March 12, 2018 – Mars Desert Research Station

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

Journalist Report – March 12th

Hi,

Here is today’s journalist report :

As the Martian sun rose on the Mars Desert Research Station, gently illuminating the station with its distant, white light, we woke up in our cramped dark rooms for our first real day on Mars. Like on any extra-terrestrial station, space is precious, and every area needs to be optimised to use as little of it as possible. Our rooms, while individual, are therefore barely a meter wide, and have beds that stack over or under the bed in the next room. In front of the doors of the rooms, the common room is where we spend most of our time, cooking, eating, relaxing and working on the central table and on the couches behind it.

While the common spaces are located on the first floor, all our utilities, including toilets and showers, as well as an engineering area and our exit vaults, are on the ground floor. In the back, a vault gives way to an over-ground tunnel which leads to the GreenHab, the Science Dome, and the Observatory. Apart from this, the station is completely isolated in a wide, hilly landscape coloured in red, brown and grey, and stretching as far as the eye can see.

It is in this epic landscape that we adventured on our first EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), riding our electric rover and two ATVs north of the base, on an already well-travelled dirt road, up to the entrance of a small canyon on our right hand side. With a photographer and a drone operator, we adventured into the mouth of the canyon, the hot morning sun hitting us through our helmets. As we walked through the dry sands and rocks, we realised how difficult it is to explore our surroundings in full space gear, while carrying additional equipment and under a hot sun.

The remainder of the day was dedicated to the start of our
experiments. For the first time, we unwrapped our equipment, entered the science lab and the greenhouse, and began working on our respective experiments. Despite some delays in our supply of equipment, we have all been able to begin working on our projects. Our SOL1 (first day on Mars) has therefore been a success, and we can’t wait to continue it tomorrow.

Good evening,

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

EVA Report – March 12th

EVA Report

EVA #2
Crew members: Michael Saint-Guillain (EVA leader), Ariane Sablon, Bastien Baix, Mario Sundic

Objectives:
Bastien: Drone testing.
Mario: Pictures for Journalist’s Report.
All: First drive of ATVs and Rover with spacesuits.

Operations:
11:00 Entering the sas
11:05 Leaving the MDRS, disposal of some samples near to the solar panels, for Martin Roumain’s experiment on medecine degradation 11:14 Arrived at junction of the road from Pooh’s Corner and URC Nth and “Stream Bed Connector” (SBC in what follows) trail
11:15 Walk in SBC trail
11:30 Turn around after ±0.25 Miles in SBC trail
11:45 Use of the drone as support for finding the rover/ATVs 11:58 Arrived at MDRS

Narrative:
I’m Michael Saint-Guillain. At 10h30 we were all four ready yet for our very first EVA! Ariane an I went around the solar panels in order to dispose a pack containing a set of medecines, for Martin Roumain’s experiment on medecine degradation. That was the easy part, and we were already suffocating. We then took the ATVs/rover and drove the road from Pooh’s Corner and URC Nth, until we reached the junction with “Stream Bed Connector” (abbreviated SBC in what follows) trail. Driving in suits is actually quite refresching. We left the vehicles and continued by feet, so that Bastien would take views with the drone. Mario on its own took plenty of pictures, some beautiful. After a while, we noticied that we had no contact from the MDRS anymore… They were out of reach of our talkies. Mario and I decided to climb on top of some hill in order to try with a better range. Upon our rock, we were indeed able to see the MDRS. We heard a few words from them, but the signal was too bad to have any conversation. We went back down and continued to walk with Ariane and Bastien in SBC trail, until we were around a quartier mile away from the vehicles. We turn around and started our trip back to the vehicles… Except that I failed at remembering the path we took with enough details, and finding the vehicles revealed to be harder than expected! Lukily, we had a drone and after five minutes of flight it found for us what we were looking for. Happy to survive to this adventure, we drove back and reached MDRS just in time. Wonderful trip.

Vehicles
Opportunity rover
ATVs 1,2

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

Sol Summary 12th

Crew 190 Sol Sumary Report
11March2018
Sol 0

Summary Title:
First Rendez-vous with the Martian regolith

Michael Saint-Guillain (XO)

Mission Status:
Ready to continue simulation on Sol 2, 08:00
New materials arrived, enabling Sophie’s experiments on Muon’s flows

Sol Activity Summary:
First EVAs: (see EVA reports)
9am to 10am: EVA1 with Maximilien, Martin, Martin and Sophie. 11am to 12am: EVA2 with Ariane, Bastien, Mario and I (Michael). Lunch
Crew meeting: 2pm to 3pm
First experiments from 3pm to 6pm

Global Look Ahead Plan: (generated by our automated scheduler)

Sol2:
(ScreenCapture1)
Adaptations: Ariane will participate to the EVA; Mario will switch with Martin.

Sol2 to Sol6
(ScreenCapture2)
Notes: The planning as modelled here does not mention any very short daily activities, such as checking out bacteries evolution (Ariane) or controlling plant grow (Mario). Also, some experiments (e.g. Martin) involve operations in the very beginning and then long period of wait, before final manipulations.

Anomalies in work:
None

Weather:
Clean sky, a bit cloudy. Warm.

Crew Physical Status:
In good shape and still enthusiastic.

EVA:
First outing for all the crew.

