Mars Desert Research Station

Science Report – January 13th

“Quantifying patterns of diversity of halophiles at planetary analog site while simulating a human mission to Mars” – A quick recap

By Anushree Srivastava

Crew Biologist – Mars 160 Twin Desert-Arctic Analog Mission

Executive Officer and Crew Biologist – Crew 172

Recording the pattern of diversity of halophiles in the Mars analog environment of Utah Desert has been one of the prominent goals of Mars 160 mission. I was supposed to carry forward this objective using standardized microbial detection and identification methods as a Crew Biologist of both Mars160 mission and Crew 172. I performed field and lab work as Mars-based Astronaut-scientist living at the Mars Desert Research Station. All samples were collected in full simulation suit from different experimental sites chosen by our Mars160 Crew Geologist Dr Jonathan Clarke. Our research was conducted in collaboration with Earth-based remote science team Dr Kathy Bywaters of NASA Ames Research Centre via asynchronous communication. This work was important for comparison of science return.

My primary objective was to simulate the exact process of collection of soil samples and ancient gypsum deposits as how it is supposed to be done in the real Mars mission. Mars Desert Research Station has its laboratory, equipped with standard facilities required to perform basic microbiological experiments. Therefore, as Mars-based Astronaut-scientist, I was supposed to collect the sample and take them back to our laboratory to process them.

I performed the extraction of microorganisms from soil samples and then plating on nutrient agar. The idea behind extraction and plating was to observe the colonies growing at the particular concentration of sodium chloride (salt). My intention was to keep increasing the salt concentration to retrieve the rare ‘extreme’ halophiles for further molecular analysis. My samples included soil from the region of salt efflorescence and sulphur precipitation from different experimental sites. As well as, I plated halophiles from ancient gypsum samples that I collected during multiple extra-vehicular activities with Dr Clarke.

We have observed an interesting feature in the agar plates colonized by halophilic microorganisms at high salt concentration. We have found salt crystallization in some of those plates. According to Dr Rebecca Merica, an Earth-based microbiologist, media with high salt concentration is drying up and causing crystallization. These crystals could be halite. For me, the most fascinating idea is that the media which is crystalizing via evaporation has been colonized by halophilic microorganisms. So, they may have been buried inside those crystals during crystallization. Now, it will be interesting to record the time of crystallization and the prolonged duration of the entombment of halophiles. This study could be significant to assess the long-term survivability of halophiles buried inside evaporite crystals. This process is an important replication/simulation of the natural process of evaporation of sea water, crystallization of salt, and entombment of halophiles.

Ancient terrestrial evaporite deposits, brine, or salt precipitation are excellent analogs of astrobiological exploration of Mars. Scientists have proposed the presence of sulphate and chloride-bearing deposits on Mars (Vaniman et al., 2004; Gendrin et al., 2005; Langevin et al., 2005; Osterloo et al., 2008). Furthermore, perchlorate has been detected on Mars at a concentration ~0.5 % wt by Phoenix lander (Hecht et al., 2009). Interestingly, it has been shown that salty-water (brine) can occur on Mars due to mineral deliquescence (Davila 2010; Chevrier 2009; Zorzano 2009; Mölmann 2008, 2010; Fisher et al 2014) and any trapped liquid water (fluid-inclusions) in these salt deposits may potentially harbour either active or dormant microbial ecosystem on Mars.

The first phase of the Mars 160 mission and Crew 172 is over now. So, the unaccomplished science goals/experiments will be carried forward to the second phase of Mars160 mission, which is going to be conducted at FMARS in the Canadian Arctic in summer 2017. Furthermore, I intend to process the samples of gypsum deposits of Jurassic period (175-200 million years old) “back on Earth” in a highly specialized laboratory environment with Mars160 Earth-based scientists.

Figure 1a: Anushree working in the MDRS laboratory.

