Journalist Report – March 14th

SOL 25: Happy Birthday Commander!

“He had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the Pure Life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

On this 25th Sol’s morning, our penultimate day of mission, we performed our penultimate EVA! Marie and Léa went to reach checkpoints placed at Kissing Camel Ridge, with Mathurin who counted their steps between each checkpoint. With the 2D map they had yesterday to prepare the EVA, they had more difficulties than Leo and I with the 3D map, because the topography of the area is complex. However, they managed to find 11 out of the 12 checkpoints, but they took almost one additional hour! During this EVA, the EVA Crew was helped by high schoolers from the CNES’s project PROXIMARS. They helped prepare protocols for both before and during the EVA. They even defined the roads to use with the rovers to reach Kissing Camel Ridge! They analyzed maps to report where the 12 checkpoints were and find the optimal path between them. This last photogrammetry’s EVA marks the end of the experiment inside the station. But Yves still has to handle data in order to analyze results.

During the EVA, there was a huge effervescence inside the Hab! Indeed, a surprise was set up: it was the birthday of Marie, our Commander! Leo, Yves, Lise and I stayed at the station, preparing everything for her return! We decorated the Upper Deck with balloons and confetti, and cooked a cake to surprise her. When the EVA Crew came back to the station, we blindfolded Marie to guide her to her surprise. We sang “Happy Birthday” and offered a bouquet of sunflowers from the GreenHab! Balloons and flowers stayed at the Upper Deck, for the great pleasure of the whole Crew! Marie was very moved and happy to celebrate her birthday with the Crew, in the station, in this unique context! For the rest of the Crew, we were delighted to surprise her and to please our Commander!

During the afternoon, we had to get back to work! We don’t have much time left in the station, we want to use it to contribute to science the best we can, by leading to the end of all our experiments. So we had cognitive tests for the Orbital Architecture experiment and session of the TILT experiment, given by the Neuroergonomic department of our school ISAE-SUPAERO. Marie and I performed a session of the EchoFinder experiment, it was the last one of the mission! Ending experiments one by one made us realize that we are leaving tomorrow … but we still have a lot of work to do!

EVA Report – March 14th

Crew 293 EVA Report 14-03-2024

EVA # 18

Author: Marie Delaroche (Leader)

Purpose of EVA: Photogrammetry exploration EVA with 2D map

Start time: 8:59

End time: 12:25

Suit 1: 13.43V, 2.5 LPM airflow

Suit 6: 13.30V, 2.3 LPM airflow

Suit 8: 13.68V

Narrative:

8:57 Depressurization started

9:02 Depressurization over, out on Mars

Opportunity 167.9H, 100%

Spirit 246.6 75% -> 72% -> change rover

Curiosity 271.8H, 100%

9:07 Leaving campus

9:14 Arrived at Kissing Camel Ridge

10:30 3 checkpoints left

11:04 2 checkpoints left, everything is fine

11:36 1 checkpoint left

12:05 Léa suit malfunctions, helmet off, heading back to the rovers

12:14 Back at the rovers

Curiosity 58%

Opportunity 59%

12:25 Re-pressurization

12:30 End of re-pressurization, EVA Crew back in the Hab

Suit 1: 10.61V, 0.4LPM airflow

Suit 6: 12.39V, insignificant airflow

Suit 8 12.5V

Destination: Kissing Camel Ridge

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518000,4249500

Participants: Marie Delaroche (EVA Leader), Léa Bourgély, Mathurin Franck

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: rover on Cow Dung Road, South direction

Mode of travel: Walking and driving

Vehicles used: Opportunity and Curiosity (Spirit not used, charge level dropped from 75 to 72 % even before we started moving)

Additional notes : NA

Operations Report – March 14th

Crew 293 Operations Report 14-03-2024

SOL: 25

Name of person filing report: Leo Tokaryev

Non-nominal systems:

Notes on non-nominal systems:

ROVERS

Spirit rover used:no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Opportunity rover used:yes

Hours: 167.9

Beginning charge:100

Ending charge:59

Currently charging:yes

Curiosity rover used: yes

Hours: 271.8

Beginning charge:100

Ending charge:58

Currently charging:yes

Perseverance rover used: no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

General notes on rovers:

Summary of Hab operations: put notes here

WATER USE: 12.51 gallons

Water (static tank): 125.1 gallons

Static tank pipe heater (on or off):On

Static tank heater (On or off)On

Toilet tank emptied: no

Summary of internet: none

Summary of suits and radios:

Summary of GreenHab operations: put notes here

WATER USE: 8 gallons

Heater: On

Supplemental light: 22h-2h automatic

Harvest: 7 sunflowers

Summary of ScienceDome operations: none

Dual split: Heat or AC, On

Summary of RAM operations:

1- Every suit (from 1 to 9, I didn’t touch the two suits that are on the shelf under suits 7,8 and 9) was equipped with 3 replacement fuses, as discussed yesterday.

2- The battery of suit 9 was changed. We have lots of work to do before the end of the mission, so I won’t be able to test the battery for 4 hours, as with other suits, but the next crew could take care of it.

