.
Ad Astra!
Arthur Lillo,
Commander of the sportive Crew 175
EVA Report – February 19th
EVA report:
Crew members: Simon Bouriat (EVA leader), Victoria Da-Poian, Arthur Lillo and Louis Mangin (EVA buddies)
Location:
- East of the Hab (Marble Ritual, 12N 518700, 4250700)
Departure time: 9:00 AM
Return time: 10:05 PM
Vehicles used: None
Duration: 1:05 hours
Summary:
We first walked from the Hab to Marble Ritual to test the radio relay built yesterday. In fact, we know that the walkie-talkies start to malfunction around this area because of the distance. So we went there and split the group into two pairs. Two were supposed to keep the radio relay with them and contact the Hab and the two others had to keep walking until they lost contact with the hab. Thanks to the radio relay, this last pair should have been able to contact the Hab. This experiment was a failure for different reasons. First of all, it took a long time to reach Marble Ritual as our helmets were covered of fog. Secondly, the walkie-talkies were too sensitive to the terrain. Most of the time, the HabCom was able to contact the second pair (who was walking) and the two pairs weren’t able to talk to each other. We think that these issues have been caused by the air humidity and by interferences from the radio relay. We will work again to fix that and will try it during a sunny EVA. However, our commander succeeded to use his sextant for his positioning experiment during the EVA, even if the temperature tended to decalibrate it. The fog on our helmets started to be a big issue so we finally got back to the Hab as nobody could see and, so, drive the rovers.
Commander Report – February 19th
Dear Earth,
We began Sol 7 with the same bad weather as yesterday.
Today’s EVA was shortened like the last one. The rain from last night
had left a very muddy environment, where it was not safe to take the
rovers. Simon was in charge of the EVA, with Victoria, Louis Mangin
and I. We went East of the Hab to determine the range of the walkie
talkies and test the radio repeater built yesterday. Unfortunately,
the results were absolutely not concluding, probably due to the
weather: even with a line of sight, sometimes we could not communicate
with each other while the Hab was hearing us. The second experiment
was the marine sextant, with which we measured the angles between
distant objects (the Hab, a remarkable hill…), to determine our
position on the map afterward. The significant humidity in the air
covered our helmets with fog before long, preventing us from seeing
where we stepped. Thus, after an hour out of the Hab, Simon took the
decision to abort the EVA and come back to the main airlock.
Unlike the EVA, the debriefing was efficient. There are much more
lessons to learn from an aborted mission than from a successful one.
We took this opportunity to define protocols for foggy situations
(guidance through radio), or non working radio (non-verbal
communication inspired by diving codes).
The afternoon brought a sunnier touch on our activities, allowing us
to watch our first (and unlikely) Martian rainbow. The experiments
went on normally, with interesting results. The sprouts in Victoria’s
Vegidair grow quicker than the ones in the GreenHab; the coordinates
on the map seem to correspond to our position when using the marine
sextant; the Aquapad petri dishes show without a doubt the destruction
of all bacterial life in boiled water compared with tap water (our
teachers did not lie to us!).
Apart from the crew, there is another busy inhabitant in the Hab: no
rest for the bread machine, the “perpetual bread” is on its way. The
psychological effect of eating fresh loaf everyday is undoubtedly
positive, and I am convinced that a shortage of flour would cause the
mutiny of my crew. I keep an eye on the stock, and an escape plan just
in case.
Ad astra!
Arthur Lillo,
Commander of the EVA-aborting Crew 175
GreenHab Report – February 19th
Green Hab Report – Sol 7
Report written by: Victoria DA-POIAN (Crew Biologist)
Date : 02/19/2017
Functionality: The heater in the green hab is working well. Today was a rainy, cloudy and cold day ! I checked the temperature in the GreenHab this morning. It was around 21 Celsius degrees around 11:00 AM while the temperature in the tunnel was around 6.8 Celsius degrees. I did not switch on the cooler. The GreenHab temperature was 18 Celsius degrees at 5:00PM while it was 6.6 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 3 days ago and is functionning very well. 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 19th
SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 7
SOL: 7
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: Wet Mars
Mission Status: shortened EVA due to heavy fogging, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, science work on different experiments, shortened EVA due to difficult conditions.
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow the weather should be sunny, which will allow for a more productive EVA. Crew looking forwards to the two weeks left to carry out science and other tasks.
Anomalies in work: heavy fogging iside helmets during the EVA, maybe due in part to the very humid air
Weather: very cloudy, experienced rain in the afternoon, ground a bit muddy
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well
EVA: EVA #6 went out to test talkie range and a radio relay system, which failed to work. Planned exploration of Cowboy Corner was cancelled due to difficulties with the equipment.
