Day: February 26, 2019

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Commander Report – November 25th

Astronomy Report, Sol 2

Name: Aurélien Mure

Crew: 206
Date: 02/25/2019

MUSK OBSERVATORY

Solar Features Observed: None, no clouds visible but I was unable to focus on features, maybe because of the very low sun activtiy, tell me if I’m wrong.

Problems encountered : How do I move the telescope to be faced to the sun when the alignment is set ?

Hi Eric and Peter,
It was a long day of astronomy for me, I observed the sun, tried to work on my images of the crab nebula and planned the observation of M42 for tonight.
I have some questions to ask you :
– How can I use the hand control to move the solar telescope when it is focused on the sun and not well aligned ?
– Is it still normal that I can’t see any solar feature with any configuration of the telescope ?
I hope my first images will be great !
Thanks,
Aurélien

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Journalist Report – February 26th

Crew 206 – 02/26/2019

Sol 2

Author : Auzou Benjamin, Journalist

“La Vie En Rouge”

At the precise moment my feet touched the Martian ground, and my eyes raised up to the sky, the time was liked stopped in front of me. There are incredible places that challenge our imagination, with their shapes, their reliefs, their colors. The Martian desert I had the chance to admire this morning is one of those. In front of this marvelous theater, I wish I had the talent of Picasso, Monet or Turner to capture
that precise moment, that sky, that landscape only a painting can give back the magnificence.

But this EVA had above all a scientific goal: deploy the LOAC (an aerosol counter) and the weather station. It was my first EVA, along with Cerise, Jérémy and Gaspard, on the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity. Quite funny that not so long ago, in 2018, they were the only two active “beings” at the surface of Mars.

Aurélien, HabCom of the day, helped us to spend the five minutes of the depressurization with a musical ambiance: La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf. The words to describe this day came directly to me: La Vie en Rouge.
After the concentration and the rigor of the EVA, a surprise were waiting for us inside: a pizza crust prepared by Aurélien, while Norbert was bringing his harvest : basil, sage and parsley, in order to give a providential freshness to the meal. We shared two pizzas that we named Verde and Roja. Aurélien and Norbert logically take the head of the Martian food contest.

Then the afternoon was the first one of a routine that will last all through the mission with both human factors experiments: rover driving and virtual reality.

The Sun is falling down on Mars, giving its last colors to the landscape, before putting it in obscurity and let the stars shine in the pure sky. I glance at the horizon, keeping that moment in my memory for ever, today, I walked on Mars.

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Greenhab Report – February 26th

Crew 206 Green Hab Report – 26-FEB-2019

GreenHab Officer: Norbert Pouzin

Environmental control: Heating and Cooling w/ ambient air (0 hrs)

Shade Cloth (40%)

Average temperatures:

Low: 15.9°C

High: 28.5°C

Hours of supplemental light: 5 Hours

Daily water usage for crops: 8.6 gallons

Water in Blue Tank: ~ 285.1 gallons

Crops watered at 0905 hours (2.2 gallons) and 1830 hours (6.4 gallons):

TIME NOTED TEMPERATURE(° C ) / HUMIDITY(%)

1) 09.05 AM 24.0° C / 26 %
2) 11.30 AM 24.2° C / 0 %
3) 15:00 PM 23.1° C / 0 %
4) 18:30 PM 21.6° C / 46 %

Changes to crops: I replanted some carrots, and a read leaf lettuce. I pulled out flowering greens.
Spinach and mustard, in the pots, are sprouting. Peas in the shelf still look bad (quite yellow) even with the daily use of Miracle Gro.

Narrative:
This morning I replanted some carrots from the blue gardener to pots, so they have more place to grow. A lot of carrots needs to be replanted, the blue gardener is quite full. I will do it in the next days. I also replanted a lettuce.
This afternoon I pulled up the flowering carrots and radishes. Total biomass weight : 22 g of carrots and 17 g of radishes.

To monitor the heat in the hab, I opened the door at 0900, and closed it at 1630.
At 1100 the heat increased (28°C), so I started the fan (from 1100 to 1130 and then from 1430 to 1500) to cool down the greenhab. It worked well, since the heat in the afternoon didn’t reached more than 26°C.

