Journalist Report – March 3rd

SOL 14: The White Planet

“It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

For this second Sunday on Mars, the Crew woke up seeing a red and white landscape! After yesterday’s wind gusts, snow happened and covered the Martian hills in front of our windows. But the wind, which kept blowing during the day, and the sun, hiding behind the clouds, threw away the white snowflakes…

We followed our Sunday routine. We started with a big sports session, which lasted more than an hour. Lise prepared an original session: we were switching between individual exercises and group ones. After going through seven individual exercises, we gathered to complete a common work out. We did this 4 times, and then finished with a challenge: holding as long as possible the plank position! After that, we were exhausted, but happy to have worked out. Then, we enjoyed bread, cooked by Léa the day before. After this big breakfast, we kept performing our Sunday activities: a big clean up of the station! We had to clean all the Martian dust we brought from the outside during EVAs. Despite it, we spent time working. For example, Lise and I performed cognitive assessments for the Orbital Architecture experiment.

The afternoon was busy with an activity that brought happiness to the Crew: washing our hair! Just before that, Lise, who found her hair too long, asked Marie to cut it, and we did it! Then, those who wanted to wash their hair, and couldn’t do it since the beginning of the mission, could finally do it. It was great! We are proud to have used only 9 liters of water to Lise’s, Marie’s and Léa’s hair, as well as mine. On his side, Yves went for dry shampoo. It was not easy to wash our hair while kneeling down on the ground, with the head inside a bucket, clearing our hair with water from a water flask! But we had a lot of amusement helping each other out, which created a joyful atmosphere in the whole station!

Finally, the Crew enjoyed muffins, cooked by Mathurin. This day enabled everyone to rest and prepare themselves for next week!

Astronomy Report – March 2nd

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa BOURGELY

Crew: 293

Date: 03/02/2024

MLC-RCOS16

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC2268 and NGC2525

Images submitted with this report: Example of wrongly stacked NGC2525

Additional Notes:

I tried to process the images but it seems like there are calibration issues with the star tracking : I am not able to stack them with the WCS. I sent an e-mail to ask Peter about it.

Operations Report – March 2nd

Crew 293 Operations Report 02-03-2024

SOL: 13

Name of person filing report: Leo Tokaryev

Non-nominal systems: the tunnel leading to science dome

Notes on non-nominal systems: there’s a hole in the tarp and the metal grid is also damaged, all because of the wind. We’ll try to figure out a solution once there’s less wind. For the moment it is too dangerous to go to the science dome or try to fix the grid.

ROVERS

Spirit rover used:no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Opportunity rover used:no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Curiosity rover used: Yes

Hours: 269.6

Beginning charge:100

Ending charge:76

Currently charging:yes

Perseverance rover used: yes

Hours:284.7

Beginning charge:75

Ending charge:55

Currently charging:yes

General notes on rovers:

Summary of Hab operations: put notes here

WATER USE: 18.7 gallons

Water (static tank): 301.8 gallons

Static tank pipe heater (on or off):On

Static tank heater (On or off)On

Toilet tank emptied: yes

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: none

Summary of ScienceDome operations: none

Dual split: Heat or AC, On

Summary of RAM operations: none

Summary of any observatory issues: none

Summary of health and safety issues: none

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: apart from the front door of the hab and the tunnel that were damaged, the station seems sensitive to the wind but for the moment everything works fine.

GreenHab Report – March 5th

Crew 293 GreenHab Report 05-03-2024

GreenHab Officer: Mathurin FRANCK

Environmental control: (heater, fan, door open?) Heater/fan turning on automatically

Average temperatures: between 70°F- 90°F

Hours of supplemental light: 10pm-2am

Daily water usage for crops: 6G (but 4G before tank resupply)

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: None

Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 198 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 10:00am 7:00pm

Changes to crops:

None

Narrative: /

Harvest: (include which crop and mass in grams): None

Support/supplies needed: /

Sol Summary – March 5th

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 05-03-2024

Sol: 16

Summary Title: Sometimes you need to know how to start again…

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Today, the Crew Scientist and GreenHab Officer, responsible for the photogrammetry study, realized that the map generated yesterday was not of sufficient quality to help the EVA teams locate the checkpoints. Rescheduling a photogrammetry EVA to Candor Chasma was no easy task, but in the end, we managed to rearrange everything in a way that would not impact our other studies too much.

As a result, this was a relatively quiet afternoon. The photogrammetry team developed a new strategy for tomorrow’s backup EVA, while the rest of the crew concentrated on keeping the station and experiments up and running.

Look Ahead Plan:

We are planning to perform a second photogrammetry EVA at Candor Chasma to map the area on Sol 17, and to reschedule the two follow up EVAs to Sol 19 and Sol 20.

