Commander Report November 10th

Today is our 7th day. During certain time of my life I had practiced open water swimming. I did some crossing spending more than 3 or 4 hours. Then, my feeling about this mission in MDRS, I would compare as a sea crossing when you are swimming, and also at same time, start to do some statistics in your mind, about how many percent have you swum. In both situations, your mind just to be fine. In our case, in our crossing, the main issue is to keep the good relationship, kindness and respect with each other. Now I’m looking our days here.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Something that would be annoying in the space missions is be part of an experiment, or to be compelled to be a subject in a research. This is related when We need to eat some kinds of food or use some kinds of specific products. I can imagine what the astronauts as Scott Kelly, in the International Space Station, would need to deal with it. But, I understand that is all about a “good” cause. If you see, all of us are being a part of a great experiment just agreed by us, with our consent. It is part of a movement to a broader new scientific results.

Yesterday I tried to manage the data space in my computer. It almost full and I need to delete some content and have more space. The mission in MDRS just have had generated a lot of content of photos and videos, hard to process all these data.

In the 7th day I’m just considering MDRS as my home. I like good and bad things here. I just prepared my entire life to this, just traveling to far and urban places, sharing rooms in hostels and visiting different desert areas. I love the landscape in Hanksville.

7h – 8h20m – I did 80 minutes of the exercise. I just walked 8 km or 5 miles. The temperature was -1oC. Watching the second episode of the National Geographic miniserie Mars the crew of Dedalus need to walk in Mars surface after de vehicle broke. The cold would be a high threat to the crew exposed to Extravehicular Activities.

9h40m – Breakfast. Carmen is taking the weight of everyone for her research. Bad news for me: I’m weighing two kilos more. When you travel to space, your body is affected by different ways. So, my diet and exercises here is not helping to loose weight. Good to know just in the middle of the mission and try to adopt new behaviors here. Because of that, is so important keep the control of the different health indicators of an astronaut. I need to be fine with myself and guide the crewmates.

10h25m – The EVA Briefing: Brandon Ferguson, Crew geologist and EVA Lead, proposed some guidelines to communication in ExtraVehicular Activities (EVA). He recommended the use of the Phonetic Alphabet, as can been seen in the next Chart.

Chart 1 – Phonetic Alphabet

A – Alfa H – Hotel O – Oscar V – Victor
B – Bravo I – India P – Papa W – Whiskey
C – Charlie J – Juliet Q – Quebec X – X-Ray
D – Delta K – Kilo R – Romeo Y – Yankee
E – Echo L – Lima S – Sierra Z – Zulu
F – Foxtrot M – Mike T – Tango
G – Golf N – November U – Uniform

Was also proposed some voice procedures to be used in the EVA, as can be seen in the next Chart.

Chart 2 – Voice Procedures in MDRS EVAs

– Affirmative / Affirm = Yes

– Negative = No

– Niner = The Number Nine

– Out = I’ve finished talking to you and do not expect a reply

– Over = I’ve finished talking to you and listening for your reply

– Roger – “I’ve received all of the last transmission”

– Say Again – Repeat

– Wait, over – I don’t have the answer or information on hand. I will attempt to find it, until then, I’ve finished talking and do not expect a reply

– Wilco – will comply (after receiving new directions)

10h40m – EVA with Brandon, Camila and Carmen.

11h – I’m aboard of the Hab. I’m and Atila are supporting Brandon, Camila and Carmen in their EVA. During this time I will try to update my writings. But is no easy. There’s no free time here.

12h – End of the EVA.

14h – Lunch. We recycled beans prepared 2 days ago adding rice and frying everything.

14h30m – I received the information that the interview in

15h – Preparation of commander report.

15h50m – I walked more 40 minutes, 5,7 km or 3,5 miles. At total today, I walked 13,7 km or 8,5 miles.

18h – We debated about how to save water. In the Chart 3 is presented some guidelines.

