Day: March 20, 2018

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Operations Report – March 20th

Crew 190 Operations Report 20th March 2018

SOL: 9

Name of person filing report: Bastien BAIX

Non-nominal systems: –

Notes on non-nominal systems: –

Generator (hours run): Turned off at 9.37 am and turned on at 6.45 pm.

Solar – SOC 77% (Before generator is run at night)

Diesel – ~45%

Propane – 81%

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) – 1 ½ full jerrycans.

Water (trailer) – 0 gallons.

Water (static) – 550 gallons

Water (third tank) – 0 gallons

Trailer to Static Pump used – YES

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

Water Meter: 132 470.8

Toilet tank emptied: YES

ATV’s Used: –

Oil Added: NO

ATV Fuel Used: YES

Hours the ATVs were used today: _

Notes on ATVs: –

Deimos rover used: NO

Hours: 116.6

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: NO

Notes on Deimos rover: the wheel is under reparation

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Spirit rover used: NO

Hours: 26.2

Beginning charge: 71%

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: NO

Opportunity rover used: NO

Hours: 25

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: NO

Curiosity rover used: NO

Hours: 20.7

Beginning charge: 82%

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: YES

HabCar used and why, where: –

General notes and comments: The water level of the aquapony system is lowering due to evaporation, should we refill it ?

Summary of internet: ~ 0 Mb remaining

Summary of suits and radios: –

Summary of Hab operations: Power charging to rovers resolved. Fuses were being blown when two outlets were being used. With one cord the issue is resolved.

Summary of GreenHab operations: –

Summary of ScienceDome operations: –

Summary of RAMM operations: –

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: –

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Greenhab Report – March 20th

Crewmember’s name: Frédéric Peyrusson (Biologist)

Date 20/03/2018

Environmental control:

Ambient with door open.

Shade cloth on.

Fan on, without cooling.

Average temperatures: 30°C
Low: 1°C
High: 34°C

Hours of supplemental light: 0 hours

Changes to crops: No change

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gal

Time(s) of watering for crops: 3

Moringa research observations: ?

Changes to research plants: N/A

Measurements of hydrogel supplemented plants and crops. No heating this night, GreenHab was quite cold, but no damage for plants, indeed we cropped a lot of lettuce and tomatoes (see picture)! All plants have been watered.

Support/supplies needed: N/A

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Journalist Report

Life in our small Martian community is passing quicker than most of us probably thought it would. When you realize you’re about to spend two entire weeks locked in a cylinder of 8 meters of diameter (with a common room of just 25 square meters), it is hard not to feel a bit of anxiety. In the MDRS, the space is located so that all the rooms give directly on the common room, with very little privacy. The ground floor is entirely dedicated to engineering. The outside parts are either reserved to scientific work or are too dangerous to stay in due to cosmic radiation. It is therefore almost impossible to ever be alone. For most people, this is a recipe for disaster. Our crew, however, has been quite lucky. We knew we worked well together as a group, and enjoyed each other’s presence during our brief meetings over the past year. Nothing, however, guaranteed that these feelings would pass the test of time (and in our case, the test of proximity) – but they did! Over the past ten days, we have functioned quite well as a group – there have been no fights, few tensions and many moments of laughter, and so, the time has passed us much quicker than we had thought possible.

One could say that our days at the MDRS all closely resembled each other, and this isn’t necessarily untrue. A typical day like today started with breakfast, another EVA for half the team, and a combination of scientific and academic work. Lunch, delicious as always, was once again cooked by Ariane from the dehydrated ingredients we are now well used to. It is always surprising to see how this unappetizing looking powder magically changes into the food we know so well from back on Earth. We always end up eating just like at home thanks to our dedicated cooks!

Time has indeed passed quick, but we still have work to do. Experiments are not finished and we still have three entire days to go! Thankfully we have received a brand new food shipment from earth, as well as a fresh harvest of tomatoes and greens from the GreenHab, so we are ready to go!

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Sol Summary – March 20th

Crew 190 Sol Summary Report
20 March 2018

Sol 9

Summary Title:
Here comes the sun.

Michael Saint-Guillain (XO)

Mission Status:
Ready to continue simulation on Sol 10, 08:00

Sol Activity Summary:
8:00 Gym
8:15 Medic inspection
8:25 Breakfast
9:40 EVA: Sophie (muography), Martin (drug degradation), Frederic (bacteriology), Mario (pictures), Michael (support)
11:35 End of EVA – Crew meeting – Relaxation
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Scientific & academic work
18:00 Report redaction
19:00 CapCom

Look Ahead Plan:

Notes:
Morning: EVA: Maximilien (soil sampling, pictures), Martin (samples checking), Ariane (soil sampling for bacteriology), Bastien (cartography, drone). Sophie will work on the telescope (scheduled on the morning, but could be switched with her analysis on the muon detector during the afternoon, depending on the sky).

