Month: January 2018

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Sol Summary – January 18th

Crew 187 Sol 6 Summary Report 18JAN2018

Sol 6

Summary Title: The eye of tiger

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Is there someone in Earth?

All crew woke up early to do relaxing exercises led by Luis. Then, one by one took the psychological test for Danton’s project while Danton was the Martian chef of the day! he cooked us a delicious combination of Salmon with a salad made of potatoes, cheese and Broccoli. We ate together before our first long EVA take place. The donning’s time started at 13:16, and after 5 minutes of depressurization, the real adventure began! The group already knew each other, it was their second EVA together, this astounding group were formed by Oscar, Danton, Atila and I. We went to unnamed canyon using two rovers (Curiosity and Deimos). A lot of Martian and Terrestrial things happened. Since the moment we arrived, we could feel the magic of the place. We were walking finding deer’s footprints, after 20 minutes we couldn’t believe what we see, we found fresh mountain lion’s footprints, something that reminded us that we are terrestrial. Everyone’s safety is the number one priority, that’s why we stood up in that moment and decided to fly the drone to see if there will be any chance of danger. Fortunately, the drone doesn’t get anything that goes against our safety. In the way back to the rovers, we couldn’t stop to appreciate the saline deposits. As a crew 187, we named this wonderful place as El Dorado Canyon, because El Dorado was an ancient legend about a city full of gold that challenged every explorer who dared to look for it. For us to call it that reflects the curiosity that awoke in us as new explorers of Mars and the desire to leave in there a Latin American mark.

In the moment we arrive to the Hab, Oscar had to get into the airlock because the battery of his space suit was drained and it can represent a potential problem. Danton, Atila and I kept working outside, for 15 minutes more, in the RAM and taking some pictures and videos using a drone.

After this amazing experience, we were so happy to see that the rest of the crew cooked for us, we ate a second lunch together and then everybody started to work in their reports and projects.

This day was a long productive day…Mars, here we are!

Look Ahead Plan:

Danton and I will do a short EVA to make a map of the MDRS.

Anomalies in work:

None.

Weather: Temperature: 3°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: calm, Humidity 38%, Barometer 30.20 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, EVA Report, and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

· We found an uncrewed rover in the RAM and we want to know if we can use it because it will be useful for the project of several members of our crew.

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EVA Report – January 18th

Purpose of EVA: Aerial mapping of terrain, testing of mid-range EVA protocols, and mid-range operation test of Cóndor Space Suit Simulator.

Participants: Atila, Cynthia, Danton, and Oscar

Narrative: Today we had a successful and interesting EVA, attaining all the main goals, as well as a secondary goal. The crew left the airlock at 13:15. It was the first of an intended set of mid to long range of explorations in the area of MDRS. The crew donned the suits, consisting on 3 Exo suits and the Cóndor Space Suit Simulator. The target area was a canyon located south east from the habitat, which has not been much explored. Given the fact that this canyon has not been named, crew 187 decided to propose for it the name of El Dorado Canyon. A crew of 4 departed in two Rovers, Curiosity and Deimos, going south from the habitat through Cow Dung Road. After a traverse of approximately 15 minutes, passing Robert’s Rock Garden, the crew parked the vehicles and started walking east towards the entrance of the canyon. After traversing a rocky but flat terrain, the crew arrived at the southern edge of the zone, entering the dry riverbed by a small slope, which was found by following prints of a herbivore animal. Upon arrival, the crew started walking East, following the riverbed, quickly finding several elements of interest for future exploration, such as dry salt deposits, which could harbor extremophile microorganisms, frozen ponds, and sedimentary and clastic geological structures. These structures were present during all the traverse, being even more relevant towards the deepest segments. When the crew had made a walk of about 20 minutes from the ridge, a small pond was found, and the observation was made that it was probable to find wild animals around, which was confirmed by finding several prints of was probably a pack of herbivores, also a carnivore feline print was found, which we assume, belonged to a Mountain Lion. The print was presumably fresh, of at most hours, which made the crew to decide to stop the walking exploration, send the drone a few hundred meters ahead, and proceed to return, following the same path. A few samples of rocks with salt deposits were recovered and stored. Unfortunately, upon landing, the drone’s camera mount engine was locked, and the issue is being assessed by Danton. At the arrival to the ridge, the crew started walking West, to find the main road and the Rovers to head back to the habitat. During this walk a coral fossil was found and retrieved. The crew arrived to the Rovers and headed back to the MDRS campus. Upon arrival the Cóndor Space Suit proceeded to the airlock, due to the fact that the battery was drained, and it could represent a hazard to operations. The rest of the crew made a short excursion inside the RAM module to inspect the contents related to the HSO, as well as to store the cage for the Curiosity rover. The EVA ended at 15:55.

We also noticed that the coordinates given by the map do not match the ones provided by the GPS equipment available in the lab, we’d like to further explore this issue.

