Category: Commander Report

Crew 227 Commander Report 6th April 2022
SOL: 10
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

Cookie day today!

The day started with breakfast at 08h00 with the breakfast. We ate some cereals with dried milk and dried apples with some cinnamon. As usual, Julien studied our sleep and Jean did some analysis of our metabolism.

Last night we caught a huge rodent so, during breakfast, we had a discussion to know what to do with him: kill him or release it during the EVA. The concern was that if we released him we were afraid he would end up coming back but on the other hand half of the team didn’t want to kill him. So, we decided to release him and we hope he won’t come back.

At 9h00, a part of the crew went on EVA. The goal was to perform a match on the experiment of Julie. This time it was Sirga against Julien. Therefore, the group was constituted of Julien, Sirga, Jean, Julie, and Audrey. Julien won the match. The EVA ends at 10h30. Julie and Sirga have extended the EVA in order to release the rodent. The crew was happy that this rodent is now out of the station.

At lunch, we ate some soup and then some fried potatoes. After, everyone worked on his/her personal experiment.

At 16h00, Julien and Sirga cooked some cookies and Sirga added her best ingredient: some worms! In the end, we don’t really taste it and the cookies were really tasty!

Then, we worked again on our different experiments until 18h30.

Now, we are doing our reports for the Capom window.

Tonight, we would like to continue our sky observations and try to take some time-lapse of the stars.

Regarding the mood of the team, it was a bit tense at the breakfast with the rodent argument but everything quickly went down and with the cookies, the morale of the team is now as good as usual.

Regarding the station, except for the invasion of rodents (we can still hear other ones) and a small issue with the SOC (now fixed), everything is nominal.

Crew 227 Commander Report 5st April 2022
SOL: 9
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

Windy day!

This day started with a big sun and tasty pancakes, aka the best wake-up ever!
At 9h00, a part of the crew went on EVA. This group was constituted of Julien, Cheyenne, Audrey, Ignacio and I. The purpose of that EVA was to explore the moon-like area. I took advantage of that EVA to perform some measurements with my antenna. This time, it worked directly! The moon-like are was quite pretty and different from what we already saw

At 12h00, the second EVA started. The goal of that EVA was to perform a match for the experiment of Julie. This time it was Ignacio against Audrey. It was very difficult with the spacesuits. With Ignacio we did quite a good job. Unfortunately, Audrey didn’t manage to finish her operation. Therefore, here is another point for the Engineer team!

At 14h00, we had lunch. We ate a cheesy soup with some bread. The bread was based on worms. It was not the best meal ever, but it did the job. At the same time, the wind started to be very powerful, we can feel the station moving.

At 16h00, we had a power outage. Since a lot of us have computers that requires a direct connection to the main, we were not able to work on our experiment anymore. Therefore, some of us read some books and the other played card games. We get the power back around 19h15.

At 19h30, we get a refill of food. The team was happy to see some flour so we can continue to make our own bread.

We are now working on our reports for the capcom window. This night, the team would like to play a board game.

The moral of the crew is still really good! However, we are already SOL 9 and we know that soon the simulation will arrive to its end. We will continue to enjoy each day as we did so far.

Regarding the station, except the power shortage and the high wind, everything is nominal.

Crew 227 Commander Report 3st April 2022
SOL: 7
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

Hello Capcom,

Thank you for reading us!

Today, everyone wakes up early and with great motivation since it was the big day and this for several reasons. Indeed, this morning a part of crew went on EVA to discover an unexplored canyon, we ate pancakes at breakfast, and we had the visit of a journalist called Emily.

Regarding the EVA, the team was constituted of Julie, Jean, Cheyenne, Sirga and I. At 9h00, we were ready to start our exploration. The rule was simple: never stopped and walked fast to go as far as we can. And the thing is that it worked quite well! We went super far and achieved a wonderful canyon!

I used the drone to make some videos of it. Then, I used another software to start doing the 3D model of the canyon. However, the data acquired for the 3D model overwrite the videos and cancelled them. I discovered that only when we came back at the hab and that I wanted to show the videos to everyone… and the worst in the story is that, while doing the 3d modelling of the canyon, I lost the GPS connection so there are no GPS coordinates in the metadata of my pictures which makes the 3D modelling impossible to proceed. We can definitely call that a big fail. It is not a big issue since, now, I am aware of that and I will not make that error again. But it is really disappointing since we will not go to that canyon anymore and will not be able to perform its 3d modelling. Tomorrow, I would like to perform the 3D modelling of the MDRS.
Hopefully, we have our own memory and we will always remember this amazing canyon! Also, we can count on the pictures that Julie took.

