jburk

January 12, 2018January 12, 2018

Journalist Report – January 9th

[Sol 9]

Another slow day at the hab. The crew awoke to frigid temperatures and a shroud of blowing Martian dust – our first sandstorm. Unwilling to test our luck in the tumultuous conditions, we immediately cancelled the planned EVA and have postponed it to tomorrow. Despite the storm, however, life at the habitat remains quite pleasant. The rarefied Martian wind is too tenuous to threaten our immediate safety and instead fosters a sense of coziness here. The crew enjoyed a television show after breakfast and has spent the day working, reading, and debating various topics. For those who participated in yesterday’s chilly EVA the downtime was certainly welcome.

By the late afternoon the dust had begun to clear and a robotic supply rover which landed earlier this week was able to complete its slow trek to the hab. After a quick excursion to obtain the supplies the crew delightfully unpacked a brand new bread maker and put it to use right away. At the time of writing the team is eagerly awaiting the results.

Justin Mansell, MDRS Crew 186 Journalist

P.S. Photos attached. Photo of the day: 09Jan2018 Crew mental health questionable.jpg

January 11, 2018January 12, 2018

Greenhab Report – January 11th

GreenHab Report

Mark Gee

11Jan2018

Environmental control:

Heating

Shade cloth on)

Working Hour: 06:30PM Inside temp at working hour: 17 C Outside temp during working hours: 3 C Inside temperature high: 33 C Inside temperature low: 16 C Inside humidity: 39 %RH

Inside humidity high: 41 %RH Inside humidity low: 16 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:

For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: The tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, herbs, peppers, and melons keep growing. The microgreens have taken off and will be ready to harvest tomorrow. Of the seeds planted, the arugula, mustard, and various lettuce varieties have sprouted.

Daily water usage for crops: 15 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 11:00AM, 06:30PM

Research observations: The microgreens have recovered from the early damage and are sprouting magnificently. Tomorrow they will be harvested.

Changes to research plants: None.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Today I watered the plants as usual and inventoried the tools, fertilizer, pots, and supplies.

The grow lights turned on at 02:00 pm. The analog timer has been gaining time steadily, as do the clocks on the electronic appliances in the Hab. These clocks probably use the frequency of the alternating current power supply to keep time as is common in most appliances. The standard frequency for an electrical grid in the US is 60 Hz, and our crew engineer observed that the generator is supplying power at 60.18 Hz. This increased frequency would cause the clocks to gain time at approximately the rate we are observing. See Sol 1 summary for a further explanation.

To compensate for this gain, the light timer needs to be reset every day.

Support/supplies needed: Scale with a capacity of 2 kg. The analog scale in the Science Dome has a capacity of 610g. Needed for experiments tomorrow.

January 11, 2018January 12, 2018

EVA Report – January 11th

Author: Max Fagin

Purpose of EVA: The last testing of the Yagi-Uda antenna based navigation experiment for navigating back to the hab. Destination change the night before to Skyline ridge allowed photographic reconnaissance in preparation for tomorrow’s geology EVA to the same site.

Destination: Plains to the east of skyline ridge

UDM27 Coordinates: 516000 E, 4251000 N

Participants: Max Fagin (Commander), Kshitij Mall (Executive Officer)

Narrative: This EVA was the final demonstration of the radio beacon navigation system, with the goal of demonstrating its effectiveness when line of sight was obstructed for the duration of the walk. Kshitij served as the lost astronaut, and had the hood in place over his helmet that limited his field of view to 5m from his feet. Max monitored the route and tracked the progress via gps to ensure the route was safe. We left the airlock at 10:36 and walked north along a foot path to the top of the ridge that rises over the hab to our west. After cresting the ridge, we walked due west along Sagan Rd before swinging south 50m to await the first beacon transmission. When the beacon was received, we started back, Kshitij leading the way, and Max monitoring. When Kshitij would stop to check the bearing on the hab, Max tested an experimental chlorophyll detector that Chris McKay and Matteo Borri had designed for us for use on the local flora. A loss of the beacon for ~15 minutes led to a complete turnaround, but it was corrected when the beacon was picked up again. We crested the ridge 45 minutes later at the ridge’s closest point to the hab, exactly where we should have been. So close that Kshitij gave an audible gasp when Max removed the hood and saw the habitat was so close. We deactivated the beacon, and walked north to find the route back down to the hab. Airlock ingress was at 12:37 for a total EVA time of 2:01.

