Day: February 25, 2022

Supplemental Operations Report 25Feb2022

Name of person filing report: Shannon Rupert

Reason for Report: Changing of the guard

Non-nominal systems: GreenHab

Action taken for non-nominal systems: All crops were removed from the GreenHab and it will be shut down quite possibly for the rest of the field season

Generator: Still being manually run at night. 967.5 hours

ScienceDome Dual Split: Off

Solar—Charge controllers off at night. We turn the generator on before the SOC reaches 70%.

Solar— VDC Last daylight hours: (information obtained from magnum data)

Average 52.31

Minimum 48.40

Maximum 59.20

Notes on solar: Nothing to report

Propane Reading, station tank – 70 %

Propane Reading, director tank— 65 %

Propane Reading, intern tank— 55 %

Propane Reading, generator— 55 %

Ethanol Free Gasoline – 2 gallons

Water (Outpost tank) – 200 gallons

Sojourner rover used: Yes

Hours: 161.9

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 100

Currently charging: Yes

Notes on rovers: Nothing to report

ATV’s Used: (Honda, 350.1, 350.2, 300): No

Reason for use: n/a

Oil Added? No.

ATV Fuel Used: 0 gallons

# Hours the ATVs were Used: 0

Notes on ATVs: Nothing to report

HabCar used and why, where? Yes, local

CrewCar used and why, where? Yes. Atila took it to drive to SLC to pick me up but lost control and went off the road close to I-70 on Highway 24. He was shaken and sore afterwards but the car was checked and appears to have no damage.

Luna used and why, where? No.

Campus wide inspection, if action taken, what and why? I have not completed my inspection fully but noted no damage/changes to the Robotic Observatory exterior, instrumentation nearby or the solar panels. Signs on the road and at the entrance have no damage/changes.

General notes and comments: I arrived back at MDRS on Wednesday night and Atila will be leaving MDRS on Saturday morning.

Summary of general operations:

Summary of internet: The original Hab internet service will be deactivated on March 1, 2022. Today the new system was to be installed, but the installer cancelled. I will be installing a Starlink system that hopefully can be used while we are waiting for HughesNet to get its act together.

Summary of suits and radios: Nothing to report

Summary of Hab operations: The toilet holding tank was cleaned for the built up waste that was making the tank fill twice as fast as when nominal. We were unable to see how successful we were, but will track the crew’s use to see if we cleared it completely. We will repeat this process in 4 weeks.

Summary of Outpost operations: Nothing to report

Summary of GreenHab operations: I inspected the GreenHab the morning after I arrived. From what few details I was getting from reports and photos, it was clear something was wrong. Nothing was thriving and plants were dying and underproducting. A more detailed inspection showed an unchecked infestation of white fly and contamination of soil by eggs and larva. I determined a collapse was near, salvage wasn’t possible, and we shut the building down. The crew removed all crops and consolidated the soil, and I will be finishing the removal of plant debris over the next few days. Heat is off and supplemental lighting turned off. This failure was the result of not one, but many small things. I was offsite and hadn’t been paying enough attention to the reports to realize that the crew was not reporting vital information about the condition of the plants. Our supplemental operations report had become truncated in a way that didn’t allow clear reporting on GreenHab issues by Atila. The GreenHab Officers and Atila didn’t have the knowledge and experience to recognize what was happening and I was offsite. Although we are requiring a general skill set for GreenHab Officer’s beginning next season, we do not have any requirements at the moment and it is one of two positions that are generally not filled by qualified people. Finally, but maybe not of much importance, I requested that the crew install a shade cloth weeks ago, and that was never gone. Dying plants were reported as drying plants. This is, however, why we do what we do—to learn from what mistakes we make. We probably won’t be able to produce anymore crops this season, because we need to sterilize the soil before we can replant and that requires heat, sunlight and time.

Summary of ScienceDome operations: Nothing to report

Summary of RAM operations: Nothing to report

Summary of any observatory issues: Robotic observatory is down. A part to repair it is due here Saturday.

Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report

Crew 263 Scientific Report 25-02-2022

SOL: 4

Name of person filing report: Léa Rouverand

Ultrasound surveillance:

On SOL 2, image capture of 5 organs for each Crew Members were performed using an ultrasound device and an Augmented Reality software. No issues were found regarding the hardware. Some issues in the protocol were identified and sent to experts at CNES (French Space Agency).

HF wave propagation experiment:

This experiment aims to study the propagation characteristics of the ionosphere for HF waves to achieve contact between MDRS and Toulouse (France). The Delta Loop Antennas were successfully set up on SOL 3.

Gravitropism:

Rotating platforms to study the effect of gravity on plant growth which were initially installed in the GreenHab were moved to the Science Dome on SOL 3.

Drone Astronaut Rescue:

The experiment’s aim is to assess the use of an ANAFI thermal drone for Astronaut Rescue. First trial was performed on SOL 4, the drone allowed to spot the Astronaut pair in 2 minutes and join them in 26 minutes. The use of the drone thermal feature is still to be investigated as it made the image more confusing. We also need to compare the rescue protocol to one without a drone; this is planned on SOL 16.

Atmospheric Experiment:

There is a total of 5 atmospheric experiments; LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter), an Electrical Field Mill, Purple Air (Aerosol Counter), Mega-Ares (Electrical Field Counter) and a weather station. On SOL 4, the installation of 4 of them was finished. Mega-Ares still needs to be installed.

Augmented Reality Testing:

First trials of the Augmented Reality Application testing were performed between SOL 1 and SOL 4. Software issues with menu placement and hardware issues were identified.

On-going experiments: Sleep study using Dreem Headbands, TELEOP (analysis of spatial awareness and isolation on teleoperation tasks), Psychosocial and Cognitive questionnaires, Psychometric tests, Water quality monitoring. Nothing to declare on SOL 4.

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: NaN