Crew 228 Sol 11 Summary October 8th

Sol: 11

Summary Title: The Mission Winds Down

Author’s name: Dave Laude

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

After breakfast discussed the day’s activities, mostly cleaning and preparing campus for our departure.

Lindsay continued metagenomic regolith experiments in the ScienceDome and
Inga prepared for her upcoming presentation at the Mars Society
Conference. She will present machine learning findings about social
dynamics in space analogs.

For a Show and Tell during lunch break Dave talked about radio in the early 1920s and demonstrated a 1924 battery operated 2-tube receiver.

Dave and Inga took food inventory and entire crew performed general cleaning.

Weather: Cloudy, windy, dark, light rain and cold. Nice day to stay inside, clean and write reports.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal, except one scraped back of hand on irregular piece of wood. Very little slow bleeding stopped itself in a few minutes. Wound cleaned and bandaged.

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Commander, Science, Photo, Sol Summary, Journalist.

Support Requested: None

END

Sol Summary – October 07th

Sol: 10

Summary Title: The Ultimate Penultimate

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Our penultimate sol on Mars was quiet. Jin needed to obtain COVID planetary protection certifications for his return flight to Planet Earth. The nearest certification center was more than two hours away, at the Hanskville Spaceport. Dave and Jin departed the HAB around 0930, with Dave bringing science gloves to prevent touching the same space fuel nozzles at recharging fuel stations along the route. Inga and I remained at the HAB. Our radio communication with Dave and Jin only lasted for about ten minutes. They gave an estimated return time of 1630. Indeed, they were gone most of the day.

I continued my metagenomic regolith experiments in the ScienceDome and Inga prepared for her upcoming presentation at the Mars Society Conference. She will present machine learning findings about social dynamics in space analogs. When I returned from the ScienceDome to the HAB to share lunch with Inga, she commented on how oddly quiet the HAB had felt when she was in it all alone for the first time!

After Dave and Jin safely returned to the HAB, we made minor adjustments in our schedule for how to spend our final sol on Mars. I feel a bit of the "third-quarter effect" wafting throughout the HAB. But it is not as prominent as usual. We have several big events tomorrow that keep us anchored to our mission. Tomorrow, we will participate in the first Mars-to-Mars (M2M) Video Link. We will virtually celebrate Space Week together with the AARG-1 crew, who are located at the other station on Mars, UND ILMAH. We Areonauts have been kind and supportive to each other, with engaging conversations each day. Still, we are eager for this event, because it will break our routine and expand our fishbowl population from four to eight – even if just for one hour!

Weather: Sunny, cloudy, and warm.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Science, Photo, Sol, Journalist, GreenHab, Operations

Support Requested: None

END

Sol Summary – October 07th

Sol: 10

Summary Title: The Ultimate Penultimate

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Our penultimate sol on Mars was quiet. Jin
needed to obtain COVID planetary protection certifications for his
return flight to Planet Earth. The nearest certification center was
more than two hours away, at the Hanskville Spaceport. Dave and Jin
departed the HAB around 0930, with Dave bringing science gloves to
prevent touching the same space fuel nozzles at recharging fuel
stations along the route. Inga and I remained at the HAB. Our radio
communication with Dave and Jin only lasted for about ten minutes.
They gave an estimated return time of 1630. Indeed, they were gone
most of the day.

I continued my metagenomic regolith experiments in the ScienceDome and
Inga prepared for her upcoming presentation at the Mars Society
Conference. She will present machine learning findings about social
dynamics in space analogs. When I returned from the ScienceDome to the
HAB to share lunch with Inga, she commented on how oddly quiet the HAB
had felt when she was in it all alone for the first time!

After Dave and Jin safely returned to the HAB, we made minor
adjustments in our schedule for how to spend our final sol on Mars. I
feel a bit of the "third-quarter effect" wafting throughout the HAB.
But it is not as prominent as usual. We have several big events
tomorrow that keep us anchored to our mission. Tomorrow, we will
participate in the first Mars-to-Mars (M2M) Video Link. We will
virtually celebrate Space Week together with the AARG-1 crew, who are
located at the other station on Mars, UND ILMAH. We Areonauts have
been kind and supportive to each other, with engaging conversations
each day. Still, we are eager for this event, because it will break
our routine and expand our fishbowl population from four to eight –
even if just for one hour!

