Month: February 2022

Author : Pierre Fabre

Sol 3: Focus on: Water on Mars – How do we manage water on Mars?

Sometimes on Mars you have to improvise and those first days were a good example of that statement.

Two days ago an EVA which aimed to map the North Ridge area didn’t go as planned. We had to come back to the station because a member lost his visibility because his bandana fell on his eyes (in fact it was me). This can be seen as funny but when you are on an EVA on Mars it’s not funny at all because there is no way of pulling it back on your forehead due to the spacesuit. This issue made us lose precious time and then we didn’t have enough time to map the area properly with the drone.

Due to this first issue, we had to reschedule an EVA to this morning to make a second attempt of mapping North Ridge. We really needed that map for an experiment so we had no other choice. (I will talk to you about this cool experiment in another report don’t worry)

But yesterday when we were making the EVA request, we discovered that this morning was really cold and windy. Those conditions could have jeopardise the success of the drone mapping. With this new information in mind, we decided to reschedule the EVA to this afternoon when the weather was definitely better suited for flying drones. Finally, we managed to do the EVA this afternoon and we successfully mapped the North Ridge area with the drone. On Mars, you need to be flexible and adapt to every new situation you encounter.

3D printing is good when you need to adapt like in a Martian environment. On Mars, you would not have every tool you need and it is not an option to wait for somebody to send it to you. Sometimes you have to make your own tools and 3D print them is, I think, a good option. For example, Julie needed a custom-made funnel to filter used water and recycle it, so Maxime and Clément designed and printed it, which is very convenient. Well, they nearly printed it, but on instead they spent the afternoon trying to make the 3D printer work, but you have the idea!

Talking about recycling water, today we are going to talk with some members of the crew about the management of water in the station. This is the first episode of our new format of report called « Focus on » in which we are going to focus in each episode on one or a set of experiments. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

« Pierre: Ok so first why it is so important to manage water properly on Mars?

Clément: well, I think the answer is pretty obvious: Mars is a very dry desert almost all over, a lot more than here even! So if we are ever to go there, we need to bring with us the water we’ll drink, and conserve it as much as possible because there’s little to no way to resupply if we ever run out.

Pierre: What are the most water consuming activities in the station?

Clément: the biggest one is actually watering the plants in the GreenHab! Unlike us, there’s no restricting how much they use water. On the human side, it’s practically all hygiene related. Even if we try to limit showers and other things, keeping the station and ourselves clean enough still takes a lot of water.

Pierre: How to save water?

Julie: First, before you recycle water, you need to save it up, because the whole recycling process is very long and does not provide us with drinkable water. To save it up, we need to be more careful when we are using it : we wash our hands with sanitizer most of the time, we use wipes when we feel dirty, we do not put water on our toothbrush before brushing our teeth, we only take one or two showers a week, and we need to be strategic when washing dishes. Our priority is the water that we drink, and water for the GreenHab. For our safety, we can’t have any restriction on any of these two.

Used water we store it in barrels in an organised way. Then, how do we treat it ? Actually, soap molecules react with dirt, to trap it, creating soap-dirt complexes. To extract these complexes from water, we make them react with calicum ions which react very well with the soap molecules part that is not in direct contact with dirt. The final white product formed by this reaction contains the calcium, the used soap, and the dirt, and has moreover the great quality to be solid ! It makes it easy to extract from water : We just need to filter it whith some filter papers, an adapted funnel and a container. We obtain completely clean water, that we just need to warm in order to kill most of the leftover bacteria before using it again ! However this method works perfectly only with the most basic soap : Marseille’s soap, which can be separated very easily from water with calcium, as opposed to other kinds of soaps. As a consequence, it’s been 3 days that the crew is exclusively using Marseille’s soap in the station.

Pierre: How to monitor the quality of the water we drink?

Marion: Just as it is done on the ISS, we will need to test the quality of water on Mars to ensure that it is safe to drink. Thanks to the French Space Agency, CNES, and Biomerieux, we are able to use Aquapads. These small boxes host a medium which allow for bacterial growth. After injecting some water directly from our tap inside the Aquapad, we put it in an incubation tank for 48-72h. When we take it out, we can count the amount of bacterial colonies on the pad. The total can be compared to empirical values that allow us to draw conclusions as to whether the water is safe to drink. The Aquapad is very effective as its small (4cm in diameter) size makes it easy to bring on space missions. »

Crew 240 Journalist Report 02Feb2022

Author: Pierre Fabre

Title: Interview with: Commander – Good to be back?

