Sol 6 – Rest Day, simple day

Today was our first rest day. In fact, almost. We did two short EVAs, one for changing batteries for our outdoor devices, and another one for Mathéo to do his first session with the HoloLens Augmented Reality Experiment.

Otherwise, we spent the day together in the Hab, cleaning our place, cooking, speaking about our lives, and watching movies. Mars is starting to feel like home. We loved this time, and I think these kinds of days will be crucial for future long-term space missions and also our analog one which is filled by activities and experiments: breaks are essential. This first week has been really intense, and everyone here needs this time of rest, with simple things. Have the time to take a step back, to appreciate together, to think… And have a clear mind to begin the upcoming week!

And more, even if I have not spoken much of it the last few days, each time we spend “everyday life moments” together, each Crew member has the same unity feeling. Particularly when we sit all around a table to have lunch, to have a coffee, when we discuss on the sofa… I think our crew is deeply united, benevolent to the others, and this mission might create an indestructible link between us, because of our common work and because here we represent the daily human contact to each other, almost like a family. These moments have thus entirely their part of importance in a crewed mission.

For now, I will end this report here, because my crew mates are waiting for me to begin the movie Interstellar, and I do not want to miss living this moment! See you tomorrow!

Sol 5 – Allo… do you copy?

Author: Nicolas WATTELLE

Today we missed a rendezvous. In the context of the HF propagation study, we were supposed to contact a different “Martian base” in Toulouse. There, the radio club REF 31 should have gathered ham radios and pointed its antenna towards the MDRS.

Remember, on Sol 3 we set up the antenna near the Hab. During the following day, we set up the indoor setup: an ICOM transceiver, an antenna adapter, and a computer, linked to our triangle of steel. We did some tests, we received signals from around the planet, so we were hopeful for this morning’s session. But our experiment does not depend only on our work, another big factor named “The Sun” has also its part of the responsibility.

Mars (as Earth), has an atmosphere made of different layers. Among them, one, in particular, allows long-range propagation: the ionosphere. This layer is sensitive to Sun activity (solar storms, eruptions…), and can accumulate electrical charges. And if the total charge is significant, it permits HF waves reflections, and considerably increases the range of radiocommunications.

On Earth you might be able to perform intercontinental contacts, only using basic antennas and transceivers: a ground-ground communication without any satellite or other facility between the source and the receiver. It would be an interesting technique to use between ground stations on Mars!

So, we tried during the last months to set this experiment with the radio club (we will also perform beacon listening during the upcoming days to characterize the propagation following the propagation during the days), and today was the first attempt.

The protocol was one hour long, testing different modes of modulation, from the more reliable to the less reliable one. But the Sun might not have had enough activity the previous days: we faced a sad silence. We issued calls, but we received no answer. Have we been heard in France? We don’t know yet. But we will twice again before our mission ends, another case to follow!

That was the first experiment of the day for Valentine and me. For the rest of the crew the day was more classic: a maintenance EVA for the atmospheric experiment, adjusting the planning for the next week, repairs in the RAM…

For this one, I would like to thank a lot our Crew Engineer Matheo, who made a great job with the MegaAres antenna, tinkering with what we had in the RAM: it was out of service since the beginning of our mission, and we will be able to put it on the field by tomorrow! Thank you again Matheo (take a look at him and me, striking a pose in front of the “brand new” antenna!).

All the crew is now looking forward to tomorrow, our first “Martian rest day”! We can’t wait!

Sol 4 – Experiments filled day

Author : Nicolas WATTELLE

To be honest, today I felt a bit tired. The accumulation of the previous days and the double EVAs of the morning might be responsible for that.

First, two EVAs were planned during the day. One during the morning, one for the afternoon. But because of the snow melting, we had to condense the two outings in half a day: the first team was made by Matheo, Elena, Valentine and I. For the second, we just went out with Matheo. We tried for the first time, Matheo’s Search and Rescue protocol with drones. For him it was a bit stressful, because he was worrying for the possible unforeseen of piloting a drone in simulation conditions. While for Elena and I it was way more relaxing: we just had to walk in a predefined zone, and… “get lost”. The trial went well, Valentine and Matheo geotagged us very quickly, and we left the zone with some ideas to improve the protocol; it is promising.

