Month: February 2019

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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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style=”color:black”>Journalist Report Feb 25th

Crew 206 – 02/25/2019

Sol 1

Author : Auzou Benjamin, Journalist

Title : "Good Morning Mars !"

0847 : The airlock opens, and the crew 206 is in front of a whole new world to explore : Mars.

The marswalkers of the day, Jérémy, Cerise, Aurélien and Norbert leaved the Hab to explore the surroundings of the station and to find a proper place for the LOAC, an experiment we will deploy tomorrow.

But above all that was for three of them their first steps on the Red Planet. I think they’re better than me to describe the feelings they had when they touched the martian ground for the first time.

"This first EVA was a really special and exciting moment. Everything went good, and I just want to go again on EVA !" – Norbert

"I really felt like it was my first step on Mars, and it is an

amazing feeling." – Cerise

"This was an exiting moment. The team was super pro and it made the

experience amazing" – Aurélien

Before that, the morning was really busy. We woke up very early in order to begin the EVA at 0830 so that our 4 marswalkers avoid the mud. We beginned the day with a sport session and then we prepared our first martian pancakes to bear the morning’s program. I was among the

three members of the crew that followed the intense session, seven different exercices during fourteen minutes, it was hard, especially the push-ups. However it is important to stay active, and our daily performances are monitored by our Commander.

During the EVA, I was assigned by Norbert to take care of the Green Hab. That place is amazingly calm and peaceful. I watered all the plants : tomatoes, basil, cress, radishes; they need a lot of water, 8 liters this morning for the whole Green-Hab but they worth it !

Our Astronomer Aurélien started his first observations of the sun. This is primordial for us on Mars, without a decent atmosphere, the solar radiations are a serious danger !

Today was also the beginning for three experiments : Norbert’s radishes are now planted, Cerise took some samples of the drinking water and the whole crew spend fifteen minutes on our Virtual Reality experiment under a heart monitoring : half of us watching entertaining

videos and the other half as witness subjects.

The Hab is now our home, and we continue to make it better and ours. The main improvement of the day is a live plan of the sol displayed in the hab, detailling in real time the tasks for each of us, but also our data consumption.

After this day of hard work, we all need some time for us to rest and decompress. That’s why we chose to watch a movie together tonight : Le Grand Bazar by Les Charlots, a French comedy. That’s my suggestion, I’ll tell you tomorrow if everybody liked it.

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style=”color:black”>Operations Report Feb 25th

Crew 206 Operations Report 25 – FEB – 2019

SOL: 1

Name of person filing report: Gaspard Thieulin

Non-nominal systems: Generator

Notes on non-nominal systems: Radiator hoses and alternator need replacement on generator. A contractor has been arranged to make these repairs within a few days.

Generator (hours run): Turned off at 0830 (24th Feb), Turned on at
1600 (24th Feb)

Solar— SOC % – Turned off Gen (24th Feb) 76%, Turned on Gen (24th Feb) 82%

Diesel Reading – ~ 75%
Propane Reading – ~ 25%
Ethanol Free Gasoline – 10 gallons

Water (Auxillary tank) – Not in use
Water (Static tank) – around 95%, ~ 522 gallons
Auxillary to Static tank transfer – No

Gallons transferred: Not Applicable

Water in GreenHab – ~ 293,7 gallons
Water (loft) – 12 marked level

Static to Loft Pump used – yes
Water Meter: 01415594 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: 51.5 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 74%
Currently charging: Yes

Curiosity rover used: Used
Hours: 75.8 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 75.5%
Currently charging: Yes

Spirit rover used: Not Used
Hours: 78.3 hours
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: NO

Notes on rovers: Opportunity’s socket is having issues that even the reset trick doesn’t solve. Because it’s currently more viable than Spirit, I unplugged the latter to plug in Opportunity. Charge level was 76% for Opportunity in consequence.