During that time, Julien, Audrey and Ignacio met Emily. She is coming from Boston but now is living in Moab. They present the whole station to her and explained her their respective experiment.

At 12h30, we ate all together. We ate the rest of yesterday’s dinner. During this lunch, we spoke a lot with Emily about the reason we are here doing this atypical experiment. She also spoke about her own life. It was very nice.

Unfortunately, between 14h00 and 16h00, Audrey was quite sick. Hopefully, with our great HSO Julie, Audrey was back on foot quite fast.

At that time, the EVA crew, explained their personal experiment to Emily. She was happy of her visit and left the station around 15h30.

Then, Julien, Audrey, Sirga and Jean did a match for the experiment of Julie. For her first match, Audrey did a great job and won against Sirga!

At the same time, Ignacio, Cheyenne and I worked on our side.
Now, as every day, we are all together in the kitchen while doing our reports for the capcom windows.

Yesterday night, we ate some potatoes with non-mixed crickets. It was difficult to eat for the whole team. The taste was ok but the visual and texture was quite bad (for us). It was a bad point for the moral of the crew. After the dinner, Julie did a surprise match. It was Sirga against Ignacio. Ignacio won and bring one more point to the engineering team!

However, the moral of the team is still very good! Tonight, we are going to eat chicken with rice and curry and moreover without any insects!! After, we plan to play some cards game.

Regarding the station, everything is nominal.

Crew 227 Commander Report 2nd April 2022
SOL: 6
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

This morning, everyone was very motivated for the EVA. Indeed, the goal of this EVA was to go on an exploration to discover an unexplored canyon so we could give it a name.

After a good breakfast, the EVA team composed of Julien, Sirga, Cheyenne, Ignacio, and Audrey entered the decompression room at 09h25.

During that time, Julie, Jean, and I had a good discussion about our life and future goals. Then, we worked on our side on our experiments.

At 12h00, the EVA team came back. After some research, they finally managed to see the canyon. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to achieve the area. Therefore, if the Capcom and the weather allow it, we plan to go with another team to achieve the area by foot and take a picture with our flag.

Since the EVA crew of the day already went quite close, tomorrow’s team should achieve it without issues regarding the information acquired during the first exploration.

At lunch, we ate some rice with dried peas and tuna. It was very tasty!
After, a part of the crew took some rest. Julien, Jean, Ignacio, and I worked on our personal experiment. Jean did some analysis on our metabolism, Julien analysed our sleep, Ignacio used the 3D printer to build a setup for Cheyenne’s experiment and I did some Python code to build a 3D mesh from drone pictures.

At 16h00, we ate a chocolate cake. As a huge fan of chocolate (we are Belgian you know), we were so happy! That was a great moment, we discussed a lot of different subjects and laugh a lot.

Now, as every day, we are doing our reports for the CapCom windows.

Today, the weather was quite cloudy, so Ignacio was not able to make some observations with the telescope. He was quite disappointed, but he is keeping his natural positive spirit.

Tomorrow, we will have Emily’s visit. She is a journalist from Moab and she would like to write an article about what is a typical day for an analogue astronaut at the MDRS. We are looking forward to meeting her.

Regarding the station, everything is nominal. Julien took care of the toilet and the water.

The moral is better than never thanks to the chocolate cake!

Looking forward to tomorrow’s exploration.

Crew 227 Commander Report 1st April 2022
SOL: 5
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

Our day started quite well with breakfast at 08h00 as usual. Julien analysed our sleep data, and we ate some porridge with dry bananas and dried raisins and some milk. This was quite good!

Between 9h00 and 12h00, we all worked on our personal experiments. Julie was preparing the match of the afternoon, Audrey prepared her antibiotics, Ignacio discovered the telescope, Jean did some analysis on his data, Cheyenne completed her excel to study the growing of her plants, Sirga wrote for her journalist report, Julien and I worked on the drone plan. Quite a busy morning!

At lunch, Sirga prepared 2 plates based on some eggs and chicken. In one of the plates, she added some mixed worms. The goal was to deduce in which plate they were added. As crazy as it could be, the one with the mixed worms had more success than the other one, it was tastier.