Chart 3 – Guidelines to Save Water

1 – Communication and Education about save water;

2 – Use body wipes only for shower (unless you have a long hair);

3 – Harvest all dishwashing and cooking water;

Dishwasher => Graywater +> poop

Cookwater => reuse for cooking/redytrating food

4 – Redytrating water:

– reuse for more redytrating or

– grywater

5 – For dishwashing, limit water output to lowest possible setting;

6 – use personal mug;

7 – use of paper towels and wipes to clean up dishes;

8 – Try to let almost possible clean the dish after the meals;

9 – Be quickly when press the flush mechanism;

10 – Don’t shave the beard everyday;

11 – Don’t take a shower everyday;

12 – Not change the clothes everyday.

13 – Storage used water to reuse.

14 – Create recipients to collect water with recycled water bottles, as water cases of 2,5 galons.

15 – Use of hand sanitizer to clean up hand.

I consider the Guidelines to Save Water an important contribution of the mission 182 to MDRS. Our proposition about it is connected with Sustainable Development (SDG) 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all implies. One important topic to MDRS improvements would be invest in a system of water reuse. In International Space Station (ISS) all the water is reused as closed system. MDRS would also like this. An important guideline is have the control about how much water is been used and how much sewage is been generated.

Tomorrow We will be discussing how the activities developed in MDRS would contributes to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were approved in September 2015 during the Sustainable Development Summit, when it was discussed and approved by the United Nations General Assembly in New York. 193 countries signed the document. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are composed of 17 aims and 169 goals to be achieved by 2030.

Greenhab Report November 10th

Green Hab Officer Atila Meszaros

Sol 7 – 10/11/2017

Ambient (no heating or/cooling): none

Ambient with window/door open: door opened at 10:15; closed at 16:55

Shade cloth on/off: on

Average temperature:

Time 09:50 11:24 12:41 18:42
Temperature inside (°C) 22 31 32 13
Temperature outside (°C) 5 9 14 8
% Humidity 16 16 16 16

Changes to crops: First day of germination!

Daily water usage for crops: 2 galons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 09:50 and 12:41

Changes to research plants: none

Daily watering and amount of water used: 1 L approximately

Narrative:

Hi, Victoria! I’m Atila, like the Hun and I hope you are having a terrific time.

I’m glad to let you know that today was the first day of germination of the crops from a former experiment that is on the Green Hab (GH). I’ll attach you a pic.

Species (common name) Number of bowls Number of seedlings
Tomatoes 25 5
Cucumber 7 1
Melon 8 5
Beans 17 2
Pepper 9 2

Tomorrow as soon as possible I’ll update this numbers. It will be probably easier if I make a Drive with the dates and number of emerging seeds. Let me know if you have like a Data Base where I can put this data. Also, I wanted to ask Shannon how much seeds are in each pot.

Respecting my project. Half of the seeds remain at the GH; the other half is in the growing chamber. For all the seeds of the experiment, I’m using almost a Liter.

The project wants to prove that Peruvian native crops can, indeed, germinate and grow on Mars soil. I’m working with quinoa, amaranthus and mustard (as a control).

I think that’s pretty much all if you need more information about the GH I will be glad to send it to you.

Thank you for being there, Vic!

Have a beautiful night on Earth.

Support/supplies needed: none

Sol Summary November 10th

MDRS Daily Summary Report for sol 0.7

Summary Title: Some reflections about the sustainability

Mission Status: I consider the day very productive and it is difficult to know when something will surprise us. At 6 PM I was surprised with a good discussion related with environmental sustainability about how to save water.

Sol Activity Summary: In the EVA today the 2 ATVs were used.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow, We are planning an EVA using the ATV in the morning to collect soil and plants samples. Julio and Carmen will develop their research in the Hab.

Anomalies in work: Nope.

Weather: 9o C, 49o F

Crew Physical Status: Fine.

EVA: today happened EVA with the ATV in the Tank Wash collecting vegetation samples.

Reports to be file: We sent in CapComm.

Support Requested: lights and fire alarms for the lab; GPS for EVAs and new radios.

Science Report November 10th

Science Report
Camila Castillo
10 Novermber 2017

Mars is pretty nice this night. There’s no cold in our little and warm hab and the night doesn’t seem as cold as ever.

This Science Report should be short because the main reason I’m writing this is because of the ovens at the lab. I’m using a little one and I would like to know if there is a problem with that one. I tried to set up another temperature and it just keeps getting warmer inside and doesn’t really mantain the temperature I originally intended. There are other two ovens, but it seems that they are a lot warmer than I need. I just want to set them up at a temperature near 25 °C.