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? Not used

General notes and comments: We are experiencing a lot of static charges in the Hab. We don’t exactly know what is the reason behind that; but it might be a wire not properly connected to the ground.

Summary of internet: Lost Internet access twice in the day. Resetting the Nighthawk router did the trick without any issue.

Summary of suits and radios: Visor fogging on EVA#1 – check suit air supply

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: Pre-built the LOAC and meteo station experiments. We ask to use one clamp to fix the LOAC for the duration of the experiment.

Summary of any observatory issues: Nothing to report.

Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: Propane tank still needs to be filled rapidly, how do we proceed ?

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style=”color:black”>Green Hab Report Feb 25th

Crew 206 Green Hab Report – 25-FEB-2019

GreenHab Officer: Norbert Pouzin

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

Shade Cloth (40%)

Average temperatures:

Low: 18.1°C
High: 31.4°C

Hours of supplemental light: 5 Hours
Daily water usage for crops: 6.3 gallons
Water in Blue Tank: ~ 293.7 gallons

Crops watered at 0900 hours (2.1 gallons) and 1830 hours (4.2 gallons):

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

1) 09.00 AM 24.4° C / 21 %
2) 11.30 AM 29.4° C / 0 %
3) 15:00 PM 23.3° C / 0 %
4) 18:00 PM 19.6° C / 27 %

Changes to crops: I planted 8 pots of radish, as part of my plant experiment. I put them in a shelf and moved some tomatoes plant to the other shelf.

Narrative: Yesterday night, the blue tank was refill so we have a full water tank for the greenhab.
In the morning I changed the yellow fly papers.

This afternoon, I started the installation of my plant experiment. I planted 8 pots of radish (Raphanus Sativus), following my protocol. I tried the UV lamp for the experiment, but it doesn’t work. We tried to fix it at the RAM, but it seems that the fact that the frequency used for electricity is deferent from Europe makes it impossible to work. Thus the base we have needs to be changed. I think our UV bulb works properly.

As yesterday, I opened the door from 1200 to 1700 to cool down the greenhab.
7.0g of basil and 1.1g of parsley were harvested for soup.

Harvest: 7.0 g basil and 1.1 g of parsley.

Support/supplies needed: A UV lamp, or a base for the UV bulb we have.

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EVA Report Feb 25th

Crew 206 EVA Report 25 Feb 2019

EVA #1

Author : Jeremy Auclair

Purpose of EVA : Training new crew members and finding a spot to install the LOAC and the weather station

Start time : 08:42 am

End time : 10:11 am

Narrative : After the 5 minute depressurization, we checked the water levels and the rovers’ batteries. At 08:52 am, We took Opportunity and Curiosity to go towards the Stream Bed Connector intersection. On the way, we stopped at 08:55 at the spot where we had put the LOAC last year (crew 189), to have a comparison point. We then went to Pooh’s corner at 08:58 to have a small walk (7-8 minutes). At this point my visor had started to get pretty foggy (with backpack 1), but I could still walk around safely. We the took the rovers again to head to the Stream Bed Connector, but with the snow we failed to recognize it. We went a bit to far (almost up to Galileo road). After tunrning around we arrived at 09:15 am. We walked around for about 5 minutes, once again to get used to the suits. We then headed back to the Hab to park the rovers. At 09:30 am we plugged both rovers in and we started
walking East North-East to find a good location to install our instruments. They have to be in a relatively flat place, not to close to any hills or mounts, and close to the road, to facilitate changing the batteries (the LOAC is powered with car batteries). We found this place at 09:40 am (–). After that we continued walking around and talking picture before heading back to the Hab. We arrived in the airlock at 10:04 am. One minute after pressurization, we realised we had forgot the EVA equipment bag in Curiosity, so we depressurized again, went to retreive it, and got in the airlock one final time. Pressurization started at 10:06 am. We got in the Hab at 10:11 am.