At 13h00, a part of the team started to prepare for the EVA of the day. Unfortunately, due to a bad satellite connection last night, we had bad communication with the capcom and we misunderstood the approval of the EVA request. The EVA was, in fact, not accepted. Therefore, we cancelled it at the last minute. I have to say that the team was very disappointed, but we are prepared for these types of unforeseen events.

Due to this cancelled EVA, we had to discuss all together to think back on our schedule so everyone will be able to achieve his/her experiment. We also spent some time looking at the damaged spacesuit. Actually, it was only the charger that was damaged. Therefore, the battery was not charged enough.

After this, around 16h00, we had a match for the experiment of Julie. This time, it was Julien (Team Anat) against me (Team Engineering). The two fractures were quite difficult but Julie said that we did a really good job! The winner is not yet known. Unfortunately, I think that Julien has a small advantage. We will see tonight!

Now, we are all writing our reports for the capcom window. I hope that the satellite connection will be better than yesterday. Indeed, it was quite difficult to communicate correctly with the capcom and to transfer some pictures.

Regarding the famous pizzas, they were quite good and it was good for the morale of the crew.

In regard to the station, everything seems nominal.

Finally, the morale of the team is still intact and motivated. Tonight, we will also play cards game since everyone enjoyed it last night.

Hope that tomorrow will be as sunny as today so that Ignacio will continue to perform amazing observations.

Crew 227 Commander Report 30th March 2022
SOL: 3
Name of person filing report: Cyril Wain

Sunny day today!

As usual, our day started at 8h00 with breakfast. This time we had breakfast with frosted flakes and dry milk. It was hard for the team to take only one cup of it. At the same time, Julien gave a look at the data of the polysomnographs taken during the night. Apparently, I snored 1453 times during the night. Hopefully, for my crew, I am isolated in my commander’s bedroom.

Around 09h00, we took some pictures of the team and other ones for some of our sponsors.

Between 11h00 and 12h00, Julie created a third crisis situation. This time, it was Julien and Audrey against Ignacio and me. Ignacio did really a great job there! On the other side, Julien was a bit disappointed with his result. One more point for the engineering team!!

At 12h, we had lunch. We ate some beans, peppers, tomatoes, carrots with some bread. This time the flour of the bread was replaced in part with flour of worms. The visual was identical to a classic bread and I have to say that the taste was quite similar as well. Everyone on the team appreciated it!

Between 13h00 and 16h00, Julien, Jean, Julie, Ignacio, and Audrey went out for an EVA. They started to work on my antenna in front of the science dome so I was able to guide them. They did an amazing job and I thank them so much for that! Then, they went around North Bridge to do some exploration and to place some samples for Audrey’s experiment.
During that time, Cheyenne, Sirga, and I worked on our personal experiment.

At 17h00, we gave a look at the pictures taken by the EVA crew of the day. It is just amazing how pretty is our Martian environment!

Around 18h00, we worked on our reports as well as on our own experiments.

Tonight, we plan to eat some potatoes with the rest of the vegetables and to play some board games.

This is it for today.

Martianly yours,
Tharsis commander

Sol 05 Commander Report

Sionade Robinson
Crew 238 Commander

Crew 238 Sol Summary Report 07 Jan2022

Sol:5

Summary Title: Crossing the ocean means leaving the shore

Author’s name: Sionade Robinson

Mission Status: Ongoing

Sol Activity Summary: Group and individual research projects
continuing. Scheduling in review and adjustment. Great teamwork,
meals and mutual support. Construction of a tool needed for exercise.
Cleaning and maintenance chores. Two EVAs successfully completed.

Look Ahead Plan: Continuation of research activities into future
astronaut wellbeing. Two EVA requests to complete labyrinth walk
facilitated by crew mate Dr Sandor.

Anomalies in work: None.

Weather: Clear, sunny and warmer than expected. Adjustments necessary
to EVA clothing.

Crew Physical Status: Nominal. Two minor injuries assessed by HSO and
reported to Mission Support.

EVA: Morning EVA to Candor Chasma (Robinson, Marcellino and Werner)
afternoon EVA to Kissing Camels (Turner, Pokrywka). See reports.

Reports to be filed: Sol, Operations, two EVA Reports, Journalist and
HSO report.

Support Requested: Approval for two EVAs (detailed in EVA Request forms)

Crew 228 Commander Report 08Oct2021

Sol: 11

Summary Title: Pale purple dots

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Commander Report:

Time flies like arrows; fruit flies like freeze-dried bananas. And somehow we find ourselves on the final sol of our mission.

