Category: Sol Summary

Dear Atila,

This is our Sol Summary. We are having a good and busy time here!

Thanks!

Sol: 4

Summary Title: Ninety Four

Author’s name: Genaro Grajeda

Mission Status: Everything A-Ok!

Sol Activity Summary: Long spacesuit trips during Martian winter might not be as cold as we think and helmets can get foggy with body heat. Cameras should always point front and not down. When the generator switches on or off there is a significant change in the voltage and switches may go off.

Look Ahead Plan: Green hab planting ahead with soil recovered from EVA. Programming artificial vision algorithms for rovers. Will do an EVA to find the most suitable location for a possible Smart-HAB Radio Access Network via satellite.

Anomalies in work: Spacesuits get foggy with body heat, engineering ponders if the fans may need more power.

Weather: Not-so-wintery at all. Small gusts during EVA.

Crew Physical Status:

EVA: Cactus road near Galileo Road.

Reports to be file: Journalist Report, Commander Report, EVA request, Greenhab Report, Operations Report, Science Report, EVA report.

Support Requested: Engineering support to know what is going on with fogginess.

Sol: 3

Summary Title: Mars, birthday and pizza

Author’s name: Tania Robles, Commander

Mission Status: Mission is going well. We started all of our projects today and the daily activities to maintain the Hab are been performed correctly by all the crew members.

Sol Activity Summary: Sol 3 was a very quiet day. We did our work at the Greenhab, cleaned the Hab, checked all the systems and functionality of the rovers, started to build our projects and learned how to use the solar telescope. Also, we had a great dinner (pizza) because of our Crew Engineer’s 27th birthday. By now we are finishing our reports and planning to later play a traditional board game from Mexico after a long day today.

Look Ahead Plan: Sol 4 will be a day with EVA activity to take pictures with two different cameras (professional and web) to be used for the rover experiment so they can be used for the Artificial Intelligence algorithm. The EVA will be used also to recollect soil samples for our Greenhab Officer’s research.

While that, we will be working at the RAM with the 3D printer, coding some algorithms for the rover and taking some pictures of the sun.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Sunny but cold

Crew Physical Status: All good. (Some crew members with pain in their legs because of morning exercise routines)

EVA: N/A

Reports to be filed:

-Operations Report

-EVA Request

-Greenhab Report

-Astronomy Report

-Journalist Report

-Commander´s Report

-Pictures

Support Requested: N/A

Crew 201 Sol Summary 17-Dec-2018

Sol Summary
Sol: 2
Summary Title: First EVAs (and troubleshoot)

Author’s name: Juan Carlos Mariscal

Mission Status: Systems are all working in nominal status, we had a medium obstacle when doing the training EVAs since we realized they didn’t charge the rovers overnight.

Sol Activity Summary: Today we had our training EVA and learned some electrical troubleshooting and emergency workaround, teamwork and coordination were key. In addition, we started our daily workout routine.

We are working as well on the inventory of medicines and food.

Look Ahead Plan: Now we must be very careful of the rover charging process and the EVA planning in case we have more trouble with the rovers

What’s the plan for tomorrow?

We’ll first do our daily workout, set up all the experiments supplies and some inside activities such as programming, but mainly, we’ll celebrate a crew member’s birthday! Cesar is 27 tomorrow in Mars 🙂

Anomalies in work: We realized that the RAM did not charge the rovers overnight, which meant a major change in our training EVA since we had to change our whole schedule and go out in couples, instead of groups of four people.

Weather: Cloudy/Cold

Crew Physical Status: All crew members are safe and healthy. Ironically, our HSO got a minor wound in a finger; all good.

EVA: All crew members went to Marble Ritual to do some exploration activities

Reports to be filled:
-Operations Report SOL1 (correction)
-Operations Report SOL2
-Greenhab Report
-Journalist Report
-Commander´s Report
-EVA Report
-Mission Plan
-HSO Checklist

Support Requested: We requested support from the Director in order to know what could have happened with the power in the RAM. She restarted the circuit breakers; we’ll keep on monitoring.

Best,
Carlos, XO

Crew 201 Sol Summary Report 16-Dec-2018

Sol:1

Summary Title: Ya llegamos… Y ahora qué?

Author’s name: Federico Arturo Martínez Espinoza

Mission Status: Things are going great, the team is very close so we are having a good adaptation to the hab, roles are well definite and if something is not clear we have great communication.