In the afternoon, we were mostly all out the hab. Some of us were working on repairing the MegaAres antenna. It is interesting to tinker in a constrained area, with limited resources: “do what you can with what you have” is a sentence that seems like a chorus for Mathéo and I. Until now, we always managed to go further in this tricky repair, let’s hope it lasts! Valentine, Marine and Lea performed sessions of some of our human factor experiments: Teleop and other tests grouped in a software called “TAP”. TAP is definitively our daily nightmare. Briefly, imagine that you have to stay in front of your computer during an hour and a half, answering questions and doing cognitive exercises during which you test your focus in various ways. Sometimes you need to find correlations between shapes, colours, sounds… and “tap” on the right button as soon as you can. The first time it felt like challenging, almost like a game, but once you have done it several times it becomes really boring… But we are dedicated to our mission and we believe these data can help researchers. At the end of the day, it remains a subject that makes us laugh during meals so fair enough!

Today, in my tired person thoughts, I asked my teammates: How do you imagine the first crew walking on Mars?

That started a debate, even if everyone agreed on most subjects. Léa talked about the importance to send experts in widely various domains: engineering, medicine, geology… Marine and others hope that women and men would be equally represented, and more generally that it would be a fair selection. One question that was raised, is the one of the nationalities of the crew members. Does a country will succeed doing it alone, or would it be an international collaboration? Here at the MDRS, some are really convinced, and some are not. Only the future will tell us!

Sol 3 – Botanic emergency

Author : Nicolas WATTELLE

Definitely, a day without any complication on Mars, that may not exist…

Nevertheless, the day began quite well, I would even say that it was a very efficient work morning. One of the biggest challenges was setting up the antenna which we could not set the day before… The four martionauts chosen to do so were Valentine (she was wearing the Hololens during the whole outing today), Marine, Cerise and Léa. And, even if the task was not easy on paper, they appeared to manage very well: only one hour of the EVA was dedicated to achieve the tricky task.

This antenna is made of two big triangles (6 meters high), one in front of the other, directed towards France. It is called a Delta Loop, and ours was generously built by the radio club of Toulouse (REF 31), we were thus proud to see it set up in front of the Hab. We tested it, and the performances were encouraging, so that is good news for the future of our mission! A huge shout out to the four girls who made a perfect shot in EVA!

And then, the first unforeseen happened. Léa lost contact with her buddy beginning the last part of the EVA: her radio earphone and microphone had been unplugged while she was moving. So, writing on a paper to the three others, they decided to come back in the airlock, and the EVA was shortened. But this was nothing compared to what happened in the early afternoon…

We received a call from mission control. They discovered during the day that our GreenHab was compromised: white flies had contaminated the whole room so the future of all crops was at risk. The given instructions were clear: each Crew Member had to stop their activity and go to the GreenHab for a “big and fast gardening session”. We had to remove all the plants that were contaminated and assess the state of what can be salvaged and what was not.

First, we were worried for our disturbed schedule, but it turned out to be a great moment where we all had to work at the same place, at the same time. On top of this, the GreenHab atmosphere is always warm and really bright. Let’s say it, it was a pleasure doing it. But the result was quite sad: only few crops could had been saved, the GreenHab will not be usable for the next days. Currently, we do not know if we will be able to see fresh plants growing before the mission ends. The only kind we kept in our responsibility is the gravistropism experiment, which we are doing with school students back in France, which we moved to the ScienceDome.

At the end of the day, Elena the GreenHab officer had to write her last GreenHab report, and she will say goodbye to this special part of the station, that she had taken care of for the past four days…

Finally, we came back to our activities left uncompleted. And by the time I am writing these words, almost all the crew is helping to find ideas on how to cook the (big) harvest of the day: our lasts fresh vegetables of the mission.

Sol 2 – A day on Mars’ North pole

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Today was supposed to be a very busy day, and even if it didn’t go as planned, I will be happy to sleep well tonight.