Figure 1b: Anushree observing microbial colonies on plates. (Image credit: Nicholas McCay – Crew Journalist – Crew 172)

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Further Reading:

Chevrier, V.F., Hanley, J., and Altheide, T.S. (2009) Stability of perchlorate hydrates and theirliquid solutions at the Phoenix landing site, Mars. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, doi:10.1029/2009 GL037497.

Davila, Alfonso F., et al. “Hygroscopic salts and the potential for life on Mars.” Astrobiology 10.6 (2010): 617-628.

Fischer, E., Martínez, G. M., Elliott, H. M., & Rennó, N. O. (2014). Experimental evidence for the formation of liquid saline water on Mars. Geophysical research letters, 41(13), 4456-4462

Gendrin, A., Mangold, N., Bibring, J.-P., Langevin, Y., Gondet, B., Poulet, F., Bonello, G., Quantin, C., Mustard, J., Arvidson, R., LeMoue´ lic, S., 2005. Sulfates in Martian layered terrains: the OMEGA/Mars Express view. Science 307, 1587–1591.

Langevin, Y., Poulet, F., Bibring, J.-P., Gondet, B., 2005. Sulfates in the North Polar region of Mars detected by OMEGA/Mars Express. Science 307, 1584–1586.

Möhlmann, D.T. (2008) Are nanometric films of liquid undercooled interfacial water biorelevant? Cryobiology 58:256–261.

Möhlmann, D.T. (2010) The three types of liquid water on the surface of present Mars. Int. J. Astrobiology 9:45–49.

Osterloo, M.M., Hamilton, V.E., Bandfield, J.L., Glotch, J.L., Baldridge, A.M., Christensen, P.R., Tornabene, L.L., and Anderson, F.S. (2008) Chloride-bearing materials in the southern highlands of Mars. Science 319:1651–1654.

Vaniman, D.T., Bish, D.L., Chimera, S.J., Fialips, C.I., Carey, J.W., Feldman, W.C., 2004. Magnesium sulfate salts and the history of water on Mars. Nature 431, 663–665.

Zorzano, M.P.,Mateo-Martı´, E., PrietoBallesteros,O.,Osuna, S., and and Renno N. (2009) Stability of liquid saline water on present day Mars. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, doi:10.1029/2009GL040315

Greenhab Report – January 13th

Crew 172 Final GreenHab Report
GreenHab Status: at the moment the GreenHab is not a suitable place to grow any except the hardiest plants (succulents, lichen, etc.). Within a 24-hour period temperatures have gone from 25F to 101F. Once the A/C + heater are fully functional and both controlled by the thermostat and grow lights are installed, it will be a great space for plant growth and experimentation.

Advice for Upcoming Crews: if you hope to grow plants before environmental control is established in the GreenHab you should grow them in the main Hab. The Science Dome, even with the grow tent and grow light, is far too cold for most plants to survive during the winter.

Near-term Recommendations: beyond environmental control and grow lights, general work lights should be installed so crew can work in the GreenHab after dark, some sort of humidifier should be installed (though the full aquaponics system may add some much needed humidity to the dry desert air), and my inventory (or some version of it) should be shared with future crews:

If I had known, even a subset, of what the GreenHab had in stock, what its dimensions were, and its general state of affairs, I would’ve arrived at MDRS much better equipped to succeed. Fortunately I was able to get some useful information on current plant growth from the outgoing GreenHab Officer (Crew 171) and I did my best to provide that same service to the incoming crew (Crew 173).

Longer-term Recommendations: a future GreenHab Officer or MDRS should build some sort of ongoing environmental monitoring system (temp, humidity, sunlight, pressure, etc.), MDRS should establish standard forms that allow GreenHab Officers to pass forward information about current plants and request specific items to be planted by a preceding crew, and MDRS should make clear the overall goals of the facility (growth for consumption, testing strains resistant to harsh conditions, crew psychological benefit, etc.).