Note: One of the hab’s radios has been damaged beyond repair. I was carrying it in my front pocket as a backup radio, and when I lifted my leg while climbing the ridge, the antenna was pinched against my front and snapped off. Shannon: There are still more than enough radios at the hab to provide spares, so I don’t know if you will want to replace it or not, but either way, I will note this on the checkout sheet as damage incurred. My apologies for the damage.

January 11, 2018January 12, 2018

Sol Summary – January 11th

Crew 186 Sol 11 Summary Report 11JAN2018

Sol 11

Summary Title: The first of the lasts

Author’s name: Max Fagin

Mission Status: Preparing for a grand finale EVA to a geology site we have saved especially for our last EVA.

Sol Activity Summary: The sun came back out today, much to our appreciation (and the appreciation of our solar panels). Any problem can be fixed in a spacecraft as long as you still have power and comms, and it has been a great weight off our shoulders to only view cloudy days as a mild annoyance, rather than a critical power threat as they might be on a pure solar mission.

The clear weather allowed for our last navigation EVA to take place as scheduled. We now have four complete demonstrations of an astronaut using nothing but the radio beacon to safely return to the hab, two where the astronaut had no experience with the system, and an impaired range of vision. I’m very pleased with Justin for producing such a practical aid to navigation in places where no gps is available (such as Mars … for now at least). It’s an early back to school for some of us, as Melanie has begun taking us on short engineering EVAs to test the efficacy of the VR training module she has developed for teaching EVA tasks. Around the hab, we continue to check off the last remaining items on our individual projects so we can face handoff with a clear schedule.

On a personal note, today was the first day I really saw GreenHab as more than just a greenhouse. I remember contributing to the Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Greenhab after the fire, and it has made me immeasurably proud to see it continue to thrive and grow under Mark’s skillful control while we are here. Stepping into the tropical heat and humidity of GreenHab today after a cold and dry EVA felt as relaxing as stepping into a hot tub. I sat down amidst the plants to appreciate the magnificent oasis thriving in this red/brown landscape, and the environment was so placid that I was not at all surprised when I woke up 15 minutes later to find I had drifted to sleep in my chair. Greenhouse, oasis, zen garden, GreenHab is much more now than just a place where plants grow.

Look Ahead Plan: Our last EVA will take place tomorrow, with one final geological survey to the highest elevation site on our list at the base of Skyline Ridge. Harvesting of our carefully grown GreenHab bounty will also take place tomorrow, we are planning to exit sim at noon on Saturday 01/13.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: 6C, Wind SSE 8km/h, Fair, Humidity 52%

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: Preliminary photography of the Plane of Dirt / Skyline Ridge region for the last geology EVA, then walk back to the hab to test the radio navigation system.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, GreenHab Report, Journalist Report, EVA Report, EVA Request

Support Requested: None.

