Month: January 2018

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Greenhab Report – January 10th

GreenHab Report

Mark Gee

10Jan2018

Environmental control:

Heating

Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 06:50PM

Inside temp at working hour: 18 C

Outside temp during working hours: 0 C

Inside temperature high: 26 C

Inside temperature low: 15 C

Inside humidity: 46 %RH

Inside humidity high: 60 %RH

Inside humidity low: 34 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:

For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: Microgreens almost ready to harvest. Spinach is growing rapidly. Cucumbers continue to produce fruit. Beans near harvest. Tomatoes are flowering but no fruit set. Sprouts are emerging from the seeds planted a few days ago.

Daily water usage for crops: 10 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 06:30PM

Research observations: Microgreens are growing rapidly. No change to tomatoes sprayed with moringa extract.

Changes to research plants: None.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Growing up, we learn to fear bees because of their sting, then to like them because of their honey. But we should treasure them for their work as pollinators. Bees and other insects perform the critical task of transferring pollen from flower to flower. Without this transfer by insect, many crops would not produce fruit because their pollen will not blow in the wind. Some crops, namely the Cucurbitacea family of pumpkins, melons, squash and cucumbers, have co-evolved with their own species of bees that specialize in pollinating these crops. Almond farmers will actually pay beekeepers to bring their bees into the almond orchard while the trees are flowering to help ensure that there will be a bountiful harvest.

Unfortunately, there are no bees on Mars.

To make up for this, I put on my bee suit in the Green Hab today, plucked a male flower from a cucumber plant, and buzzed from cucumber to cucumber, sprinkling pollen in the flower as I went. It took effort and patience.

There are many natural resources that we do not appreciate until they are gone. Surviving on a new planet will be challenging and full of surprising realizations of how much we are missing back on Earth.

Support/supplies needed: I have several questions of general interest.

Is the water supply from Hanksville drawn out of a well, river, or something else?

What are the heater control settings? What temperature is it set to turn on and what temperature for off?

What is to be done with used potting soil?

Is the shade cloth a 60/40 cloth? Is there a better way to describe how much shade it gives?

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Science Report – January 10th

Science Report – Microbiology

10JAN2018

Author: Samuel Albert, Crew 186 Health & Safety Officer

Of the four DNA sequencing runs originally planned, three have been completed so far. The first run encountered errors and yielded poor results, only about 350 reads. The second run, which sampled from crops growing in the GreenHab, yielded much better results, over 600,000 reads. The third run, which sampled from locations on the upper deck of the habitat, yielded strong results as well, about 26,000 results. The fourth run, which will be completed in the last few days of the mission, is planned to sample from the bathroom and shower area on the lower deck of the habitat. Following the mission, all results will be analyzed to assess which microbes were found in the various sampling locations.

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Journalist Report – January 10th

[Sol 10] [The
Lost Astronaut]

The day began with our usual order of activities – yoga and breakfast followed by EVA prep. The purpose of this EVA was a dedicated test of the radio navigation experiment. But unlike the previous tests, the astronaut using the antenna would have their vision restricted to only their immediate area by a cardboard visor strapped to their helmet. This, combined with the flat lighting of the gloomy sky, meant there was no possibility of using visual cues to return to the hab. Furthermore, the antenna would not be in the hands of her designer, but the crew’s greenhab scientist, Mark Gee, who possessed no previous experience using the antenna. It was out closest simulation yet of a real lost astronaut imperiled by low-visibility conditions.

Due to the risk of precipitation in the morning, the EVA team did not depart until slightly past noon when the weather began to stabilize. Cesare Guariniello and Melanie Grande supported Mark on EVA (i.e. ensured he wouldn’t accidentally walk off a cliff) and led him on foot to the east until he was thoroughly disoriented. At 1 pm, we switched on the habitat’s navigation beacon. Thirty minutes later, the EVA team emerged from behind a distant ridge within sight of the habitat. Melanie and Cesare later reported that they struggled to keep up with Mark as he aggressively chased the signal back to the hab. But before the test could proceed to completion, a freezing Martian snow began trickling from the skies. By mission rule the team was forced to abort and return immediately.