The EVA program was completely full for the whole morning. Changing batteries for the field mill, putting back the LOAC that we took out yesterday (because it cannot stand too wet weather conditions…), installing the antenna for the HF waves propagation study, first look at Candor Chiasma in order to find a great spot to begin the geological experiment (and use LIBS for the first time!).

But it felt like we moved to Mars’ north pole during the night: when we woke up, there was snow everywhere, about 4cm around the MDRS. At first sight, this was really beautiful to see, but we changed our minds when we understood it was compromising our plans… Doing an EVA as long as we had planned would have been risky, so it was decided that the EVA would just aim to change the battery of the field mill (this was the only thing necessary, waiting another day to change the battery would have put at risk its lifetime…).

Also, the snow completely covered our solar panels. Usually, these work in pair with a generator, and they provide enough energy to endure a day at the MDRS, with a crew living and working. So, we had to cut our electrical consumption for the day, keeping only essential devices plugged. This explains the pictures of preparing for the EVA, only using the light coming through the narrow windows to see.

I think this is what trying to live on Mars would look like, everyone will have to get out of their comfort zone, living day to day with the recurrent hazards… But Crew 263 is here to live this experiment, so we accept our fate and hope for better days!

During the afternoon, we were almost all together in the upper deck of the Hab. We made rotations around different experiments, in which sometimes we are operators and sometimes, subjects. On my side, I was mainly focused on producing the first podcast episode, for curious students (and all other curious!) we collaborate with. We hope people on Earth are interested in our mission.

We tried for the first time the ultrasound experiment using a CNES protocol and a Sonoscanner device. It was really interesting, the method is very smart: with one hand, we handle the ultrasound probe, on the other a smartphone with Augmented Reality software. It shows where to place the probe and is thus like a game: we have to put 4 spheres in 4 cubes, and when it is done, we record the sequence. None of us are doctors, but thanks to this protocol we can manage to get great pictures of our organs! We are really grateful to CNES for letting us participate in the conception of this futuristic device!

On another topic, I have to confess something. We are not only 7 in this station… Since we have arrived, someone is there in the Hab upper deck, looking at us all day. He proudly stands at the window. His name is Tomarsto, and he is always there, during great moments and hard times. We hope he will stay there until the end of the simulation, and even more! Take a look at him in the picture of the day!

Sol 1 – Searching for a routine, or almost…

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Yesterday was the day of the firsts, now we need to move on, to evolve, to become real analog martionauts. Although we have not discovered everything yet, things are becoming familiar to us.

We all woke up at 6:45am, in order to be ready for the sport session at 7 am. Our first one together! Valentine had prepared a cardio training, which felt a bit rough to all of us, but we will say that it is normal for a first session (Crew 240 reported similar feelings in Pierre’s -the journalist- report a month ago…).

Anyway, this was a good cohesion moment, a great way to begin the day!

Then, the breakfast was in some sort similar to the previous day, carefully prepared by two members of the crew. It was a hearty meal for the four-brand new martionauts who had to prepare for the challenge of the day: the first crew EVA.

This one had multiples objectives: first, to get used to the suits, the communication protocol, the crew member buddy system… It may seem like it is obviously easy but, be aware that this is not the case, even for people who mentally prepared for a year. Second, to check the status of the atmospheric experiment left on the field by Crew 240: the weather station, the LOAC (an amazing aerosol meter), the electric field mill… There, we had some surprises, and we could not do all of what was planned for this phase of today’s EVA. However, we will put things back in order in the coming days. Last, to do a first on-field trial of the Hololens. I was chosen to wear the glasses (during all the outing) for Augmented Reality (AR) testing. But it did not go well. The glasses fell slowly during the EVA, so much that when this phase began, I was almost half blind… I had to let them completely fall around my neck to get my vision back and we shortened the EVA. Note for the future tests: prepare a better mounting to keep the glasses on. A case to follow!

Lunches are always discussion moments. We speak about a lot of things, such as our “old” terrestrial life or our new Martian life. But lately, the food rationing topic came back frequently: we have three weeks’ worth of food already in the station but how do we manage to correctly feed everyone without being too drastic or too neglecting? On top of that, how to make it taste good every day? Some of us are more likely to be cook than others (guess what, that would not be me…), so they lead the discussion about this puzzle (and I thank them a lot!).