Weather: Sunny, cloudy, and warm.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Science, Photo, Sol, Journalist, GreenHab, Operations

Support Requested: None

END

Crew 228 Sol Summary October 6th

Sol: 9

Summary Title: Sim Nears End

Author’s name: David Laude (XO)

Mission Status: Nominal, Hab fully prepared for in-sim operations

Sol Activity Summary: The day started with breakfast pancakes made
by Dave, during which time was discussed how our daily routine will run for
the next few sols. Dave and Inga completed EVA #6 to Candor Chasma. Jin started working
on a special edition of the journalist report for the final soul. Jin and Inga also
have been working on chili for dinner. Some greens were harvested from the
GreenHab for consumption. Lindsay has been using a DNA sequencer to identify
organisms. She investigated two regolith samples and got very low DNA yield so far.
She will continue with additional samples to see if she can get better DNA yield.
Either way, she will determine if she can identify particular microbes from low DNA yield.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow will have a 7-8 hour break in sim for Dave and Jin as Jin needs to take a Covid test ahead of his flight from Grand Junction to Canada and Dave with a US drivers license will drive him for the test. Travel will be by Crew Car to Fruita just west of Grand Junction. The crew’s sim will soon end as they will clean the station for the next crew this Friday and depart MDRS Saturday for home.

Anomalies in work: Radio failure in field issues mostly battery related. Crew Engineer Dave will conduct more battery tests in hopes of culling out some weak batteries. Tests are done by charging a battery and then with a radio set to high power transmit level the push to talk button is held down with a clamp. A timer is used to time when the battery indicator in the radio indicates a depleted battery.

Weather: High of 71F today, partly cloudy. increasing winds in the afternoon with gusts ~20-25 MPH.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: Eva #6 with Dave and Inga to Candor Chasma was fully successful. Returned to airlock within seconds of planned arrival.

Reports to be filed: Science, Photo, Sol, Journalist

Support Requested: None

END

Sol Summary – October 05th

Sol: 8

Summary Title: Tick Tock

Author’s name: Inga Popovaite

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Our time on Mars is racing towards the end. Today we realized that we have less than a handful of sols left, and I think we all wish we can stay longer. Far away from Covid and other problems that plagues our home planet.

The morning started with another EVA. This time Lindsay and Dave went back Jotunheim to collect more samples for Lindsay’s DNA study and Jin acted as the head HabComm. The EVA crew left early, at 8 am, and came back a couple of hours later, just seconds before it started to rain. But then another EVA had to be conducted to retrieve a phone left behind in one of the rovers. Inga and Lindsay suited up, depressurized for five minutes and went to get the phone. Less than a couple of minutes later, they were back into the airlock with the phone for another five minutes of repressurization. It was probably one of the more complicated phone retrievals in the author’s life.

For lunch Inga and Lindsay warmed up leftover vegetable soup and made Red Lobster Cheddar biscuits to go with it. The crew watched an episode of Away while eating.

Afterwards, everyone worked on their own projects. Lindsay continued her research in the Science Dome, Jin caught up on his grad school work, Inga set up an improvised TV studio downstairs to film some outreach videos, and Dave tinkered with things around the Hab. Inga and Dave measured water tanks in Hab and the GreenHab, and calculated that the loft tank holds ~60 gallons and the GreenHab tank holds ~236 gallons of water.

We are ending the day with another pizza tonight.

Look Ahead Plan: Inga and Dave are going to an EVA tomorrow, Lindsay continues her research work, Jin will continue updating the map of the area.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Rain in early and mid afternoon, cloudy afterwards.

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: EVA #6 to Jotunheim

Reports to be filed: Journalist Report, EVA report, EVA request, Science Report, crew photos

Support Requested: None

Crew 228 Sol Summary Report October 4th

Sol: 7

Summary Title: The Stars Are Calling…

Author’s Name: Jin Sia, HSO

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Inga prepared a breakfast of oats and fruit this morning. At 0900, Jin
and Inga departed on the EVA of the day, which covered extensive
objectives and spatial area. They tested two prospective EVA paths to
ascend the delta escarpment south of Kissing Camel Ridge West and
conducted an interview about field exploration with the escarpment as
a stunning background. Jin surveyed radio reception quality south of
Robert’s Rock Garden, then the team conducted a similar survey over a
nearly 4-kilometre stretch of Cow Dung Road, learning valuable
insights about the value of viewshed analysis for communications. Inga
also helped Jin practice his Russian with words relevant to driving,
like "поехали", "хорошо", and "давай".

In the afternoon, Dave conducted a fascinating post-lunch
show-and-tell about the history of electronics. He showed samples of
punch-cards for computers, toroid magnetic memory (like that used on
the Apollo spacecraft), integrated circuit designs he made, and old
models of floppy disks. Later, he led a discussion on what Martian
society could be like. He started the discussion with the prompt:
"Food production will be done by specially trained personnel and run
by a single organization answering to a citizen committee." The crew
launched on multiple tangents delving into topics like sociology, the
nuclear family structure, astrodynamics, and gender inequality. The
crew learned a lot from each other and look forward to the next
session.

Finally, in the evening, Lindsay, Jin, and Inga started putting
together a Martian pizza. It’s currently in the making as this report
is being written and we can’t wait to try it.