The team made use of the extra time to relax and prepare for an evening teleconference with the Purdue chapter of the Mars Society. It went splendidly. Since then, Mark has been cross pollinating plants in the greenhab, and Sam Albert, the health and safety officer, made preparations to take additional microbial samples tomorrow. The rest of us are gearing up for another test of the navigation antenna soon.

Justin Mansell, MDRS Crew 186 Journalist

P.S. Photos attached. Photo of the day: 10Jan2018 Preparing the lost astronaut.jpg

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Greenhab Report – January 9th

GreenHab Report
Mark Gee
09Jan2018

Environmental control:
Heating
Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 06:15PM
Inside temp at working hour: 18 C
Outside temp during working hours: UNK
Inside temperature high: 24 C
Inside temperature low: 16 C
Inside humidity: 40 %RH
Inside humidity high: 48 %RH
Inside humidity low: 28 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:
For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: Quinoa seeds did not germinate and rotted in the tray. Threw them away. The past days have been very cold and cloudy. Nothing has germinated yet.

Daily water usage for crops: 6.5 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 10:00AM, 06:15PM

Research observations: Microgreens seem to be growing much better in the shady environment. Maybe the full sunlight was scorching them.

Changes to research plants: Applied fertilizer to microgreens.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Watering needs to be as efficient as possible in a Martian habitat. But after I finish watering, I often look around and see a water on the floor.
Some of the water comes directly from accidental spilling becase the spout of the watering can holds water and drips when turned upright. This waste could be eliminated with a differently designed spout or by using something crazy like a giant syringe so that no water is relesed unintentionally.

Most of the leakage comes from water that is poured into the pot and flows quickly through macropores in the soil and out the pot before there is time to soak in. This is a tricky problem to solve. The macropores are a beneficial part of soil structure and should not be removed by compacting the soil. If I water less so that less water flows through the pores, the plants might not get enough water.

We are currently trying to reduce this waste by growing plants on vertical shelving so that the plants below can catch the water leaked by the plants above. But this is not a perfect system. Another option is to install trays beneath every plant so that the leakage can be captured and recycled. It is uncertain how much labor this method would require and how much of the water would evaporate before it could be reused. A third way to reduce this waste would be to use drip irrigation tape that continually releases water into the soil at a slow rate. This would increase water use efficiency and also reduce the labor requirements for the astronauts. However, an adjustable drip tape would have to be invented so the same tape could be used with different crops. And it may not be feasible to rocket yards and yards of drip tape to Mars.

For now, I will stick with my watering can.

Support/supplies needed: None

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Operations Report – January 9th

Crew 186 Operations Report 09JAN2018

SOL: 09

Name of person filing report: M. Grande

Non-nominal systems: Generator

Notes on non-nominal systems: Generator system has run for the past 48 hours due to the cloudy weather. I tried to check the coolant this morning, and noticed it’s a yellow liquid again, instead of being basically butter when I saw it at the beginning of the rotation. (Apparently a previous crew filled it with oil instead of coolantThe coolant seemed to be pretty full, but I did check it when the generator was still hot, and not sure if that makes a real noticeable difference in the fill level. If I am to add more coolant before leaving, I’ll have to schedule some downtime for the generator so it can cool down first, probably in midday, if this cloudy weather persists.

Generator (hours run): 13h

Generator batteries switched at 7:15am

Generator batteries switched at 7:30pm

Solar— SOC

@ 7:15am : 94%

@ 5:00pm : 100%

Diesel: 50%

Propane: 30%

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV): 7.15 Gallons

Water (trailer): 10 Gallons

Water (static): 446 Gallons

Trailer to Static Pump used: No

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used: Yes

Water Meter: 129293.0 Gallons

Toilet tank emptied: No

ATVs Used: None

Oil Added? No

ATV Fuel Used: 00 Gallons

# Hours the ATVs were used today: 00:00 hours

Notes on ATVs: The 300 apparently died today, because the intern took it out and couldn’t get it to start again. Please refer to Shannon for further details.

Deimos rover used: Yes, briefly by Shannon

Hours: 98.4

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge:

Currently charging: Yes

Sojourner rover used: Assigned to director only.