The afternoon was quite similar to the previous one. Everyone was focused on personal experiments in different rooms of the station: ScienceDome, GreenHab, upper and lower deck of the Hab… And it went well!

As the crew journalist, I would like you, dear reader, to come to the backstage of the mission with me, and discover more about my mates I am living this journey with. To give you this glimpse, some days, I may ask some of them what are their thoughts about different subjects. My question of the day is:

Why are you here?

Mathéo did not hesitate for a second, he clearly wants to make a first step into astronauts’ life. He took this MDRS mission as an opportunity to get closer to his dream.

To Marine, research is part of her life, and she aims to make a living out of it. This project is a concrete and original way to get a first step into research, so she has get involved in it!

Léa also has a particularly clear idea of her motivations. The operational aspect of crewed flights is what she is keen on, and analogs are an efficient way to understand the full scope of it!

Elena wants to work in human spaceflight, and in order to be a good an engineer and designer, one must think as an astronaut, and she is taking this mission as an opportunity to walk in astronauts shoes!

Sol 0 – The day of the firsts

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Good evening everyone. I am Nicolas, and I will the journalist for Crew 263, performing a 3 weeks analog mission in the Mars Desert Research Station, that has just started.

This day was the day of the firsts. First breakfast, first reports, first dehydrated food, first everything on Mars.

This morning, we finished our MDRS training with our instructor, focused on EVAs and the principles of sim. On the menu: allocation of our spacesuits, presentation of surrounding terrain maps, test of the rovers. This was very exciting, mainly regarding the potential of our outdoor experiments incoming (especially Marine and Lea for their geological field study, and Matheo for the Astronaut Search and Rescue experiment).

Then, the sim concretely began. We wanted to make this moment memorable, so we took the traditional group picture in front of the Hab before closing the airlock, marking symbolically the beginning of the simulation. At this point, we deeply discussed about our personal expectations for this mission, and wishing each other, three amazing weeks of collaborative work.

Then, all the firsts took places.

The first experiments. This was spirited : after working a whole year preparing them, we are now able to perform them! Marine took charge of the Solar Musk telescope, Cerise began her water quality evaluation, Mathéo and I prepared the gravistropism experiment in the GreenHab… Elena literally sent us in the future of space exploration, we served as subjects for her Hololens experiment: an aid for astronaut using Augmented Reality (in fact, these are large glasses projecting information over our own view, and with useful functionalities to help our experiments…). Personally, I was impressed, and I am looking forward to test it during EVAs!

The first meals. We discovered dehydrated food. Against all odds, it was really good, we were ready for much worse! We will see how it evolves through the days, I don’t want to talk too fast… And, regarding food, as proud French people, Léa and Matheo made the first loaf of bread. While I’m writing these words, we didn’t taste it yet, but it will surely be amazing! I will keep you in the loop…

The first reports. You are currently reading one of them, and I hope you are appreciating it. It is a bit stressful and we feel sometimes lost writing our words, but we will get the hang of it!

P.S: One remarkable point of this first day is the weather. This morning, the wind blew so fast that we really struggled taking our crew picture in front of the Hab. Keeping our eyes opened was a painful challenge (you may notice it one the one linked to this report, it was picked out of 20 others pictures!).

Sol 18: The conclusion – Going back to Earth

Author : Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone! This is our last report on Mars. (It won’t be the longest report I’ve made because it has been a very busy day and we are currently enjoying the best burger ever with Atila).

Let me talk to you a bit about what happened during this last Sol on Mars.

This day was the day of the lasts. Last workout, last breakfast, last EVA, last lunch, last rehydrated food, last everything on Mars.

