Crew 271 GreenHab Report 24-12-2022
GreenHab Officer: Alicyn Grete
Environmental control: heater
Average temperatures: 76 degrees F, about 25 degrees C
Hours of supplemental light: 4 hours
Daily water usage for crops: 7 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank 144 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 1100, 1630
Changes to crops: N/A
Narrative: Watered plants
Harvest: N/A
Support/supplies needed: N/A
Crew 271 Mid-Mission Research Report 24-12-2022
Submitted by: Marc Levesque, Crew Commander
Titles: Coping Strategies for Long-Duration Space Exploration (Study 1); Team Challenge Resolution Mechanisms in Isolated and Confined Space Analog Mission Through Ethnographic Methods (Study 2)
Crew member: Andres Käosaar
The projects are going great. For the first project, the subjects have been filling in the questionnaires as requested. For the second project, although no big challenges have been encountered, there have been smaller challenges that the crew has resolved well and thus provided the research some useful data.
Title: Drying trends of a clay-rich surface
Crew member: Helen Eifert
A location was selected north of the Hab for the experiment and the initial wetting was conducted on Sol 4. The immediate drying trends were measured for an additional two hours following saturation of the surface on this first EVA using an ASD FieldSpec3. This data shows visible near-infrared surface reflectance in order to better understand whether water is being trapped in the chemical structure of clays and how long it can be retained. Return EVAs were conducted on Sol 5 and Sol 6 for an additional two measurements each day. As far as what is left, since the surface still appears wet, additional measurements will be taken in two days, hopefully capturing the soil back at equilibrium. A dry sample was collected on Sol 5 to get initial water content. I will bake this in the science dome in the coming days. Finally, I will post process the spectral data and plot it for use in my research.
Title: Geology – Samples for ISRU
Crew member: Cesare Guariniello
Collected samples on one EVA to Barrainca Butte. The samples include some igneous rocks from southern provinces, and conglomerates and mudstone fallen from the top layers of Barrainca Butte. The samples have been transferred to the Science Dome for processing.
Title: Astronomy
Crew member: Cesare Guariniello
After adjusting the MDRS-14 telescope, multiple observations have been taken when the sky was clear. The most notable was M42 (Orion Nebula).
Title: Medical
Crew member: Alicyn Grete
All participants have completed the pre-assessment survey and training module. Three of six crew members have passed the skills test and completed the post-assessment survey. A prospective EVA is in the planning phase, which would simulate a tibial fracture occurring during an EVA, and crew members will respond by delivering the injured patient back to the Hab for simulated surgery in the Science Dome. I have written the methods and most of the introduction for the paper that will follow the research.
Title: Engineering
Crew member: Sergii Iakymov
The first part of the project was delayed together with the mission. Currently EVA suits power systems are being inspected and due to frequent anomalies with suits batteries. One of the suits, particularly #3, has run into a charging issue and was fully inspected and tested, root cause identified, and declared as a battery charging anomaly. The second part of the project is scheduled for the second part of the mission.
Title: Communications
Crew member: Marc Levesque
The antenna on the new radio repeater was raised to 6 meters to improve reception for EVA teams. Comm checks were made on EVAs beyond the immediate Hab area, but it appears that the height of the antenna remains insufficient to improve communications and eliminate the many black holes the crews have encountered. Further comm checks will be conducted during the remaining EVAs to confirm this finding.
Crew 271 Sol Summary Report 25-12-2022
Sol: 7
Summary Title: Christmas on Mars
Author’s name: Marc Levesque, Commander
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: The crew celebrated Christmas on Mars with crepes for breakfast, napping, constructing a miniature Hab from gingerbread, games in the afternoon, and baked ziti for dinner to complete the sol. All in all, a nice break from our hectic project schedule.
Look Ahead Plan: One EVA is planned to Candor Chasma for Guariniello’s geology project while continuing other projects.
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: Warmer and sunny
Crew Physical Status: Good
EVA: Two
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations, Journalist, GreenHab, and EVA Request.
Support Requested: None
Crew 271 GreenHab Report 25-12-2022
GreenHab Officer: Alicyn Grete
Environmental control: heater
Average temperatures: 66 degrees F, about 20 degrees C
Hours of supplemental light: 4 hours
Daily water usage for crops: 7 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank 137 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 1100, 1830
Changes to crops: N/A
Narrative: Watered plants
Harvest: N/A
Support/supplies needed: N/A
Photos 12-25-2022
Crew 271 Operations Report 25-12-2022
SOL: 7
Name of person filing report: Sergii Iakymov
Non-nominal systems: Kitchen sink cabinet hinge
Notes on non-nominal systems: Right bottom hinge of the kitchen sink cabinet came off today. It is unknown when exactly it was damaged. We will try to fix it tomorrow.