Summary: Once basic systems are up and running, such as environmental control and the aquaponics system, the GreenHab could be of great use to future crews and a major asset to MDRS. Until that time it is little more than a storage facility lacking accessible information on its current state, long-term purpose, and potential to facilitate crew research. For the sake and success of future crews I think solving these communication and information issues should be a high priority.

Ad astra,

Patrick Gray – GreenHab Officer, Crew 172

Journalist Report – January 13th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Today is our last day in Simulation. Tomorrow we will wake up in Southern Utah, and NOT on Mars. What a weird and surreal feeling…Just as our crew has hit our stride of living and working on Mars – we are leaving in less than 48 hours.

Our last day of SIM was one of the busiest since we arrived 13 sols ago. We woke up at the normal time of 7:30am and immediately got to work after breakfast. I am not going to miss dehydrated milk and cereal with weak coffee every day, but this morning we were treated to a delicacy on Mars that we have been saving the entire length of our mission – BACON & Eggs!!! Troy happily fried the strips and prepared the eggs. The HAB was overwhelmed by the delicious aroma of a quintessential American breakfast. Eating just two pieces immediately put most of the crew (Anushree is vegetarian, so she got extra oats and honey to compensate. She was content and had her usual smile.) into a tranced state as they savored each bite. Our operations plan for the rest of the morning consisted of finishing crew projects/reports, taking photos and videos for outreach, and another round of virtual reality for all the crewmembers.

The morning flew by and before we knew it lunch was being served. Anushree treated us to a delicious Indian dish of naan bread with vegetables mixed with Thai curry paste. This was quite possibly the best and also most “traditional” meal of our analog mission. The crew went to our space nap happy and full. This would be our last space nap, as tomorrow morning the sleep study will be concluded. The whole crew, myself included, hasn’t napped this regularly since Kindergarten. We all wish this was part of our daily schedule when we return back to Earth. I doubt the corporate ladder will agree, but that is a discussion for another day.

After our nap, the crew prepared for our last EVA. We were scheduled to do a short walk around of the close by Martian hills. As Pierrick, Ilaria, Anushree, and I donned our space suits we got the call from on-site Mission Support that our EVA would need to be cut short to only include our regular engineering check due to muddy conditions and impending weather. The crew wasn’t exactly ecstatic about this news as this was our last possible EVA, but in the end we followed mission support’s commands. A quick check of all the HAB life support systems along with a short walk around the MDRS campus was concluded in under an hour. Each crew member drank in the views and experience, as the next time we step out of the airlock will be without our oxygenator packs and bubble helmets. The realization of soon being out of SIM had started to sink in.

Once back inside the airlock with re-pressurization complete, the real work of the day started up again. The crew cleaned the entire HAB from top to bottom and sideways. A place, especially a confined place such as the HAB, can become quite dirty with 7 adults living in it non-stop for almost two full weeks. We knew we only had to do it this final time, so everyone bit the bullet and we were done in under two hours. With the freshly cleaned HAB, the crew settled in for dinner. Our last bag of tortilla chips, any kind of chips for that matter, and melted Velveeta cheese was our appetizer. (It is the simple pleasures on Mars that usually give the most reward.) Our last dinner as a singular crew was beans and mashed potatoes topped with corn. We ran out of actual dinner options many sols ago (other than lunch today which was saved as more of a “going away” meal), and we have been scrounging whatever we could find (typically topped with chips, cheese, hot sauce, and salt to make up for lack of variety). Again, the word – adaptation – just never ceases to be true here on Mars.

Our crew is a resilient one that has weathered many storms inside and outside of the HAB, personal or group, stressful situations and times of joyous laughter, but we are all stronger from this unique experience. One that we will all cherish for years to come. We hope you have enjoyed following our story. We have certainly enjoyed living through it – TOGETHER! Crew 172 signing off for good.