We spent much of the day cleaning. Cleaning duties at the base cannot be underestimated. Mars has dust storms, sometimes covering the planet for months. With a thin atmosphere, a hurricane on Mars feels like a breeze on Earth – but the dustiness remains an issue. Martian dust is finer than what we remember back on Earth. We know that Spirit and Opportunity significantly outlived their life expectancies, demonstrating that technical hardware can survive on Mars. Regardless, we play it safe here, because our critical technical equipment (such as our 15kW solar array) could experience reduced efficiency should they become covered in a film of dust. We wanted to leave the HAB in top-notch shape for the next Martians.

Alongside maintenance, we worked at a steady pace, finishing remaining passion projects. We filmed ourselves answering a final set of questions from fourth graders about our mission – responding to innovative questions about both science and science fiction, and replying to children who want to become space explorers. We also concluded our science experiments. Each member of this crew thoroughly prepared for this mission – and I have worked hard to support their ambitious projects.

Soon after I submit this report, my crew will participate in the first Mars-to-Mars (M2M) Virtual Link. We will hold a brief conference with the AARG-1 crew, who recently touched down at the other research base on Mars, ILMAH station. It feels surreal for us to communicate with four other humans – without the forty minute delay. With multiple bases on Mars now, human exploration of the planet will surely mushroom in the upcoming years.

Tomorrow, we will enter a pressurized exploration vehicle and return to Earth via the Hanksville Spaceport. We will transition from a life of isolation among the four of us to a life of quarantine among the global population. Some of what made us better Earthlings these past few years made us better Martians. And some of what made us better Martians this mission will make us better Earthlings. I feel less as though we are exclusively home to the Pale Blue Dot. Red lessons from Mars will stay with us. Home feels more like a Pale Purple Dot to me now.

Just after we depart the HAB tomorrow, we will drive past Henry, the complete dinosaur fossil discovered by Dr. Shannon Rupert. Henry is a Pteranodon. Or a Quetzalcoatlus. Or a Rhamphorhynchus. Or something like that, that nobody can pronounce to save their lives. But what we do know is that he had wings to fly. We humans need to spread our wings and soar even higher. Improve our contingency plans. For asteroids. For pandemics. For climate change. These themes have played in my head during this mission – and I suspect they will even more tomorrow.

Our crew has accomplished a generous amount of scientific output. We reached out to students across the world. We fixed equipment in the HAB. Our crew prepared for this mission for 2.5 years – and the effort was worth it. It will be hard to part with the crew tomorrow, but I have learned and grown from each of them. I can only hope I successfully guided each crew member to reach their biggest goals. I want to give a very special thanks to Dr. Shannon Rupert for her tireless support with our mission. This one-of-a-kind gem of a research station would cave into itself without her unwavering resolve and fierce talents. I want to thank our remote crew, our CapComs, and Mission Support for their selfless assistance throughout our mission. And I want to thank the Mars Society for pushing humanity to the next frontier of space exploration. Thank you for giving us all this incredible opportunity, and thank you for trusting me to command this mission.

Crew 228 Commander Report 04Oct2021

Sol: 7

Summary Title: Dog-shaped planets

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Commander Report:

Despite our Martian sols lasting about 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than our days back on Earth, the first week of our mission has already soared past us. I was a crew member at this same Martian base several years ago, before the COVID amendments to the Planetary Protection Protocols, and it certainly feels different this time. Planet Earth has since undergone the largest isolation experiment in history.

During the pandemic, I have been quarantining in a teeny room in a tiny sharehouse in rural Japan, living in close quarters with five roommates. Along with being situated near Tsukuba Space Center, where JAXA astronauts train, my environment back on Earth has oddly resembled human space exploration, with themes of isolation and shared and limited resources. This seems to be the situation with several of my crew members, not feeling as much of a sharp delineation between terrestrial life and Martian life as we may have in the past.

While the global events in the past few years have rendered many of us better-prepared for space analog missions, our crew has identified numerous areas where we can more efficiently integrate the new realities of planetary protection. Due to terrestrial travel bans, we Areonauts found ourselves with remote crew that outnumbered in-situ crew. We are likely the first crew with this group dynamic at the Martian base – but we are likely not the last. As our original crew was optimized to span across diverse expertise, we had to get creative with transferring essential knowledge and informed advice from our remote crew to our in-situ crew, similar to how our society – our schools, our work, our socializing – has needed to "go virtual" these past few years. We will share our lessons learned about hybrid crew dynamics in our final mission report.