Sol Activity Summary: We had a training about how to wear the spacesuit. We learned to go outside covered, especially when it’s getting late, we had our rover training, we went to town for water and learned how to refill the tank of water.

Look Ahead Plan: Mission Briefing, food inventory, 3d printer assembling.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Sunny at the morning and noon, as we went on our training and tour at the rovers, it was getting cold.

Crew Physical Status: Crew member had a headache and took a pill.

EVA: North ridge, Galileo road.

Reports to be file:

– Operations report

– Greenhab report

– Journal report

– Bios report

– Photos

– Pic of the day

Support Requested: None

Crew 200 Sol Summary Report 15-DEC-2018

Sol: 13

Summary Title: Cleaning, gathering food, and two happy crews meet

Author’s name: Crew 200 and 201

Mission Status: Transitioning the habitat from Crew 200 to Crew 201.

Sol Activity Summary: One crew 200 members drove to Grand Junction this morning to pick up Crew 201! Two members from crew 200 remained in the habitat and thoroughly cleaned. Crew 200 welcomed and oriented Crew 201 and also helped them gather new food from Hanksville. A lot of delicious, dehydrated food! Both crews will enjoy dinner together tonight!

Look Ahead Plan: Crew 200 will leave for Grand Junction tomorrow and Crew 201 will eagerly begin their mission!

Anomalies in work: N/A

Weather: Chilly, snow still melting, muddy

Crew Physical Status: All crew are happy and healthy

EVA: N/A

Reports to be filed: Operations Report, GreenHab Report, Sol Report,

Support Requested: N/A

Crew 200 Sol Summary Report 14-DEC-2018

Sol: 12

Summary Title: Driving to the moons and cleaning the habitat

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: Simulation ended at 1:00PM today. All crew members
happy and healthy.

Sol Activity Summary: We spent much of the morning finishing our
reports about this week. Each day, we have been documenting our
observations of the dynamics of a 3 member crew. Today, we summarized
it over a decadent dessert. One crew member made cinnamon chocolate
cake by modifying “Kyle’s Carrot Cake”, a recipe in the habitat
cookbook “Mars Home Cooking: Recipes from the Mars Desert Research
Station”. After we discontinued our simulation as planned, we drove
two rovers to an array of “moons” north of the habitat. White Moon.
Beige Moon. Yellow Moon. Gray Moon.

Look Ahead Plan: Tonight and tomorrow, we will be thoroughly cleaning
the habitat and its surrounding buildings. Tomorrow, we will also
drive to Hanksville to pick up the next crew and drive them to MDRS.
We will introduce the MDRS to them and have discussions with them
about the rules and expectations of conducting missions here.

Anomalies in work: None reported

Weather: Snow melting; chilly with moderate cloud coverage.

Crew Physical Status: No crew members reported physical problems today.

EVA: N/A

Reports to be filed: Operations Report, GreenHab Report, Pictures
Report, Journalist Report, Sol Report, Mission Summary Report

Support Requested: N/A

Sol: 11

Summary Title: The first 3 crew EVA on Mars

Author’s name: Makiah Eustice

Mission Status: Crew conducted an EVA to the North of Stream Bed connector.

Sol Activity Summary: Crew worked on projects in the morning, waiting
to go on EVA after a visit

from guests. We enjoyed home-made bread from Antoine throughout the
day. We made the decision to

end out sim tomorrow, which mean we are wrapping up our projects and
making grand last meals.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow we will wrap up our projects and end
simulation after lunch.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Cold, but drier overall.

Crew Physical Status: No crew members reported physical problems today.

EVA: EVA Crew went by Rover to Galileo road, and then just past
Reservoir Dam to investigate

comms capability.

Reports to be file: Operations Report, EVA Report, GreenHab Report,
Pictures Report, Journalist

Report, Science Report

Support Requested: N/A

Crew 200 Sol Summary 12Dec2018

Crew 200 Sol Summary Report 12-DEC-2018

Sol: 10

Summary Title: Exploring Phobos Peak and examining unusual objects
collected during EVA

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: All crew members are happy and healthy

Sol Activity Summary: Each morning, the first object I see when I look
out the east window is the silhouette of Phobos Peak Rock as the
rising sun lights it up from behind. We had a beautiful sunrise this
morning and Phobos Peak Rock emerged all the more majestic than usual.
I was happy to remember that it was our approved geographical
destination for our EVA. We conducted another 3 crew EVA and walked to
Phobos Peak. We then explored its surrounding areas, discovering a
curious aluminum object near the peak, which we returned to the
habitat for investigation. Winds became violent shortly after our
return, but we celebrated our successful EVA safely inside our habitat
with a dish of quinoa peppered with oregano from the GreenHab.