END TRANSMISSION

Crew Photos – January 12th

EVA Team Suiting Up

Sol Summary – January 12th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Our Crew Engineer, Troy Cole wrote today’s Sol Summary. Here is his take of our crew activities from an Engineer’s point of view:

Hello from Mars! We are in the home stretch of our mission here, and I honestly feel odd about our eventual deviation from our Martian daily routine. Today we awoke for our brief breakfast and overview of the day’s activities. The weather took a turn for the worse , so we delayed our planned EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) until the afternoon giving each crew member time to go about their personal tasks and projects beforehand.
My tasks today as Crew Engineer mostly involved tidying up my little domain, the Engineering Bay, in preparation for handoff to the next crew’s engineer. After a couple hours of task/project work, it was time for lunch which I happened to be assigned cooking duty. I treated my (meat-eating) crewmates to the first taste of bacon we’ve had since our mission began – which they greatly enjoyed. After our space nap, our French colleagues accompanied by our crew journalist, ventured forth onto the Martian surface to continue testing their geo-location recorder. The excursion proved successful and the crew settled in for dinner, report filing, and some well-deserved R&R.
From an engineering perspective this mission has been most enlightening and really helped broaden my perspective on how engineers in the future will work extra-terrestrially. For example, little innocuous irritations can have outsized and grave consequences on places “off planet.” One such irritation is when you are out on a warm sunny day and once you enter an air conditioned room your glasses tend to fog up. Now this is no big deal, you merely remove them from your face, wipe them off, and go about your business. However, if instead of glasses it was your EVA helmet fogging up while walking around on severely rocky conditions with no way to wipe it off, then that minor annoyance becomes a major one really quickly. This particular irritant has been a constant during our mission and we all have had to learn ways to mitigate it as best we can and when that is not enough adjusting our operating procedures to maximize crew safety.
Another feature of working in a remote location is the lack of access to information. On Mars we have a severely limited internet access, with only 500 MBs of total data available to a crew of seven. That means I can’t quickly Google search for the operating manual to a random AC power supply in the tool chest to verify if the voltage is compatible with charging batteries for a science experiment. All you have is your own knowledge and experience to work with, so you must be comfortable with the “trial and error” approach to making repairs with anything available on hand and the inherent risks that some with that. The vast majority of repairs I’ve had to make during this mission were things I have never fixed before but knowing that mine and my crews continued survival depended on me doing a good job steeled my nerves against self-doubt and focused on working the problem. While tending to things in the Hab, I’ll regularly steal a glance at the Order of the Engineer ring I wear everyday and recall what it symbolizes, “Do your best work possible, for the lives of the public depend on it.”
These past two weeks have pushed my engineering skills to their limits and I’m glad to know that I have the capacity to handle most any problem that comes my way and keep people alive. Crew 172 signing off.

END TRANSMISSION

GreenHab Report – January 12th

GreenHab Report

Current Setup
I currently have all plants on the first floor of the GreenHab under our one grow light. We are growing 27 spinach seeds for Crew 173’s hydroponics experiment, I have just recently planted onion and lettuce for future crews, and are continuing the growth of all Crew 171’s plants for future crews.

GreenHab Update
The heater is still not working and temperature swings are still too much for plants to handle. It was 105 yesterday at 1PM in the GreenHab just from solar heating. So it seems nearly certain that the A/C and heater must work in conjunction even in the middle of the winter.

Attachments

Photo of the new spinach for Crew 173 and new lettuce and onion.

Photo of the current location of plants on the 1st floor of the Hab under the grow light.

Best,

Patrick Gray

GreenHab Officer – Crew 172

Journalist Report – January 11th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Greetings Earthlings! Guest writer Pierrick Loyers wrote today’s Sol Summary. Let’s see what he has to say about Crew 172’s activities…

We woke up this morning at 07:30 am in great shape for the most of us. Martian crepes were added to the breakfast menu this morning. Honestly, Martian crepes made with powder eggs and powder milk are not as good as Terrestrial crepes but no time to complain! The EVA this morning started 30 minutes earlier than normal in order to clean the ATVs and Deimos (Rover) of mud.