Afternoon: Scientific and academic (not mentioned in the schedule) work for everyone.

Notes: busy days to come before the end of the rotation. We keep Sol 13 (March 24th) for clean up and crew switch with crew 191.

Anomalies in work:

None

Weather:
Cloudy in the morning, blue sky in late afternoon.

Crew Physical Status:
A bit tired today.

EVA:
See EVA report.

Reports to be file:
Commander report
Journalist report
EVA#10 report
EVA#11 request for Sol10
Engineer report
Pictures

Support Requested:
None

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EVA Report – March 20th

Crew members: Sophie Wuyckens (EVA leader), Frédéric Peyrusson, Mario Sundic, Michael Saint-Guillain and Martin Roumain

Purposes:
– Samples checking by Fred
– Samples collection + positioning of new samples by Martin

– If weather is ok, positioning of Sophie’s detector outside for data acquisition
– Michael in support

– Pictures by Mario

Operations:

9:30 – Crew get dressed

9:35 – Paparazzi session by Ariane and Maximilien

9:39 – Entering the airlock

9:42 – Outing

9:43 – Burning of our rubbish by Mario and Sophie + Fuel filling of the ATV1 by Mick + Samples checking by Fred

9:50 – Discovery : rovers haven’t charged the whole night + test of a new extension cord.

10:00 – Leaving the MDRS by foot along Main Road

10:20 – Mick found a pillow and an UPS parcel (just a piece of cardboard)

10:30 – Martin positions his new samples along Main road

10:55 – Bastien sent his drone from the hab to record a video of us.

11:06 – On the way back to MDRS

11:21 – Arrival at the Hab

11:25 – Entering the airlock

11:28 – Mission finished.

Narrative:

Our EVA#10 took place on SOL#9 at 9:30. I am Sophie Wuyckens and I wanted to be part of this EVA in order to position my detector near a hill in our way. Unfortunately, we realized that the rovers didn’t charge the whole night. We understood that the fuses blew when we plug 2 sockets in the airlock. We have already discussed with Shannon to find a solution.

We decided together to follow our initial plan and follow the main road direction to the north. The weather was quite sunny. Our hiking was announced to be difficult. Fred, Mick and Martin climbed a hill quite high. Mario and I kept an eye on them and took pictures of them. Bastien from the Hab sent his drone to record a video of us. It was quite funny. On our way along the main road, we picked up some rubbish : a piece of cardboard, a pillow, a wooden post. We took the whole thing in our way back and put the rubbish in the burning bin outside (except the pillow). Given that we hadn’t got the rovers, I couldn’t position my detector (it is a quite heavy device). We didn’t make it to Tank Wash but it was still a good mission.We finished at 11:28.

Vehicles

  • No vehicles
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Commander Report – March 20th

As any common day on Mars, our crew woke up at 7:30 am and started with a breakfast prepared by Michael and myself. Pancakes and coffee at the menu!

Afterwards, five of us prepared themselves for a 2:30 hours long EVA (see EVA report). Like yesterday, the EVA team was confronted to a charging problem with the rovers. This problem was solved later by connecting only one plug to the electrical outlet.

During the EVA, Ariane and myself have done some administrative work and Bastien worked on his 3D mapping. When the EVA team came back we started cooking the lunch and tidying a bit the second floor of the station. After the copious meal, we spent time talking together around a coffee to ensure that all scientific project are progressing well. Later on, crew members were back to their occupation and scientific projects. Sophie worked the whole day on her detector and Ariane on her bacteria. Unfortunately, for Ariane, she did not get the expected result for her bacteria selection. But she is not giving up and will continue her project!

To continue our evening after the dinner, we will do a blind test game.

The mood of the crew is still good after more than one week on Mars. That is good news! Tomorrow, an EVA is planned for more sample collection and the team is going to start to think about finishing their scientific work before going back to earth.

Regarding the station, there is no significant problem detected. Only the problem of rover mischarging was to note but now it is fixed.

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Astronomy Report – March 20th

Astronomy Report
Name: Sophie Wuyckens Crew: 190
date: 3/20/2018

Sky Conditions: Cloudy all the day long but very clear sky from 5:00 PM.

Wind Conditions: no wind

Observation Start Time: 17:00

Observation End Time: 18:30

Summary: I haven’t gone to the observatory for the last few days because of the bad weather. Therefore when I saw a clear blue sky at 17:00, I jumped on the occasion. I took 3 pictures of the Sun. They were taken in the excitation and in a short time so they are not amazing. I hope to enjoy the telescope with nice ends of afternoon like that for the last days of my stay at MDRS.
Objects Viewed: some little solar eruptions and surface of the Sun

Problems Encountered: I had a small problem with ICap : When I want to take capture each 35s, a message pops up " Error writing bmp files" and it stops the captures. I didn’t have the problem for my last pictures.

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