February 15, 2020 – Page 2 – Mars Desert Research Station

Crew 221 Journalist Report 14Feb2020

Author: Hemani Kalucha, Crew Journalist

Sol 12

Title: Last Day in Sim!

This morning, Maria and Rawan went on the crew’s last EVA to the moons. They tested the robot, built the antenna, and even took two samples, so an efficient last day on Mars! Commander Grulich unfortunately had a fall and hurt her neck, but then got a lovely massage from Jess and is better now. All day, the crew either cleaned or wrapped up science experiments. This included measuring salinity and pH in the samples, harvesting the blue corn, and cleaning the lesser liked parts of the sink. One last time, we sat together with eggs and amazing costa rican coffee for breakfast. One last time we had soup and intense conversation for lunch. Each meal has been a mix of longing for freshfood and bittersweet memories of hanging out with the crew. We saved a delicious coconut curry for dinner, and are about to jump into that now. Last but not least, we have a special valentine’s day gift exchange after dinner tonight. Signing off for the last time, Crew 221.

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 14FEB2020

GreenHab Officer: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on. Door opened today from 10:14 pm to 2:22 pm.

Average temperatures: 19.25°C

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 8.45 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 1.32 gallon

Water in Blue Tank: 142.5 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 1

Changes to crops: We harvested our corn today!

Narrative: Today was our last day in sim and my last official mission day as the GreenHab officer so it was time to see how our crops had done! Sadly our mungbeans have still not sprouted, but our corn grew even better than we expected! Amazingly, we got between 5 and 7 g of corn grown from Martian or Martian/Earth soil, and 86g of corn grown in Earth soil in just over a week! So a lesson for Mark Watney, next time grow corn, not potatoes!

Harvest: 7g spinach chard, 9g wild rocket, 2g corriander.

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other Notes: Same as yesterday: Can I clarify; the tap I can use is the big antique looking one at the tunnel entrance to the GreenHab with the big orange tape that says “do not use”? Also, Shannon, you would like me to pick all the plants in the two tier grey pot by the door (i.e. the chard, spinach and rocket on the top, and the sprouting spinach on the bottom) or just the top pot?

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

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Day: February 15, 2020

Journalist Report – February 14th

GreenHab Report – February 14th