MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

MDRS is a project of:

EVA Report – January 27th

EVA report:

SOL: 12

Earth date: 27/01/2017

Person filling out the report: Michaela Musilova

Crew members involved in the EVA: Niahm Shaw, Idriss Sisaid and Michaela Musilova

EVA leader: Michaela Musilova

Begin: 09:30 am

End: 1:00 pm

Type of EVA: Walking+ 2 ATVs

Purpose: Outreach activities around the Hab and last sampling of hypoliths.

UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4249100  Easting :  518000 Zone : 12 S

Summary: Outreach activities (with photos and videos) around MDRS and further hypolith sampling by the Kissing Camels ridge.

Sol Summary – January 27th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for Sol 12
Crew Journalist & Artist Niamh Shaw

Summary Title
The curse of the Gigabyte Hobgoblin

Mission Status:
We are all doing well, our experiments are now complete and we are
finishing off our remaining out-reach activities as part of our mission.

Sol Activity Summary:
Action! So many movies were made today it was hard to keep up with all the
activity. And the weather couldn’t have been better for shooting. But first
we took a call from The Sunday Times newspaper for an interview. We thought
it was going to be a brief 20 minutes group call and ended up being over 90
minutes in duration. What can I say? We wowed him with stories of our
mission. Here’s a brief sum-mary of the outreach and art activities
happening around here today: Niamh was shooting her art pro-ject in the
communal areas, Roy was filming his outreach movies in the Science Dome,
Idriss was using the EVA to make an outreach movie and Rick pulled himself
in many directions to assist every-one in their needs. Roy then made a
‘walk and talk’ outreach movie about MDRS and our life here. Michaela and
Rick went out on a second EVA of the day to collect one last set of
hypolith samples. Michaela then spent some time in the Science Dome
analyzing her samples and working on her scien-fitic projects. Lastly Roy
and Idriss finally built their wall with 3d printed bricks, and filmed
their suc-cessful proof of concept. We took over 600 photographs today and
made approx 10 movies. All content for us to bring back to our home
countries and share our adventure with everyone. On the home stretch now….

Look Ahead Plan:
We have to finish some minor outreach stuff in the morning, give the Hab a
good clean for Crew 174 and head out on one last EVA as a crew together.
Then its one last group picture and then we look forward to welcoming the
new crew to MDRS.

Anomalies in work:
The gigabyte goblin continues to strike, we will never know who or what was
eating all that data.

Weather:
A perfectly wonderful day on Mars today. Warm, the sun shone and dry all
day.

Crew Physical Status:
All crew are alll doing well. Still laughing.

EVA:
A short EVA in the morning for Niamh and Idriss for outreach activities and
then in the afternoon Michaela and Rick went on EVA to collect hypolith
samples.

Reports to be filed:
sol 12 summary
Eva report
Eva request
commander’s report
Operations report

Commanders Report – January 27th

Commander’s report Sol 12

 

Vangelis. The 1492: Conquest of Paradise theme. That is what is going through my head now and has been all day. All week. All mission actually. It all started with Idriss, our crew engineer, playing the song at the start of our mission many sols ago. Then one by one each crew member has been humming the song while working, cooking, in the shower, in the toilet… Basically all the time. Today Roy, our crew geologist, hummed it a number of time into our walkie talkies during his EVA and now my crew are all listening to it while preparing for dinner. This fairly powerful and inspirational music gets to us not just because it’s catchy, but because it resonates within us. It awakens the explorers, the adventurers, the scientists and visionaries in our souls. It symbolises what has united us all in going to Mars in the first place. The music’s power fuels our desires and makes us feel invincible in reaching our dreams.

 

While I hear my crew singing the song together by the dinner table, it also fills me sorrow and nostalgia. How many more times will be sing the song together? How many more times will we share the “cancer” juice over dinner? How many more times will we start all of our walkie talkie calls with “Bla bla bla, this is Roy” and end them with “over”? I cannot even imagine now not hearing the loud pump go off while I pour water into the kettle to make tea. I will probably spend the next few weeks being paranoid about using the wifi and will turn all my devices on airplane more when it is not time to communicate with Mission Support.

 

I will definitely not miss praying to the “toilet god”, as we call it, each time we want to flush the toilet, just so that we do not have another toilet-clogging problem. It will be very refreshing to take a shower more than once a week and I cannot wait to bite into a juicy apple. I will also enjoy not checking on the crew all the time and trying to solve the mystery of the Gigabyte Hobgoblin, who has been eating Gigabytes and Gigabytes of our data. My body has been craving a good run and exercise out in the nature. Not to mention my family, friends and colleagues, who have been writing to me almost desperately, barely getting a message from me all the way from Mars.