As for the experiments, they are going well. It seems that the PC plates were well made and we could manage to keep an sterilized condition for making them. I’m expecting a package of Nutrient broth and Nutrient agar and it should be arriving this evening or even tomorrow. It will help a lot for my microbiological experiments.

Today we collected some soil and plant samples on the EVA. Our crew geologist keeps working on their characterization and I could train a bit of my plant systematics. I’m not an expert botanist, but I suppose you need to know a little bit of everything when you’re a scientist on Mars! (I’m learning so much about soils, it’s just crazy). It would be interesting if we get to know the microorganisms that live with these plants. This would be possible with the help of the Nutrient agar (That’s the one we usually use at my lab for this kind of samples).

I have some pretty crazy results on my pilot on the effects of dishwater on my raddish seeds. The ones that are growing the most are the seeds with 10% water and 90% dishwater! It’s really bugging me. I’ll need to follow them to know if they have some kind of alteration during their growing.

Operations Report November 8th

Crew 182 Operations Report Sign-On 08Nov2017

SOL: 6

Carmen Atauconcha

Non-nominal systems: Working

Generator: On

Solar: For now, not given power to the Hab, Used until 5pm approximately.

Diesel : 60%

Propane – 51psi

Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) – 0 gallons

Water (trailer) – empty

Water (static) – 30 cm from top

Trailer to Static Pump used – No

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

Water Meter: 760 gallons

ATV’s Used: No

Oil Checked: motos y carros: No

Atv # Fuel Used Gals: 1/4 gallons

Tires Status: Perfect

# Hours Used Day: 0 hours

Phobos used: No

Hours:0

Beginning charge: –

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: –

Deimos used: No

Hours: 0hrs

Beginning charge: –

Ending charge: –

Currently charging: –

HabCar used?: No

Notes and Comments:
Today, we started to use the solar panels. We monitored the state of charging of them every hour. The collected data is down:

TIME % CHARGE OF THE SOLAR PANELS
8.43 am 98%
9.13 am 98%
9.43 am 98%
10.09 am 100%
10.39 am 100%
12.20 pm 100%
13.01 pm 98%
13.38 pm 96%
13.46 pm 95%
13.56 pm 94%
14.11 pm 93%
14.34 pm 100%
15.19 pm 100%
16.28 pm 98%
17.31 pm 93%

Also today we had a walking EVA, and tomorrow we are going to have an EVA session. I need to let you know that the gasoline will be available until tomorrow. Therefore, for the next EVA’s we are going to need gasoline.

Greenhab Report November 9th

Green Hab Oficer Atila Meszaros

Sol 6 – 09/11/2017

Ambient (no heating or/cooling): none

Ambient with window/door open: door opened at 08:32; closed at 18:00

Shade cloth on/off: off

Average temperature:

Time *08:32 10:35 *13:55 17:30
Temperature inside (°C) 22 36 34 16
Temperature outside (°C) 8
% Humidity 16 16 16 16

*Time when seed of a former experiment where watered. (There are tomatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers and beans)

Changes to crops: None

Daily water usage for crops: 2 ½ galons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 08:32 and 13:55

Changes to research plants: none

Daily watering and amount of water used: 1 L approximately

Narrative:

Hi, Graeme! Atila in here, yes, like the Hun. I hope you are having an amazing night.

Sol 6 was a very short day at the Green Hab (GH) because we had the visit of Globo Tv, as you should know by now. I started to rearranged everything at first hour, it’s a huge mess. There some many materials! Although, most of them are useless, there are some items that can be very valuable for next crews, but I’ll need more help tomorrow if I want to finish what I am aiming.

Respecting my project. Half of the seeds remain at the GH; the other half is in the growing chamber. For all the seed of the experiment, I’m using less than a liter of distilled water per day.

The project wants to prove that Peruvian native crops can, indeed, germinate and grow on Mars soil. I’m working with quinoa, amaranthus and mustard (as a control).