ROVERS
Spirit rover used: No
Hours: 205.1
Beginning charge: Not measured
Ending charge: Not measured
Currently charging: Yes
Opportunity rover used: No
Hours: 109.6
Beginning charge: Not measured
Ending charge: Not measured
Currently charging: Yes
Curiosity rover used: No
Hours: 217.8
Beginning charge: Not measured
Ending charge: Not measured
Currently charging: Yes
Perseverance rover used: Yes
Hours: 252.5
Beginning charge: Not measured
Ending charge: Not measured
Currently charging: Yes
General notes on rovers: None
Summary of Hab operations:
WATER USE: 29.41 gallons
Water (static tank): 350.68 gallons
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: N/A
Summary of GreenHab operations:
WATER USE: 7 gal
Heater: On
Supplemental light: plugged
Harvest: no harvest
Summary of ScienceDome operations: Not used.
Dual split: On
Summary of RAM operations: N/A.
Summary of any observatory issues: N/A
Summary of health and safety issues: None
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: N/A
Crew 271 Sol 7 Journalist Report 25-12-2022
Sol: 7
Author’s name: Helen Eifert, Crew Geologist
Title: Gingerbread Hab
Mars-y Christmas from Crew 271! After four straight days of two EVAs a day, we had a mandated day of rest today. While we all got a little bit of work done indoors today, we spent most of the holiday celebrating together. We played games, finished more puzzles, enjoyed many sweet treats, and exchanged wrapped gifts left under the inflatable baby Yoda tree. Cesare wined and dined us (minus the wine) with breakfast crepes, baked ziti for dinner, and traditional Italian panettone for dessert. It was a restful day indeed.
The feat of the day came from our crew engineer, Sergii Iakymov. To celebrate the holidays, I brought a pre constructed gingerbread house for the crew to decorate. To our martian readers, Earth houses are typically cubical or rectangular, with distinct corners. These standards don’t exclude houses of the gingerbread variety. Sergii took on the task of deconstructing and then reconstructing the gingerbread house to properly represent our living quarters. It only took a few hours, but a gingerbread hab was erected on this day. I suspect it would not withstand the inhospitable space environment, but it’s quite likely any breaches were the result of hungry crew members and not engineering deficiencies.
The rest of the day remained relatively uneventful – always a good sign in space. We nearly had an unplanned launch of space tourists, but our on-the-ground mission support, Shannon, managed to scrub the launch before they made it out of lower Earth orbit. Although we dodged one bullet, we were informed we would have to fill out two psych surveys tonight for Kaosaar’s research project. We had been betrayed by his time estimates before, so we will likely be pulling out the scissors tonight. Sleep with one eye open, Andres, it won’t be Santa coming down the chimney tonight.
Supplemental Operations Report 25-DEC-2022
Name of person filing report: Shannon Rupert
Reason for Report: Routine
Non-nominal systems: Power system programing
Action taken for non-nominal systems: Nothing yet. I will go through and reprogram it in the next few days.
Generator: Running from about 8 pm to 8 am. The generator was repaired on Thursday. The problem was the governor, which had lost a small plastic cotter pin and as a result was unstable and the vibration of the engine was causing the surging. How crazy! We also needed the oil pressure changed as it was faulty and we had the bushings replaced because they would have needed it soon. The technician was great and spent a lot of time showing us what things were that would commonly need replaced and how to replace them. I am very grateful to not have to worry every night about losing power!
ScienceDome Dual Split: on at 65 degrees overnight (when I remember). I need to find the manual in order to program it but I don’t know where it is.
Solar— Nominal but router needs reprogrammed
Solar— SOC Last 24 hours:
Max
Min
Avg not showing the way it is currently operating
Propane Reading, station tank – 61 %
Propane Reading, director tank— 75 %
Propane Reading, intern tank— 72 %
Propane Reading, generator— 60 %
Ethanol Free Gasoline – 0 gallons
Water (static tank) – not checked gallons
Water in GreenHab – ~150 gallons
Water in ScienceDome: 0 gallons
Water (Outpost tank) – 350 gallons
Hab toilet tank emptied: See crew operations reports
Sojourner rover used: no
Hours: not noted
Beginning charge: 100
Ending charge: 100
Currently charging: yes
Notes on rovers: nothing to report
ATV’s Used: (Honda, 350.1, 350.2, 300): none
Reason for use: n/a
Oil Added? no
ATV Fuel Used: 0 Gals
# Hours the ATVs were Used today: 0
Notes on ATVs: Nothing to report
HabCar used and why, where? Yes, to town
CrewCar used and why, where? Yes, to town
Luna used and why, where? Yes, to town
General notes and comments: We have Christmas lights up outside for the first time at the station. They are a simple string across three rovers outside the RAM but they are quite festive and cheerful.
Summary of internet: Nominal.
Summary of suits and radios: See crew operations reports.
Campus wide inspection, if action taken, what and why? Nothing to report
Summary of general operations: Nothing to report
Summary of Hab operations: I was unable to completely unclog the toilet but over several fills and flushes with hot water and lots of dish soap, I made enough progress for us to get through the next two crews and then January, during the time we have no crew, we will replace the toilet tank with a new one and plumb in a cleanout value.
Summary of Outpost operations: The deck with the clothesline has been cleaned off in anticipation of required repairs. We need to replace the surface material and reinstall the clothesline. General outside cleanup.