January 10, 2018January 12, 2018

EVA Report – January 10th

Author: Cesare Guariniello

Purpose of EVA: Testing the next phase of the Yagi-Uda antenna-based navigation experiment for navigating back to the hab. Testing with a stranded astronaut in a condition of low visibility

Destination: End of Mountain Goat Road

UDM27 Coordinates:

519750 E

4250500 N

Participants: Cesare, Melanie, Mark (stranded astronaut)

Narrative: This EVA put an astronaut in condition of low visibility, simulating a dust storm. This condition was obtained with a cardboard placed over the top portion of the ExoSuit helmet. The astronaut has visibility limited to about 5m ahead (for reasons of safety) and can look at the handheld radio when navigating, in order to find the direction of the habitat. The crew egressed the habitat with Mark already “under the hood”, and checked the safety of the hooding apparatus, then the three EVA crewmembers started walking Northwest to the intended destination, guided by Cesare’s GPS unit. During the outward path, Melanie and Cesare had Mark stopping multiple times, to spin around and be redirected so as to be completely disoriented. The outward path was also chosen so that the return direction would not follow it.

Once the turnaround point was reached, Mark turned on the Yagi-Uda antenna receiver and began scanning for the radio beacon from the habitat, sent initially at intervals of 5 minutes. Melanie and Cesare took care of the safety of the path chosen by Mark, but let him decide the direction to walk towards. When rock walls occurred, Mark decided the best path around them, and only once he was requested to stop to avoid excessive proximity to a shallow canyon. The EVA gave significant results to the experiment. Mark was able to locate the habitat with adequate precision even when hills and rocks obstructed the line of communication, though a power attenuator might be required in close proximity to the habitat (Mark could navigate close to saturation of the signal, at about 500m from the habitat). A major problem was the difficulty to follow a straight path. Mark always pinpointed the direction towards the habitat, but walked in wide arcs. For this reason, Cesare and Melanie requested continuous transmission of the beacon signal which helped reducing the path error.

Around 1:40 (one hour and 35 minutes into the EVA), the weather turned to rain. The crew immediately reported the occurrence to the HabCom. Upon indication by the commander the EVA was scrubbed immediately, Mark was unhooded, and the EVA team returned to the hab (which had been in sight for about 20 minutes, and was only 500m away) without delays and ingresses the airlock after collecting two soil samples from the immediate vicinity of the habitat, to be analyzed for use in the Greenhab by future crews.

Cesare Guariniello, crew geologist

Crew 186 – Boilers2Mars

Mars Desert Research Station

January 10, 2018January 12, 2018

Operations Report – January 10th

Crew

186 Operations Report 10JAN2018

SOL:

Name

of person filing report: M. Grande

Non-nominal

systems: None

Notes

on non-nominal systems: None

Generator

(hours run): 12.7h

Generator

batteries switched at 8:45am

Generator

batteries switched at 7:30pm

Solar—

SOC

7:15am : 95%

6:00pm : 99%

Diesel:

50%

Propane:

29%

Ethanol

Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV): 5.9 Gallons

Water

(trailer): 10 Gallons

Water

(static): 413 Gallons

Trailer

to Static Pump used: No

Water

(loft) – Static to Loft Pump used: Yes

Water

Meter: 129321.3 Gallons

Toilet

tank emptied: Yes

ATVs

Used: None

Oil

Added? No

ATV

Fuel Used: 00 Gallons

Hours the ATVs were used today: 00:00 hours

Notes

on ATVs: None.

Deimos

rover used: No

Hours:

99.0

Beginning

charge: 100%

Ending

charge:

Currently

charging: Yes

Sojourner

rover used: Assigned to director only.

Hours:

Director discretional hours

Beginning

charge: 100%

Ending

charge:

Currently

charging: Yes

Spirit

rover used: No

Hours:

10.5

Beginning

charge: 95%

Ending

charge:

Currently

charging: Yes

Opportunity

rover used: No

Hours:

5.5

Beginning

charge: 100%

Ending

charge:

Currently

charging: No

Curiosity

rover used: No

Hours:

3.1

Beginning

charge: 100%

Ending

charge:

Currently

charging: No

HabCar

used and why, where? No

General

notes and comments: None.