Destination :
Pooh’s corner : 518800E 4250900N
Stream Bed Connector : 519000E 425100N

Participants : Arélien Mure, Cerise Cuny, Norbert Pouzin and Jérémy
Auclair (EVA leader)

Road used : Cow Dung road

Mode of travel : Rovers and walking

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Sol Summary Report Feb 25th

Crew 206 Sol Summary February 25th 2019
Sol 1

Summary Title : Foggy morning, but sunny day

Author : Jeremy Auclair

Mission Status : All nominal

Sol Activity Summary : After our change of schedule for this morning’s EVA, we had to get out of bed at 06:30 am. A few minutes after that we started our daily physical training. We managed to start breakfast around 07:10 am. We had a hard time making pretty pancakes with the old pan we have. We managed to start preparing for the EVA at 07:40 am. This first EVA is mainly used to train the new crew members, but we also looked for a appropriate spot to install our two instruments, LOAC and the weather station. But this EVA was very annoying for me: 10 minutes after the beginning my visor was completely fogged, but we managed to finish the EVA (I didn’t drive obviously). Otherwise the EVA went very smoothly. After lunch, around 02:00 pm, everyone went their own way to prepare their experiments. Cerise worked on Aquapad, to test the microbiological quality of our drinking water, Aurélien went to the solar observatory to get used to it, Norbert worked on his plants. After that we all participated to the virtual reality (VR) experiment. Its goal is to study the efficiency of VR as a countermeasure to confinement and isolation.

Look ahead plan : Tomorrow will be a big day, a lot of our main experiments will be installed and performed for the first time, so we are preparing as much as we can today. The crew is slowly getting used to the life in the station. Water consumption monitoring is heading in the right direction, everyone follows the plan correctly.

Anomalies in work : none

Weather : a little cloudy until 2 pm, after which the sky was quite clear.

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

EVA : Pooh’s Corner and Stream Bed Connector

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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Journalist Report – February 24th

Sol 0

Author : Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Title : "Our new Home"

The six of us woke up after a difficult night in the Science Dome,
because of the lack of comfort but above all because of our excitation
to begin our mission. The whole crew chose to begin the day with a
sport session ! That was a difficult session for some of us, but we
all needed that to wake up and prepare the three weeks of mission
ahead of us.

At 0800 the crew 205 left the Hab to return to their five countries.
Natalia, Dave, Nathan, Maria, Ghenim, Daniel, Hannah and Veronica left
us the station after a full afternoon of training yesterday. We wish
you a good continuation ! You’ve done a good job here in the MDRS,
even if the martian weather wasn’t clement with you. We will continue
to hold the station well and make great science here on Mars !

Then we spend the whole morning taking our marks in the Hab, we took
our first breakfast composed of milk and scrambled eggs. We chose our
rooms, our tiny zones of privacy in the Hab.

For the rest of the day, waiting for Atila to train us, we all worked
on our experiments or on the Hab’s organization :
Norbert, our GreenHab Officer, spend a lot of time in the GreenHab to
discover the plants in here and understand their needs. Cerise, our
crew Biologist and Health and Safety Officer tested everything in the
Campus to assure our safety : alarms, fire extinguishers, medical
supplies and radios. Gaspard, our engineer and the "hacker" of the
team tackled the internet consumption of our devices to avoid data
losses (we only used 100MB up to this time!). In the same time,
Aurélien and I organized in the kitchen the food supplies that arrived
with us. And Jérémy, Commander of our mission prepared all the
material necessary to follow our water consumption.

At 1430 pm, Atila arrived to train us with the rovers and gave us his
last advice.

We had a long discussion on our goals for the mission. And that was
the moment to close the airlock door and begin our simulation.

I am Benjamin, journalist of the crew 206, million of kilometers away
from Earth, in the Mars Desert Research Station. The weather here is
beautiful, even if the soil is still damaged by the storm that stroke
the crew 205’s mission. My crew and I will sleep well after this
tiring day. I am in a hurry to wake up tomorrow to start experiments
and Extravehicular Activities, to live the Martian Dream.

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