Author: jburk

Posted on

Commander Report – March 7th

Hello CapCom,

Here is today’s commander report:

Crew 189 Commander Report 07Mar2018

Sol 17

Today’s program was a bit dense, so that we woke up around 7:00 a.m. even if the EVA was planned for the afternoon. We started by a bit of bomb defusing, then went on with emergency procedures training, lead by Laurent, the crew’s HSO. This time, we learned how to deal with a victim from inside the Hab or brought back from the outside. This was surely useful and not only for Mars! We learned how to reanimate, control a pulse, install a splint, etc… The goal was then to put all of it into practice in the afternoon…
After more bomb defusing and a good meal was the time to go out in EVA. We had four main objectives: check the instrument’s batteries and bring back the LOAC if needed, deploy the solar panel dust cleaner, test GPS guidance, and shoot footages for the rotation video. I went back to my former role of crew journalist, shooting photos and videos and clearly enjoyed it. The two first objectives went fine, but Benoit’s GPS chip stopped working another time, preventing him from finding any direction. He is the one struggling the most with his experiment, and it clearly affects his mood. Let’s hope it is only due to the cloudy weather, so that he will be able to run more tests during the last days of the mission.
After a few video shots for Alexandre, came the time for the EVA fifth objective: emergency training in situ. Laurent simulated a leg wound followed by a hemorrhage. We had to designate immediately Victoria as the new leader and take actions quickly to bring him back to the Hab, where Jérémy and Gabriel would take care of him. We helped him walk back to the rover, where we loaded him in the trunk (we surely didn’t drive him this way, but took all the related decisions, and acted as if). He then simulated heart attack and lost consciousness. We then pretended to hurry on the way back to bring him in the Hab as soon as possible. Jérémy and Gabriel were then in charge of saving him, using the previously learned knowledge.
This experiment is clearly one of my favorite: it teaches us crisis management, while giving us bases in medical help. The debriefing we had just after was also very productive: we exchanged on simulation realism, actions that should or shouldn’t have been taken on Mars, depending on the type of spacesuit (traditional rigid ones or futurist skinny ones). Laurent told us what he noticed during all the action and was able to correct us, but it seems that we mostly did well! The mood now changes a bit: crewmembers are more tired, seeing the end of the mission approaching, looking after the end of sim constraints while wanting to do as much as possible before its end. This is surely leading to new interesting sols…

Louis Mangin,
Crew 189 Commander

Posted on

Journalist Report – March 6th

Journalist report, 03/06/18: CSI: MDRS

An unfathomable mystery arose in the Hab in the early morning. Benoît and Jérémy had cooked some popcorn chicken yesterday, yet Victoria did not want to eat her part on the evening, and spared it for today in her room. However, as she woke up, all the chicken was gone! Several people were suspected: mice at first, yet there were no crumbs around the bowl. Jérémy and Benoît then, as the first one was not in the Hab when she revealed her loss, and as the lack of food for the second is no longer a secret! However, Victoria would have certainly heard it if someone broke into her room to steal her chicken. The case is still open!

Today was quite a special day in the Hab, as we received two journalists from one of the main French television stations TF1. Presenter Axel Monnier and cameraman Bertrand Guez arrived short after 7am, right in the middle of our sport session. They could thus observe us sweat during our last burpees, such a nice start. After a small breakfast with a piece of French bread (well, rather bread with the French flag in it), it was time for most of us to go on EVA! Our both journalists were part of the mission: Axel even followed us in putting a spacesuit on! Gabriel, Jérémy, Victoria and I as their leader were completing the quite large team.

As it has now become routine, we made our first stop at Pooh’s corner to put the LOAC back in its place. It will yet not stay there long, as Jérémy wants to have the time to complete some measurements inside the Hab as well. We then went for the road of Lith Canyon. It seemed that Bertand sometimes needed a specific framework, as he liked to put himself in acrobatic positions on the rover, in order to be able to record us following the rover on our ATV. However, the road was rather smooth, and we arrived at Lith Canyon without any problem.