Look Ahead Plan: We will continue conducting 3 crew EVAs and mapping
radio strength and connectivity. We will also continue our
collaborative projects.

Anomalies in work: Heavy winds caused minor damage in the tunnels,
which we repaired. Heating system in the habitat has been working on
and off; it appears to be working now but we will continue monitoring
it.

Weather: Snow melting; clear in the morning but clouds and heavy winds
developed in the early afternoon.

Crew Physical Status: No crew members reported physical problems today.

EVA: A walking EVA was conducted at and around Phobos Peak. We
continued our communication protocol to assess radio strength and
connectivity in areas around the habitat. Our EVA was almost exactly
two hours.

Reports to be file: Operations Report, EVA Report, EVA Request,
GreenHab Report, Pictures Report, Journalist Report, Sol Report

Support Requested: N/A

Sol: 9

Summary Title: First 3 crew EVA using rovers.

Author’s name: Lindsay Rutter

Mission Status: All crew members are happy after 3 crew EVA using rovers.

Sol Activity Summary: We conducted a 3 crew EVA today using rovers and
continued mapping communication strength and readibility. We realized
yesterday that we did not document any photos during our first 3 crew
EVA because we were concentrating on our communication protocol.
Today, we reserved extra time at the beginning and end of our EVA to
better document it with photos. After our EVA, we added our newest
observations about 3 crew EVAs to a list we are keeping this week and
will share at the end of our mission. We continued plotting the radio
test values we collected during our EVA onto maps and collaborating
with projects in the habitat. We also caught a habitat mouse today;
tomorrow, we will remove it a significant distance from the habitat as
per protocol. We will be careful to monitor and report any other
problematic pests around the habitat.

Look Ahead Plan: We plan to continue mapping the radio connectivity
between EVA crew and HabCom in northern and southern areas and testing
how to safely and effectively conduct 3 crew EVAs. We will also
continue plotting our tested radio connectivity values onto maps
together and collaborating between projects in the habitat and
GreenHab.

Anomalies in work: Mouse was found in a trap inside the habitat. We
will follow protocol and remove it during our EVA tomorrow.

Weather: Cold, muddy from snow melt.

Crew Physical Status: No crew members reported physical problems today.

EVA: Crew completed an EVA with 2 members outside and 1 member in the
habitat. EVA members performed an engineering check, drove north with
Curiosity to Cowboys’ corner (this was further than intended due to
recent snow melting obstructing landmarks), returned to the habitat,
switched rovers, drove south with Opportunity to Robert’s Rock Garden,
walked along Kissing Camel Ridge, returned to the habitat, took
several photos to document our 3 crew EVA. We applied our
communication and GPS coordinate relay system throughout the EVA.

Reports to be filed: Operations Report, EVA Report, EVA Request,
GreenHab Report, Pictures Report, Journalist Report, Sol Report

Support Requested: N/A

Sol:8

Summary Title: The first 3 crew EVA on Mars

Author’s name: Makiah Eustice

Mission Status: Crew conducted an EVA with 2 crew members out and only one member on base, mopped the Science Dome.

Sol Activity Summary: Crew conducted first 3-crew member EVA to explore and map the regions of communication strength. We planned contingency plans for loss of signal and navigation. Afterwards, the crew mapped the locations of perceived path by each crew member against the estimated path based on recorded GPS coordinates. The rest of the day was relaxed and quiet, taking time to clean the mudded floor of the Science Dome and have computer-based work on our projects.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow an driving/walking EVA is planned. Crew projects will continue collaborative projects.

Anomalies in work: The observatory was open most of the day. It closed once we restarted the generator.

Weather: Cold, muddy from snow melt.

Crew Physical Status: No crew members reported physical problems today.

EVA: EVA crew went, by foot, to Kissing Camel Ridge East to explore the limits of walkie talkie comms in certain regions. Comms checks were performed every minute between HabCom and EVA, and GPS coordinate was exhanged every few minutes. EVA was planned for 2 hours and was conducted in exactly 2 hours.

Reports to be file: Operations Report, EVA Report, EVA Request, GreenHab Report, Pictures Report, Journalist Report, HSO Report

Support Requested: N/A