Photo of the day: 520250E 4247600N 28-02-2019 White Rock Canyon exploration.jpg
Crew Photos – February 28th
Journalist Report – February 28th
Crew 206 – 02/28/2019
Sol 4
Author: Auzou Benjamin, Journalist
"What the hell on Earth is going on?”
On their way to White Rock Canyon, the EVA team stumbled upon a Coke bottle. In the middle of a Martian hiking, Norbert, Jérémy, Aurélien, and Cerise are sent back on Earth.
The planet is endangered, with limited resources, and we continue to pollute and threaten her, even if we are all aware of the danger. Here in the MDRS, we are monitoring our water consumption, our trashes and our energy consumption. For now 4 days we have been following a simple, but healthy and sustainable way of life. We realized that our habits are greedy on resources, on water, on energy. And that it is not so complicated to change and adopt better ones. Even if we want to send humans to Mars, or to the Moon, Earth is and will stay our cradle and our home and we all have the duty to protect her!
Countries have the duty to adopt laws to promote ecology and sustainable development, companies have the duty to use wisely their energies and resources, and at our scale with have the duty to adopt a sustainable way of life. We all have this duty for us, for our children and for all humanity.
In the same time in the Hab, Gaspard and I choose to prepare a surprise olive bread for the crew’s lunch. Unfortunately, that first try was very different from the texture of French baguettes, but everybody loved the taste and it was a huge pleasure to feel a little bit like in France.
After lunch, everybody in the Hab chose to take a nap before the beginning of the human factors experiments. Sadly, both versions of TELEOP experiment failed today: the little rover faced connection issues and the computer of the digital version ran out of battery, with a broken charger. This experiment matters a lot for all of us, especially for Jérémy and the rest of the afternoon was very difficult for us.
The good news of the day came from Cerise’s water monitoring. Yesterday, the results seemed threatening. After an exchange with the research team, the comparison database that she was using was the one dedicated to space, and to Thomas Pesquet’s Aquapad experiment on the ISS. With the correct database, the water quality is not perfect, but safe to drink and not infected.
After the disappointment of the afternoon, we all need a distraction. For that, Norbert brought us some fresh carrots from the Green-Hab for the dinner and we decided to watch an episode of Nat Geo’s Mars TV show.
Greenhab Report – February 28th
Crew 206 Green Hab Report – 28-FEB-2019
GreenHab Officer: Norbert Pouzin
Environmental control: Heating and Cooling w/ ambient air (9 hrs 30 min)
Shade Cloth (40%)
Average temperatures:
Low: 17.8°C
High: 29.5°C
Hours of supplemental light: 3 Hours
Daily water usage for crops: 6.4 gallons
Water in Blue Tank: 270.1 gallons
Crops watered at 0930 hours (2.1 gallons) and 1830 hours (4.3 gallons):
TIME NOTED TEMPERATURE(° C ) / HUMIDITY(%)
1) 09.30 AM 21.4° C / 25 %
2) 11.30 AM 26.3° C / 21 %
3) 15:00 PM 26.7° C / 22 %
4) 18:30 PM 22.3° C / 32 %
Changes to crops: I removed the tomatoes and prepared the soil for the next seeds.
I harvested carrots.
Radishes are germinating.
Red lettuces have some problem growing up and are still not red.
Narrative:
After the morning EVA, I harvested some herbs for our lunch and some carrots for our dinner.
In the afternoon, I prepared the soil for the next tomatoes seeds and removed the old ones.
Finally, I monitor the fan in the Greenhab to avoid high heat in the morning. It will now be turned on from 8 to 16, for 15 min every 15 min. It worked pretty well today!!
The door was opened from 0730 to 1700.
Harvest: 8.1 g of basil, 1.3 g of sage, 270.6 g of carrots.
Support/supplies needed: None.
Operations Report – February 28th
Crew 206 Operations Report 28 – FEB – 2019
SOL: 4
Name of person filing report: Gaspard Thieulin
Non-nominal systems: Generator
Notes on non-nominal systems: Radiator hoses and alternator need replacement on the generator. A contractor has been arranged to make these repairs within a few days.
Generator (hours run): Turned off at 0900 (28th Feb), Turned on at 1730 (28th Feb)
Solar— SOC % – Turned off Gen (28th Feb) 59%, Turned on Gen (28th Feb) 62%
Diesel Reading – 3/4 (on a scale of 0 – 1/4 – 1/2 – 3/4 – 1)
Propane Reading – 80 (± 2)
Ethanol Free Gasoline – 7 gallons
Water (Auxillary tank) – Not in use
Water (Static tank) – around 500 gallons (90 %)
Water differential (Static tank) – 14 gallons (± 2 gallons)
Gallons transferred: Not Applicable
Water in GreenHab – 270.1 gallons
Water (loft) – 12 marked level
Static to Loft Pump used – yes
Water Meter: 01416094 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: 53.0 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 61%
Currently charging: Yes
Curiosity rover used: Used
Hours: 77.3 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 67%
Currently charging: Yes
Spirit rover used: Not Used
Hours: 78.4 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: Yes
Notes on rovers: Nothing to report.
