GreenHab Officer: Scott Dorrington
Environmental control: heater off (space heater on overnight), fan off, door closed
Average temperatures:
07:40: 52 F, 71%
08:52: 54.5 F, 72%
11:46: 66.9 F, 52%
12:38: 77.2 F, 45%
15:34: 77.9 F, 42%
16:15: 71.2 F, 46%
17:59: 53.4 F, 75%
19:23: 52.5 F, 77%
Hours of supplemental light: 24 hrs (lights turned on last night and left on)
Daily water usage for crops: 6 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 154 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 07:40 light mist, 12:00 water + mist
Changes to crops: None
Narrative:
During last night’s comms window, we received advice from mission support to leave the plants inside the greenhab for the next few nights, with the space heater running, and the supplemental lights running all day and night. I went out to take a temperature reading at 21:56 following comms window, and found the temperature at 52 F. It seems the heater did manage to warm it up a little from the previous measurement. In the morning, I was eager to get a temperature reading soon after waking to try to catch the coldest temperature. At 7:40am, the temperature read 52 F, indicating that it was likely a constant temperature of 52 F through the night (this matched the indicator on the space heater). Knowing that sunrise was soon to come, bringing warmer temperatures, I commenced the daily dose of music therapy with “Here comes the sun”. I returned to the hab at 8:52am to turn off the space heater and take another temperature reading. While in the greenhab, I commenced an examination of some of the plants. I noticed that cucumbers 1 & 2 had become tangled together – these were gently detangled. At midday, I returned to the greenhab to water the plants. As advised by mission support during induction, the plants were due for some fertilizer. I applied 6 gallons to the plants, mixing in 0.5 cups per gallon of miracle-gro. Around half was given to the tomatoes and cukes. During this midday watering, the plants were treated to another dose of music therapy. This time was some chill Aussie tunes including Lime Cordiale and Spacey Jane. The afternoon saw another misting and dose of music. This time, mixing it up with some rock, featuring AC/DC, Airbourne, Aerosmith and the Darkness. I think the plants enjoyed it – the crew in the hab certainly enjoyed the first airing of Radio Greenhab live from Mars over the comms. In the evening, I returned to the greenhab to turn on the space heater. We also performed our first Martian harvest, getting some basil, parsley, and sage for a nice tomato sauce for tonight’s dinner. During comms window, another spider was relocated to the Greenhab.
Harvest: 4g parsley, 9g basil, <1g (3 leaves) of sage
Support/supplies needed: None
EVA Report – January 23rd
EVA # 3
Author: Andrew Wheeler
Purpose of EVA: Deployment of environmental sensors
Start time: 10:15am
End time: 11:00am
Narrative: Environment monitoring sensors have been brought to MDRS to measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, altitude, dust, organic gases, CO2, magnetic field strength, light intensity, UV and IR intensity and battery/solar panel performance. Before deployment, the sensor suite (encapsulated within a Stevenson Screen (digital equivalent)) needed to be linked into the local area network to allow for calibration. Unfortunately, the device could not access the WiFi and was unable to be deployed at this time. Deployment is to be outside the science dome so that visual monitoring can be undertaken and short range remote access maintained. Instead, the EVA involved a practice run in setting out the equipment and confirming that all were operating (though not recording). This was then dismantled and returned to the hab for troubleshooting. Additionally, a preliminary examination of the ground conditions for EVA #4’s robot deployment was carried out before returning to the hab.
Destination: Outside science dome panoramic windows
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518228E 4250718N
Participants: Andrew Wheeler (9), Steve Hobbs (8)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: MDRS campus environs.