Science Report – February 19th
Science Report 19Feb2017
Experiment: Navigating on Mars
Person filling in the report: Arthur Lillo
I took the sextant during the EVA: it was easy to use and to read
despite the gloves and the fog in the helmet. However, the temperature
gradient decalibrated the mirror before long, and the calibration
screws are too small to be turned with the gloves. Therefore, I could
only take one measurement: I wrote down the angle between the Hab and
Marble Ritual, and the angle between Phobos Peak and Marble Ritual.
Back inside the Hab, I drew on the map the two arcs of a circle
corresponding to the two angles, and I obtained a point that seems to
be a few meters away from my position during the measurement. Thus,
the experiment was a success, now I need to code an app that does the
work of positioning.
Experiment: EVA Emergency Procedures
Person filling in the report : Simon Bouriat
Today was the first line of our abstract about emergency procedures on EVA. The idea is to build emergency procedures based on a study of the ones of mountaineering expeditions. To do that, we want to simulate, during our EVA, different emergency situations. Nowadays, such situations are not currently studied.
One member will make a planning to prepare two or three simulations during the next two weeks. No other member, except for the one that will simulate the incident, will know that an issue will occur. But before, we want to study and create emergency procedures that will be taught to the all crew. The simulations will be a way to apply these procedures.
This study will probably continue after the sim.
Since we had no PRIF for this experiment, we would like to know if we can carry it out.
EVA Report – February 18th
EVA Report:
EVA #5
Crew members (4 crewmembers): Louis Maller (EVA leader), Mouâdh Bouayad, Xavier Rixhon, Louis Mangin
Location:
• South of the Hab to check on the seismometer (12N 518500, 4250000)
Vehicles used: Deimos and the two 350 ATVs
Departure time: 8:56 AM
Return time: 10:03 AM
Duration: 1h07
Purposes:
– re-check if everything is in place around the hab after the strong wind that we experienced today
– Seismology experiment: check on the seismometer experiment, to be sure that the strong wind hasn’t displaced anything.
– explore the area around white rock canyon, take some pictures for PR purposes
Summary:
We left for the EVA early this time, as we had gotten prepared very quickly. The engineering check was done efficiently once again, and we then headed to the seismometer to check if it had not been displaced by the wind. Everything was perfectly in place. We swapped the flash drive that was being used for a clean one, in order to analyze the first set of data in the hab. Then we headed south towards white rock canyon. But as we were almost there, I noticed cows a bit ahead of us just next to the road. I was not confident in heading towards them, because I didn’t know if they would be very near to the point we wanted to explore, or how they would react (even if they are just curious they could come uncomfortably close to us), and also it didn’t feel right with the sim.
EVA #5
Crew members (4 crewmembers): Louis Maller (EVA leader), Mouâdh Bouayad, Xavier Rixhon, Louis Mangin
Location:
• South of the Hab to check on the seismometer (12N 518500, 4250000)
Vehicles used: Deimos and the two 350 ATVs
Departure time: 8:56 AM
Return time: 10:03 AM
Duration: 1h07
Purposes:
– re-check if everything is in place around the hab after the strong wind that we experienced today
– Seismology experiment: check on the seismometer experiment, to be sure that the strong wind hasn’t displaced anything.
– explore the area around white rock canyon, take some pictures for PR purposes
Summary:
We left for the EVA early this time, as we had gotten prepared very quickly. The engineering check was done efficiently once again, and we then headed to the seismometer to check if it had not been displaced by the wind. Everything was perfectly in place. We swapped the flash drive that was being used for a clean one, in order to analyze the first set of data in the hab. Then we headed south towards white rock canyon. But as we were almost there, I noticed cows a bit ahead of us just next to the road. I was not confident in heading towards them, because I didn’t know if they would be very near to the point we wanted to explore, or how they would react (even if they are just curious they could come uncomfortably close to us), and also it didn’t feel right with the sim.
So we headed back, and stopped near Robert’s rock Garden in order for Mouadh to show us where was the access towards Ridge Road. We started climbing the first hills but then Xavier experienced a problem with his bandana that fell on his eyes, while the rest of the team had a very limited visibility due to heavy fogging, probably because the air was very moist.
As we reached the ATVs it started raining slightly, so the time was right to head back to the hab, which is why the EVA was a lot shorter than expected. But our main task, checking on the seismometer, was a success, even if we didn’t exactly get the exploration we wanted to do done.
Sol Summary – February 18th
SOL SUMMARY REPORT SOL 6
SOL: 6
SOL: 6
Person filling out Report: Louis MALLER, XO
Summary Title: Martian downpour
Mission Status: Successful but shortened EVA, all systems go, work on experiments ongoing
Sol Activity Summary: sport, science work on different experiments, shortened EVA due to difficult conditions.
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow will see another EVA, with a junior crewmember as leader. we are hoping for the weather to improve.
Anomalies in work: /
Weather: very cloudy, experienced rain, particularly around 11am
Crew Physical Status: Crew feeling well
EVA: EVA #5 checked out the seismometer, which had not budged despite yesterday’s strong winds. Then the EVA had to be shortened due to a certain number of difficulties.