Anomalies in work: EVA Suits 3,4,5,7,9, Solar Observatory offline

Weather: Mostly cloudy, low 0°C, high 15°C

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: NA

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

Support Requested: NA

Astronomy Report – March 5th

[category  astronomy-report]

Astronomy Report

Name: Léa BOURGELY

Crew: 293

Date: 03/05/2024

MLC-RCOS16

Robotic Telescope Requested: MLC-RCOS16

Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC3597, NGC1952, Orion Nebula

Images submitted with this report: M42

Additional Notes:

First try in processing, I am not sure that the colors are right, and it is a bit blurry.

EVA Report – March 2nd

Crew 293 EVA Report 02Mar2024

EVA #010

Author: Erin Pougheon (Leader)

Purpose of EVA: Changing batteries of the atmospheric instruments and protecting them from the wind

Start time: 7:58

End time: 09:23

Narrative: The goal for this EVA was to change batteries of the atmospheric instruments near Marble Ritual. We had difficulties retrieving some data from the instruments but in the end, we succeeded. We turned off LOAC to bring it back to the station due to the weather. We turned off and protected the field mill with protective foams. The wind started to blow hard when we decided to go back to the station because our goals were achieved.

07:53 Beginning pressurization

07:58 End pressurization

Perseverance: 284.7h, 75%

Curiosity: 269.6h, 100%

08:00 Rovers loaded

08:03 Leaving campus

08:05 Arriving on site

08:07 Beginning data retrieval

08:11 LOAC data and LOAC itself retrieved

08:15 Issues with Mega Ares not recognizing USB

08:21 Turning Mega Ares ON/OFF: no result

08:30 Retrieving Windmill data

08:36 Windmill data dumped, safely turned off

08:40 Protecting the instruments

08:43 Changing the batteries

08:44 Mega Ares working again

08:45 Retrieving data, second try

08:46 Data dump is working

08:47 Protecting the instrument

09:01 Mega Ares data successfully downloaded and measuring again

09:12 Rovers loaded

09:14 Leaving site

09:17 Back on campus

Perseverance: 55%

Curiosity: 76%

09:18 Pressurization starting

09:23 Everyone is back safely. End of EVA

Destination: Between Marble ritual and the HAB

Coordinates (use UTM WSG 84): 518500,4251000

Participants: Erin Pougheon (EVA leader), Marie Delaroche, Lise Lefauconnier

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road, North direction

Modes of travel: Curiosity Rover and Perseverance Rover and walking

Additional notes: None

Journalist Report – March 2nd

SOL 13: Winds in the East, Mist coming in

“So, once again, the world had demonstrated its many languages: the desert only moments ago had been endless and free, and now it was an impenetrable wall.” – The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

When we woke up, the Crew heard loud wind gusts against the Hab’s walls. But we were not surprised: we were advised yesterday that today’s weather wouldn’t be nice. This is why we rescheduled the EVA to the morning, even though it was initially planned for the afternoon. Originally, this EVA was designed to be an easy EVA, just to change batteries of the atmospheric instruments. But, with the wind speed and the rain announced, we had no other choice than to retrieve some instruments in the station, and protect others from the wind. LOAC was loaded in the back of Curiosity rover, brought back to the station, and the Field Mill packed with foams and duct tape in case the mast tips over and breaks because of the wind gusts. We heard the wind blowing harder and harder throughout the day, and we were glad to know the atmospheric instruments were safe.

Winds didn’t stop blowing all day, wind gusts even blew open and nearly broke our principal airlock’s door. Once the problem was solved, winds damaged a part of the connecting tunnels which enable us to go from one module to another. We evacuated the Science Dome right before the tunnels became dangerous to move through, and decided to close it off for the time being. While the Crew was working in the Hab in the afternoon, we were glad to be comfortable inside the station, instead of outside on an EVA as initially planned!

We had some other little issues during the morning, especially with the experiments led by high school students. The plants we were growing with them were nearly dead… But we found solutions to still have data for this experiment! Léa also tried all morning to fix the 3D printer, which could be useful for plenty of applications. She has been working on it for various Sols, dealing with each problem, one after the other. Today, she found some solutions, but she thinks it will be complicated to make it work…

For lunch, we wanted to innovate for our dehydrated meals by cooking a quiche, with homemade dough. We were afraid to leave the table still hungry, so we made a large quantity of it. A very large quantity! We were unable to finish it entirely, and nobody felt hungry all afternoon!

Just before the meal, Leo showed us the mid-rotation video, which he finished editing earlier. We were all very happy to see a summary of the first half of our mission. Indeed, today, Sol 13, marks the halfway point of our mission on Mars! We can say that this mid-mission Sol was memorable and quite eventful for the Crew!

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