Mode of travel: Walking
GreenHab Report – January 26th
GreenHab Officer: Scott Dorrington
Environmental control: heater off (space heater on overnight), fan on in afternoon, door closed (open briefly)
Average temperatures:
07:52: 46.8 F, 56%
09:27: 86.7 F, 31% space heater off, light off
10:09: 97.7 F, 20%
10:25: 98.8 F, 17%
10:43: 97.7 F, 17%
11:14: 104.4 F, 16%
11:26: 99.9 F, 12%
11:31: 101.8 F, 14%
12:19: 121.3 F, 10% fan on
12:51: 97.3 F, 11%
13:04: 96.4 F, 11%
13:39: 99.9 F, 10%
13:56: 99.1 F, 10%
14:45: 93.9 F, 10%
15:19: 88.2 F, 11% fan off
16:03: 105.4 F, 14%
16:42: 97.5 F, 17%
18:57: 82.2 F, 21% light on, heater on
Hours of supplemental light: 9.5 hrs (counting from midnight to 9:30am)
Daily water usage for crops: 6 gallons + 0.5 gallons mist
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 136 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:30 mist, water at 10:30am, water at 13:30, regular misting through the day (at temp log times)
Changes to crops: None
Narrative:
Today was our first sunny day of the mission. The morning visit at 7:50am showed a still chilly temperature of 46.8 F, however I knew from sol 3 that temperatures were likely to climb in the greenhab with the sun out, so planned to diligently monitor the temperatures throughout the day. Today’s music therapy soundtrack was the Eagles, beginning with Tequilla sunrise. I returned to the greenhab at 9:30 to turn off the space heater, and the temperature was a nice 88 F. It was very sunny in the greenhab, made a note to bring sunnies upon return. I returned at 10am to find temperatures up around 97 F. From googling during comms window last night, I found that tomatoes like a temperature around 70 to 90 F, so wanted to keep the temperatures below 100 F through the day. I did some experimenting with opening the greenhab door to try to cool temperatures. This did manage to drop the temperature a few degrees in 15 minutes, but I also noted that this also dropped the humidity (likely from the dry desert air). I tried closing the door and giving a decent misting of the plants, which seemed to raise humidity a bit, but temperatures were increasing again. I decided misting alone was not good enough to raise humidity, so commenced with a morning watering. Rather than give one large watering as done in previous sols, I decided to do 2 gallons at this time, and return for another watering later in the day. I noticed that this prevented much of the water drainage from the tomato plants I was seeing in previous sols. I aim to continue this twice daily watering as I think it will help with water conservation, and might prevent over-soaking the tomato roots. While watering, with the door closed, I monitored the temperatures rising again. I tried this time with the fan, and noted temperatures dropping from 106 to 100 F in a few minutes. But humidity also dropped again. I turned off the fans, and the humidity increased after a few minutes (likely from water evaporating). I returned to the hab, leaving the fan off. I checked back in 50 minutes later to find the temperature had reached 120 F. I turned on the fan again, which quickly brought temperatures back down to 100 F. I also raised the mesh shade cloth on the south wall of the greenhab to try to block some of the heat coming in. The tomatoes were also moved in off the wall during this stage. I left the fan on for much of the afternoon, setting myself alarms to return at regular half hour intervals. The temperatures were consistently in the 90s, and gave regular mistings on each visit. At 1:30pm, I gave another watering of 3 gallons. At this time I also noticed tomato #7 has a fruit that is beginning to turn yellow! This was a welcome surprise, as tomato #7 was looking smaller than the others from the start of our mission. The tomatoes were shuffled around throughout the day to keep them out of direct sunlight. Temperatures remained in the 90s for the next few visits. At 3.20, I found the temperature at 88, and decided to leave the fan off for a bit to try raise the temperature before the sun started setting in the afternoon. In the afternoon, Mission Support radioed confirming delivery of replacement parts for the heater. The heater was fixed, so we should expect some more comfortable overnight temperatures for the plants.
Harvest: None
Support/supplies needed: None
EVA Report – January 26th
Crew 291 EVA Report 26-01-2024
EVA # 9
Author: Clare Fletcher
Purpose of EVA:
Start time: 1330
End time: 1600
Narrative: Our EVA today went back to the same place as EVA 8 to drive our rover around and attain mineral spectra from various targets. We had a few technical issues as our GPS ran out of battery and a few nuts fell off the rover. However, we still had a great success with the rover today and attained some good data. Our studies attempting to find concretions had some success, though limited at this first location. Some gypsum was also attained. We decided we had enough rover charge to make it to the river crossing (the furthest requested point for our EVA), and we had more success finding gypsum and concretions there. As it is Australia Day, we also took some Aussie mascots into the field, so they too could experience Mars research. Overall a successful EVA for #9!