No incident or anomaly was sustained during the EVA.

Oscar Ojeda – EVA Officer

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Operations Report – January 16th

Operations Report

Subject Line: Crew 187 Operations Report 16JAN2018

Crew 186 Operations Report 16012018

SOL: 04

Name of person filing report: L. Diaz

Non-nominal systems: None

Notes on non-nominal systems: Generator system limping along with a now-nominal routine.

Generator (hours run): 13h 30min

Generator turned off, charging battery at 9:30

Generator turned on at 20:40

Solar— SOC

@ 8:03am: 52%

@ 5:30pm: 96%

Diesel: 50%

Propane: 100%

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV): 4.75 Gallons

Water (trailer): 125 Gallons

Water (static): 300 Gallons

General notes and comments: Today we got a refill of propane. Water heater was fixed and it is working now. Also, none of the vehicles were used.

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GreenHab Report – January 17th

GreenHab Report

Hernán David Mateus Jiménez

16/01/2018

Environmental control:

Ambient with door opening

Heating

Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 6:05
Inside temp at working hour: 16° C
Outside temp during working hours: 0° C
Inside temperature high: 25° C
Inside temperature low: 15° C
Inside humidity: 86 %RH

Inside humidity high: 86 %RH
Inside humidity low: 20 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:

For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: We start to see that some tomatoes start to emerge

Daily water usage for crops: 8 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 40 min

Changes to research plants: Are growing

Aquaponics: Atila has begun the assembly

Narrative: Today the Greenhab have had some changes, because it was necessary more space for aquaponics and the region 7 was exactly under the heater and in front the fan, so the leaves of the tallest plants were burned, so we decided to change the positions of some crops, the storm tanker and the desk.

The lysimeter is working and today I was working in calibration. Atila start the assembly of aquaponics and is almost finished.

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Sol-Summary Report – January 17th

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Crew 187 Sol 5 Summary Report 17JAN2018

Sol 5

Summary Title: In my place

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Houston… Are you there?

Today was a special day! A dear Martian turns 24, our Journalist, Tania, had the best luck that every Martian wants: have her birthday in Mars. After the celebration, everybody started to work in their own Project, the topics of them cover different kind of issues from psychological, space suit simulator, augmented reality applications, device to measure evaporation and so on.

Today, Danton and I, cleaned the Hab, and after that tired task, we ate a delicious Martian hamburger cooked by Oscar, and dinner looks promising: Pizza in Mars!!!

In the Afternoon, we took the pictures for the biography report… It’s amazing how every Martian don’t forget where they came from, and has always their own flag next to them.

Furthermore, this day was one of changes in the greenhab, for security reasons and Atila’s project the storm tanker, the desktop and some woods were moved.

Today, Luis and David worked together in the alarm and water level sensor for the water tank above the rooms, however, the recycled buzzer, reclaimed from a broken radio, was damaged. In the following days, they will look for a solution for it. We are sure that they can do it!

We have an excellent news! We made a power supply connector for a PC monitor found next to the water tank … Now we can see movies in Mars!!!

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow will be an exciting day!… The first long EVA will be made, the lucky ones are Oscar, Danton, Atila and I (Uuoohoo!!!)

Anomalies in work:

None.

Weather: Temperature: 1°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: calm, Humidity 44%, Barometer 30.39 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, Astronomy Report and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

· We want to ask for more ziplock bags.

· We found in the lower deck some geological samples, we don’t know where they came from, and if we can throw away.

· There is a red cart in the greenhab, we want to know if the spare parts for it have already arrive.

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Journalist Report – January 16th

ENGLISH

Sol 04

Planet of the Apes

Yesterday night didn´t end with movies and popcorn. The habitat became a forum for discussion and opinion where the seven crew members tried to describe the observable universe in all its facets. The conversation went from mysticism to modern physics and then to biology and genetics to end up trying to describe the nature of humanity. Apparently one third of the earth’s gravity has caused the crew’s ideas to fly better.

Today our Sun 4 started ten minutes earlier, 7:13 in the morning and the mats were already on the ground floor of our new home so that our XO made us wake up to the rhythm of 128 bpm as soundtrack.

Two of our Mars mission experiments require soil samples so four crew members went out to collect more than ten kilograms of Martian soil at the same time that our crew scientist tested parts of his space suit made on Earth in the best laboratories of the world and by his own hands. EVA successful, the ziplock bags are almost over.

Commander and journalist visited the solar observatory to find sunspots and some small coronal mass ejections. Who would have thought that the orange circle we see in our telescope would give life to our home millions of years ago but at the same time it seem so insignificant in the vast universe among other billions of stars bigger, smaller, hot or cold.

To summarize our feeling with breakfast, lunch and dinner we can say that we had never before enjoyed healthy food and those little details like a hot chocolate with marshmallows or a homemade bread after a full day of work. The Porg seems happy stealing part of our food ration, luckily our rocket contained enough provisions.