Summary of GreenHab operations: Supplemental light 10-2 pm. The beans produced and were so good we planted more beans. Beans, peas and tomatoes are all flowering.
Summary of ScienceDome operations: We repaired the leak near the north window.
Summary of RAM operations: Nothing to report
Summary of any observatory issues: Peter and Crew Astronomer worked on the Robotic Observatory last Sunday.
Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report
Questions, concerns, supplies needed and requests: Merry Christmas!
Name of person filing report: Shannon Rupert
Reason for Report: Routine/crew changeover
Non-nominal systems: Hab toilet has something wrong and it is not emptying correctly.
Action taken for non-nominal systems: We will be investigating tomorrow
Generator: Running from about 8 pm to 8 am. We looked into some of the issues surrounding the autostart last weekend and as usual, the power system decided to seek revenge. The router is showing as SOC connect for the generator but the online data is only showing VDC. Sooooo…. We need to figure out which parts of the system need reprogrammed.
ScienceDome Dual Split: on at 65 degrees overnight
Solar— Nominal (see generator notes for some issues with the power system as a whole)
Solar— SOC Last 24 hours:
Max
Min
Avg not showing the way it is currently operating
Propane Reading, station tank – filled Friday %
Propane Reading, director tank— filled Friday %
Propane Reading, intern tank— Filled Friday %
Propane Reading, generator— Filled Friday %
Ethanol Free Gasoline – 0 gallons
Water (static tank) – 550 gallons
Water in GreenHab – 200 gallons
Water in ScienceDome: 0 gallons
Water (Outpost tank) – 550 gallons
Hab toilet tank emptied: Yes, it has been emptied every two days this week as there is a blockage.
Sojourner rover used: no
Hours: not noted
Beginning charge: 100
Ending charge: 100
Currently charging: yes
Notes on rovers: nothing to report
ATV’s Used: (Honda, 350.1, 350.2, 300): none
Reason for use: n/a
Oil Added? no
ATV Fuel Used: 0 Gals
# Hours the ATVs were Used today: 0
Notes on ATVs: Nothing to report
HabCar used and why, where? Yes, to town and on SWB field trip to Salt Wash
CrewCar used and why, where? No. It has been in Grand Junction.
Luna used and why, where? Yes, to town
General notes and comments: Camera with alarm (to alert us to trespassers) was installed on the side of the Hab but was too far away to trigger the alarm so we are moving it soon to the old HughesNet mount near the GreenHab
Summary of internet: Nominal.
Summary of suits and radios: See crew operations reports.
Campus wide inspection, if action taken, what and why? Nothing to report
Summary of general operations: Conduit work delayed
Summary of Hab operations: As noted above the toilet has a problem that we need to investigate. I ordered a new humidifier for the upper deck. The one we had was not operational nor was it one I purchased.
Summary of Outpost operations: I broke one half of the handle to the output on my trailer’s wastewater pipes because it was frozen. It is still usable. Sergii’s hot water to the bathroom froze last night. It’s been very cold for this early in the season. I’m also using my wall unit to supplement the heat in my house.
Summary of GreenHab operations: Shade cloth was removed. Supplemental light 10-2 pm. Tomatoes all moved to the bed frame. We transplanted the ones from the herb garden into pots as they were not thriving. We removed some of the snow peas to do this, and I replanted snow peas in the herb garden. I thinned the carrots and we replanted microgreens in one of the two raised beds. We also replanted cilantro in clay pot bottoms as they grow better than way. Tomorrow I will clear out the cilantro pot and plant another microgreen.
Summary of ScienceDome operations: Used all week for SWBU. I will be removing the broken microscopes and taking them to WA for replace. One of the teachers who was here for SWBU has donated a new microscope that I will pick up in SLC as soon as possible.
Summary of RAM operations: Added a spark plug gap measuring device and a new ratchet handle to the tools.
Summary of any observatory issues: Nothing to report
Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report
Questions, concerns, supplies needed and requests: n/a
Sol: 3
Summary Title: Rocketry and Field Trips
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary:
The crew woke up on Mars where they started their day with rocket ship building in the science dome. Everyone was able to assemble his/her rocket as well as a bigger display rocket. These will fly tomorrow morning. After lunch, the crew broke Sim to go to Stan’s Burger Shak for lunch. With full bellies they stopped at Rockin Riddle Rock Shop where Cathy warmly greeted the crew and let them rummage amongst her thousands of rocks. Shannon led the way and took the crew through an adventure of Factory Butte, Valley of the Stars, San Rafael Overlook, and Salt Wash. The quest was to find the magical gypsum that encased the extremophile. The crew was able to successfully gather samples as well as some other treasures along the quest. The night ended with a conglomerate dinner of leftovers and Nutella frosted brownies.
Look Ahead Plan: Launch rockets, clean up campus, and go home!
Anomalies in work: No anomalies
Weather: Chilly (approx. 40 deg F), partly sunny, windy and cold!
Crew Physical Status: good physical health for the remaining crewmembers
EVA: none
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary
Support Requested: None at this time
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