Day: February 25, 2018

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Journalist Report – February 25th

Journalist report – Sol 07

Prepared by : Alexandre Martin (Crew Journalist) – 25 feb 2018

Here is my report of the day

Best regards.

Journalist report, 02/25/18: First day off / Special edition 1: About the LOAC

On day off for the entire team today: no sport or EVA, yet we remain on simulation, and everyone did work a bit on their experiments or on other tasks. Benoît, Laurent and I helped Jérémy transplant carrots in new pots, while Louis finished his work on our encouragements video for our schoolmates preparing their apparition in famous French show “Questions pour un champion”. The rest of the day has been a complete break for the team, before the beginning of our second week of mission: Jérémy and Gabriel have had the luxury to take their first shower today, whereas Laurent and Benoît already took one. Only Louis, Victoria and I still did not have that opportunity. But that does not imply that we are covered by dirt! We indeed wash ourselves daily with disinfecting wipes, which is nonetheless an appreciated comfort.

As I do not have so much more to tell about the crew today, I will explain the purpose of the experience hidden behind the strange name LOAC, as this name has already been quoted several times in my reports. The Light Optical Aerosol Counter (LOAC) is used to measure the air’s concentration in aerosols, which are fine particles in suspension. It gives the size distribution of these particles as well as an indication of their typology (carbon, minerals, salt, liquid, etc.). The purpose of this experiment is to use the instrument in different conditions to get new measurements and analyze their meaning. Two types of measurements will be harvested : outdoor ones, to get information about the airborne dust, and indoor ones, to see how the air quality of a confined space changes according to the activities crew members are having (cooking, changes between day and night, particles brought back from EVA, etc.).

Such particles have indeed an important impact on a planet’s atmosphere, mainly on its climate, but also on human health, the most obvious example being carbon particles, which can stick to lungs and cause severe damages. We have still a lot to learn about Martian atmosphere, its composition and chemistry. This type of instrument has indeed never been used in any space mission before; it would thus give unprecedented science results on another planet’s atmosphere! It is also a great tool to control air quality in a confined space, because of its small size and low consumption as well as the precision of its measurements. Considering a long term space mission, this is an important factor that needs to be controlled; it could prevent disastrous catastrophes and allow a full-time survey of air quality. As you already know if you read some of my reports, we had lots of difficulties in deploying the LOAC, mainly because of its alimentation, yet it is now fully functional!

We would like to thank Jean-Baptiste Renard, research supervisor at CNRS (French main scientific research center) and developer of the LOAC, for having accepted to lend us this instrument, and for his trust in us for its use.

Alexandre Martin, Crew 189 Journalist, with the help of Jérémy Auclair, Crew 189 GreenHab officer, in charge of the LOAC experiment.

Posted on

GreenHab Report – February 25th

Hi Capcom,

Here the GreenHab Report of my colleague AUCLAIR Jérémy

26 feb 2018

Environmental control:

(door open around 11am, left closed after 16h)

Heating once the sun was down

80 % Shade cloth on

Average temperatures:

Around 35 °C at 11am, around 28 °C the rest of the day

Hours of supplemental light: from 7pm to 9pm

Changes to crops: Two carrot pots were planted in a bigger pot to allow them to grow further, I tried to save the cucumber plants by putting wooden sticks to attach them and clean the mess the plants were in (all tangled up)

Daily water usage for crops: around 15 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 11am and 7pm

Narrative: Once again I had to fix the mess the plants were in, the carrot plants were too close to one another, all bunched up in small pots, I moved them to bigger pots and tried to save most of the crops. There is a lot of work to be done in the GreenHab and it will take some time, a lot of plants need to be taken care of quickly (for a good amount of the plants the crops are too many in one too small pot). I ran out of wooden sticks again; half of the tomato plants and all the cucumber plants were falling apart because they weren’t guided with wooden sticks.

Support/supplies needed: wooden sticks to support falling plants

Cheers,

Victoria

Commander of the crew 189

Posted on

Operations Report – February 25th

Crew 189 Operations Report 25Feb2018

SOL: 7

Name of person filing report: Gabriel PAYEN

Non-nominal systems:

-Pipe leak at the low desk

Notes on non-nominal systems:

-It seems that the pipe leak comes from the kitchen faucet.