Destination: Tharsis Montes. 518196, 4253742 parking (if battery permits). 518607, 4253884 furthest point. Walking within 700m of the rover (permitting the battery doesn’t run out prior to reaching river crossing).
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518196, 4253742 parking (if battery permits). 518607, 4253884 furthest point.
Participants: Clare Fletcher, Steve Hobbs, Rob Hunt
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Exit Hab via main airlock. Drive down driveway to Cow Dung Rd 0110. Drive North on Cow Dung Rd 0110 until river crossing.
Mode of travel: Driving and walking.
Crew Photos – January 25th
Sol Summary – January 25th
Sol: 4
Summary Title: Expanding the Search
Author’s name: Andrew Wheeler
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Sol 4 had the potential of denying us EVAs based on the weather forecast. Fortunately, the rain held off and we were able to get away on time. Clare had us at Kissing Camel Ridge West in search of concretions (a source of carbonates) and petrified wood (an analogue of organic remains). Previous crews had reported this location and, after some climbing around outcrops and mudstone domes, we located the stratigraphic layer that contains the concretions. GPS coordinates were taken and samples collected. The petrified wood remained elusive as only fragments in the stream wash were observed. The second EVA saw an excursion towards the north along Cow Dung Road past Cowboy Corner en route to the largest stream draining the Tharsis Montes. Operational constraints (Point of No Return is rover power levels at 55%) pulled the team up short of the proposed destination. Nevertheless, Steve was able to have the push broom spectrometer up and recording the many and varied lithologies of the nearby geology. Finally, the commander joined a livestream event for Igniting The Space Down Under timed for transmission for Australia Day 26th January back on Earth.
Look Ahead Plan: Weather dependent as always, tomorrow will see an EVA return to the Tharsis Montes area for the next stage in collecting spectroscopic data. The remaining time will be spent continuing the troubleshooting of the stubborn sensor station and collating previously collected data.
Anomalies in work: Nothing to report.
Weather: Overcast morning and remained so during the day. No precipitation. Temperature increasing from 0 Celsius in the morning to high single digits in the afternoon. Humidity fluctuated between 80% and 50%. Faint to no wind.
Crew Physical Status: nominal
EVA: EVA 7 with Clare, Andrew and Scott to Kissing Camel Ridge West. EVA 8 with Steve, Alex and Rob to the Tharsis Montes area north of Cowboy Corner.
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Journalist Report, Greenhab Report, Operations Report, EVA report, EVA Request(s). No Astronomer report (too cloudy for telescopic observations).
Support Requested: Nothing to request.
Operations Report – January 25th
SOL: 4
Name of person filing report: Scott Dorrington
Non-nominal systems: None
Notes on non-nominal systems: None
ROVERS EVA #7
Spirit rover used:
Hours: 242.6
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 56%
Currently charging: No
Opportunity rover used:
Hours: 156.8
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 58%
Currently charging: No
ROVERS EVA #8
Curiosity rover used:
Hours: 264.5
Beginning charge: 100%
Ending charge: 46%
Currently charging: No
Perseverance rover used:
Hours: 282.4
Beginning charge: 99%
Ending charge: 38%
Currently charging: No
General notes on rovers: Mirrors removed previous night.
Summary of Hab operations:
WATER USE: 13.1 gallons
Water (static tank): 380.1 gallons (depth 13 inches)
Static tank pipe heater (on or off): on
Static tank heater (On or off): on
Toilet tank emptied: yes (indicator light has not changed from 2/3 full – visually monitoring)
Summary of internet: Nominal
Summary of suits and radios: Suit #8 was not used today, as it was noted to have two screws loose at the charging port. These came out when one of the crew attempted to remove the power plug. (See pictures before and after repair). I screwed them both back in, but found the top screw would not tighten, just keeps turning. The plug is secured, and can function for plugging and unplugging, but may need extra care and monitoring when plugging/unplugging. We are prepared to stand suit #8 down for now until further advice from mission support.