Life in the station is becoming more and more pleasant. Some routines are well implemented (like waking up at 6:45 and workout at 7:00). In the day everyone knows perfectly what they have to do and how to do it. We are also getting used to eating dried food and saving water. (More about saving water in tomorrow’s report). We are little by little feeling closer to a real Martian crew and it is quite satisfying, to be honest.

This morning at 9:00 a team of four courageous members of the crew performed an EVA to install two experiments. This EVA was hard both technically and physically. One group installed the LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter) which is basically a scientific instrument that measures airborne particles (but we will talk about this cool experiment in more detail another day)

Meanwhile, the other group installed the weather station which will provide data to understand better the measures from another experiment. (From the LOAC for example).

First, let me tell you that installing something during an EVA has nothing to do with fixing stuff at home or assembling IKEA furniture. You have to imagine that you have a 10kg spacesuit on your back that is restricting your ability to move to the bare minimum, a helmet that distorts your sight, the constraint of communicating with your crewmates only by radio, and the most important part: the equivalent of ski gloves that makes any step of the assembly technically very hard. With all that equipment on you, every movement you make becomes both time and energy-consuming.

They did a really great job and now from the window of the upper deck, we can see the weather station proudly standing on the red Martian soil! This is all the more cool because this is the window where the mascot of Raphael is standing so he can see the experiment he was in charge of during the preparation of the mission.

During the EVA, the Commander had to wear a different, less comfortable spacesuit, because his usual one had malfunctioned the day before. This afternoon our crew Engineer Francois spent some time in the RAM (Repair and Assembly Module) and successfully fixed it! Thanks to his great job our Commander will be safe for his next EVA!

Talking about our Commander I’ve interviewed him this afternoon and this is what we talked about:

-Hi Clement! How are you today on this Sol 2?

-Hi Pierre! I feel great thanks! And you?

-Yeah I’m good!

First, Commander, can you introduce yourself in a few words?

-Yes sure! My name is Clément Plagne, I’m currently a student in my last year at ISAE-Supaero, a French aerospace engineering school. Last year I did an Internship at CNES, the French space agency, where I worked as an engineer on stratospheric balloons. My passion for human space flights led me to study biomedical engineering and medicine during one semester during my gap year. After this mission, I will do another internship at the European Space Agency to work on the engineering part of their analog missions.

-Wow this will be a great experience!

How does it feel to be back in the station after two years of living on Earth?

-It’s great to be back, really. The station hasn’t changed that much, but it still took me a bit of time to settle in. Now I’m good! I got my old room and most of my habits back, and it honestly feels a little like home.

-Why did you choose to come back for another mission on Mars?

-I think the reason is pretty obvious. When you end your mission here at MDRS you feel like it passed so fast and you have only one will and it is to come back! For the part of coming back as a commander, I think it comes from the fact that during my previous mission I was the Journalist.

For this role in particular you need to be aware of all the things that happen in the station. You need to know how the scientific experiments are going but you also need to know how your crewmates feel and if they have troubles. I think the role of the commander is the logical next step but in addition to that, you become more active and start focusing on problem-solving.

-What is the thing that you liked the most during your first mission here with Crew 223?

-Photography without a doubt! At the time of my first mission, I had started taking pictures of landscapes among other things and I loved it. But here at MDRS, you can find landscapes that you would encounter nowhere else except on Mars. Moreover, the opportunity to go outside the station in a spacesuit during EVAs to take pictures makes it all the more incredible. I love to take pictures of my crewmates doing their job during EVA in such an unreal environment! I still love to look at the old pictures I took two years ago!

-I have to say I love those pictures too, you did a great job!

(I personally encourage you to take a look at those beautiful pictures)

-Wow thank you so much!

-I truly mean it!

You seem to have enjoyed this first mission so much. What is the thing that you’ve been missing the most during those two years on Earth between the two missions?

-The thing I’ve been missing since I came back on Earth is something you discover really soon on Mars. It is the lack of distraction. On Earth, it is merely impossible to work on something for more than two hours without receiving a notification or being distracted by something. Personally, I tend to be distracted easily by that kind of thing, and being on Mars is a real opportunity for me to work far more productively than on Earth.

-And is there a thing that you haven’t been missing at all?

-Yes for sure! The absence of the internet and being disconnected from the world is a double-edged sword. There are a lot of things that you take for granted on Earth but that is impossible on Mars. Googling something or buying something at your local store for your dinner recipe is not possible on Mars and sometimes it can be quite frustrating. So sometimes you’re glad to live on Earth for that kind of thing.

