Author: jburk

Sol 10 – 01/08/2018

Name the space movie (or show) given the following quote. Answer at the end of the Report:

Science fiction. You’re right, it’s crazy. In fact, it’s even worse than that, it’s nuts. You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an airplane, you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it’s ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon? Atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I’m asking is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history… of history.

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Have you ever tried celery in eggs? Next time you make scrambled eggs, add in some fried up sausage and celery. It adds a lovely crunch I never would have thought to try before becoming a Martian! This breakfast was especially important since the Commander, Geologist, and I were heading out to our most ambitious Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) to date, an area called “Skyline Rim” which is nearly 7 miles driving from the habitat. Unfortunately, our wonderful rovers cannot go that distance so we geared up and headed out on the ATVs (arguably way more fun to drive). With most, if not all, EVAs, we have been sent off on a quest to find geological samples, but why are these samples so important? What is so great about collecting a bunch of rocks?

I sat down with Ellen Czaplinski, our Crew Geologist and a PhD student in Space and Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas, to get the scoop on why we should all have a greater appreciation for the boulders that make up our home planet and planets beyond. As Crew Geologist, Ellen came into the mission with the research objective of collecting geological samples of sand or rocks near existing or previous areas with flowing water. The samples are valuable because the clays near MDRS are similar to those found on Mars. They will be grouped based on their location in the field and analyzed through infrared spectral analysis. Infrared spectral analysis involves taking a science fiction looking, construction yellow, light gun about the size of the average human forearm and shining its light onto the rock samples. The light projected from the gun bounces off the rock and back towards the gun which measures the light that has been bounced back and tells the user what minerals the rock is made from. After measuring and collecting the samples in the field, they are sent to a lab for further analysis. This work will be important for future Mars missions, and future planetary missions as a whole, since it allows us to practice sample collection in the field in a relatively easier environment than Mars. Additionally, it provides a platform to identify differences in analyzing samples in the field versus studying them in the lab. These differences will help us better analyze sample returns from missions such as the Mars2020 rover, OSIRIS-REx, and Hayabusa2 who all plan to send geological samples back to Earth from Mars, Asteroid Bennu, and Asteroid Ryugu, respectively.

On top of the valuable lessons we will learn from Ellen’s research, we’ve also made surprising finds outside of the expected samples! We’ve found banded iron formations, salt formations such as gypsum, and evaporites. The banded iron formations are some of Earth’s oldest known rock formations. They were abundant in the time of “The Great Oxygenation”, an event nearly 2.4 million years ago when the first organisms began photosynthesizing and creating the world we know today. The rock is approximately the size of a closed fist and is a deep black color with red, iron stripes running through its center. Salt formations and evaporites are the minerals left when water evaporates. For example, if you collected sea water and waited for the water to evaporate, the salty residue that is left would be considered an evaporite. The gypsum in the field appears on the ground like ice shards shattered in the clay. These samples not only add to the diversity of the study but are simply very neat finds while walking across the Martian plains.

Rocks are not just a story of their current environment, but a history book of evolving environments that could date back to the beginning of our home planet. Rocks could start as one mineral, millions of years ago, and evolve through heat and temperature to be redeposited, continuing to record the environment’s history until our Crew Geologist discovers it and translates its pages. Additionally, not all rocks are created equal, and together, they tell the evolution of our planet. Great work Ellen! You’re a ROCKstar!

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Movie (or Show) Answer: Contact

MDRS Crew 202, Journalist Report

Sol 9 – 01/07/2018

Name the space movie (or show) given the following quote. Answer at the end of the Report:

Astronauts? You mean, sit on top of a rocket and launched into space? Sounds dangerous; when do we go?

As we catapult into our second week on Mars, the crew cannot believe how fast the days have flown by! How is it possible that our time is almost over here on the Red Planet? It seems like yesterday we had just arrived as a fresh, wide eyed and bushy tailed crew. In a mere week, we are old veterans, working through the routine, a family of determined Martians still bent on completing our ambitious mission goals. Making sure every day counts towards our research and our life as a Crew.

It is at this approximate half way point that we reflect on our key simulation question: Would this be done on Mars?

Mars is approximately one tenth the mass of Earth and one third the gravity. Unfortunately, science has not found a way to simulate different celestial body gravities for long durations of time. Get on it science. It takes from 6 to 8 months to travel to Mars from Earth when Mars is near its closest point to Earth (~55 million km away) which occurs every two years. Imagine how Mark Watney felt while waiting for his Crew to make the journey all the way back to Earth and circle back around to rescue him from Mars! We are very thankful to have more than potatoes in our pantry. This equates to a maximum of a 22 minute delay in communication one way, 44 minutes round trip to send a message and receive a response. This will force future Martians to be heavily independent when it comes to all aspects of their life including habitat maintenance, research, and emergency procedures. Here on Mars Desert Research Station, we are given a two hour communication window with our “CapCom”, with whom we transmit reports about the state of our campus, extra-vehicular activity requests, and summaries of our research progress. This is all performed through email and is received spontaneously during these two hours. Not quite like Mars, but we do our best to simulate the communication by having limited internet (~500 MB per day) and transmitting text messages similar to those that would be used on Mars. Mars is desolate, isolated, and magnificent. Check, check, and check. While we cannot simulate the gravity, and the communication isn’t a perfect fidelity, we feel we have truly experienced as close to on Mars as we could achieve in our 2 week mission and could not be more excited about what our last week holds.

While confined in a small space with six people, in a sitcom-like environment, there are several lifestyle debates that have risen from the crew. Two of which we would like to invite our fellow Earthlings to weigh in on: Which way does the toilet paper hang? What is defined as a nap? These seem fairly trivial – It depends on the person. No. Not in this crew. These have been heated topics for several days and we are determined to debate it until we perish and turn to dust with our gravestones eternally making our arguments.

On the toilet paper front, everyone is an over the roll hanger expect our Crew Engineer. She prefers an under orientation… which is wrong. This has turned into a war of flipping the toiler paper back and forth in the small, motorhome sized bathroom for the duration of our mission.

Naps are common on Mars because it is exhausting being a Martian! Carrying 20 lbs backpacks on 2-3 hour extra-vehicular activities typically leads to crashing on the couches in the living area to recharge before continuing the research projects or preparing to cook dinner. Our Crew Engineer has been known to take 2-3 hour naps after strenuous activity. Our Executive Officer feels this is far too long to be defined as a “nap” and considers this “falling asleep”. The Commander has sided with the Executive Officer. The Geologist and Journalist are on the side of the Crew Engineer, defining naps as sleeping during the day for any duration of time. Our Health & Safety Officer is usually asleep during these debates.

We are in a stale mate on both fronts, and would like to hear Earth’s opinion. Should future Martians place their toilet paper over or under? How should naps be defined in the Martian schedule?

Movie (or Show) Answer: The Right Stuff