May 2019 – Page 14 – Mars Desert Research Station

Crew 211 Sol 10 Summary Report 1-May-2019

Sol: 10

Summary Title: At the crossroads

Author’s name: Carl-Henrik Dahlqvist

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: After a difficult night with the storm and a temperature drop of more than 10 °c, we made some nice pancakes to comfort us. We then all worked on our experiments as the morning EVA was postponed to the early afternoon to wait for the mud to dry. Half of the crew made an EVA to Kissing Camel from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. The rest of the crew left at 4:30 pm for another EVA to Condor Chasma. The objective of the first EVA was to gather information about potential places to set-up a temporary antennas system for geolocation and information transmission. This will be one of the projects for the next UCL to Mars crew for the season 2019-2020. We end the day by deploying the antenna of the vice-commander experiment and the cubelanders of the commander experiments.

Look Ahead Plan: We plan to do another EVA as the end of the stays is approaching. We will get back the antennas and the cubelanders, in the morning, before walking north following the path 1103 to the sinkhole near Hab ridge road. A second EVA is planned in the afternoon to Grey Moon. We will also try to finalize our respective experiments in order to be able to write the final report for Friday night.

Anomalies in work: No issues.

Weather: Mostly sunny, almost no wind

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: We had two EVAs today to enjoy the nice weather after two days of showers. The EVA to Kissing Camel allowed us to prospect for good places to setup antennas to possibly create communication and geolocation systems in order to improve the communication between the Hab and EVA teams.

Reports to be filed: Journalist Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, Science Report, EVA Request, EVA Report, Daily Photo Report

Support Requested: None

[title Journalist Report – May 1st]

Today was our tenth simulation day. The night was very cold. We woke up at 7:30 am and we had breakfast at 8:00. We try to break the monotony of our routine but the cycle is still there. A part of the crew had to go in EVA at 9 am but the ground was muddy. So the was reported on afternoon.

Before lunch, the crew worked on their experiments. For more informations read scientific report.

At 12 am, Benjamin and Eléonore prepared the lunch. We ate rest of mash potatoes fries. After meal, we wanted to discuss about Nathan’s experience and his martian constitution but Simon, Julien, Carl and Maxime went to EVA at 1 pm.

The first challenge of this EVA was to take the rover Opportunity to Kissing Camel. It went very well since Oppy didn’t show any sign of weakness in the whole round trip. However, it was only use in "Max Range" mode and was driven very gently. Simon would not recommend any kind of excess regarding this rover.Once arrived on the site, they decided to climb carefully the Kissing Camel’s hills and reach the top of one of them. They’ve received an instant reward regarding our efforts with the lovely landscapes Kissing Camel had to offer.

At 4pm, Nathan, Benjamin, Eléonore and Chloé went to EVA to explored Candor Chasma and gathered soil samples. They came back to the station at 6:30pm

After that, we prepared the Cap Com. Each of us is working on his report and is going to send it between 7 to 9 pm. We will eat rice with tomatoes.

Like usual, we will do a crew meeting to speak about the day.

MDRS Field Season #22 (2022-23)

Oct 1-16— Work Party

(Oct 20-23—TMS Conference in Tempe Arizona)

Oct 24-28—Crew 266-- Spaceward Bound High School

Oct 30—Nov 12—Crew 267—WOMARS

Nov 13—26—Crew 268-- Mars Society All women crew

Nov 27—Dec 10— Crew 269--The Aerospace Corporation Team

Dec 11—17 (one week) —Crew 270 -- NASA Spaceward Bound Utah Cohort 4

Dec 18— 31—Crew 271— Mars Society crew

Jan 1—14, 2023— Crew 272-- Purdue

Jan 15—28— Crew 273— Spanish Language Crew

Jan 29--Feb 11—Crew 274— APUS ARG-1M

Feb 12—Mar 11-- Crew 275— Supaero

Mar 12—18 — No Crew (Spring Break)

Mar 19-25 (one week) — Crew 277— Class

Mar 26—Apr 1 (one week) — Crew 278— Class

Apr 2—15— Crew 279— M.A.R.S. UC Louvain

Apr 16—29—Crew 280— Hypatia

Apr 30—May 13—Crew 261— Transatlantic Mars Society

May 14—27— Crew 281— Project Possum Alumni

June 1—3— University Rover Challenge

June 4-10 (one week)— Crew 282— Martian Biology III

June 11-17 - Summer Closeout Crew

About The MDRS

The Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert was established by the Mars Society in 2001 to better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet. It is the second Mars analogue habitat after the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station was established in 2000.

Over 200 crews of six-person teams have lived in 1-2 week field visits at MDRS to simulate life on the Martian surface. Researchers and students alike have explored the Mars-like terrain in the area surrounding the station in full “spacesuits”, maintained the station’s systems, grown plants in the GreenHab to support themselves and even recycled their waste water.

Our activities at MDRS are not only about informing the public, but also conducting real research to bring humanity that much closer to the reality of human exploration on the planet Mars.

Annual field seasons at MDRS run approx. October through May. Anybody can apply to be on a crew, and we also need volunteers to help with the project.

Management Team

Mission Support

Month: May 2019

Sol Summary – May 1st

Crew 211 Journalist Report 01May2019

Crew Photos – April 30th