-Yes I can definitely see what you are talking about!

So, this year you are the Commander of the crew. Can you explain to us what is the role of a Commander and how does this role affects the way you live this mission?

-Ok so the Commander is the most experienced member of the crew because he has already done a mission. For this reason, he knows the station and how everything works inside it well. So this role is about supervision. Your job is to help your crewmates do their job properly, avoid mistakes, answer their questions and guide them to do a good job. This is a completely different perspective from two years ago when I was, just like you are now, the crew’s journalist.

As a journalist, my job was to gather information about the day and compile everything in my report but it was kind of a passive job. Now that I am here as a Commander my task is to be much more active. I am the person who knows what to do best and how to do it so I have to be ready to help and answer questions from my crewmates.

-From my point of view, it is very pleasant and comforting at the beginning of the mission to have somebody who you can rely on. You are always here to answer our questions and you’ve been here since the beginning of this mission to train us. I think you do your job well and I want to thank you for that!

Clement thank you very much for your time!

This concluded the interview. In the next reports, we are definitely going to do interviews of my other crewmates so stay tuned!

Journalist Report

1-FEB-2022

Author: Pierre Fabre

Today was the day. The day we have been waiting for and working those past two years for.

This morning when we woke up, we were on Mars. This morning we left our beds when the sun was rising. We were not afraid of the strong radiations of the sun. Even if the atmosphere of Earth doesn’t protect us anymore, the walls of the Hab act like a shield against these radiations so we have nothing to be afraid of.

Today will be a great day, a day to remember our whole life. Today every member of the crew will perform their first EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity). What does that mean? We are going to leave our shield, our home, to go outside, on Mars. We are not going to go outside without being protected, we would die from it! We are going to wear our spacesuits to protect us from those lethal radiations! In addition to prevent us from dying, which is good, they look super cool!

So we start the morning with this feeling of excitement and nervousness ! But first our HSO is waiting for us for our morning workout

! We had no problem to endure it because we were only thinking of that incoming EVA.

There will be two EVAs today. For the first one, the plan is to go to the Marble Ritual area. This is the classic EVA that every crew does as a ritual. The aim is just to do a short EVA to feel more comfortable with wearing a spacesuit and driving a rover. The second one will have a scientific interest. We will go to North Ridge to map the area thanks to a drone. I will definitely talk to you in more details about this experiment later but for now I will try to describe as well as I can how you feel when you do an EVA on Mars.

9:30 : I am seated at the upper deck’s table. The crew’s commander, Clement Plagne, will do the briefing for the first EVA of the day. There is a huge map of the surroundings of the station on the table. My hands are becoming damp and I can feel the excitement growing inside of me. He puts his finger on a point on the Map : Marble Ritual, this is our destination.

For this EVA, I will be teamed up with Julie, the HSO. The other buddies will be Clement and Francois, our Engineer. Maxime, the astronomer will be our Hab Com. He is the man inside who communicates with us and makes sure everything is going well. The last member of the crew, Marion, will be in charge of taking care of the Green Hab while we are out. Marion and Maxime will participate in the second EVA of the day with Clement and myself.

9:45 : The excitement is still growing in me while I’m putting on my spacesuit with the kind help of my crew mates! I still have to test my radio and be ready to enter in the airlock at 10:00. The air conditioning system starts in my helmet and I can hear nothing but voices from the radio in my ear.

10:00 : I step into the airlock with my crew mates who are waiting for me. Maxime closes the door and we start the depressurisation. We have to stay 5 minutes in the airlock while the pressure is passing from the Earth pressure to the Mars pressure, which is 1000 times lighter.

10:04 : « one minute left » says the Hab Com in the radio. My breathing is fastening. I look to my crew mates and I can tell just by their face that they feel just like me.

10:04:50 : « ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one… » the door opens and the light comes in. After a flash that blinds me for a moment my eyes start to accommodate to the light and I can see the red colour of the sand and the rocky mountains in the background through the open door. « Welcome on Mars » says the Hab Com. The goosebumps get me. At this moment, I can’t contain a smile. This is the first result of two years of hard work that were truly worth it. A little thought to Raphael our botanist who would have loved that view and we step out of the station and land our first foot on the red soil of Mars. We dreamt so many times of this moment and now it’s real. But now we have to focus on our destination, the reason for this EVA. Marble Ritual is waiting for us!