Summary

of internet: All nominal

Summary

of suits and radios: All nominal

Summary

of Hab operations: All nominal

Summary

of GreenHab operations: All nominal

Summary

of ScienceDome operations: All nominal

Summary

of RAM operations: Not Operational

Summary

of health and safety issues: Crew is Healthy

Questions,

concerns and requests to Mission Support: I will wait for the handover day to review the state of the generator coolant as well as some other things, like the oil and filters. Curious when the last time the generator was completely serviced? (i.e. air and

oil and fuel filters replaced, hoses and tubing checked, etc.) I believe the man who installed or managed the settings for our power system will be coming back to town soon and will hopefully address the concerns we have with the system, and I would suggest

that a generator servicing might be scheduled around the same time, if that hasn’t been done recently.

As mentioned before: we need a propane resupply, the right tailgate latch on Opportunity is broken, and there is an unidentified leak underneath the front of the hab.

Regards,

Melanie

Grande, Crew Engineer, Crew 186

January 10, 2018January 12, 2018

Greenhab Report – January 10th

GreenHab Report

Mark Gee

10Jan2018

Environmental control:

Heating

Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 06:50PM

Inside temp at working hour: 18 C

Outside temp during working hours: 0 C

Inside temperature high: 26 C

Inside temperature low: 15 C

Inside humidity: 46 %RH

Inside humidity high: 60 %RH

Inside humidity low: 34 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:

For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: Microgreens almost ready to harvest. Spinach is growing rapidly. Cucumbers continue to produce fruit. Beans near harvest. Tomatoes are flowering but no fruit set. Sprouts are emerging from the seeds planted a few days ago.

Daily water usage for crops: 10 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 06:30PM

Research observations: Microgreens are growing rapidly. No change to tomatoes sprayed with moringa extract.

Changes to research plants: None.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Growing up, we learn to fear bees because of their sting, then to like them because of their honey. But we should treasure them for their work as pollinators. Bees and other insects perform the critical task of transferring pollen from flower to flower. Without this transfer by insect, many crops would not produce fruit because their pollen will not blow in the wind. Some crops, namely the Cucurbitacea family of pumpkins, melons, squash and cucumbers, have co-evolved with their own species of bees that specialize in pollinating these crops. Almond farmers will actually pay beekeepers to bring their bees into the almond orchard while the trees are flowering to help ensure that there will be a bountiful harvest.

Unfortunately, there are no bees on Mars.

To make up for this, I put on my bee suit in the Green Hab today, plucked a male flower from a cucumber plant, and buzzed from cucumber to cucumber, sprinkling pollen in the flower as I went. It took effort and patience.

There are many natural resources that we do not appreciate until they are gone. Surviving on a new planet will be challenging and full of surprising realizations of how much we are missing back on Earth.

Support/supplies needed: I have several questions of general interest.

Is the water supply from Hanksville drawn out of a well, river, or something else?

What are the heater control settings? What temperature is it set to turn on and what temperature for off?

What is to be done with used potting soil?

Is the shade cloth a 60/40 cloth? Is there a better way to describe how much shade it gives?

January 10, 2018January 12, 2018

Science Report – January 10th

Science Report – Microbiology

10JAN2018

Author: Samuel Albert, Crew 186 Health & Safety Officer

Of the four DNA sequencing runs originally planned, three have been completed so far. The first run encountered errors and yielded poor results, only about 350 reads. The second run, which sampled from crops growing in the GreenHab, yielded much better results, over 600,000 reads. The third run, which sampled from locations on the upper deck of the habitat, yielded strong results as well, about 26,000 results. The fourth run, which will be completed in the last few days of the mission, is planned to sample from the bathroom and shower area on the lower deck of the habitat. Following the mission, all results will be analyzed to assess which microbes were found in the various sampling locations.