Hours: Director discretional hours

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge:

Currently charging: Maybe

Spirit rover used: No

Hours: 10.5

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge:

Currently charging: Yes

Opportunity rover used: No

Hours: 5.5

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge:

Currently charging: No

Curiosity rover used: No

Hours: 3.1

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge:

Currently charging: No

HabCar used and why, where? No

General notes and comments: None, really. Sad, cloudy, snowy day. We watched “Black Mirror” (on Netflix, pre-downloaded) and diffused bombs (on a VR game, not real bombs, come on) instead of our EVA excursion.

Summary of internet: All nominal

Summary of suits and radios: All nominal

Summary of Hab operations: All nominal

Summary of GreenHab operations: All nominal

Summary of ScienceDome operations: All nominal

Summary of RAM operations: Not Operational

Summary of health and safety issues: Crew is Healthy

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: Coolant might need to be replaced, but I don’t think we have any extra here, that I could find. We do have a bottle of engine oil.

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Sol Summary – January 9th

Crew 186 Sol 9 Summary Report 09JAN2018

Sol 9

Summary Title: Weathering the mild storm

Author’s name: Max Fagin

Mission Status: Spending the day in hab due to a light snow

Sol Activity Summary: We awoke to cloudy skies and a light snow dusting all around the habitat. The snow was still falling by the time we had finished morning yoga and breakfast, so we decided to postpone today’s EVA. The snow let up by the late morning, but by that point, too much time had passed to complete the EVA before our scheduled return time. This will happen on Mars, there is no more a guarantee of cooperative weather there than there is on Earth, and it’s something future crews will have to learn to work around. Instead we broke out our blankets, sleeping bags, and laptops, and spent the rest of the day working on our own projects. We shared an all crew lunch of mac-n-cheese prepared by Melanie (which was a nice departure from routine, as we are usually on our own for lunch due to EVA scheduling). GreenHab is nearing harvest time, and two dinners from now we are planning a green feast of its bounty of microgreen, lettuce, beans and herbs. And we were even happier to receive a radio call in the afternoon indicating a supply ship had delivered us a new bread maker! We have set it up in our kitchen, and are planning to break it in (de-flour it?) at dinner tonight.

Look Ahead Plan: The uncompleted EVA 8, scheduled for today from 1030-0130, will be rescheduled to tomorrow from 1230-0330, which is after the rain/snow is forecasted to have stopped and the temperatures will have risen above freezing. Sam Albert will also be replaced with Mark Gee as the lost astronaut, but the route and objectives of the EVA remain unchanged.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: 3C, Wind N 6MPH, Overcast, Humidity 87%

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, Journalist Report, GreenHab Report, EVA Request, (no EVA report)

Support Requested: The snow and sleet can be heard falling through the vent holes at the escape hatch at the top of the habitat. We have put two old dish towels across the chicken wire to catch it and keep the wooden floor of the attic dry. Is this acceptable as a permanent solution?

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Operations Report – January 8th

Crew 186 Operations Report 08JAN2018

SOL: 08

Name of person filing report: M. Grande

Non-nominal systems: Generator power system

Notes on non-nominal systems: Generator system limping along with a now-nominal routine. Early morning failures still attributed to the cold.

Generator (hours run): 14h

Switched generator battery at 5:40pm

Solar— SOC

@ 7:15am : 53%

@ 5:40pm : 98%

Diesel: 50%

Propane: 30%

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV): 7.15 Gallons

Water (trailer): 10 Gallons

Water (static): 500 Gallons

Trailer to Static Pump used: No

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used: Yes

Water Meter: 129234.7 Gallons

Toilet tank emptied: Yes

ATVs Used: 300, 350.2, 350.3
Oil Added? No
ATV Fuel Used: 1.5 Gallons

# Hours the ATVs were used today: 01:30 hours
Notes on ATVs: ATVs were nominal. We got the 300 working fine.

Deimos rover used: No
Hours: 98.4
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge:
Currently charging: Yes

Sojourner rover used: Assigned to director only.
Hours: 5.2
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge:
Currently charging: Yes

Spirit rover used: Yes
Hours: 10.5
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 95%
Currently charging: No

Opportunity rover used: Yes
Hours: 5.5h
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 62%
Currently charging: No

Curiosity rover used: No
Hours: 3.1
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge:
Currently charging: No

HabCar used and why, where? No

General notes and comments: None. Just sitting around in the hab this sol, trying to figure out my VR training module with very limited internet help. It was a cloudy day, so the generator ran all day. We also received a water resupply, yay!