After everything was checked and batteries for the scientific equipment fully charged, Gwendal, Ilaria, Nick, Patrick, and I opened the main hatch at 09:30 am sharp. After 40 minutes of cleaning our vehicles, Patrick (who accepted to help us for this task) returned back to his work within the HAB while the rest of the EVA team heading to the South. We parked near “Zubrin’s Head” (A rock face named after Robert Zubrin – the founder of The Mars Society), in front of a stunning Martian landscape.

We decided to start hiking one of the hills, avoiding to take rocky paths which could be dangerous in our suits. The trail was quick but “physically challenging.” We reached the top of our objective, out of breath, but so satisfying because of the rewarding view of this infinite and chaotic desert. Beyond this poetic hike with epic scenery, Gwendal and I still had a scientific objective. The objective of the 3D cartography system that we have designed is to follow and record the profile of the field encountered while the astronaut is walking through it. After going back down the hill, we investigated the area which seemed to be appropriate for a geophysical analysis with the GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and then returned to the HAB for lunch.

The lunch of today, prepared by Patrick, was composed of scrambled eggs (protein!), several vegetables (healthy!) and the inevitable dehydrated cheddar cheese – which has become an addiction for many of the crew members. After a good meal and the physical activities of this morning, our daily space nap (with the sleep mask on obviously) was necessary and we slept well.

Half an hour after the space nap began the crew woke up feeling refreshed. Troy, Nick, Gwendal, and I prepared for the crew’s second EVA of the day. We decided to head back to the area of this morning for GPR investigations and continuing altimetry measurements of it. During this EVA, we split into two group: Gwendal and I were doing soil probing with the GPR, while Nick and Troy (bravely) accepted to climb another hill. (This ridge being higher than the one of this morning and having to lug the 3D cartography system all the way up there was not for the feint of heart.)

50 minutes later, the mission had to be aborted because of the weather conditions. As everyone knows, electronics and rain are not really good friends and we preferred not to try to prove the opposite. Troy and Nick went back down their hill, slowly but safely. It was not an easy hike apparently but as Troy said: “It was an honor for me to help to expand the sum total of the scientific knowledge of Humanity.”

We came back to the HAB where our biologist, Anushree , prepared Masala tea – Spicy but so so good! Physically tired from the day, crew members easily melted into the couches to read space books with some good tunes in the background. We are on a Moby, Artic Monkeys, and Coldplay kick the past few days. Tonight, Patrick is making dinner (again!). Our chef is going to cook mashed potatoes with crumble sausages, and I know it will be delicious. Crew 172 signing off.

END TRANSMISSION

Crew Photos – January 11th

Martian Landscape With Olympus Mons In Distance

Creative Report – January 11th

My Sol 86 – “HabCom, HabCom, This is EVA Team… Over” – An unforgettable EVA

By Anushree Srivastava

Crew Biologist – Mars160 Twin Desert-Arctic Analog Mission

Executive Officer and Crew Biologist – Crew 172

It was Sol 86. Actually, for Crew 172, it was Sol 6, but I would call it Sol 86 because for me this mission is an important continuation of Mars160 science operations. So, we all woke up at 7 am and got ready for breakfast by 7:30 am. This was going to be a busy Sol for me because at 8:30 am, I was supposed to meet with an Earth-based Microbiologist Dr. Rebecca Merica and in the afternoon I was to be part of an Engineering EVA. So, after about 2 hours meeting with Dr. Merica, I performed my cleaning duties both in the Science Dome (which my crewmates call “Anushree’s Lab”. And I love it :), and the lower deck. We had rehydrated spinach pasta with quinoa in lunch at about 12 pm. After one and a half hour, we started Space Nap wearing a mask as part of Photic Sleep Enhancement study in simulated Mars mission. Space Nap usually lasts half an hour. We woke up at 2 pm and started gearing up for the EVA.