3- The zip-ties in the tunnel to the science dome were cut and lots of new ones were added on places where they were missing. There are only 2 large zip ties left. Also, there’s a lot of small zip ties in the RAM (the ones that belong to the Mars Society and the crew will also leave some to replace those we used), and some medium zip-ties(long but not large). I recommend buying some more medium size zip-ties, and large ones (those that are used for the tunnels)

Summary of any observatory issues: none

Summary of health and safety issues: none

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support:

We have a lot of stuff that we could leave to the next crews, since we won’t be needing it anymore, please tell me if we can leave them in the RAM:

-lots of metal tent stakes

-different types of screws, in their original sorting box

-two chargers for batteries that are functioning well

-lots of AA and AAA batteries

-electric tape, normal tape, foil-covered tape( also, there’s not enough simple black tape for future crews).

Sol Summary – March 14th

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 14-03-2024

Sol: 25

Summary Title: Cake and Confetti

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Last Photogrammetry EVA this morning! I left the Hab with the Crew Astronomer and GreenHab Officer, equipped only with some notes taken from a 2D map of Kissing Camel Ridge. We managed to find 11 of the 12 checkpoints; the terrain was much harder to read than previous locations: we spent more than an hour looking for the last two. As we were going to head back to the rovers, the Crew Astronomer’s suit started malfunctioning, sending very little air. The helmet was taken off for safety, and we made our way back to the Hab.

What I did not know, was that while I was out on EVA, the rest of the crew was preparing a surprise birthday party for me! I came back to an Upper Deck decorated with balloons and filled with a scent of cake. I am lucky to be a part of this group of thoughtful and amazing people!

In the afternoon, we started to feel the end of our rotation creep nearer and nearer… some experiments have been officially wrapped up, such as EchoFinder and AI4U. We swap opinions and feelings about what we look forward to on Earth, but also about what we are going to miss about living at MDRS: contributing to science, the intensity of our life here, and most importantly, being with each other.

Look Ahead Plan:

We aim to dismantle and retrieve all atmospheric instruments on Sol 26 (morning), and to break sim at 6 PM.

Anomalies in work: EVA Suits 6, 7 and 9

Weather: Cloudy, Low 1°C, High 12°C

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: Photogrammetry exploration EVA, Kissing Camel Ridge

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

Support Requested: NA

Operations Report – March 18th

SOL: 1
Name of person filing report: Emily Doherty
Non-nominal systems:none
Notes on non-nominal systems:none
ROVERS
Spirit rover used:none
Hours: (before EVA)
Beginning charge: (Before EVA)
Ending charge: (On return from EVA, before recharging)
Currently charging:none
Opportunity rover used:none
Hours:none
Beginning charge:none
Ending charge:none
Currently charging:none
Curiosity rover used:none
Hours:none
Beginning charge:none
Ending charge:none
Currently charging:none
Perseverance rover used:none
Hours:none
Beginning charge:none
Ending charge:none
Currently charging: none
General notes on rovers: none
Summary of Hab operations: none
WATER USE: 71 gallons
Water (static tank): 425 gallons
Static tank pipe heater (on or off): On
Static tank heater (On or off) On
Toilet tank emptied: no
Summary of internet: N/A
Summary of suits and radios: All in working order.
Summary of GreenHab operations: watered plants accordingly. Put down shade around noon due to excessive heat from sunlight.
WATER USE: 20 gallons
Heater: On
Supplemental light: On
Harvest: 1g Parsley, 1g Chives. We also planted 1/2 packet of Chives.
Summary of ScienceDome operations: none
Dual split: Heat or AC, On or Off
Summary of RAM operations: (Tools used, work done): none
Summary of any observatory issues: None
Summary of health and safety issues: None
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: None

Journalist Report – March 18th

Crew 294 had an incredibly productive day on Mars. We began our day setting up several physiological sensors and planning our sample experiments (performed on the crew). This included measures like non-invasive brain imaging (i.e., Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and Electroencephalogram (EEG)), galvanic skin response, heart rate, eye gaze, respiration, and body temperature. We tested the bluetooth and WiFi ranges of all our wireless devices. We also did some testing to see if our sensors would be feasible to use within the spacesuits. The afternoon allowed us some time to take some crew pictures in our space uniforms.

Looking forward to potentially testing some sensors in the field during EVAs tomorrow!

Emily Doherty

Mission Plan – March 17th

Name of person filing report: Emily Doherty
Our Crew is as follows:
Commander: Leanne Hirshfield
Crew Engineer: Marta Čeko
HSO: James Crum
Journalist: Emily Doherty

Mission Plan: Crew 294 is comprised of two research professors, 1 post-doc, and 1 PhD student with expertise in the use of neurophysiological sensors to measure human social, cognitive, and affective states in ecologically valid settings. Crew 294 will be testing several neurophysiological sensors for the purpose of planning out future experimental studies. Specifically, the capabilities (ergonomics, bluetooth range, signal fidelity across distances) of several sensors will be tested within the Hab and during a few proposed EVAs, weather permitting.

We have two primary objectives:
To immerse ourselves within the simulation to better understand what a crew on Mars would experience in order to inform future study designs on similar populations in similar environments.
To test the feasibility of several neurophysiological sensors on ourselves (eye tracking, peripheral physiology, neuroimaging, audio, virtual reality) while at MDRS.
This mission will therefore provide our research team (crew 294) with greater knowledge about MDRS to design studies to propose to run in future visits.

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