At 3:00 PM, the same hour at which we started the simulation 3 weeks ago, we didn’t put our spacesuits on, we stepped into the front airlock, we didn’t wait 5 minutes for depressurisation, we opened the door, and just as during our first EVA, the light came into the airlock and blinded us for a moment, but this time it was the light of our dear planet Earth. It was a really weird sensation to leave the station by the same door we passed through so many times wearing our spacesuits for EVAs. This time we could feel the fresh air on our skin, hear the noises around us, talk without pressing the button of our walkie-talkie, breathing fresh air that hadn’t passed through our ventilation system, touch things with our hands and feel the contact on our skin. We took the same pictures we took on our Sol 0 before starting the sim. I think we look pretty much the same. Maybe on today’s picture we look a bit more tired, dirtier and more in shape (thanks to Julie’s workouts). You can still see in our eyes that we feel excited but it has nothing to do with the excitation we felt before starting the sim. On the Sol 0 it was the excitation of going on Mars and performing incredible experiments during 3 weeks. Today we were excited to contact our families and our friends, to see what happened on Earth during the mission, to see the reactions of people on Earth to our mission and last but not least we were excited because of the double bacon cheeseburger we are going to eat for dinner with Atila.

To conclude this last report, I am going to let my crew mates tell their favorite moment of the mission

"Julie: The games at night were a great moment to share with my crewmates. It’s the only moments when you have the right to not be serious, to not think about your work, to laugh, to get to know your partners better. These moments partly made us a real team and above all real friends.

Marion: I really enjoyed the EVAs, those were the moments where I really felt on Mars. I had never seen scenery like this, one moment you’re on Mars, the next you’re on the Moon. The views are breath-taking, every time we stopped at a viewpoint, I tried to print an image of the view in my brain to never forget it.

Maxime: The EVAs shared with my crewmates were definitely my favorite moments, we really felt we were on Mars. Each EVA was unique for me and seeing this amazing red landscape gave me incredible sensations.

Clément: There are many, but a big one was walking back into Candor Chasma for the first time since my first mission. I think it brought back a whole lot of memories from the first time I went there, and it reminded me of how awesome it was to be there at MDRS again!

François: My favorite moment was certainly the end of the day, when all crew members just sat and talked about their day, after all the work done. We could finally rest a little bit and enjoy talking and joking with each other.

For my part, it has been a pleasure to write those daily reports during those 3 weeks and I hope you enjoyed them. Don’t forget, there will be a bonus episode of "Interview with" when we will be back on Earth with Raphael, our Botanist who couldn’t make it to Mars with us.

Sol 14: Interview with: Astronomer – The man who protects us from the Sun

Author: Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone welcome back! In today’s report we are going to talk with Maxime, our astronomer! I’ve been waiting for this episode of “Interview with” for a long time I hope you will enjoy it!

But before starting this cool interview, let’s talk about what happened during this Sol 14 on Mars.

Today was the first day of our last week on Mars. To be perfectly honest today was quite hard. It was the comeback of human factors experiment (and of the terrible « shape test » of the University of Lorraine), but also the comeback of another enemy, the routine. I haven’t talked to you about routine so far but I think it becomes important now. The first reason for this omission is that I try to make the reports I write entertaining so I don’t want to talk to you about the things we do every day. Another reason is that even us, have really noticed the side effect of routine only recently.

At the beginning of the mission, routine was the perfect ally, it allowed us to be efficient in setting all our experiments which took us a long time. Every day was made of new goals: repairing the 3D printer, first mapping with drones, installation of the LOAC experiment, recycle water for the first time, … But now that our experiments are all set, our work is composed of tasks we perform every day mechanically and it is now hard to distinguish one afternoon from another. With all the fatigue accumulated since the beginning of the mission, it is sometimes hard to find the motivation required to work and the need for a nap after a morning of EVA is becoming more present recently. But it also means that we are being more efficient in our work and that we can now afford moments of rest during the day while keeping on doing our job.

Ok now I have to say, at least for the families, that there is nothing to worry about. I think this slump is a quite normal phenomenon after two weeks of mission. We are still motivated to do the job until the end and excited about what we are living on Mars.

I think we still feel as excited as on the very first day before going on an EVA.