January 10, 2018January 12, 2018

Journalist Report – January 10th

[Sol 10] [The
Lost Astronaut]

The day began with our usual order of activities – yoga and breakfast followed by EVA prep. The purpose of this EVA was a dedicated test of the radio navigation experiment. But unlike the previous tests, the astronaut using the antenna would have their vision restricted to only their immediate area by a cardboard visor strapped to their helmet. This, combined with the flat lighting of the gloomy sky, meant there was no possibility of using visual cues to return to the hab. Furthermore, the antenna would not be in the hands of her designer, but the crew’s greenhab scientist, Mark Gee, who possessed no previous experience using the antenna. It was out closest simulation yet of a real lost astronaut imperiled by low-visibility conditions.

Due to the risk of precipitation in the morning, the EVA team did not depart until slightly past noon when the weather began to stabilize. Cesare Guariniello and Melanie Grande supported Mark on EVA (i.e. ensured he wouldn’t accidentally walk off a cliff) and led him on foot to the east until he was thoroughly disoriented. At 1 pm, we switched on the habitat’s navigation beacon. Thirty minutes later, the EVA team emerged from behind a distant ridge within sight of the habitat. Melanie and Cesare later reported that they struggled to keep up with Mark as he aggressively chased the signal back to the hab. But before the test could proceed to completion, a freezing Martian snow began trickling from the skies. By mission rule the team was forced to abort and return immediately.

The team made use of the extra time to relax and prepare for an evening teleconference with the Purdue chapter of the Mars Society. It went splendidly. Since then, Mark has been cross pollinating plants in the greenhab, and Sam Albert, the health and safety officer, made preparations to take additional microbial samples tomorrow. The rest of us are gearing up for another test of the navigation antenna soon.

Justin Mansell, MDRS Crew 186 Journalist

P.S. Photos attached. Photo of the day: 10Jan2018 Preparing the lost astronaut.jpg

January 9, 2018January 12, 2018

Greenhab Report – January 9th

GreenHab Report
Mark Gee
09Jan2018

Environmental control:
Heating
Shade cloth on

Working Hour: 06:15PM
Inside temp at working hour: 18 C
Outside temp during working hours: UNK
Inside temperature high: 24 C
Inside temperature low: 16 C
Inside humidity: 40 %RH
Inside humidity high: 48 %RH
Inside humidity low: 28 %RH

Hours of supplemental light:
For the crops 05:00 to 11:59 PM

Changes to crops: Quinoa seeds did not germinate and rotted in the tray. Threw them away. The past days have been very cold and cloudy. Nothing has germinated yet.

Daily water usage for crops: 6.5 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 10:00AM, 06:15PM

Research observations: Microgreens seem to be growing much better in the shady environment. Maybe the full sunlight was scorching them.

Changes to research plants: Applied fertilizer to microgreens.

Aquaponics: Not in use.

Narrative: Watering needs to be as efficient as possible in a Martian habitat. But after I finish watering, I often look around and see a water on the floor.
Some of the water comes directly from accidental spilling becase the spout of the watering can holds water and drips when turned upright. This waste could be eliminated with a differently designed spout or by using something crazy like a giant syringe so that no water is relesed unintentionally.

Most of the leakage comes from water that is poured into the pot and flows quickly through macropores in the soil and out the pot before there is time to soak in. This is a tricky problem to solve. The macropores are a beneficial part of soil structure and should not be removed by compacting the soil. If I water less so that less water flows through the pores, the plants might not get enough water.

We are currently trying to reduce this waste by growing plants on vertical shelving so that the plants below can catch the water leaked by the plants above. But this is not a perfect system. Another option is to install trays beneath every plant so that the leakage can be captured and recycled. It is uncertain how much labor this method would require and how much of the water would evaporate before it could be reused. A third way to reduce this waste would be to use drip irrigation tape that continually releases water into the soil at a slow rate. This would increase water use efficiency and also reduce the labor requirements for the astronauts. However, an adjustable drip tape would have to be invented so the same tape could be used with different crops. And it may not be feasible to rocket yards and yards of drip tape to Mars.

For now, I will stick with my watering can.

Support/supplies needed: None