Hello Atila and Mission Support Team,
Here we show our daily photos, you can see some pictures of the EVA made today, what María Paula harvested and a martian brownie made also by her.
Best regards,
Carlos Salazar,
Crew engineer crew 226
Journalist Report #6by: Felipe Torres – Crew Scientist
Sol 6
Today’s morning started a little earlier than usual… We were expecting some visit from Earth, specifically from Japan, from a journalist and a photographer who were interested in coming to MDRS to have a close approach to the Martian experience.
As per crew policies, the first crew member to wake up starts cooking breakfast. So, I started cooking some scrambled eggs for the crew. At the beginning this was a not so easy task as we were learning how to use our dehydrated ingredients, but at this point, it is our go to breakfast for the mornings, along with some oatmeal and some fruit. Could it even get healthier?
Last night, we had all decided that this morning we would empty the toilet tank since it was already getting full and it was starting to smell bad. So right after breakfast our crew engineer and HSO went to the Hab’s lower deck to get that figured out. While they were doing this, the rest of the crew members were cleaning and disinfecting all common spaces of the Hab.
Right when we were finishing our cleaning duties, at around 8:50am we received a communication from Atila, letting us know that our visitors had arrived.
After pressurization for five minutes, the Japanese journalists came into the Hab. We gave them a tour of all the facilities, Hab, Green Hab, Science Dome and RAM. We came upstairs and we all introduced ourselves and told them a little of our backgrounds.
At around 10:20 am we started getting ready for our EVA, checking radios, GPS, jumping in our spacesuits and making sure we had everything ready for our EVA.
It was a long walk and hike to Hab Ridge, but it was really satisfying. Along with Maria and Yael, we were surprised by the small invertebrate fossils we found. There were just so many of them and that made us think about the marine life that took place here many ages ago, and for a couple seconds we felt that we were in the middle of the ocean bottom.
The Japanese journalists were following us all the time while taking pictures of us. I think we did a great job as models; they were really happy with the pictures they took and were very grateful.
By 1:15pm it was time to finish our EVA and to head back home. We were really hungry and contacted our crew at the Hab and asked them to please have some spaghetti with Bolognese sauce ready for us. And guess what, we were all on the same page because without even telling them they had already cooked lunch and it was exactly what we were asking for.
We got to the Hab right on time for lunch. We were all exhausted from carrying the suits on our backs for almost three hours, so as quickly as we could, we took our spacesuits off, cleaned our helmets and plugged in the suits to their corresponding chargers.
After lunch, we all sat down with the Japanese journalists and during an hour, we were part of a fascinating interview; we answered some questions and had a great time talking about space travel, space industry, our dreams and our purposes in life.
The journalists left the Hab at 4:00pm and we were all really happy from having that visit, as it demonstrated the interest they had for our Colombian crew and in general, for the Colombian space industry.
To end the day, we baked a delicious tray of Space Brownies! It’s never too much when it comes to some chocolate. It was the reward for such a long and productive day.
Great day on Mars. We are really happy and excited for what is to come…
Crew 226 EVA Report 23-01-2022
EVA # 5
Author: Felipe Torres, Crew Scientist
Purpose of EVA: Recognition of the lithology of the zone.
Temperature and humidity measurements of a control volume using an insulating composite material. This material will work as a space blanket or space tent, which will protect humans as well as equipment so we’re interested in studying the insulative efficiency of this material under critical temperature conditions.
Start time: 11:00 am
End time: 1:50 pm
Narrative: Hab Ridge was a great location for our mission plan. We started walking from the Hab towards Route 1103, which took us West to the start of the rocky ridge. At this point the path got really rocky and we had to do some hiking to get past the rocks to the top of the ridge. We got to a plain area and at this point we stopped to take some Temperature and Humidity measurements for the insulative material we’re working with: first we took general measurements with the sensor inside a recipient without the material and then we took the measurements covering the recipient with our material. We recorded this data in a computer using Arduino. Finally, we walked South through Hab Ridge Road where the path was a little clearer. Here we found some invertebrate fossils, a lot of them, we were actually surprised how many small “devil’s toe nails” we found. These fossils are known as Gryphaea, or extinct bivalve mollusks. We did take a close look to these fossils but we chose not to collect any of them as it doesn’t correspond to our mission purpose.
While we kept walking south through Hab Ridge Road, we analyzed some rocks. Locally we observed some quartz-sandstones of course and medium grain size with some opaques. In one outcrop we observed the contact between a coarse-grained sandstone with a small grained sandstone that was alternated with mudstones. The latter depicted lenticular bedding which indicates a slack water environment where mud suspended in the water is deposited on top of small formations of sand once the water velocity is zero. All of the above gives us the insight that the sedimentary formation in the area was present in an environment with fluctuations in tidal currents.
By 1:15 pm we started heading back to the Hab; we hiked back down through the Hab Ridge and took some nice pictures of the landscape to finally arrive back at the Hab at 1:50 pm
This has been so far the most physically challenging EVA, as hiking with the weight of the suits, plus an extra back pack with a computer made it a little more difficult. Nevertheless, it has also been the most satisfying EVA due to the scientific data that we could extract from it and overall, it was a very nice and successful EVA.
Felipe Torres, Crew Scientist
Sol: 6
Summary Title: Another bite of Mars 🔴🇨🇴
Author’s name: Yael Méndez- Commander
Mission Status: We carried out an EVA to meet the objectives of the project of our Crew Scientist. We received a visit from a Japanese spaceship from Earth
Sol Activity Summary: The crew got up early for breakfast and awaited a visit from the Japanese spacecraft. The Japanese astronauts depressurized and entered the Hab with all the planetary protection protocols. Later, Crew 226 astronauts performed an EVA to Hab Ridge for 3 hours. They returned for a delicious bolognese pasta lunch, the best on Mars, hands down.
Look Ahead Plan: Following our mission plan and trying to meet all goals
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: Sunny in the morning and clear in the afternoon
Crew Physical Status: Tired but full of energy to continue
EVA: One EVA realized
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, EVA Request, EVA Report, HSO Report, Daily photos, Journalist report
Support Requested: Digester for the toilet
SOL:6
Name of person filing report: Carlos Salazar
Non-nominal systems: none
Notes on non-nominal systems: none
Spirit rover used: No
Hours: 153.4
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: yes
Opportunity rover used: No
Hours: 82.9
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: Yes
Curiosity rover used: No
Hours: 165.1
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: yes
Perseverance rover used: no
Hours: 226.5
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 100%
Currently charging: Yes
General notes and comments: none
Summary of Hab operations:
WATER USE: 45 gallons
Water (static tank): 347 gallons
Water (loft tank): 35 gallons
Water Meter: currently 0155063.9
Static to Loft Pump used – yes
Static tank pipe heater (on or off): on
Static tank heater (on or off) on
Toilet tank emptied: yes
Summary of internet: nominal
Summary of suits and radios: Commander Yael had some problems with her headset but it looks like the reason was that it was too tight and because of the way it works, it needs to be more loose on the ear.
Summary of GreenHab operations:
WATER USE: 10.4 gallons
Temperature: 75 °F
Heater: On
Supplemental light: Yes
Harvest: 194g Cherry Tomatoes, 3g Basil, 13g Miners Lettuce, 34g Micro greens
Summary of Science Dome operations:
SOC: 93%
Summary of RAM operations: none
Summary of any observatory issues: none
Summary of health and safety issues: none
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: There is less than a quart of digester. We consider it may be just enough to empty the tank for the remaining times that we need, but we think it is a good idea to request more.
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