Reports to be file:
Commander report
Journalist report
EVA request for Sol 2
Engineer report

Support Requested:
None

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

EVA Report – March 12th

EVA #1 Report:

EVA Crew members: Maximilien RICHALD (EVA Leader), Martin ROUMAIN, Sophie WUYCKENS, Frédéric PEYRUSSON

Location:

– Around the Hab

– Near Robert’s Rock Garden: 518300E-4249300N

Time: departure at 09:05 a.m. Duration: 50 minutes

Purposes:

– Clay, sand and rock sampling for Maximilien’s and Frédéric’s experiments.

– Test of localization for Martin’s experiment.

– First drive of ATVs and Rover with spacesuits.

Vehicles: 1 Rover (Spirit), 2 ATVs

9:05 a.m.: Team left Airlock

9:10 a.m.: Crew start the vehicles and left the hab

9:11 a.m.: Crew found a place for martin’s experiment

9:20 a.m.: Arrival on the working place and exploring the place

9:39 a.m.: Return to the ATVs

9:42 a.m.: Turning on the ATVs to go back to the Hab

9:50 a.m.: Arrival to the Hab

(Maximilien RICHALD) – We left the hab after the depressurization of the air lock and we directly took some soil sample around the station for Frédéric’s and Max’s experiments. After that, started the vehicles and we began to look for a place for martin’s experiment. The ideal area was found just next to the solar cell installation of the hab. After riding, about 10 minutes we arrived to the place of exploration called Robert’s rock garden were we had walk in our spacesuits. Everything went well and after taking some pictures we came back to the ATV and finally to the hab.

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

Astronomy Report – March 12th

Astronomy Report
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/12/2018

Sky Conditions: Very clear sky in the morning and some clouds in the afternoon

Wind Conditions: No wind

Observation Start Time: 11:30 – 13:00 & 15:30-17:30

Observation End Time: See above

Summary: First day of observations. I became acquainted with the telescope all the day long. I got 3 pictures (see jpeg attached) of the Sun.
Objects Viewed: Sun, a little solar eruption and surface of the Sun

Problems Encountered: I had some trouble in order to find the Sun in the afternoon but it was just due to the fact that I had to pass to PM mode given that I passed from the morning to the afternoon. A Beginner Error, I guess. Peter is the one who told me how to fix my bug. It was good after.

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

Operations Report – March 12th

Hello CapCom,

Here is my second engineering report, feel free to give me feedback: Crew 190 Operations Report 12th March 2018
SOL: 1
Name of person filing report: Bastien BAIX
Non-nominal systems: –
Notes on non-nominal systems: –

Generator (hours run): Turned off at 10 am and turned on at 7.08 pm. Solar – SOC 82 % (Before generator is run at night)
Diesel – ~45%
Propane – 82%
Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) – 2 empty jerrycans.

Water (trailer) – 0 gallons.
Water (static) – ~450 gallons
Water (third tank) – 500 gallons.
Trailer to Static Pump used – NO
Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – YES
Water Meter: 132 014.3
Toilet tank emptied: NO

ATV’s Used: 2 & 3
Oil Added: NO
ATV Fuel Used: NO
Hours the ATVs were Used today: 2 hours
Notes on ATVs: –

Deimos rover used: NO
Hours: 116.6
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: –
Currently charging: NO
Notes on Deimos rover: flat tyre

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR
Hours:
Beginning charge:
Ending charge:
Currently charging:

Spirit rover used: YES
Hours: 24.8
Beginning charge: 99%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: YES

Opportunity rover used: YES
Hours: 20.6
Beginning charge: 98%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: YES

Curiosity rover used: NO
Hours: 16.5
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: –
Currently charging: NO

HabCar used and why, where: –
General notes and comments: –
Summary of internet: ~300 Mb remaining
Summary of suits and radios: –
Summary of Hab operations: Ariane & Bastien working on their experiments Summary of GreenHab operations: Mario’s project (= hydroponic culture) Summary of ScienceDome operations: Martin, Fred & Michael working on their experiments.
Summary of RAMM operations: –
Summary of health and safety issues: –

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: –

March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

Commander Report – March 12th

Hi CapCom this is my crew commander report’s for today.

Thanks for reading us!

We began our day by eating the breakfast composed of cereals. Four crew members (Sophie, Martin, Frédéric and Maximilien) immediately started preparing themselves for the first EVA coming at 9am. After getting dressed with the help of the rest of the crew, the EVA team left for the field, staying in communication with the hab for the whole time. The first EVA team came back and explained their impressions of the Mars field to the second EVA team which was already preparing itself for the EVA 1h later. The second team have done their EVA perfectly too and they came back after leaving the sample on the field. Everyone was impressed by the first Martian outing and the landscape so different from the Earth.

After the return of the whole team to the hab, we ate a meal prepared by Ariane. The team took time to discuss and to allow everyone to explain what they expect from their Martian life and to talk about potential problems that could be encountered. This meeting was really interesting to prevent problems in the team life in the future and to allow the commander to better understand the wishes of the team. To start the afternoon, everyone went to their experiment and started to prepare sample, devices and more.

Mario started to build his hydroponic system and found a solution to make it better than it was expected. Martin and Frédéric were preparing the beginning of their experiment using plants. However, Martin had the same problem as Max which is the lack of distilled water, needed for their experiments. Fortunately, a spaceship provided distilled water to the station later during the afternoon.

Bastien used the data provided by the drone to build a detailed map of the Hab’s area and understand how it works. Sophie used the telescope for the first time and took some pictures of the sun. Ariane made her own bread using space baking soda and we are currently eating this bread. Personally, I spend time taking pictures of the crew working hard and I helped Mario for his system building.