As asked, I changed the hours of supplemental light : the light is now on from 0500 to 0730, and from 1730 to 2200. So we will have 7 hours of supplemental light tomorrow. Tell me if it is too much !

I harvested lots of basil, parsley, and sage for a homemade pizza, by our chief Aurélien !

Harvest: 11.2 g basil, 3.0 g of lemon basil, 10.4 g of parsley and 1.4 g of sage. 39 g of Biomass (flowering plants).

Support/supplies needed: None.

Posted on

Journalist Report – February 26th

Crew 206 – 02/26/2019

Sol 2

Author : Auzou Benjamin, Journalist

“La Vie En Rouge”

At the precise moment my feet touched the Martian ground, and my eyes raised up to the sky, the time was liked stopped in front of me. There are incredible places that challenge our imagination, with their shapes, their reliefs, their colors. The Martian desert I had the chance to admire this morning is one of those. In front of this marvelous theater, I the talent of Picasso, Monet or Turner to capture that precise moment, that sky, that landscape only a painting can give back the magnificence.

But this EVA had above all a scientific goal: deploy the LOAC (an aerosol counter) and the weather station. It was my first EVA, along with Cerise, Jérémy and Gaspard, on the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity. Quite funny that not so long ago, in 2018, they were the only two active “beings” at the surface of Mars.

Aurélien, HabCom of the day, helped us to spend the five minutes of the depressurization with a musical ambiance: La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf. The words to describe this day came directly to me: La Vie en Rouge.
After the concentration and the rigor of the EVA, a surprise were waiting for us inside: a pizza crust prepared by Aurélien, while Norbert was bringing his harvest : basil, soy and parsley, in order to give a providential freshness to the meal. We shared two pizzas that we named Verde and Roja. Aurélien and Norbert logically take the head of the Martian food contest.

Then the afternoon was the first one of a routine that will last all through the mission with both human factors experiments: rover driving and virtual reality.

The Sun is falling down on Mars, giving its last colors to the landscape, before putting it in obscurity and let the stars shine in the pure sky. I glance at the horizon, keeping that moment in my memory for ever, today, I walked on Mars.

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Sol Summary – February 26th

Crew 206 February 26th 2019
Sol 2

Summary Title : Busy Day

Author : Jeremy Auclair

Mission Status : All nominal

Sol Activity Summary : Today we slept half an hour more than yesterday, we woke at 07:00 am. After our 30 minutes workout, we ate quickly to have enough time to prepare our EVA. We had to gather all the necessary tools and organise the different pieces of the weather station and the LOAC. Around 09:00 am, we were almost ready. We left the airlock at 09:17 am, and took the rovers to carry our equipment to the site we had found on EVA #1. The installation went fine, even though we had to go back to the Hab twice to get additional tools. The two instruments are installed, but we still have to make some adjustments. We finished the EVA at 10:30 am. After that we worked on our experiments and our reports. For lunch Aurélien and Norbert made some pizzas, they were great. The first main activity of the afternoon was TELEOP, the human factor experiment. We had an issue with the tele-operated rover, so today we only worked with the simulated rover. This part of the experiment worked fine. After that we participated in the Virtual Reality experiment once again.

Look ahead plan : Tomorrow we will start working on the simulation space suit, and it will also be a little rest day for Cerise and I that did two EVAs in a row. We will follow up our work on our various experiments.

Anomalies in work : none

Weather : Quite sunny all day, just a few small clouds

Crew physical status : small aches from physical training but fine otherwise

EVA : 500 meters from the Hab (North East), 40 meters from Cow Dung road. Installation of the LOAC and the weather station

Reports to be filed : GreenHab, Journalist, Operation, EVA Report, EVA Request

Support Requested : a new frying pan, a new sponge for the dishes, a rag and a tissue napkin to prevent using too much paper towels

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Operations Report – February 26th

Crew 206 Operations Report 26 – FEB – 2019

SOL: 2

Name of person filing report: Gaspard Thieulin

Non-nominal systems: Generator

Generator (hours run): Turned off at 0800 (24th Feb), Turned on at 1800 (24th Feb)