This morning for example, we went to the Moon Overlook, it was the first time for Marion and me who stayed at the Hab last time. We were really amazed by the transformation of the landscape in just a couple of minutes of rover. One moment you are on Mars, surrounded by red dunes and suddenly, you teleport and you are on the Moon, everything around you is gray on kilometers. We took some really nice drone shots but they have nothing to do with the drone shots we’ve been taking since our arrival on Mars! This is one way of breaking the routine!

There are still exciting things happening in the station too! Yesterday, Julie tested the 3D printed funnel designed by Maxime and Francois to recycle water more efficiently. This night she recycled 10 times as much water as she usually does thanks to the new funnel. Now we will be able to take showers more frequently and it will definitely make this last week easier for us!

Now it is time to show you what we talked about with Maxime this afternoon! This is the “Interview with: Astronomer”!

“-Hi Maxime, how are you?

-Hi Pierre, well listen after 2 weeks of mission it’s going very well and you?

-I’m fine! Maxime, do you want to introduce yourself for those who don’t know you yet?

-Of course, my name is Maxime Jalabert and I am in my last year of the engineering cycle at the ISAE-SUPAERO engineering school. I have always been passionate about space, I got my first telescope when I was 6 years old and I spent my evenings observing the stars with my father. It was probably those moments that made me want to be an astronaut one day. In high school I was a very involved member of the astronomy club and it was natural for me to continue with higher education. So, after a Bachelor’s degree at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse I joined the engineering school ISAE-SUPAERO. I had the opportunity to be president of the M.A.R.S club which sends 7 students from the school to the MDRS where we are. As part of an internship, I worked for two months at the Cité de l’Espace as a scientific animator, and last year I was able to design an instrument for measuring the scintillation of stars and satellites from a telescope at the Centre Spatial Universitaire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice. Then, I did an ERASMUS at the University of Stockholm where I followed courses in astrophysics and astronomy. And next semester I’m going to Yale University still in the US to work on space propulsion. As you can see, it was natural for me to apply for this MDRS mission, especially for the role of astronomer.

-Wow, what a background! So, you are the astronomer of this crew, can you explain what is your job during this mission?

-You have to know that Mars does not have a magnetosphere that deflects charged particles from the Sun like the Earth does. My role as an astronomer is therefore to analyse solar activity in order to be able to plan or not plan extravehicular sorties because these charged particles are lethal for us human beings. The shield of the station protects us, but our suits are too thin to provide lasting protection. Strong activity of the Sun results in the presence of visible solar flares on the surface, so my role is to analyse them.

-We didn’t have such issue so far but thanks for protecting us from the Sun! Maxime, you also have an astrophotography project and a research project, can you tell us more?

-Yes, when I’m not on a spacewalk or analysing the Sun I spend my time on these two projects. My research project focuses on the search for supaernovae. The method is simple: for a given galaxy I photograph it several times at different time intervals, I then study the evolution of the luminous flux of the galaxy and if it increases I can then superpose the shots to find the supernova. The method is simple but with about 30 galaxies studied the probability of finding a supernova in 3 weeks is only about 2%. My astrophotography project consists in taking pictures of known objects like the Orion Nebula. After processing, I will use these photos to popularize science, especially in my former high school in my hometown, Limoux. The aim is to transmit my passion for space and maybe even give young students the desire to pursue higher education.

-And what is your favourite project?

-I think I get more pleasure from astrophotography. The infinitely far away has always fascinated me and I still feel a sense of wonder when I see the different pictures taken through the telescopes. Then the idea of transmitting this feeling to people who are more or less sensitive to space through these pictures I find very beautiful somehow.

-Ok I think I understand why. And on another subject, why did you choose to take part in an analog mission?

-The first dream I had as a child was to become an astronaut and to be honest, I still do. So, the MDRS mission was an opportunity to put yourself in the shoes of an astronaut for a certain period of time, while doing some great science. I think, especially the study of human factors in a hostile environment like the Martian environment. In addition to this, we can achieve good communication, always with the aim of raising public awareness of the space world.

-What is your favourite thing about Mars?

-The spacewalks are probably my favourite thing about Mars. The preparation before the spacewalk with the increasing heart rate, the tension when putting on the spacesuits and finally the accomplishment of the opening of the depressurisation airlock with the red Martian desert as far as the eye can see gives me a very strong feeling. Each EVA is a unique experience for me.

