Month: February 2024

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 20-02-2024

Sol: 2

Summary Title: Slowly Settling Down

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

No EVAs were planned today, in order to continue setting up experiments in the Hab and other modules. After breakfast and a workout session prepared by our HSO, everyone got to work on their different tasks and experiments. The EchoFinder experiment has been set up in the Science Dome, and all location tracking anchors and most environmental sensors are in place. The crew has started taking cognitive assessments in different locations around the station; the data will then be correlated to environmental, location and physiological data as part of the Orbital Architecture study. Atmospheric instruments are also ready in the RAM, and have collected data during the night between Sol 1 and Sol 2.

Unfortunately, the solar observatory is still unusable, for the broken part of the telescope could not be replaced. This is a hard blow for our Crew Astronomer, but she is not letting herself be brought down, and is admirably contributing to other experiments she is responsible for.

Look Ahead Plan:

We are hoping for good weather conditions on Sol 3 to deploy the LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter), MegaAres (designed for electric field measurements) at the location chosen during the first training EVA. We are also planning to do an EVA on Sol 4 to deploy a weather station and the Field Mill near the Hab.

Apart from Observatory operations, everything is looking good science-wise, which has given rise to the question of possibly having to deal with downtime in the next few Sols before other studies are launched (starting , something which had not been anticipated. I am confident that the crew will keep very busy, making the most of our time in this unique environment.

Anomalies in work: Solar observatory offline

Weather: Cloudy, light rain in the morning. High 56°F, Low

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Journalist’s Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, Photos (6-8 pics), EVA Request (1)

Support Requested:

As a way to reinforce the simulation, we would like to ask that Ben not specify the reason for his leaving the outpost (e.g. Going on a hike with Jules) if it is not necessary for the crew to know. We understand that for security reasons, the crew must know if Ben is not at the outpost, but we would like to keep communications between the crew and Mission Support as ‘in sim’ as possible.

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 22-02-2024

Sol: 4

Summary Title: First clouds upon the Crew

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

This morning, the second EVA team tasked with installing the remaining atmospheric devices (the Field Mill and a weather station) left the station at 9:15. The team successfully installed a weather station which is now synchronized with a tablet inside the Hab. The data collected by the weather station will be used to determine how the measurements taken by the atmospheric instruments are influenced by wind speed, wind direction, humidity, etc.The rest of the EVA went smoothly, apart from a malfunction with the Field Mill.

One EVA crewmember started noticing an issue with the airflow of their suit as the EVA crew was approaching the airlock. Once inside, they felt their suit was no longer ventilated, and quickly asked the crew to take off their helmet, which they did immediately; sim was broken for safety purposes. The crewmember sat down and had difficulty breathing, as they had been breathing accumulated CO2. The entire crew reacted to the situation perfectly; we called Mission Support, and provided all the correct first aid elements. Mathurin checked their oximetry level, which was back to normal after they went back to the Hab. Once the situation was under control, Leo and Marie performed measurements on the ventilation battery and noticed that the battery level had dropped below 8V, after 3h30mins of use.

After re-reading previous emails between Mission Support and Crew 292, we realized the faulty suit (suit 6) was also reported to have battery issues, and that the battery had already been replaced before. We will make sure that the problem does not occur again by testing every suit (see Operations Report for details on the tests) to identify the ones that might be faulty.

The Crew spent the early afternoon resting after an eventful morning; we then spent time training with the AMI interface, and troubleshooting sensors.

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow will be dedicated to various activities, most notably preparing videos for the schools linked to our outreach program, continuing the EchoFinder experiment, and troubleshooting hardware for Orbital Architecture.

An EVA to retrieve and fix the malfunctioning Field Mill is scheduled on Sol 6.

Anomalies in work: EVA Suit #6

Weather: Sunny, High 15°C, Low 5°C

Crew Physical Status: One crewmember had trouble breathing at the end of the EVA. They have fully recovered.

EVA: Deployment of two Atmospheric Instruments, the Field Mill and a weather station.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Journalist’s Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, Photos (6-8 pics), EVA Reports (1), HSO Report

Support Requested: NA