Day: March 4, 2024

SOL 11 : It’s not a problem if there’s a solution

“And, when you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

This morning, Crew 293 performed the EVA prepared yesterday, to go and save the atmospheric instruments! The EVA Crew, Leo, Léa and Mathurin, went to the deployment site to take various measurements, like tension measurements for example, in order to identify the problem which prevented the data collection. After an hour and a half out in the Martian atmosphere, Crew members solved the problem. When they left the site, the instruments were collecting data. We are hoping that everything will go well for the next EVA!

Late in the morning, while I was performing a session for the TILT experiment, Lise and Mathurin worked on the impedance meter’s data collection. Indeed, we use an impedance meter for our Core Data measurements each morning, which record many physiological parameters: mass, muscular mass, nerve health, an electrocardiogram… This scale, which is linked to the watches that Crew members wear at all times, enables us to collect health data. Lise and Mathurin developed a code to automatically transcribe this data into a readable file. That way, we will be able to share it with various researchers we work with. Then, Marie and Lise found a solution to make the EchoFinder’s software works, we had been struggling with it for days!

Today, the Crew, and especially Léa, our Crew Astronomer, received excellent news. Léa, since the beginning of the mission, could not access the solar Observatory, because an important piece needed to be replaced. It was difficult for her because her whole project was based on the use of this Observatory. And yesterday, she received an e-mail: at the beginning of next week, it may be replaced, and she may be able to use it! So today she could enter it for the first time in 11 Sols, to start training to use the equipment. Her smile showed us that we should never give up hope!

During the afternoon, Lise and Marie prepared tomorrow’s EVA, watched by Yves. They had a classic 2D map to prepare their path to find the same checkpoints as the team who had a 3D map. They spend approximately one hour to study their map and preparing their plan. It was hard for them to find their way through the North Ridge’s harsh landscapes with a 2D map! They think they understood well but have difficulties visualizing landscapes. They don’t want to go in with too much confidence… You can imagine that a friendly competition was born between the 2D and 3D teams! This makes the experiment very enjoyable, and so Crew members are even more implicated in the results!

SOL 10 : Time flies !

“The boy stayed on until the desert turned pink in the setting sun. He felt the urge to go out into the desert, to see if its silence held the answers to his questions.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

This morning, Léa, Yves and I prepared for our photogrammetry EVA. Last evening, Léa and I took notes using a 3D map generated with images taken by our Parrot drone, in order to find checkpoints in the North Ridge area. Yves, who chose the checkpoint’s locations during a previous EVA, was with us to check that we found them well and took notes about our performances. He was amused to see us searching, as he knew exactly where all the checkpoints were! The EVA went very well, but it was very long! 4 hours of EVA… it was the longest outing we have been on since the beginning of our mission. We were very tired when we came back to the station, because of the itinerary that was hard to follow. As during each EVA, Crew members who stayed in the station were excited for their mates to come back and were informed of what was going on during the EVA thanks to Lise, HabCom for this EVA. When we exited the airlock after re-pressurization, we were warmly welcomed by Marie, Lise, Leo and Mathurin. They had prepared, as usual, some things for us to eat and drink to recharge our batteries quickly! We took time to recount our EVA, and the beauty of the landscapes we saw at North Ridge. Leo and Mathurin already saw them when they went to prepare the maps, but Lise and Marie will discover the red mountains during their own outing, in which they’ll have to find the same checkpoints but with a 2D map!

During our EVA, just before going to North Ridge, we had to stop at our atmospheric instruments’ site, installed at the beginning of our mission, to change their batteries. We noticed a problem in the measurements, that we didn’t understand completely while on site. This afternoon, we organized an emergency EVA for tomorrow, to go and find the problem, and try to solve it. That way, the instruments will continue measuring data!

At the end of the afternoon, we also took time to shoot videos as a Crew. It is unusual for us to be all at the same time in the same module during the day! We all wore our mission’s polos for the videos, which reminded us of the first day of simulation, 10 Sols ago! Time is passing very quickly for us in the station, it is hard for us to imagine That we are already counting with two-digit Sols! Time flies on Mars…