Solar— SOC % – Turned off Gen (24th Feb) 82%, Turned on Gen (24th Feb) 64%

Diesel Reading – ~ 75%

Propane Reading – ~ 23%

Ethanol Free Gasoline – 7 gallons

Water (Auxillary tank) – Not in use

Water (Static tank) – around 93%, ~ 509 gallons

Auxillary to Static tank transfer – No

Gallons transferred: Not Applicable

Water in GreenHab – ~ 285,1 gallons

Water (loft) – 12 marked level

Static to Loft Pump used – yes

Water Meter: 01415823 units

Toilet tank emptied: No

Deimos rover used: No, still not functional
Hours: N/A
Beginning charge: N/A
Ending charge: N/A
Currently charging: N/A

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR
Hours: Not Applicable
Beginning charge: Not Applicable
Ending charge: Not Applicable
Currently charging: Not Applicable

Opportunity rover used: Used
Hours: 51.7 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 95%
Currently charging: Yes

Curiosity rover used: Used
Hours: 75.9 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 93%
Currently charging: Yes

Spirit rover used: Not Used
Hours: 78.3 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: YES

Notes on rovers: Charging socket has been fixed, everything is currently fine.

ATV’s Used: N/A

Reason for use: Not used
Oil Added? N/A
ATV Fuel Used: N/A
# Hours the ATVs were Used today: None

Notes on ATVs: None

HabCar used and why, where? Not used

Crew Car used and why, where? Off Campus

General notes and comments:

Summary of internet: Lost Internet access once in the day. Came back after no more than 10 minutes. Probably the same issue as yesterday.

Summary of suits and radios: Checked all the suits batteries. They are all fine and charging. Except for suit #11 on which the charging socket is disconnected from the battery. Will fix it ASAP. Checked suit #1 (had fogging issues yesterday) fans : they are working fine. Maybe the battery wasn’t charged enough for EVA #1.

Summary of Hab operations: Added some tape to the inside locker for engineering airlock. The door now closes more precisely.

Summary of Green Hab operations: Nothing to report

Summary of Science Dome operations: Nothing to report

Summary of RAM operations:

Summary of any observatory issues: Nothing to report.

Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: Nothing more to report.

Posted on

Commander Report – February 26th

Crew 206 February 26th 2019
Sol 2

Just like yesterday, today’s plan was very dense. We got out of bed at 07:00 am, half an hour later than yesterday. Once again we worked out for a little more than 30 minutes. I took the same physical program that our commander had last year for mission 189. It’s quite intense but it’s a good exercise to start the day. We are slowly getting used to it, although we all have muscle aches from Sol 0. I am gathering the results of every crew member so we can see the evolution of our performances during the mission.

After a short breakfast with cereals, we started preparing for EVA #2. Although it wasn’t going to be a long EVA, we had to make sure we had prepared everything to correctly install our two outdoor instruments : LOAC and the weather station. So four of us (Benjamin, Cerise, Gaspard and I) went to the location we had spotted on EVA #1, 500 meters from the Hab. We took two rovers to carry the equipment which was cumbersome and heavy, especially the car battery. Installation went fine, but we had to go back to the Hab twice to get some tools. Aurélien was the HabCom and assisted the crew, by dropping what lacked for the EVA in the Engineering Airlock. I have to admit we had some unexpected issues that we could have thought of, but these few first days are very intense and tiring.

After that, most of us worked on our reports and experiments (these days whenever we have free time we use it to write reports and work on our experiments). Norbert worked in the GreenHab and gave space to the carrots and the salads. He started his experiments by planting radishes in eight pots. Aurélien and Norbert prepared pizzas for lunch, so we had a great meal ! After that I started working on the TELEOP experiment, which I supervise. I had some issues with the tele-operated rover. I couldn’t connect it to my computer although the exact same set-up in France worked fine. For today the crew only operated the simulated rover. Then it was time for the Virtual Reality session. I really like this experiment, it feels very relaxing to watch relaxing nature videos in the VR headset. I’m eager to see what will come out of the results. Then we all started working on our reports. Aurélien worked on preparing the meal again, but this time with Benjamin.

I’m quite happy with the mission beginning, the crew is adapting pretty well to the procedures, all experiments are developing well with only small drawbacks. They all have some great ideas for the rest of the simulation, for upgrading the station and improving some experiments. I think this mission will be very interesting…

Jeremy Auclair, Crew 206 Commander

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