The day concludes with many ideas. Everyone knows their situation, their country of origin and their environment, but if there is one thing we are sure is that borders, titles and names often distance the true success of humanity. And as a clear example, we are here today in red lands representing and speaking for Latin America when nobody ever imagined that it would be possible.

Tomorrow in our Sun 5 a full day of research awaits for us to continue work in our projects although we certainly expect Martian cake.

LATAM II will continue to inform.

Tania Robles, MDRS Crew 187 Journalist

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Greenhab Report – January 16th

GreenHab Report

Hernán David Mateus Jiménez

16/01/2018

Environmental control:

Ambient with door opening

Heating:

Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 6:00
Inside temp at working hour: 19° C
Outside temp during working hours: 0° C
Inside temperature high: 28° C
Inside temperature low: 14° C
Inside humidity: 93 %RH

Inside humidity high: 99 %RH
Inside humidity low: 16 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:

For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: The cucumber plants are better today

Daily water usage for crops: 7 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 18:00

Research observations: The research has not started

Changes to research plants: The research has not started

Aquaponics: Not Functional

Narrative: Today I had my second EVA on Mars, where I collected the Martian soil for my project. Also I have finished to assemble the lysimeter, tomorrow I hope to transplant the quinoa that Atila started to grow.

It was amazing to share with all the crew in the greenhab, during the irrigation time, it made this activity easier.

The cucumbler plants look better today and there is not plants wilted.

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EVA Report – January 16th

Purpose of EVA: Collecting regolith samples for use on science projects (15kg, Atila and David)

Participants: Atila, David, Luis, and Oscar

Narrative: Today’s EVA was fortunately a short one, the most time you spend out in Mars, the most risk you have of suffering an incident, and safety comes first, despite of the always breathtaking views that you get. All the goals of the EVA were successfully attained. On a particular note, the excursion leader, Oscar, used the flexible segment of the Condor Space Suit Simulator, in combination with the Exo Suit. The requested EVA window was of two hours, with previous knowledge that it would last under an hour, planning for possible issues arising. At 9:15 the crewmembers started getting ready in the lower deck, donning the flight suits, as well as the accessories, such as radios and snoopy caps, the required elements for the activity were taken, mainly consisting of sealable bags, 3 shovels, and a bucket. Afterwards the crew proceeded to decompression protocols in the airlock, egressing the Habitat main door at 9:51. The crew proceeded to walk towards the base of Overlook Ridge, on its Northeast segment, where 10 full bags of regolith were collected, as well as a full bucket, all containing around 16kg of soil samples. The samples were then moved to the side of the hab, and after requesting permission, moved into the airlock. The crew sustained depressurization procedures, and then proceeded to doffing.

No incident or anomaly was sustained during the EVA.

Thank you,

Oscar Ojeda

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Sol Summary – January 16th

Crew 187 Sol 4 Summary Report 16JAN2018

Sol 4

Summary Title: Knights of Sidonia

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Mission Support,

How is everything going on in Earth?

Our sol today started at 07:13 with relaxing exercises. The Martian cooker, Oscar, did a great job today, the health of the crew is in good hands. Several days have passed in Mars and now everyone is working on their projects. The EVA of the day was conformed by David, Atila, Luis and Oscar; the Martian place of the EVA was Overlook Reach, where Oscar could test his space suit, called Condor, which was building by himself with the cooperation of the Colombia air force. In addition, David and Atila could collect some samples for their projects.

Furthermore, at 12:13, Tania and I started to work in the Musk Solar Observatory, the view of the sun from Mars is so amazing.

As lunch, we ate a magic food, that since the moment it was over we were already waiting for the dinner. In the afternoon, we spent a great time together talking about our experience, backgrounds, how the issue of the space is going on in Latinamerica. Now we are family… a Martian family!

At 14:00 a group of person from Earth arrived to our Hab to give us hot water, the days will be warmer… Thanks Earth for it!

By 17:30, all the crew went to the Greenhab to work in there. It’s awesome how you can do incredible things in a new planet working together. Every Martian helps each other in their project and collaborate to build a fantastic atmosphere in the Hab.

This day was a relaxing day after busy ones in Mars. After the capCom, Danton will teach us how to act in case of emergence. In case of an accident in Mars, will be known how to act!

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow will be a science day in Mars, every Martian will work in their own project. Moreover, Luis and David will work in an alarm and water sensor for the water tank above the rooms… Crew 187 is working to help with it! We know the annoying that is for a Martian to wait if the water tank is leak or not.

Anomalies in work:

The charger of the Astronomer’s laptop is not working well. More details will be explained in the Astronomer Report.

Weather: Temperature: 1°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: NNE 11.27 KPH, Humidity 34%, Barometer 30.35 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Report, Astronomy Report and Journalist Report.

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