Our guests were glad to visit this place, which is probably the nearest to a Martian landscape we could get here. The walk was really pleasant, yet sometimes maybe a bit harsh for Bertrand, who had to bear his 30-pound 50000-dollard camera on his shoulder. As we reached another cliff, we decided to stop our way down: Axel and Bertrand could thus deploy their drones and take some aerial shots, after a short interview of the four of us. It was yet already time to go back to the Hab, where our journalists wanted to take some final shots.

They could question us deeper during our lunch, as they wanted to know what our thoughts about that kind of mission were. We finally could show them some of the experiments we had led for the last weeks, as LOAC and MegaARES’ ones, Laurent’s solar panels or Jérémy’s human factors one. But as the afternoon reached its end, it was already time for them to leave us, ready to reach Salt Lake City where another report awaited them. We still have a lot to do in the Hab before the end of the mission, especially with our rotation video, as we still have many shots to do.

Posted on

Operations Report – March 6th

Crew 189 Operations Report 6March2018

SOL: 16

Name of person filing report: Gabriel PAYEN

Non-nominal systems: –

Notes on non-nominal systems: –

Generator (hours run): Turned off at 09:AM and turned on at 6:20PM

Solar— SOC 72 % (Before generator is run at night)

Diesel – 47 %

Propane – 21 psi.

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) – 9.5 gallons.

Water (trailer) – 0 gallons.

Water (static) – 500 (90%) gallons

Trailer to Static Pump used – NO

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – YES

Water Meter: 131 724.2

Toilet tank emptied: NO

ATV’s Used: 350.2 & 350.3

Oil Added : NO

ATV Fuel Used: Gals

Hours the ATVs were Used today: 3

Notes on ATVs: –

Deimos rover used: YES

Hours: Start : 112.7 , End : 113.8

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge: 86%

Currently charging: YES

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Spirit rover used: YES

Hours: Start : 21.9 , End : 23

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge: 70%

Currently charging: YES

Opportunity rover used: NO

Hours:

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: NO

Curiosity rover used: NO

Hours: 18

Beginning charge: 100%

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: NO

HabCar used and why, where : used to get aquaponics supplies and packages from crew 190

General notes and comments: –

Summary of internet: –

Summary of suits and radios: –

Summary of Hab operations: –

Summary of GreenHab operations:

Summary of ScienceDome operations: –

Summary of RAMM operations:-

Summary of health and safety issues: –

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: –

Posted on

Greenhab Report – March 6th

GreenHab Report
AUCLAIR Jérémy
6 March 2018

Environmental control:

(door closed)
Heating once the sun was down
80 % Shade cloth on

Average temperatures:
Around 25 °C at 9:00 am, around 26 °C the rest of the day

Hours of supplemental light: none

Changes to crops: none

Daily water usage for crops: around 9 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:00 am and 7pm

Narrative: none

Support/supplies needed: none

Posted on

Commander Report – March 6th

Sol 16

Title: Two new crewmembers!

Dear Earth,

Today, two French journalists from French channel television (TF1) joined the crew on the Red Planet for our typical tasks: physical training, breakfast, morning EVA to check our experiments and explore the Martian surface, engineering check, cooking, EVA debriefing, experiments in the Hab and the Science Dome…

They left our Martian habitat at the end of the afternoon, really happy of what they discovered during their trip! Once again, we were happy to see new faces after almost three weeks confined with the same people. We are so excited to see the results of this TV report and to watch it on the main French TV channel! We were really glad because they asked us many questions, and very interesting questions!

After our guests left, we were once again all busy in the Hab: we did the human factors experiment of Gabriel (the KTNE game), Alex worked on the video presenting our rotation, and I worked on my last experiments.

Moreover, today was a big day, not only because we had guests, but also because we changed the teams of the KTNE experiment: it is funny to see that we have difficulties when we have to discover new partners while playing and defusing bombs.

We have three Sols left on this very nice planet, but we still have a lot of work to do on our experiments before leaving. Luckily, we will have our EVA tomorrow afternoon so perhaps we will sleep more in the morning after these two early wake up!

Ad Astra!

Copyright © The Mars Society. All rights reserved. | Main Site