Month: April 2019

Crew 211 Sol 1 Summary Report 22-APR-2019

Sol: 1

Summary Title: First day on Mars: first experiments and EVA

Author’s name: Carl-Henrik Dahlqvist

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: We start the day with a fitness session of 15 minutes which definitely helped some crew members to wake up. After the breakfast, we spent one hour and a half to clean the Hab. Most of the crew members have then started their respective experiments (see crew scientist report) while the crew astronomer started to work on the solar telescope. After the lunch, we all worked on our experiments until 4 pm when half of the crew went in EVA. As the UCL to Mars crew likes challenges, we will try tonight to prepare the first Martian Sushis and end the day with a meeting to discuss about today’s achievements and tomorrow’s objectives.

Look Ahead Plan: An EVA is planned in the morning to explore the Candor Chasma. Half of the crew will stay at the base to work on their experiments. Depending on the weather, the crew astronomer will try to get the first pictures of the sun and observed some fainter structures as the visual observations didn’t reveal any large perturbations in the solar atmosphere. The afternoon will again be devoted to the experiments.

Anomalies in work: Water tank pump leaking, water heater and heater in the Hab lab not working

Weather: Hot, sunny and fresh breeze.

Crew Physical Status: Good except for one of the crew member who twisted his ankle.

EVA: We have had our first EVA this afternoon which lasted for two hours. We traveled to the hills on the left of the Cow Dung Road between the Robert’S Rock Garden and Zurbin’s head to take a few soil samples to be used by Chloé, the GreenHab officer, for one of her two experiments. The EVA went very well and the sunny weather allowed us to take some beautiful pictures of the Martian environment surrounding the MDRS.

Reports to be filed: Journalist Report, GreenHab Report , HSO report, Operations Report,Astronomy Report, Scientist Report, EVA report, EVA Request, Daily Photo Report

Support Requested: None

Crew 211 Sol Summary Report 20-APR-2019

Sol: /

Summary Title: Discovering the MDRS

Author’s name: Eléonore Lieffrig

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Today was a day of traveling and discovering the MDRS. Five members of the crew arrived at the station at about 1:30 pm. As Chloé, Julien and I discovered our new home, Carl-Henrik and Simon went back to Grand Junction in order to take the rest of the crew and give back our rental car. At the moment (7 pm), they are still on their way.

We took our marks here, cleaned a bit the Hab, chose our bedrooms and got to know the place. Shannon gave us a brief tour of the station, but a longer training is planned with the whole crew tomorrow morning at 10 am.

Tonight, we will read the Hab manual, welcome the rest of the team, and cook ourselves our first tasty Martian dinner.

For the crew 211,

Eléonore Lieffrig, astronomer

Anomalies in work: No problems.

Weather: Warm and windy

Crew Physical Status: Good.

EVA: No EVA today.

Reports to be filed: GreenHab Report, Operations report, Sol Summary Report

Support Requested: None

Crew 210 Sol Summary Report 19-APR-2019

Sol: 6

Summary Title: Writing and preparing for crew handover

Author’s name: Paul Sokoloff

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Today the crew prepared to depart MDRS and leave it to our successors on Crew 211. We spent the morning cleaning the station, inventorying the food, and getting the spaces ship-shape for handover.

In the afternoon we continued to process plant samples and salinity measurements in the Science Dome, and collaboratively wrote a white paper outlining our multi-year biodiversity program, while Mike Irvine prepared an in-depth outreach proposal.

We will continue to prepare for our imminent departure this evening.

Look Ahead Plan: We plan to leave MDRS at 0800 tomorrow to head to Grand Junction, where we plan on handing over the crew car to Crew 211 by 1200.

Thank you to Mission Support, the Mars Society, and the management of MDRS for a great week in Utah; the five of us really appreciate your support.

Anomalies in work: No problems.

Weather: Hot and sunny.

Crew Physical Status: Good.

EVA: No EVAs today.

Reports to be filed: GreenHab Report, Operations Report, Daily Photo Report, Mission Summary, End of Rotation Food Inventory, End of Rotation Checklist (by tomorrow am).

Support Requested: None