The EVA team consisted of Troy Cole, our Crew Engineer, Patrick Gray, our Green Hab Officer, and I. This EVA was basically focused on the routine engineering check. We usually consider the engineering EVAs – short and sweet, but after this EVA, our Crew Engineer Troy (a person who talks to himself and we call him Mr. Helpful because he can fix almost everything 🙂 decided to stop calling it so J The reason is interesting, believe me!

As soon as we got ready in our spacesuits, we did the radio check and commenced three minutes depressurization inside the EVA airlock. After three minutes, we egressed the habitat, being oblivious of the fact that the 15 minutes EVA is going to be the two hours procedure. We opened the front hatch and exposed to a beautiful milky white landscape, entirely covered with a sheet of snow. The temperature outside was as low as minus 5 degrees C. So, we started with diesel and propane level check and notified the HabCom Nicholas McCay, who is our Crew Journalist. After finishing the fuel check, we proceeded to the water tanks. We were supposed to check the present level of water in the static tank. The static tank is the source from which the water is pumped to the loft tank inside the habitat for daily usage. First, we were not able to see the level of water inside the static tank because our helmets were fogged up due to the extremely cold temperature outside (sometimes we get icicles formed inside our helmets). But anyways, we had to perform our duties as EVA team as best we could. Somehow, we managed to see the level of water and notified the HabCom. The water in the static tank was supposed to be transferred to the loft tank. However, we found the pipe attached to the pump as well as the pipe that goes inside the hab was completely frozen and blocked. Now, the adventure began!

During all that, we were constantly in conversation with our HabCom through radio transmission. We decided to break the ice inside out the pipe, somehow. We requested HabCom to provide us few tools and equipment, such as hammer and screwdriver. One by one, we all three tried our hands with these tools. We were succeeding. However, the ice inside the pipe was still as hard as a rock. We thought only hammering and scraping will not work and we need some hot water to melt the ice. We had to be cautious to not to damage the pipe in this process as well. So, we requested a bucket of hot water. Usually, engineering airlock (rear hatch) is used for these operations. Once we received the hot water we started pouring it inside out the pipe many rounds. It took us 20-25 minutes. But, to our delight, it worked! Little chunks of ice remained in the pipe, but we decided to attach the pipe back and tell the HabCom to turn on the pump to see if it works. We did the same. But as soon as the pump was on, pipe got detached and thrown away by the flow. It was not screwed properly (our helmets were fogged up and barely could we see anything). So, we lost almost a bucket of water, which means a lot on Mars. We told the HabCom to stop the pump immediately. We repeated the procedure but this time with a great care. In the meantime, I noticed that one of the pipes attached to Patrick’s oxygenator got dysfunctional. So, again our Crew Engineer Troy – Mr. Helpful – stepped in and fixed his suit on spot!

The pump was about to on and we crossed our fingers. This time, it worked! Buuut… we found a leakage in the pipe. Complications seemed to be unending. We had to stop the pump again and requested duct tape and scissor. We secured the pipe with the duct tape and turned on the pump.

Finally, our “operation water” was successful!

I would say this EVA was the best example of a great team work. I had been part of many such EVAs when I put myself into precarious situations and challenged my physical and mental strength; having said that, this EVA gave me a new perspective of living on Mars. I learned that on Mars, you are not just a scientist, an engineer, a doctor, or a journalist. On Mars, you have to be everything. It’s not only about performing herculean tasks or conducting field science, but also, using the presence of mind to solve household puzzles. It is also about taking care of your home and ensuring a smooth life for the people living inside that home.

On Mars, you may not have similar issues but your attitude towards those issues would have to be the same. I think that’s the essence of being part of a simulation.

When we entered back into the front hatch for re-pressurization, our Crew Engineer Troy (Mr Helpful) screamed with joy – “Oh I got a new job! Now I’m a plumber as well!” 🙂