Summary of GreenHab operations: put notes here
WATER USE: 5 gallons
Heater: Space heater on overnight
Supplemental light: light on all day
Harvest: None
Summary of Science Dome operations: Crew visited Science Dome in search of vinegar and hydrochloric acid for use in rock sampling in the field. Identified chemicals, but not used (could be part of ongoing experiments).
Dual split: Nominal
Summary of RAM operations: Not used
Summary of any observatory issues: None
Summary of health and safety issues: Medical forehead thermometer was tested but shown to be not accurate to expected body temperatures – out by 4 to 5 C.
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support:
Crew were interested in the vinegar or hydrochloric acid (10% HCl) in the Science Dome for rock testing of returned samples. Inquiring if this is from an ongoing experiment, or if we are allowed to use it. Acknowledge that handbook requires crew to bring their own chemicals for testing, so ok if not allowable.
Journalist Report – January 25th
Rocks Rock
Sol 4 began with fritters and cereal. It was tenuous as to whether we’d be able to proceed with planned EVAs due to weather, but luckily the rain subsided and the ground remained roverable.
The sky was still overcast, and with the hab’s solar panels struggling we were instructed to conserve energy – which meant a switch to gas. Later in the evening this spawned a discussion regarding the role(s) of hydrogen on Mars. Water will be electrolysed for oxygen, which as a byproduct will also produce hydrogen – this hydrogen will likely be reacted with exhaled carbon dioxide to form methane, for use as rocket fuel (or perhaps other things)… but what else could hydrogen potentially power on Mars as it becomes a more prevalent fuel source on Earth? Assuming that any early human population on Mars will need to continue obtaining at least some of their oxygen from electrolysis, in addition to various other methods currently employed aboard the ISS (or ideally photosynthesis), what will become of any excess hydrogen once those humans have enough methane? Commandrew says it gets vented. I say (with zero expertise on the matter) that they double down on Mars’ ice supplies and turn it into a green (in multiple ways) hydrogen utopia. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can reach out for my edification.
ANYWAY, the EVAs. This morning’s EVA took three of our crew out to Kissing Camels Ridge to look for calcium carbonates – which once reacted with various acids would serve as a source of carbon dioxide on Mars, which in turn could be reacted with hydrogen to generate methane (see hydrogen rant above). The team found some good deposits and sent back coordinates. It’s been too cold so far to reach the gypsum deposit approximately 4km north of the MDRS (the rovers’ batteries deplete too quickly in the cold), but multiple members of the crew would benefit from gypsum samples and so we’ll launch an EVA to that site if that becomes possible. Today I learned that gypsum is a hydrate material that when processed via heat or other techniques can yield water (literal water from rocks!). For the geologists in the room, this is all pretty ordinary fare, but for myself (with a biology background) it’s fascinating.
The afternoon’s EVA set out to Cowboy Corner. It was supposed to extend further, to the area north-west of Tharsis Montes, but Opportunity hit the 55% power threshold and the team was forced to disembark… where we discovered an adjacent ‘target-rich’ site anyway. This site was stunning, with the geomorphology of the long-dried stream-bed proving spectacular against the rocky mounds (“hills”?) and distant mesas. Steve was able to get several gigabytes of spectrophotometer data, from multiple types of material.
Highlights of the day: Steve’s taste in music, EVAs being greenlit, incredible geomorphology (like the stream-bed) near Cowboy Corner, Commandrew’s minerology lessons.
Lowlights of the day: More extraterrestrials (this time we also observed a symbiotic quadrupedal species).
– Alexander Tobal, Crew 291.