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
Hab Car used and why, where? Not used.
Staff Crew Car used and why, where? Off-Campus
General notes and comments:
Summary of internet: Lost Internet access a lot again during the whole day. Additional information directly transferred to Bernard, MDRS IT.
Summary of suits and radios: Nothing to report.
Summary of Hab operations: Nothing to report.
Summary of Green Hab operations: Nothing to report.
Summary of Science Dome operations: Nothing to report.
Summary of RAM operations: Nothing to report.
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.
EVA Report – February 28th
Crew 206 EVA Report 28-Feb-2019
EVA #4
Author: Norbert Pouzin
Purpose of EVA: The EVA has two purposes:
– the first one is scientific. It is to make sure that the deployment
of the LOAC and the weather station is fine. Since the snow has melted, we have to re-calibrate the tripod of the weather station. Also, the batteries of the LOAC have to be changed.
– the second purpose of the EVA is the exploration for the other half of the crew who didn’t perform it today. We will go to White Rock Canyon and explore this area. We will park the rovers on the road 1101, at the closest point from the White Rock Canyon, and then walk to the canyon. As the distance between the MDRS and White Rock Canyon is a little bit smaller than the one we did today going to The Moon, the batteries of the rover might not be a problem (34% battery left for Opportunity, 65% for Curiosity).
However, if it appears that the batteries aren’t strong enough to bring us there, we will explore Kissing Camel Ridge West, parking the rovers on Cow Dung Road 0110, near Robert’s Rock Garden. Like today, we prefer being four for this EVA, so that two of us can work on the tripod and the others on the LOAC and we can be two on
each rover, which is safer than being alone.
Start time: 9:00 am
End time: 11:26 am
Narrative: Today, we went pretty fast on our EVA preparation, so we left the hab at 0900, instead of 0915, as it was planned. After the usual checks (Water tank for Team Red, composed of Aurélien and Jeremy, and rovers states for Team Blue, composed of Cerise and me), we went to the localization of the LOAC and the weather station.
We arrived there at 0915. While Team Red changed the batteries of th LOAC, Team Blue measured the inclination of the weather station, as the melting snow might have moved the tripod. Indeed, the angle had moved a little, so we tried to fix it by turning the screw of the tripod. We left the area of the LOAC at 0931, heading into White Rock Canyon with our rovers, taking care of the batteries, like yesterday. It worked pretty well, since we parked at 0952 on the road near the Canyon, with 90% batteries for Curiosity, and 85% for Opportunity!
We started the exploration, following our scout Jeremy. We went inside the canyon, and then hiked to go above it.
The soil wasn’t as muddy as it was yesterday, so we could easily walk. At 1058 our walk was over, and we came back with our rovers. We arrived at the station at 1120, with more than 60% of batteries on both rovers.
Destination: LOAC and Weather Station location, Road 1101, White Rock Canyon
Coordinates: 518500/425700 (LOAC and Weather Station), 520250/4247600 (White Rock Canyon)
EVA Participants: Norbert Pouzin (GHO, EVA leader), Aurélien Mure (XO), Jeremy Auclair (CMD), Cerise Cuny (HSO).
Roads and routes per MDRS Map: Entrance Road, Cow Dung Road
Mode of travel: Driving and Walking
Sol Summary – February 28th
Crew 206 February 28th, 2019
Sol 4
Summary Title: French bread in the Station
Author: Jeremy Auclair
Mission Status: All nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Muscle aches from the morning workout have finally passed, it feels pretty good. Our sleep patterns are getting better. This morning’s EVA’s purpose was to change the LOAC battery (which went perfectly) and to explore White Rock Canyon. The rovers performed better than yesterday, we managed to arrive at White Rock Canyon with more than 85% of charge. The exploration lasted for about 1h30, the view was exceptional and we took great pictures. The mud is still bothering, but nothing that we can’t overcome. We arrived at the Hab a little tired. For lunch, we ate pasta and we cooked our first bread!
This afternoon I worked on TELEOP again, but I encountered new issues: the computer charger is broken, and we haven’t found an equivalent one. I managed to connect the physical rover to my computer by there is still connection issues. To sum up: both TELEOP versions are currently not working. It was a hard day for me, but the rest of the crew had more luck. Cerise got a response from the BioMérieux lab: our water is not infected (we feared there were some bacteria), it’s safe to drink, but it’s not as clean as tap water. We are still experiencing internet issues, it seems to be coming from the router (I couldn’t connect before 07:08 pm).
Look ahead plan: Tomorrow will be a regular day, we will try to fix some issues on our experiments. The crew is impatient for Sol 6; they will try their space suit for the first time in real conditions.
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: Sunny in the morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon
Crew physical status: Fine
EVA: White Rock Canyon
Reports to be filed: GreenHab, Journalist, Operation, EVA Report, EVA Request
Support Requested: New water filters for the jug
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