Author: jburk

Staring at the Sun
Yesterday (Sol 7) marked the half-way point of our rotation. Aside from one easy EVA in the early-morning, and a jigsaw puzzle that tested our wits more than it probably should have (barely managed to complete it and sign the back), we all pretty much had the day off, and Andrew submitted his commander’s report in lieu of a journalist’s report.
That’s not to say it was all sunshine and rainbows – we had a few illnesses as well. Happy to say that as of writing this on Sol 8, everyone’s pretty much back to normal.
Today involved a pair of great EVAs. The first pitted Steve’s rover against the ‘Mars 500’ racetrack – i.e. a custom course designed to test how quickly the rover could traverse a set course while sampling terrain. Steve tried several runs – one involved driving blindly and being guided by Scott (something that might be necessary in an actual Martian environment), the next involved driving the rover directly (which understandably streamlined and sped up proceedings), and the last involved Steve driving the rover while collecting samples en route. He also did a human test to compare results (again, the human clocked in more impressive speeds). During this EVA, while not helping Steve, Scott also experimented some more with his angular measurements, using his theodolite app and new protractor techniques.
The second EVA explored the area west of Tharsis Montes (about 4km due north of the MDRS), in search of gypsum (the ‘drinkable rock’ that can be heated to yield water) and petrified wood. We found plenty of the former, not so much of the latter, and got some incredible views of Skyline Rim (the dried-up streambeds we were navigating were pretty spectacular as well). In practice, the search for gypsum felt almost a little too gamey – if it glinted in the sun, we picked it up. We also discovered some endolithic colonies (microbes that live beneath rocks) in the process, partially by accident.
Following Rob’s previous stint setting up the observatory’s telescope and studying the sun, today he managed to take a cool photo of the sun’s surface.
The crew also passed another cool milestone today… our first self-grown tomatoes! Scott came back from the Greenhab bearing gifts, aka the most ‘tomatoey’ tomatoes we’ve ever had. Hats off to Crew 290 for laying the groundwork – we hope to do the same for Crew 292.
Highlights of the day/yesterday: Rob’s pic of the sun, jigsaw sleuthing, tomatoes, hot beverages with dairy milk, Greenhab now has a bee.
Lowlights of the day: Illness, burned fritters, the saltiest chips imaginable.
– Alexander Tobal, Crew 291

Breaking out the Bubbles
Sol 10 was a fairly relaxed day. There was reduced focus on EVAs… with the crew having collected most of the samples they needed during earlier EVAs, today was more about processing what we already had.
For Andrew and Clare, this involved preparing their gypsum samples for water extraction. The samples first needed to be washed, to remove any lingering dirt and other contaminants, and then ground in a mortar and pestle. The resulting powder was then heated. This experiment, although small, yielded the amount of water expected and was generally a success.
At every step of the way, Steve also took the opportunity to spectrify the gypsum – in its dirty state, its clean state, its powdered state, and its anhydrite state (post-water extraction). This went really well, although the spectral readings of the powdered gypsum weren’t fully consistent with Steve’s previous readings of similar samples, possibly implying slight differences in chemical composition between them. The more excitable of us have named this strange new form of gypsum “Stevenite”.
Andrew and Clare also reacted their carbonate samples (or specifically, the clay matrices within the samples) with ascetic acid (vinegar) to extract carbon dioxide, resulting in some very visible effervescence. Meanwhile Rob spent some more valuable time in the observatory.
As the crew’s engineering officer, Scott alternated between spacesuit maintenance (several of the suits were having battery issues) and Greenhab duties. Apparently we have two cucumbers in the ‘soon-to-be-eaten’ pipeline, as well as a surprise new fledgling cucumber from one of the more feeble plants. We didn’t necessarily have high expectations of the cucumber plants given that they had a rough time prior to our rotation with heating issues, so as far as we’re concerned this is all a bonus – clearly they’re enjoying the steady warmth. If we don’t eat them, they’ll make a good welcome present for Crew 292.
Speaking of warmth, in half a week we’ll be flying back into an Australian summer. Alas, our time at the MDRS is steadily drawing to a close. We only have one more full day ‘in sim’ before the end of our rotation – as of 12:00 local time on 2 February, we’re free men and woman (or at least, able to leave the hab without gearing up and depressurising in the airlock). The plan is to make tomorrow count with several large EVAs.
Highlights of the day: Water from rock, discovering Stevenite, discovering dehydrated chicken, Scotty to Engineering, Rob’s epic ‘hunza’ pie, cucumber surprise, discussing volcanoes/space disasters/conspiracies, Clare’s ‘weird rock’ fizzed (in vinegar).
Lowlights of the day: Self-dissembling plant-beds, Clare apparently hates puns and the news as well, and also hasn’t watched any Futurama or Star Wars/Trek (and calls the Force “psychic powers”), spherical trigonometry.
– Alexander Tobal, Crew 291