Summary of internet: All nominal
Summary of suits and radios: All nominal
Summary of Hab operations: All nominal
Summary of GreenHab operations: All nominal
Summary of ScienceDome operations: All nominal
Summary of RAM operations: Not Operational
Summary of health and safety issues: Crew is Healthy

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: Propane resupply is requested, please.

Regards,

Melanie Grande, Crew 186 Engineer

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Greenhab Report – January 8th

GreenHab Report
Mark Gee
08Jan2018

Environmental control:
Heating

Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 05:45PM
Inside temp at working hour: 18 C
Outside temp during working hours: 0 C
Inside temperature high: 25 C
Inside temperature low: No Data
Inside humidity: 35 %RH
Inside humidity high: 61 %RH
Inside humidity low: 23 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:
For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: Kale plants are developing true leaves. The sky has been very cloudy and the plants used very little moisture today.

Daily water usage for crops: 4 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 09:30AM, 04:00PM

Research observations: For the moringa experiment, the plants sprayed with moringa extract seem to be taller. The microgreens are not growing well. I will fertilize them tomorrow.

Changes to research plants: None.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Today I served as the communications officer for the EVA and did not spend much time in the Green Hab.

Support/supplies needed: None.

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Science Report – January 8th

Science: Geology

No geology was performed on today’s EVA, except for collection of salts and clay samples in the region of the Moons. However, there was quite a bit of good lab work: thanks to troubleshooting with PANalytical, the TREK portable spectrometer is able again to communicate with the geologist’s laptop which will allow for quantitative analysis of the spectra.
In the meanwhile, work on the samples collected in sol 4 show the richness of the Moons region: Yellow Moon yielded sulfates (mainly gypsum, in the form of selenite), clays (montmorillonite/nontronite, and illite), hematite, and even some light volcanic ash (andesite). Beige Moon have similar composition, with an abundance of large layers of very pure gypsum.
Sulfates and clays are present on Mars, and constitute regions of high geological interest, since they can indicate hydrothermal
paleoenvironment. Human mission could make use of certain types of clays, analogous to those here on Earth, for construction. This makes the research on those materials even more interesting!

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EVA Report – January 8th

Author: Max Fagin

Purpose of EVA:

1. Visit the Beige Moon and White Moon areas, which remain unsampled by our previous EVA team during EVA#3

2. Test the Yagi-Uda antenna based navigation experiment by walking back to the hab

Destination: Yellow moon, white moon, beige moon, walk back

UDM27 Coordinates: 516500 E, 4254250 N

Participants: Max Fagin (Commander), Kshitij Mall (Executive Officer), Justin Mansell (Journalist)

Narrative: We exited the hab on schedule and departed north to the Moons region. We started at the western most site, and traveled east, stopping at each site to collect a sample of clay, salt, and a panoramic photo. Despite the cold, not being burdened by sensing equipment was a welcome relief, and we got really good at quickly dismounting, sampling, photographing and documenting a new site. Thanks Cesare for the great geology training! After sampling all three sites, we drove back along Cow Dung road until the GPS indicated we were within 2 km of the hab. We dismounted, set up the radio beacon, and Justin began navigating across the terrain back to the hab, with Kshitij and I following for safety. Inspecting the route on GPS after the fact revealed it was as near to a direct route as could be expected given patches of unnavigable terrain. A great success for the navigation system! All that remains it to duplicate the results with the astronaut’s view of the horizon restricted to remove the possibility of subconsciously navigating by distant terrain features or the sun. We will attempt to do this tomorrow, weather permitting.

After returning to the hab, Justin and Kshitij took three sorties out (one on Opportunity, two on Curiosity) to recover the ATVs that had been abandoned for the navigation experiment and bring them back to the hab.

Note: Another one of our radios gave a low battery signal ~20 minutes into the EVA. Since we were carrying two spare radios as per our decision from yesterday’s EVA, communications were instantly restored. I recommend listing it in the MDRS handbook that the EVA team must always carry at least one fully charged spare radio. It is such a small additional burden, and such a large increase in EVA safety.

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