GreenHab Report – January 25th
GreenHab Officer: Scott Dorrington
Environmental control: heater off (space heater on overnight), fan on in afternoon, door closed
Average temperatures:
08:01: 47.8 F, 62%
09:30: 57.0 F, 56% heater off
11:00: 85.6 F, 36% fan on
12:48: 83.8 F, 24%
12:56: 79.5 F, 27%
14:12: 63.3 F, 34% fan off
14:43: 67.8 F, 37%
15:16: 67.8 F, 45%
16:00: 65.3 F, 49%
18:36: 48.6 F, 66% heater on
19:11: 48.9 F, 67%
Hours of supplemental light: 24 hrs (lights on all)
Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 142.5 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 9:30 mist, 12:45pm mist, 2:43pm water + mist, 4pm mist
Changes to crops: None
Narrative:
This morning I woke to a commotion in the hab. Apparently Clare had faced her arachnophobia, capturing another spider from the hab and relocating it to the greenhab (along with another one captured the night before). I headed over to the greenhab to get a temperature reading. I returned to the greenhab at 9:30am just prior to our EVA to turn off the heater and give the plants a nice misting. Following yestersol’s high midday temperatures, I asked Rob to check in on the plants while we were out on EVA. The temperature was picking up through the day, so the fan was turned on for an hour or so. Following the EVA, I returned to check in on the plants, give them a watering, and perform a rotation of the tomatoes. The tunes for the afternoon watering consisted of Spiderbait (for the greenhab spiders) and David Bowie. I also noticed a fly in the greenhab. Hoping the greenhab spiders will sort it out to earn their keep. Over the last few sols, I’ve been experimenting with collecting and re-using some of the water that drains from the tomatoes onto the floor during watering. I figured water conservation would be very important on Mars. I experimented with using the dustpan and broom to scoop up some water – this was working, but not practical to use to collect a good amount of it. Today, I experimented with positioning some empty food cans from the hab kitchen underneath the pallet to catch some dripping water. This was effective, and I was able to pour the collected water back onto the tomatoes. Although, I’m not sure how practical this solution will be applying to all tomatoes towards the back of the pallet. I will keep experimenting. I returned a few times in the afternoon to check temperatures and mist. I also noticed a few tomato leaves that were wilting (likely from the cold), which I pruned. The tomatoes on #9 are looking red and juicy. I think they may be ready for harvesting in a day or two. The challenge will be dividing two baby tomatoes between 6 crew members. Space heater turned on at 6:36. Hopeful that the greenhab heater will be getting repairs sometime soon.
EVA Report – January 25th
Crew 291 EVA Report 25-01-2024
EVA # 7
Author: Clare Fletcher
Purpose of EVA: Went to Kissing Camel Ridge West to identify concretions and possible fossils, as signs of life on Mars. Attempted to reach the Hab Ridge via Kissing Camel Ridge. Dual purpose of this EVA was to get bearings to locations identified during EVA 5 that we are considering using as wayfinding points.
Start time: 1000
End time: 1230
Narrative: Kissing Camel Ridge has proven to be a site of great success for Crew 291. After a steep hike up the ridge, and a lot of disappointing conglomerate, we found the unit with the concretions. We could follow the unit for a little way, but the slight dip angle of the unit meant that we couldn’t find too many, and we would have done better on the North side of the ridge. However, the North side of the ridge was much steeper, so we weren’t able to investigate. While up near the concretions we also took a few bearings to several different peaks that we could see as part of our wayfinding research. We are yet to come to any conclusions about which peak we are seeing is which on the map, and if our crew will develop colloquial names for them that we might use amongst ourselves. We had planned to attempt to reach Hab Ridge via Kissing Camel Ridge, but we determined the path to be too treacherous in our EVA suits. With that and the lack of time, we decided to downclimb and look around the road cutting for anything interesting that had washed down the talus slopes from the top of the ridge. We found several interesting pieces of chert and jasper, as well as a few samples of interesting staining patterns, perhaps by iron oxide and copper, and desert varnish (manganese oxide).
Destination: Kissing Camel Ridge West. Walked within 700m of the rover. Parking rover at 518271, 4249560, walked to 517664, 4249650.
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): Parked rover at 518271, 4249560, walked to 517664, 4249650.
Participants: Andrew Wheeler, Clare Fletcher, Scott Dorrington
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Exit Hab via main airlock. Drive down driveway to Cow Dung Rd 0110. Drive South on Cow Dung Rd 0110 to Kissing Camel Ridge. Walk up and along Kissing Camel Ridge to Hab Ridge.
Mode of travel: Driving and walking.
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