Author: jburk

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.04.2024
Sol 11
We awoke this morning to a surprise: snow! The landscape was completely blanketed in white and the sky in the early morning matched the ground with a thick layer of clouds. As the sun began to rise, the clouds began to thin making for a stunning sight. It was gorgeous. (And, I am still cursing setting my time lapse up incorrectly this morning such that I missed the transition from 8-9:30 am believing those images auto-captured!) A vision to behold, this snow day was not wholly welcome because the precipitation meant the cancellation of our scheduled EVA. This would have marked our eleventh EVA of mission and our very last EVA. Learning that yesterday actually proved our final EVA together as Crew 289 left us all saddened and somewhat at a loss. Beyond our rest day, each of our days was marked by balancing research at the hab, cooking and cleaning, and one or sometimes two EVAs.
We filled the day with further research, additional team bonding, and winding down our time here in the hab with the beginning of packing. As to research, Riya spent time building her CO2 sensor. She also examined the plants grown in her hydroponics set up under a microscope to investigate visually whether there was any difference between the plants exposed to hydrogen peroxide (radiation alternative) and her control plants. Eshaana was able to gather some additional data regarding the photovoltatics for her mini-farm after yesterday’s clouds foiled our attempts to characterize the shading with time lapse photography. Adriana wrapped up carbonate characterizations of her sediment samples and packed up her oysters for safe transportation back to Michigan. I was able to begin some calculations and cross-comparisons on my reporting research to better understand commonalities and differences between prior Journalist Reports and Sol Summaries. Tomorrow we will summarize our progress on our research during our time on Mars before we begin the journey back home.
On the fun side, we also played some games. The whole crew played a round of Zombie Dice, an amusing push your luck dice game where you are a zombie trying to eat the most human brains while avoiding gunshot wounds. It was quick and entertaining. Nathan beat out Adi 15 to 13 in a surprise defeat in the final round after Adi led the entire game. Fitting in a snack-sized ziplock, the transportability to fun ratio was right on. Then the crew broke out Terraforming Mars which is a substantially larger strategy game that resides in the hab games closet. Only 2 of the crew had ever played previously so learning the game and set up filled considerable time such that many opted out of gameplay. Those engaged in the game were optimistic they would be finished by dinner time, as were the rest of us and thankfully they were! It was fun to pull the game out from the cabinet and realize that the game is endorsed at the very top of the box by someone particularly important in our being able to be here at MDRS: Dr. Robert Zubrin, founder and President of the Mars Society.
We also took some time today to make use of the lower deck for a photoshoot. Donning our flight suits for the final time this mission, we attempted to capture semi-professional images of the members of the crew with packs on and helmets in hand and also versions without gear. We had a good time assisting each other to ensure collars were folded down, patches were on optimal display, and that flight suits were not weirdly bunched. I’m thankful the crew indulged me because I think we were able to have a good time. Also, those who may choose to return to MDRS or pursue other pursuits for space exploration now have themed photos to choose from for their biographies.
After the skies cleared up mid-day, melting away nearly all of the snow, we are hoping for cloudless skies tonight to do some star-gazing. Our first days at MDRS, the moon was too close to full to be able to see many stars. It lit up the whole landscape and drowned out the vast majority of starlight – a notable fact for those not used to this level of dark. (Light pollution has really changed the way that the vast majority of us experience the dark of night.) With luck and good weather, we hope we may be able to view the Milky Way tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Our time here at MDRS is rapidly coming to a close but we are still experiencing many firsts. In addition to new games and new photos, today we also experienced the heart-break of culling our rock collections. (How many pounds of rock samples is too many to take home is a very tough question!) Things are also coming full circle. Our first night at MDRS, Gabe and Adi made strawberry shortcake for the first time. They are teaming up again this evening to treat us and cement their knowledge. No one is sad about that.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.03.2024
Sol 10
Weather makes a big difference and Crew 289 has been remarkably fortunate so far on mission. While it has been below freezing after sundown every day, making morning and evening forays into the further parts of the hab chilly, the sunshine has warmed the days to 30-40°F and resulted in quite comfortable EVAs with appropriate gear. (Ok, it’s typically still chilly riding on the rovers but wandering around warms up an astronaut nicely.) Until now, every day has been practically cloud-free with the exception of one partly cloudy day where we needed to preserve power. Today was genuinely cloudy though and in addition to needing to be cautious regarding power usage, our EVA crew came back quite chilled. Cold and, as ever, hungry but, overall, very happy.
Their destination was White Rock Canyon, a decent clip away southward of the hab. We were uncertain about the presence of the fossils in the location since we were unsuccessful in locating oysters just slightly westward at Barrainca Butte but a close look at the map left us hopeful based on earlier finds along Hab Ridge. Elevation is key to finding oyster deposits and today’s exploratory EVA with Adriana “Rocky” Brown, Eshaana “Butter” Aurora, Riya “Pots” Raj, and Gabe “Terminator” Skowronek was shockingly fruitful. The crew collected over 54 fossils and, best yet, these samples are stunningly clean and well-preserved. You can see the growth plate ridges on the shells! Today’s find more than doubles Rocky’s collection for the mission giving her plenty of materials to work with for her graduate research. We also played with LiDAR and 3D scanning of the fossils to try to document them digitally. We still need to optimize the process, scanning something small versus a geographical feature is not 100% comparable, especially when you want a full scan of the entire shell.
Adi “Michelin” Anibha, Nathan “Shrub” Bitner, and I held down the station today and monitored comms while the EVA crew was out hunting up oysters. Due to the cliffs between us and them, comms were very quiet today. The chatter was missed while we completed research tasks and our cooking.
I tackled breakfast today trying out a new recipe: brown rice and quinoa porridge with coconut milk, brown sugar, and soy sauce. It took well over an hour-and-a-half to cook down into porridge but no one complained. My crew is too kind for that! After shoving food in our faces, I started on bread using instant soup packets brought from Earth as a salt substitute. I finished kneading right as the EVA crew got their comms vests on and dashed downstairs to help them finish suiting up for departure. Everyone had to wait longer on the bread than anyone wanted – it went into the oven right after the return of the EVA team – but everyone was so excited when it finally came out that we hacked into it while still steaming and slathered it in Nutella, peanut butter, butter, and/or strawberries. Fried rice is on the menu for tonight. Can’t wait! It smells gooood.
We are winding down our time now and tomorrow marks our final EVA, assuming weather allows. (We may get rain on Mars!) If we are able to proceed, E.L.F. will be the star of the mission again. In a test today, E.L.F. broke irreparably while completing a practice jump. He reached a vertical height of 1.5” but won’t be doing any more leaping until he can be fixed back up at home. Yet, we’re pleased to hear he is not out of action entirely! Tomorrow we’ll hope to witness his origami moving motion out on the planet’s surface.
Tonight, I expect we’ll likely call it an early night after staying up late last night to finish the movie we started New Year’s Eve. We thought we’d watch another hour of the movie but we got drawn into the cricket match of Lagaan and finished the whole thing instead. Adi had to pause to explain the rules to those of us not familiar with the game. We passed a very enjoyable time in the loft but those of us who did not squeak in a nap today are starting to fade.