-Do you miss Earth sometimes?

-Of course, I miss it, but I think we’ve all prepared for it. On Earth I’m lucky enough to have access to everything in a very short time, whether it’s food we take the car or we walk to the supermarket. If you need information, you get out your phone and look it up on the internet. On Mars that’s not possible, we make do with what we have and it’s quite a challenge when you’ve been lucky enough to live in this societal luxury. I sincerely think that I have taken a step back on my everyday life on Earth and I am happy to have received this sensitivity to our society of overconsumption. Most importantly, I usually talk to my family several times a week and to my friends. Not hearing from them is not easy every day but that’s the part of the game. I really look forward to meeting them at the end of the mission and telling them about this great adventure.”

That’s it for today’s interview, I hope you enjoyed it! The next episode will be “Interview with: Journalist”. I still don’t know how to interview myself but we will come up with something. Stay tuned if you don’t want to miss this next episode of “Interview with”!

Sol 16: Interview with: Journalist – How to share our experience with people on Earth?

Author: Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone, welcome! Today we are going to do the “Interview with: Journalist”. My crewmates have prepared questions for me and I can’t wait to answer them!

But before, as always, let’s talk about what happened during this Sol 16 on Mars.

We are going to do that quickly today because there is not a lot of time left before the end of the communication window – time has caught up to me as I wrote the interview! Moreover, this was a fairly quiet day.

This morning, Maxime, François, and Clément went to explore the South of the station for once. They went to the region called Kissing Camels. According to them, the south is really beautiful in its Martian style. They climbed a ridge and they found a beautiful view. There was a lot of wind today and they were a bit scared that the winds could get high enough to knock over scientific equipment, but the weather stayed true to the forecast in the weather report yesterday, so they had nothing to fear. They also found some petrified wood. I personally don’t know much about that subject but it is really beautiful to see.

This afternoon, Marion, our crew scientist, made a lot of videos about our experiments. Now I can tell you that videos of “Interview with” and “Focus on” will be released on our YouTube channel when we will be back on Earth. I think it will be very interesting. Marion will work on the “Focus on” part and I will do the “Interview with” part, we can’t wait to edit and show you those videos.

Now it is time for the “Interview with”! Clément, as he was the crew’s Journalist two years ago, will start this interview. I hope you will enjoy it!

“Clément: Hi Pierre! How are you today?

Pierre: Fine thank you! It feels a bit weird to be on the other side and become the one who has to answer the questions!

Clément: Ok so first, can you introduce yourself to those who don’t know you yet?

Pierre: I see that you’ve learned the format of the “Interview with”! Ok so, my name is Pierre Fabre and I’m the Crews 240’s journalist! I’m an engineering student at ISAE-SUPAERO. I have done an Erasmus at Escuela Politécnica de Madrid in Data Science and Machine Learning. During my gap year, I’ve done an internship as a research assistant at LAAS-CNRS, a French lab, in control theory on the subject of event-based command for nonlinear systems.

When we come back on Earth, I will do another internship at Safran, in Paris, in Model Predictive Control. For my last year at ISAE-SUPAERO, I want to specialise in control theory and autonomous systems. In my future work, I would like to associate control theory with reinforcement learning for applications that make sense for me, that help people in their daily lives. Apart from that, I love climbing, especially bouldering. I can’t wait for next semester to go to Fontainebleau in Paris which is kind of a paradise on Earth for bouldering.

Clément: Pierre, as you said in your introduction, you are the journalist of this crew, can you explain what is your job.

Pierre: Ok so, basically the journalist has to send a daily journalist’s report to the MDRS’s staff. This implies going to talk to every crew member to ask them how they feel, what they did during the day, how their experiments are doing. These are the basics. In addition to that, I also have to translate my reports into French every day and send them to Earth. Then, our colleagues on Earth post the reports in both languages on our website and they do posts on social media with the pictures.

Julie: Hi Pierre! I wanted to ask you: Why did you choose to apply for the role of Journalist?