Generator (hours run): Turned on at 9:AM and turned off at 6:00 PM

Solar— SOC % (Before generator is run at night) : 96%

Diesel – 55 %

Propane – 32 psi.

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) –

Water (trailer) – –

Water (static) – –

Trailer to Static Pump used – NO

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – YES

Water Meter: 131 439.1

Toilet tank emptied: NO

ATV’s Used: None

Oil Added –

ATV Fuel Used: Gals

Hours the ATVs were Used today: –

Notes on ATVs:

Deimos rover used: NO

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Spirit rover used: NO

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Opportunity rover used: NO

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Curiosity rover used: NO

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

HabCar used and why, where –

General notes and comments: –

Summary of internet: –

Summary of suits and radios: –

Summary of Hab operations: –

Summary of GreenHab operations: –

Summary of ScienceDome operations: –

Summary of RAMM operations: –

Summary of health and safety issues: –

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: –

Posted on

Sol Summary – February 25th

Crew 189 Sol Summary Report 25 Feb 2018

Sol 7

Summary Title: Rest Day

Author: Louis Mangin

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:
We decided to declare two rest days this year because all the lack of
sleep we accumulated last year. No fixed hour of wake up for today,
but everybody was busy by 11:00 a.m. This day was supposed to be free
and dedicated to long run tasks or personal time. In the afternoon, we
split in different team, working in the greenhab to rearrange it,
cooking, producing an encouragement video for school’s student
selected for a TV show. It was also the time for a first individual
debriefing about the sport sessions I organize.

Look Ahead Plan: Change of LOAC’s battery, exploration of White Canyon
in EVA. Experiments repair, backpack change of battery, emergency
procedures inside training.

Anomalies in work: Water leak in the Hab Lower deck

Weather: Mostly sunny, cold.

Crew Physical Status: Fine.

EVA: –

Reports to be file:
Commander
Journalist
Engineering
Greenhab Officer

Support Requested: –

Posted on

Commander Report – February 25th

Crew 189 Commander Report 25Feb2018

Sol 7

Title: First day off

Dear Earth,

Last year misadventures made Louis and I declare one day off every week.

Sol7: we have been there for an entire week now, and it was our first day off (really appreciated by everyone). Since our arrival, we had been doing our thirty-minutes physical training every single Sol, at 7 AM before breakfast, and almost an EVA every morning.

With Louis, we decided this year to make one day off per week in order to have some rest, to have fun altogether and then to work better the other days. This morning was supposed to be without any early alarms and each crewmember could sleep as they wanted. Nevertheless, I had quite a noisy and (really) boring alarm at 5am. My dear greenhab officer, who is sleeping in the room next to mine, snored all night long and this horrible noise woke me up. As I could not manage to sleep again, I had breakfast in this quiet station (I have to say living with six men is sometimes really noisy). I spent a really nice moment, looking behind the windows to see the Martian sunset. As Gabriel failed cooking the bread yesterday evening (he used gluten instead of flour in his bread), he decided to cook another one just after and I was the first to taste it: it was an amazing breakfast! Not really awake, I enjoyed this moment and decided to have some rest after this really short night.

I spent two hours in my bedroom, enjoying the blue sky and the sunny light from my window. When the other crewmembers woke up, we talked and spent time chilling altogether. Jérémy and Benoit went to the greenhab in order to re-organize it. Gabriel had his first shower (2,3 gallons) and I filmed again a pep talk video for our fellow colleagues on Earth who will take part into a famous French TV game.

Louis worked on the video-editing all day (hopefully he knows how to do it and enjoys this).

Finally, our Sundays on Mars are made of late wake up, no early workout, kind of brunch and resting activities (reading, watching movies, playing games, cooking…). We are all together on Mars for one week already and I think the crew stays in a good mood and is feeling well on this new planet. (Let’s pray my fellow neighbor will not snore tonight…)

Ad Astra!

Victoria Da-Poian

Commander of the Sunday-chilling Crew 189

Cheers

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