The first week of our mission has been productive with science, maintenance, and outreach projects. Jin is integrating metadata into GIS maps and using viewshed analysis to identify radio blackout regions; Inga is collecting ethnographic data of crew dynamics; and I am performing metagenomic analysis of Martian regolith samples. Dave the Wizard has repaired various hardware around the habitat. We had immense joy answering questions from students who sent us adorable and animated videos. Some questions were quite intense, asking us how we resolve brawls that break out and whether we could introduce microgravity into our simulation. Others were more light-hearted. My favorite question was if we had found any dog-shaped planets out there! I suppose it depends on whether we count Pluto.

We also pencil in time for recreational activities. During our “show and tell”, Dave showed off IBM punch cards from his college courses decades ago, with each card containing a predetermined arithmetical operation and each column corresponding to a single character, similar to what was used in the first digital computer of the US space program. He also showed us integrated circuits he designed and old models of floppy disks ~20cm in diameter. In another session, we discussed potential attributes of futuristic civilizations on Mars. We have several recreational plans for this second week, but I will not spoil them here!

I conducted a mid-mission check-in with each crew member. During our second week, I will make small adjustments to ensure each crew member fulfills their personal and professional goals as much as possible during our mission. All crew members report they are happy, and I am prepared to continue leading the second half of our mission. I want to send a mid-mission “thank you!” to our fantastic mission support and CapComs, some of whom wake up in the wee hours of the night to support us. With your support, we Areonauts will continue to put everything we can into this mission, learning and growing from each other, and eventually emerging from our mission as better analog explorers and Earthlings.

—

Crew 228 Commander Report 29Sep2021

Sol: 2

Summary Title: Dinosaurs, Viruses, and Space Exploration

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Commander Report:

"The Areonauts have landed on Mars!" our crew cheered as we touched down on Cow Dung Space Track. The dried-up Martian river bed is named after Cow Dung Road 0110, a breathtaking road in the San Rafael Swell back on Earth that could never be forgotten by anyone who traveled on it during terrestrial Mars analog missions from generations past. The habitat, built by AI and ISRU, comes into view. One Areonaut dissolved into bouts of uncontrollable laughter: “It’s right there! I can’t believe it’s real!” Then, we all break out into laughter.

It feels surreal for us to be on Mars. We have rigorously trained for this thrice-postponed mission for 2.5 years. We started as nine strangers who hailed from all across the globe, each of whom would bring irreplaceable expertise to optimize the mission. We would comprise of Malaysian, Italian, and American engineers; a British journalist; a Japanese botanist; a Lithuanian sociologist; a Cypriot cardiologist; a Bangladeshi astronomer; and an American biologist.

Then, days before our scheduled liftoff, while quarantining at the international space agency, a pandemic broke out on Earth. Our mission was terminated and we transitioned from a calculated and routine spaceflight quarantine with our crew to an unexpected and chaotic worldwide quarantine with our families and friends. The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy was updated with new standards to prevent the spread of the terrestrial virus into a space virus.

With these important updated protocols, the Areonauts needed to temporarily split into two units. The four of us who arrived on Mars will serve as Stage One Crew. The five crew members who remained on Earth will serve as Stage Two Crew; they are abiding by strict terrestrial quarantine procedures, while resuming their intense training back on Earth. They are currently serving as Remote Crew until they physically join us later at the habitat.

It was incredibly difficult to split into two units, especially because I knew what each crew member wanted to accomplish, and I was anticipating leading a successful mission for all Areonauts. We were in a pinch with the sudden loss of in-situ expertise, but if the virus from the Pale Blue Dot has taught us anything, it was the value of flexibility and patience. I am so proud to witness our remote crew supporting our in-situ crew, with our more experienced remote flight surgeon helping our in-situ HSO and our remote agricultural advisor helping our in-situ GreenHab Officer.

The pandemic has highlighted an urgent need to focus on Earth. At the same time, it has demonstrated the existential scale of unpredictable events. Cow Dung Road rests on top of dinosaur bones, ancient reptiles who met a spectacular ending 65 million years ago. As we explore this new terrain, I am reminded of how important it is to prepare for and learn from unexpected events, with parallels between space exploration, planetary defense, and planetary protection. While these concepts ring through my head, I am determined to still make this mission a success for all Areonauts. Our mission can still add a small component toward a larger set of actionable knowledge that can benefit both humans in space and on Earth, as we all learn to sometimes live in isolation and with limited resources.