 

Nevertheless, none of these things would make me want to leave Mars any sooner or at all to be honest. I have become a Martian and so has my whole crew. We have adapted to our life here and it will be painful for all of us to prepare for the journey back to Earth. We will miss working together, sharing stories, cultural nights, music to hum together and silly walkie talkie conversations. We have all caught some sort of Martian sickness: from regularly making strange animal noises, obsessive-compulsive cooking or cleaning, and simply laughing our heads off all the time. I have not cried from laughter so often, perhaps ever in my life. Our strange way of life may seem crazy to the aliens observing us here or our fellow Earthlings back home. However, for us our laughter has been our source of energy, our medicine and the key to our successful mission here on Mars.

 

We will be Martians forever in our hearts and the bonds we have created here will remain with us for the rest of our lives. Our experience here will be the fuel for our passions, just like the Vangelis song. We have made the conquest of Mars. Now it is time to achieve the rest of our dreams.

 

Ad Astra!

Michaela Musilova

Mars Crew 173 Commander

 

Crew Photos – January 26th

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 Collecting samples on EVA (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 View of the Butte on EVA

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 Roy doing field work on EVA (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 Roy collecting data (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 On EVA with Michaela roy and Niamh (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 Niamh on EVA (Credit Michaela Musilova)

 

Outside HAB January 26th 2017 Michaela conducting field work on EVA (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside Hab January 26th 2017 Canyon view on EVA (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

Outside HAB Janaury 26th 2017 Michaela collecting samples (Credit Niamh Shaw)

 

January 26th 2017 Celebrating Australia Day in the HAB with Rick hosting Australia Culture Night (Niamhs taking the pic but shes there in spirit)

Sol Summary – January 26th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for Sol 11
Crew geologist Roy Naor
Summary Title
Whenever you climb higher and higher on Mars, there always be another summit to conquer
Mission Status:
The unstoppable team PRIMA kept on in full steam to achieve their goal, the mission is coming to an end and they are focusing on wrapping up what needs to be shipped back to earth and make their final 3D printing proof of concept.
Sol Activity Summary:
A unique day it was as the three expeditioners, took the DESERT RAT, fully mounted to drive up the stairs of Tharsis Rise to the west, this time aiming higher than ever before, to the foot of Olympus Mons. The day started with them getting dirty in the muddy Martian regolith, working on switching tire of the DESERT RAT. Stories will be told generations to come, but the essence of it all will be summarised exclusively at the lower part of this paper.
The crew Engineer took his final battle against the worst 3D printer the world had ever seen. One final brick was produced and now it’s all about building that Great Wall of Mars.
In the GreenHab, the officer continued with his altruistic actions to secure fresh food for the next crew. Now we’re all getting together for dinner celebrating the Earthling holiday of the standalone continent next to New Zealand in Earth southern hemisphere.
Look Ahead Plan:
It all goes down to wrapping up what needs to be taken back to Earth and make good preparation for pleasant welcome to our successors, crew Planeteers.One last EVA will be performed to collect any remaining necessary samples. The 3D printing project will arrive to its Grand finale tomorrow with building the first 3D printed wall on Mars.
Anomalies in work:
Other than skipping lunch for ascending the foots of Olympus Mons, no major anomalies were introduced.
Weather:
 It was a lovely day on Mars, no sand storms or solar eruption and radiative wind. Nothing but the extreme cold air was interfering in getting the mission done.
Crew Physical Status:
The crew is at its best, getting a good night sleep and good exercise simultaneously.
EVA:
The great commander took her private geologist and artist to front “the tallest of them all” in search of little green Martians in the plato sandstone. The commander found a variety of samples she was looking for, while the geologist found special carbonates he has been looking throughout the whole expedition, one that evaporates related and known as Caliche. The artist was at her best, documenting the vangardian achievement and using her little Lotti friend to outreach the Earthling followers with the best of scientific field work.
Reports to be filed:
sol 11 summary
Eva report
Eva request
Journalist’s report
Operations report
Support Requested:
 Water resupply and water pump leak fixing