On Sol 7, the crew pushed the boundaries of exploration and of the
imagination in pursuit of the goal of Mars. The stars are calling, and
we must go.

Look Ahead Plan: Lindsay will lead a second EVA to the Jotunheim
formation tomorrow to collect more samples. She will be accompanied by
Dave, who will continue Jin’s work in geographical data collection.

Anomalies in work: Some of the radio batteries are old and are causing
issues during EVA operations. Three radios failed during EVA #5 for
this reason. Dave Laude is conducting a systematic investigation.

Weather: Warm (low 80s F) and sunny.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: EVA #5

Reports to be filed: Photo report, journalist report, science report,
operations report, GreenHab report, EVA #5 report, EVA #6 request.

Support requested: None.

END

Sol Summary Report Oct 03rd

Crew 228 Sol Summary Report 03OCT2021

Sol: 6

Summary Title: Mid Way

Author’s name: David Laude XO/Crew Engineer

Mission Status: Going as planned.

Sol Activity Summary: We started the day with a simple cereal breakfast offered by Dave featuring the granola extracted from Dave’s personal supply ship yesterday at the end of EVA#4. Granola was missing in our food supply. After breakfast we discussed the day’s activities. Today is the least active of all so far and happens to coincide with today being Sunday. Water was delivered to the static tank. We quietly worked on our research projects and planned for tomorrow’s EVA including some ideas for a couple more. A terrific hot potato casserole lunch was prepared and served by Jin. At lunch we watched an episode of "Moon Base 8". It’s a comedy regarding a moon base analog in Arizona that looks generally like MDRS. This episode focused on running out of water and a deadly attempt to remedy the situation by a crew member digging a well and falling into a cave-in. About 10 radios were tested for functionality and battery condition. One or two suspect radios and a failed battery were identified. A few more of both will be tested in the next few days.

Look Ahead Plan: EVA tomorrow morning. Ongoing research project work at hab.

Anomalies in work: None.

Weather: Warm (80F) and sunny. No Storms.

.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: None today.

Reports to be filed: Science, Journalist, Crew Photos, EVA request and this Sol Summary

Support Requested: None.

Sol Summary Report – 02October2021

Sol: 5

Summary Title: Exploring the Unexplored

Author’s name: Jin Sia

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Jin prepared a breakfast of omelettes loaded with vegetables and
cheese with a side of sauteed potato slices. Then, it was time for
Dave and Inga to begin preparing for their EVA.

Today at 0900, Dave and Inga departed on Crew 228’s first exploration
EVA. They drove south in the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers to
explore the dried-out river delta located to the west of Robert’s Rock
Garden, which is underexplored, by recommendation of Dr. Rupert. They
planned an ambitious EVA; they aimed to find interesting sites for
future exploration, test the digital elevation model of the area,
record material for outreach, study group interaction, test a
makeshift suit sunshade, and most importantly, retrieve vital granola
supplies from Dave’s personal supply spacecraft. While they were
unable to scale the escarpment, several valuable lessons were learned
about EVA protocol and about the difficulty of the local landscape.

After they returned from their EVA at 1300 with the all-important
granola, the crew had leftovers for a late lunch. Lindsay conducted
mid-term check-ins with each of the crew to see how the mission was
going for them. Jin began putting together some health and safety
recommendations in preparation for the end of the simulation.

Then, Lindsay began work on her genomic analysis of the samples
collected from the Jotunheim structure on Sol 4, although she had to
do so without a micro-centrifuge due to a missing power cable. Dave
the Wizard and Jin brainstormed alternate ways to power the
centrifuge. Inga prepared tomato soup for dinner with pasta, chicken,
and leftover vegetables.

Overall, it was a busy and productive day for Crew 228.

Look Ahead Plan:

Lindsay will continue her work analyzing the Jotunheim samples. Jin
will continue refining his GIS map and virtually scouting out future
EVA targets. Inga will film outreach videos for the Lithuanian media.
Dave will assist Inga and set aside some time for a crew discussion
about how Martian society would be different from the one they left
behind on Earth. Jin and Dave, together, will also do operational
checks on all the radios to identify and isolate defective units and
batteries.

Anomalies in work: None to report.

Weather: Hot and sunny, with a high of 85 F during the EVA.

Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.

EVA: EVA #4, conducted by Dave and Inga, to the dried-up river delta.

Reports to be filed: EVA #4 report, science report, journalist report,
operations report, photo report

Support Requested: None.

Sol Summary Report – October 01st

Sol Summary Report

Lindsay Rutter, Crew Commander 228

Sol: 4

Summary Title: Homeland of the Gods

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: We started our day at 0700 enjoying pancakes made by Dave. During the morning, each crew member worked on their own projects. Jin and I would be embarking on the first science EVA of the mission and we both thoroughly prepared for it. I was sterilizing my regolith collection equipment and determining best practices for regolith collection, knowing the limitations of the spacesuit. Jin was refining his geographical collection procedure.

