Hello Mission Support,
Following is the Sol Summary Report.
Crew 272 Sol Summary Report 11-01-2023
Sol: 10
Summary Title: Hab Ridge: The New Frontier
Author’s name: Kshitij Mall
Mission Status: All nominal
Sol Activity Summary: After successfully completing watching the movie Lakshya (Objective), the crew got pumped up to achieve their Lakshya, which is to retrieve BTS possibly displaced by the heavy wind past night. We also planned to traverse the Hab Ridge and identify places of interest for geological experiments for Crew Geologist Adriana. To calm the team down from the sim-death experience last sol with the outer Hab door opening up by a wind blast, I shared Yog comprising some breathing exercises like Pranayama, Anulom, Vilom, some warmup exercises and some asans (poses) with the crew. As per the crew, it did benefit them after being on a streak of EVAs and living in their new isolated Hab Sweet Hab for quite some time. The breakfast for the sol included egg casserole, which was prepared by our Greenhab Officer Madelyn and supported by HSO Megan. A mistake on my part to not plug the chargers back into two of the rovers thinking that overcast conditions will drain the limited solar power we had followed by bad weather in the night made conditions not congenial for carrying out any EVA. But Mission Support recommended us for an exploratory mission to the Hab Ridge, which we were originally planning to be just a geological EVA instead of retrieving my electrical-Martian-baby, BTS. He will have to wait another day for the rescue, but I’m confident he is strong enough to handle more Martian winds for a few sols. The advice from the Mission Support indeed was handy as the sol unfolded. For exploratory missions we didn’t require extensive Earth Mission Support.
After getting an approval from the Mission Support, an exploratory EVA to the Hab Ridge was then conducted at 2 PM by Adriana and me as the primaries for the geology and exploration part, respectively, with Madelyn and Megan as the supporting EVA crew. Good map reading skills were the need of the hour for this EVA. Our EVA crew had great success in reaching the newly established Repeater Station by Crew 271. We also took some great pictures of the EVA crew at the Hab Ridge with Hab Sweet Hab and our rovers in the backdrop. The remaining boilermaker engineers and scientists were busy doing their rock souvenir shopping on Mars while I was taking pictures and videos that could be used by future EVA crews, who plan to visit the Hab Ridge. I too collected some Gryphaea or the Devil’s toenails as Martian omiyage (souvenirs) for my Earth-based families including my 10-month-old son, Hiro.
After coming back from the EVA at 4:15 PM, Adriana and I debriefed the EVA to Arly. In the meantime, Crew Engineer Mason attempted fixing suit #7 that had connection issues and had a great success in fixing suit #7. We also completed the daily human-factors based cognitive performance tests and personal surveys for Arly and Andres. Dinner duties for the sol are handled by Arly and Mason, who are preparing TikTok Pasta. We might play Monikers card game tonight, which we have been procrastinating for several sols. Tomorrow, we plan to conduct a geological EVA to the Cowboy corner to study the paleo flow indictors and do some tool test of 3D printed hammers. Madelyn would be helped tomorrow during her Great Harvest at the Greenhab by the rest of the crew based on their availabilities during the sol.
Look Ahead Plan: Conduct a geological EVA at the Cowboy corner and complete the Great Harvest at the Greenhab
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: Very Sunny, Calm Winds
Crew Physical Status: Good
EVA: One
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, Journalist Report, EVA Report, EVA Request, Greenhab Report.
Support Requested: None
Thanks
Kshitij