EVA Report November 9th

EVA Report Sol 6

The EVA started at 10:50 AM today. Knowing that Brazilian TV was coming, I didn’t know for sure when they’d be here and ready to film us outside. They also needed to interview a few of the crewmembers on their projects before we could start. They wanted some footage of us on the Rover and ATVs, which we drove about 100 meters past the MDRS sign and back to the Hab area. I understand that I did not request the use of the rovers for today’s EVA, but I didn’t know they’d want footage of us on the rovers until this morning. Something to note was that the red ATV had some trouble starting compared to yesterday. I had to pump the throttle in order to get it going.

After parking the rovers, we collected our samples from Sample Location #1, the first location we sampled from on EVA #1. Once we got the sample, we walked into the small gully just north of the Hab. We took samples from 3 different locations along the hillside west of the hab. The “popcorn” like surface of the regolith can be rather unstable, as I found out the hard way (by falling). Nothing broke, I wasn’t injured, the helmet was intact, and the fan was still working, so luckily I survived! After photographing the area, we returned to the hab and recompressed by 12:45 PM.

In Hindsight, I’ll have to be more careful on even very shallow slopes, as it doesn’t take much too loose traction, even when wearing boots. To make sure no one else falls by making the same mistake, I’ll have to brief the crewmembers on how to lower their center of gravity (by squatting) when ascending or descending hills. I did not have time to brief the crew members on radio Comms voice procedures since we had the Brazilian TV crew here today. This will have to be done before tomorrow’s EVA.

Commander Report November 9th

My soundtrack of last night: ACDC live in River Plate stadium, Buenos Aires.:) Camila did a delicious fried rice. Thank You!:)

4h30m – I woke up early today. Sometimes the heating system switches off. So we need to check. This is also a possibility in Mars. Many times, in Mars, the heating systems will not function properly. So, will be necessary a lot of resilience about. Try to fix or deal with the consequences.

The commander’s room is unique with natural lighting. This helps me to woke up early.

7h02m – I walked 40 minutes, something around 2,5 km. Was 1 degreeC. In the beginning of the exercise was very difficult. I never did exercises in a temperature like this. This is also about resilience. In Mars the temperature can be so low. According to Space.com, on average, the temperature on Mars is about minus 80 degrees F (minus 60 degrees C). In winter, near the poles temperatures can get down to minus 195 degrees F (minus 125 degrees C). A summer day on Mars may get up to 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) near the equator, but at night the temperature can plummet to about minus 100 degrees F (minus 73 C). (Source: https://www.space.com/16907-what-is-the-temperature-of-mars.html)

Something very pleasant today was watch the sunrise in the mountains. I perceive how We are not aware about how the cosmic influences are affecting life. Just look the sun! It is a star and it is so close and far from us, influencing so many cycles of our life, from the agriculture to our communication systems.

8h40m – The Brazilian TV Globo arrived earlier than We imagined. From the MDRS corridors I talked with Luigi Sofio (reporter) and Lucio Rodrigues (cinegraphist) and introduced myself. Was good to talk with someone on portuguese. Since their arrival until 13h, We presented all the attention to Them. They did images of our systems and procedures and also the research activities.

11h – We did the EVA activity. Was very hard. Was my first EVA. Would possible to see how the spacesuit would restricts simple human activities. I felt excited with it. This moves me. A spacesuit would be my future?

We did a lot of work today, outside. Today was very shiny and I considered that Brazilian TV did very, very good images. What sincronicity We have a bright day as today.

In the EVA We collected soil samples and visit the ravines and some mountains of Mars. Was hard climb some mountains wearing the spacesuits, considering the limitations of movement. It is necessary presents a great attention and care to avoid an accident. But the EVA was a challenger and an achievement.

13h – I prepared the lunch: small bakes of rice and cheddar with broccoli and peas.

13h40m – We lunched. We had a lot to clean up.

15h40m – The guys of the EVA: Me (Julio), Brandon and Atila felt tired, because the sun radiation was to high today. So everybody decide take a nap.

17h40m – I woke up from my nap. It is good remember about the CapComm later. Good time to listen Slayer and finish the reports. J

18h20m – Camila and Carmen prepared sweet rice for tonight.

19h – CapComm. Today I walked the total of 5,8 km.

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