Journalist Report – January 26th

Another busy day here at MDRS for Crew 173. While Idriss continued to work on his 3D printed bricks, Richard beavered away in the GreenHab as well as baking biscuits, bread and preparing dinner for tonight. Its Australia day and he’s hosting our ultimate Culture night. He already served us ‘Vege-mite’ for breakfast this morning, so who knows whats up for dinner. By the way, for the uninitiated, ‘Vegemite’ is a sandwich spread made from yeast extract. Its a savoury spread and the flavour is hard to describe, except to say that you usually either love it or hate it. Personally I love it, but not so much for Roy! He hadn’t tried it before, and assuming that since the spread was brown it was some sort of sweet-tasting chocolate spread. Hmmm. It took his taste buds a few seconds to catch up & once they did, his face said it all!
I joined Michaela and Roy on a geo-biological EVA to the Butte. It was our longest EVA but certainly worth it. The views of the basin and surrounding environs around MDRS were absolutely stunning. I think I took about 600 pictures! Not enough- I could have taken a thousand more!
And now the sun has gone down and Sol 11 is almost over. Just one more full day here on our own before we are joined by Crew 174.  Its starting to feel like we’re not going to get everything done. I’m sure the next couple of days will be special for us all as we spend our last few hours here together. What a buzz!
by Niamh Shaw
Crew Journalist & Artist.

Crew Photos – January 25th

Hab January 25th 2017 Group photo with the film crew(Credit Niamh Shaw)
Outside HAB January25th 2017 Niamh on an EVA(Credit Niamh Shaw)
Hab January 25th 2017 personalised EVA suits(Credit Michaela Musilova)
Outside HAB January 24th 2017 Roy and Rick on EVA(Credit Niamh Shaw)
Science Dome January 25th 2017 Michaela studying endolith samples through the microscope(Credit Michaela Musilova)
Hab January 25th 2017 Idriss speaks-with-French FR2 journalists(Credit Niamh Shaw)
Northing 4248700 Easting 519500 January 25th 2017 Michaela geologising(Credit Michaela Musilova)
Main Airlock January 25th 2017 Idriss being filmed by Laurent from FR2(Credit Niamh Shaw)
Northing 4248700 Easting 519500 January 25th 2017 France 2 filming geology and astrobiology EVA(Credit Michaela Musilova)

 

 

EVA Report – January 25th

EVA report:
SOL: 10
Earth date: 25/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Michaela Musilova
Crew members involved in the EVA: Michaela Musilova, Roy Naor and Idriss Sisaid
EVA leader: Michaela Musilova
Begin: 01:30 pm
End: 04:10pm
Type of EVA: Walking + ATV + Deimos
Purpose: Exploration EVA of a canyon Shannon recommended in that area.
UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4248700 Easting :  519500 Zone : 12 S
Summary: Geological and biological exploration of canyon/region south of the “rock garden”, which being filmed by France 2 film crew. We went quite far into the canyon, but we had to turn back earlier because a storm was approaching. We were, however, able to collect a few interesting regolith samples for the 3D printing project.

Journalist Report – January 25th

Sol 10 Journal Report
by Niamh Shaw
Crew Journalist & Artist
We had aliens here today- from France, on Earth. Laurent and Jacques, two journalists from the French television station FR2. We got super self-aware once they arrived, all of us whispering together about what we should do, how to act naturally, what we should say. But of course Jacques and Lau-rent were lovely men, who were probably more out of their comfort zone than we were, driving all the way out to the middle of the desert to meet us. It all seemed to go very well, they filmed us at work in the GreenHAB and Science Dome and then in the communal area. I was editing for most of the morn-ing on my computer so was fortunate to be out of the way for most of their filming. But then they arrived in the communal area, and as Rick was making lunch there I was on my computer, both of us desperately trying not to be aware of a camera sticking in our faces. And trying to remain as natural and nonchalant as possible, realising everything I was saying seems staged, way too energetic and completely out of character.
This is kind of how it went down:
Scene 33a: INT. COMMUNAL AREA OF HAB. DAYTIME
NIAMH is working on her computer and RICK is making lunch. They are both hard at work. A film crew for a news channel are filming them from the top corner of the room. The crew seem bored.
NIAMH and RICK want to look good for the television and are eager to make a good impression.
NIAMH
Mmm, that smells lovely, Rick. What are you making?
RICK
How long does it take to boil rice? This is taking for ever
He tastes the rice and seems displeased
NIAMH
20 minutes for brown rice
RICK
This isn’t even brown rice!
NIAMH
(smiling)
Wow! Really? Thats odd.
They both laugh. Too much (it really wasn’t that funny)
NIAMH
(laughing)
It normally takes 20 minutes for brown rice anyway
Silence.
The crew whisper together.
Enter MICHAELA. She notices the film crew at the top of the stairs and doesn’t know whether she should enter the shot or not.  The crew notice MICHAELA and direct her to enter the shot.  MICHAELA enters the shot.
MICHAELA
(smiling)
That smells lovely. Hows it coming along?
RICK
Five minutes
MICHAELA
(enthusiastic)
Great!
They both smile. NIAMH smiles too. Too much.
Silence.
Scene 33b: INT. COMMUNAL AREA OF HAB. FIVE MINUTES LATER.
NIAMH is working on her computer and RICK is making lunch. They are both hard at word. MICHAELA is in her commander’s room. The crew are checking their phones.
More silence.
RICK
(smiling)
Lunch is ready. Will you let everyone know?
NIAMH
(enthusiastic)
Do you need a hand?
RICK
I’m good thanks.
MICHAELA emerges from her room.
MICHAELA
Lunch is ready?
IDRISS and ROY enter the shot. They notice the film crew at the top of the stairs and don’t know whether they should enter the shot or not.  The crew notice IDRISS and ROY and direct them to enter the shot. IDRISS and ROY want to look good for the television and are eager to make a good impres-sion.
IDRISS and ROY
(smiling)
That smells lovely. Hows it coming along?
RICK
Its ready
IDRISS and ROY
(enthusiastic)
Great!
RICK, MICHAELA, NIAMH, IDRISS and ROY smile at each other. Too much. Again.
Everyone sits down to eat. NIAMH, RICK, MICHAELA, IDRISS and ROY smile at the crew.  Too much.
Silence.
END SCENE.
But thats how it rolls round here. Ah the life of a simulated Astronaut on Mars. And we love it!
by Niamh Shaw
Crew Journalist & Artist.