After a quick lunch, Jin and I began suiting up for our endeavor. Waiting giddily in the airlock, we
pumped ourselves up by playing Multi-Axis Trainer from the First Man soundtrack. As we approached my favorite road in the solar system (Cow Dung Road), we noticed a space vehicle, filled with space tourists. They stopped and took our pictures (as tourists do).

Jin and I successfully located our targeted destination, an inverted river channel called Jotunheim, located west of Galileo Road. I was able to collect five samples of dark red regolith from the Jotunheim geographical feature, while Jin collected important metadata, including sample collection time, altitude, and GPS coordinates (WGS84). In Norse mythology, Jotunheim is the “Homeland of the Gods”, and I concur with whoever coined this geographical structure. Taking in the entire landscape was breathtakingly subliminal.

Despite the successful sample collection, we identified several operational areas for improvement that we can incorporate when we return to Jotunheim for another science EVA, this time to collect endolith and non-endolith rocks. We experienced radio blackout with HABCOM several times and I experienced issues with VOX functionality on my radio, which eventually lost battery power. We will perform a viewshed analysis of the radio blackout and bring a spare radio in our follow-up EVA science mission.

In the evening, Inga harvested several herbs from the GreenHab, which we used as toppings to the vegetable soup Jin and I concocted. We ended our hard-worked day with some treats. Some of us dared to try a tangy orange mystery drink that is apparently popular here at MDRS and Jin made us some cookies.

Look Ahead Plan: Inga and Dave will perform EVA #4 tomorrow, exploring a less-explored area South-West of Robert’s Garden

Anomalies in work: We have significantly less water remaining in our static tank than expected and have confirmed a few minor leakages around the HAB, although these small leakages should not add to anything close to the loss of water we are observing. We will continue to investigate.

Weather: Sunny and hot with few clouds

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: EVA 3 to the Jotunheim (see EVA reports filed separately)

Reports to be filed: Journalist Report, EVA report, EVA request, Science Report, Crew photos, GreenHab report, Operation Report

Support Requested: None

Sol Summary Report – October 01st

Sol Summary Report

Lindsay Rutter, Crew Commander 228

Sol: 4

Summary Title: Homeland of the Gods

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: We started our day at 0700 enjoying pancakes made by Dave. During the morning, each crew member worked on their own projects. Jin and I would be embarking on the first science EVA of the mission and we both thoroughly prepared for it. I was sterilizing my regolith collection equipment and determining best practices for regolith collection, knowing the limitations of the spacesuit. Jin was refining his geographical collection procedure.

After a quick lunch, Jin and I began suiting up for our endeavor. Waiting giddily in the airlock, we
pumped ourselves up by playing Multi-Axis Trainer from the First Man soundtrack. As we approached my favorite road in the solar system (Cow Dung Road), we noticed a space vehicle, filled with space tourists. They stopped and took our pictures (as tourists do).

Jin and I successfully located our targeted destination, an inverted river channel called Jotunheim, located west of Galileo Road. I was able to collect five samples of dark red regolith from the Jotunheim geographical feature, while Jin collected important metadata, including sample collection time, altitude, and GPS coordinates (WGS84). In Norse mythology, Jotunheim is the “Homeland of the Gods”, and I concur with whoever coined this geographical structure. Taking in the entire landscape was breathtakingly subliminal.

Despite the successful sample collection, we identified several operational areas for improvement that we can incorporate when we return to Jotunheim for another science EVA, this time to collect endolith and non-endolith rocks. We experienced radio blackout with HABCOM several times and I experienced issues with VOX functionality on my radio, which eventually lost battery power. We will perform a viewshed analysis of the radio blackout and bring a spare radio in our follow-up EVA science mission.

In the evening, Inga harvested several herbs from the GreenHab, which we used as toppings to the vegetable soup Jin and I concocted. We ended our hard-worked day with some treats. Some of us dared to try a tangy orange mystery drink that is apparently popular here at MDRS and Jin made us some cookies.

Look Ahead Plan: Inga and Dave will perform EVA #4 tomorrow, exploring a less-explored area South-West of Robert’s Garden

Anomalies in work: We have significantly less water remaining in our static tank than expected and have confirmed a few minor leakages around the HAB, although these small leakages should not add to anything close to the loss of water we are observing. We will continue to investigate.

Weather: Sunny and hot with few clouds

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: EVA 3 to the Jotunheim (see EVA reports filed separately)

Reports to be filed: Journalist Report, EVA report, EVA request, Science Report, Crew photos, GreenHab report, Operation Report

Support Requested: None

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