Pierre: Hi Julie! That is a good question! I think that Journalist is an important role. It is important for people on Earth because thanks to the reports, they can follow our mission and share this unique experience with us. It is important for the families who want to have news from us and know how the mission goes. But it is also important for us because it allows us to describe how we feel and what we are doing here which is something we can only do through the reports! I felt attracted by this responsibility and in the meantime, I think I kind of like to write and tell stories!

Maxime: Hi Pierre! I wanted to know: What is your favourite part of the job?

Pierre: Hi Maxime! Hmmm, that is a hard one! I think what I like the most is doing the “Interview with” and the “Focus on” formats. I love “Interview with” because it is a really nice opportunity to talk with every crew member one by one. This can seem a little weird but it is true, there are not tons of occasions like that where you are only two in the same room. The interview itself is really cool and I love to share them with you because it allows you to know us better, but the conversations we have off-camera are even better because we can talk honestly about the issues we deal with, how we feel, and sometimes it allows me to help make things better if I can.

I also love the “Focus on” format for the reasons we talked about in yesterday’s report. I think this mission is a really nice opportunity to talk about Mars, Space, and Science in general to a wide audience and I love the idea that some people might learn things reading my reports.

Marion: Hi Pierre! And what is the most difficult part of the job?

Pierre: Hi Marion! Another hard one! I have once again two answers in mind! The first one is the fact that my days are kind of shifted compared to the other crew members. Let me explain. It is hard to talk about what happened during the day before the day is over. I have to wait until the end of the afternoon before thinking about the construction of the first part of the report (the second part, “Interview with” and “Focus on” episodes are made sooner in the day so they are not really a problem).

So, this means that most of the time my work for the first part of the report and the translation starts when my crewmates end their day and start chilling. This can be very frustrating because they seem to enjoy those moments of resting, discussing, laughing and I can’t share those with them.

Another difficult part is the lack of feedback. The only feedbacks are the ones from my crewmates when they want/have the time to read my reports, the ones from the MDRS staff, and the ones from our colleagues on Earth. There are, I hope, more people that read those reports and it is sometimes frustrating not to have their feedback.

François: Hi Pierre! I was wondering where does your inspiration come from?

Pierre: Hi François! Good question! Before the mission, I was really worried about the lack of inspiration, the white page syndrome. Three weeks is a lot and I wasn’t sure I would be able to find interesting topics every day. Moreover, as the days are passing there are fewer things that happen during the day, as we have noticed already, and as a consequence, fewer things to put in my reports. That’s why I created a plan before the mission. Every “Interview with” or “Focus on” episode was scheduled, I knew when I would do reports about Martian Food or Martian House.

This is a relief for me because even if I have nothing to say about the day, I still have something interesting to put in my reports! With that source of stress removed, the inspiration comes quite naturally. To be honest, I don’t think my style of writing requires a lot of inspiration, I just try to talk about what happened during the day in a way that everyone can understand and still enjoy.

Clément: Pierre, you’ve spent the last three weeks or so is our only contact to the Earth, but we didn’t have a lot of access to information from out there. How does it feel to know that in a few days, you’ll be able to see the reaction everyone on the outside has had to your work?

Pierre: Wow! I hadn’t thought about that before you asked, but I guess you know what you are talking about as a former Journalist. Let me think. I am pretty excited to see the reactions to my reports, as I said to Marion, the lack of feedback is sometimes hard to deal with, but I’m also quite nervous about it. I really don’t know what to expect, I don’t even know how many people are reading those reports.

I think it will definitely feel good if I receive positive comments on the work I’ve been putting in those reports but it will feel terribly frustrating if I read constructive comments on how to make my report better because it will be too late to do something about it. The worst scenario would be to discover that no one cares but let’s not think about it! Sorry for that messy answer but this is all I have! “

That’s it for today’s “Interview with”! It was really cool to be on the other side of the interview and my crewmates asked me some really interesting questions! I have good news for you, this was not the last episode of this format. When we will be back on Earth, I will do the last episode with Raphael, our botanist who couldn’t take off with us to Mars! I can’t wait to do this interview; it is important for me to do it!