Sol Summary – January 25th

MDRS Sol Summary Report for sol 10
By Michaela Musilova – Crew Commander
Summary Title
French alien invasion and many more laughs
Mission Status:
Even aliens and Martian sickness can’t get us down
Sol Activity Summary:
You know that you have acclimatised to Mars when any change to your daily habit seems to shake the whole crew up. And today we have quite a few “disturbances” to our lives, which the crew is still recovering from now around the dinner table. It all started with an alien invasion. We heard the airlock open downstairs and a few of us ran quickly to close the dreaded airlock – we do not want to lose all our breathable air after all! To our horror, we found a couple of French-speaking aliens in the airlock. Strangely enough, they call themselves the TV crew for the France 2. Luckily, Idriss and I speak French, so we tried to communicate with them peacefully to try to find out what they want. Long story short, they requested to observe our human habits all day today, in return for leaving us alone for the foreseeable future. Thus, not having been left with much of a choice, we accepted them in our Martian colony and had them follow us around all day. The observed and documented everything – from our 3D printing technologies, our plant growing methods, our food cooking and eating. They were particularly preoccupied by my astrobiological experiments, as they were worried I might have sampled some of their cousins endoliths. That is why they were even more keen to follow us on our EVA to make sure we didn’t collect any more of their relatives. They were quite distracted by our EVA suits, which they thought were quite peculiar and did not understand why we wore them in the Martian terrain. After they were reassured we were not doing anything harmful to their motherland, they left us in peace. By that point though, my whole crew was traumatised by the visit. Our little routines and happy snug crew life had been altered dramatically for a whole day. Some started making strange animal noises, others started accidentally putting food into their so-called cancer juice. Roy had comfort himself by doing laundry, while Rick continued to cook more and more food for the crew (some kind of nerve-calming method). To each its own I guess. Now I hear ear-numbing outbursts of laughter from my crew, who is playing a few Jewish memory games.  That should do the trick to put everyone back into their normal habits. Laughter has been our medicine here on Mars and it will be one of the things that I will miss the most upon my return to Earth in a few sols.
Look Ahead Plan:
Since the aliens restricted our plans for today, tomorrow we’re planning on doing a more extensive EVA. I have been doing a number of activities in the Science Dome, which I would like to focus on tomorrow, while also taking care of my students’ spinach growing experiment. Roy and Idriss have now built several Martian bricks and have started to construct the first great wall of Mars. I believe that will take up most of their day tomorrow…
Anomalies in work:
The pump is still leaking significantly. At least Roy found a good use for the water caught in the pipe-leaking-bucket: he did his laundry today 
Weather:
The morning gave us hope that it will be a nice and clear day, but sadly during our EVA we saw a storm on the horizon and we had to return to the Hab.
Crew Physical Status:
Everyone is in great spirits. Some crewmembers have acquired strange Martian habits, which will be difficult to shake off upon their return to Earth, but all is well.
EVA:
We went on a geological/biological exploration EVA through a canyon south of the Hab (UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4248700 Easting :  519500 Zone : 12 S) with the aliens.
Reports to be filed:
Sol 10 summary
Eva report
Eva request
journalist’s report
Operations report
Support Requested:
Water resupply – both tanks on the water trailer have been emptied now into the static tank