Month: March 2024

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Mid-Mission Research Report – March 2nd

[category science-report]

Crew 293 Mid Rotation Science Report 02Mar2024

Name of person filing report: Yves Bejach

Crew293 has been in the MDRS for two weeks now, conducting experiments while simulating life on Mars. We have done everything we could to make this simulation as accurate and relevant as possible. The current report aims to give the reader an understanding of what has been achieved and what is yet to come.

This report is organized as follows:

– Overview of all the experiments conducted during our mission, as found in the Mission Plan sent on Sol1, reminded here for clarity, and updated with the experiments’ current status.

Physics

Two experiments from the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) have been performed at the MDRS for several years already. We are planning to gather additional data for this season as well. These activities will require EVAs.

· LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter): LOAC is an optical aerosol counter, measuring the concentrations of different particles in the air and classifying them by size.
Related EVAs: Two EVAs planned for the first week to install the device. Every two days, the batteries will have to be changed and the data will have to be collected. The latter procedures can be part of other EVAs.
External points of contact: Jean-Pierre Lebreton and Jean-Baptiste Renard, CNRS.
Point of contact within the crew: Lea Bourgély.

· Mega-Ares: Mega-Ares is a sensor precisely measuring the electric field and the conductivity of the air. It is the little brother of Micro-Ares, the only payload of the Schiaparelli lander (ExoMars 2016). This year we also installed a wind-mill that will give us additional data.
Related EVAs: Performed simultaneously with the EVAs planned for LOAC. Two EVAs were planned for the first week to install the device. Every two days, the batteries will have to be changed and the data will have to be collected. The latter procedures can be part of other EVAs.
External points of contact: Jean-Pierre Lebreton and Jean-Baptiste Renard, CNRS.
Point of contact within the crew: Lea Bourgely.

Status: The instruments have been installed north of the Station, between the Hab and Marble Ritual. They have been collecting data since then. These data are retrieved every two days or so, when we change the batteries that power them. This will go on until Sol 26, when the instruments should be brought back to the station.

Technology

Technology demonstrations are planned, one of them being the continuation of the two last missions of ISAE-Supaero (Crew 263 and 275). They are based on technologies developed by the French Space Agency (CNES) and its health subsidiary (MEDES).

· AI4U: AI4U is an AI tool designed to help and assist astronauts in their daily tasks (environmental measurements, voice recognition). The aim is to test this AI assistant in real or close-to-real scenarios.
Related EVAs: None.
External points of contact: Gregory Navarro and Laure Boyer, CNES.
Point of contact within the crew: Mathurin Franck.

Status: The first week was dedicated to the setup and troubleshoot of the software. Crew293 has been able to test it daily since Sol8. We’ll continue running these daily tests next week, and the fourth week will be dedicated to data handling.

· Echofinder: Onboard the ISS, ultrasound scanners are teleoperated by trained specialists. As we travel further away from Earth, communication delays will increase and teleoperated devices will no longer be usable. The goal of Echofinder is to enable autonomous ultrasound acquisition sessions without any knowledge in medicine and any communication link with an experienced sonographer. The Echofinder tool uses augmented reality and an AI to help the operator capture usable imagery of the subject’s organs.
Related EVAs: None.
External point of contact: Aristée Thévenon, MEDES.
Point of contact within the crew: Yves Bejach.

Status: Acquisition sessions have started on Sol 2 and have been conducted approximately every two Sols. The crew member conducting the session is taking notes on everything that goes well or not with the software, and the setup and is taking ultrasound images that are to be analyzed to see if Echofinder is efficient.

· Photogrammetry: Re-conducting an experiment started by last year’s crew (Crew 275) which aims to determine how a 3D map created thanks to drone photogrammetry could improve an EVA crew’s performance during an outing.

Related EVAs: Three EVAs per week, starting the second week. The first one’s goal is to create the 3D map and decide where to position checkpoints on a designated area (one area per week). For the 2nd and 3rd ones, the EVA team will go to each checkpoint, having prepared the EVA using the standard 2D and 3D map respectively.

External point of contact: Alice Chapiron, ISAE Supaero student (Crew275)

Point of contact within the crew: Yves Bejach

Status: Started on Sol8 with an EVA aiming to create a 3D map of the East flank of North Ridge. Once the map was successfully created, two teams went out on different EVAs to go through designated checkpoints as efficiently as possible, having prepared with the 3D map and a classic 2D map respectively. Data collected has started to be processed. The same process will be iterated again on Week3 and Week4 of our mission.

Human factors

Human factors experiments are arguably the ones that benefit the most from taking place during an analog mission.

· Orbital Architecture: Measure of the stress of analog astronauts and of the influence of environmental parameters on the stress using Polar bands bracelets, sleep monitoring using Dreem headbands, questionnaires, evaluation of the position of the analog astronauts in the station, and environmental measurement (temperature, humidity, etc.).
Related EVAs: None.
External point of contact: Michail Magkos, KTH.
Point of contact within the crew: Lise Lefauconnier.

Status: The Crew has conducted cognitive assessments regularly since the beginning of the mission. In parallel, we are carrying Polar bands that monitor our heart rate, and location tracking chips that have been successfully installed early on during the first week. This will continue until the end of our rotation.

· MELiSSA: The MELiSSA project (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is a European project led by the European Space Agency (ESA) aiming at developing a highly circular and regenerative life support system for space missions. The ALiSSE methodology (Advanced Life Support System Alternative) was developed as part of the project to provide an impartial evaluation tool of each technology system, including mass, energy and power, efficiency, crew time, crew risk, reliability, and durability. The proposed activity within the MELiSSA project focuses on the operational aspects of preparing recipes from higher plants and aims for a preliminary evaluation of the "crew time" criterion.

Related EVAs: None

External point of contact: Blandine Gorce, ESA

Point of contact within the crew: Mathurin Franck

Status: Every recipe that was planned for the first two weeks has been prepared. Resupply should allow us to continue as planned.

· Trace Lab: The purpose of this research is to better understand the role that emotion and coping strategies have on team dynamics within ICE (Isolated, Confined, Extreme) teams. The findings from this study will aid in the understanding of the role of affect within teams operating in ICE conditions – something that has been highlighted as being important by researchers, Antarctic expeditioners, and astronauts. Experiment conducted in collaboration with Trace Lab, University of Florida.

Related EVAs: None

External point of contact: Andres Kaosaar

Point of contact within the crew: Marie Delaroche

Status: The Crew has been filling out daily and weekly questionnaires since the beginning of the mission and will continue to do so until the end of the rotation.

· AMI – Anomalies Monitoring Interface: Software allowing random anomalies to occur within the station to simulate problems that could happen in a real environment and see how we could react. The main goal is to improve the simulation.

Related EVAs: Potentially emergency EVAs in case of depressurization of ammoniac leak. It is worth noting that such emergencies cannot be mistaken for real ones as it is not a problem that can occur within our earthly MDRS.

External point of contact: Quentin Royer, ISAE Supaero student (Crew275)

Point of contact within the crew: Marie Delaroche

Status: After some troubleshooting and last-minute adjustments during the first week, the beta version of AMI is now running. The Crew can now monitor the power distribution of the station and training anomalies have already occurred, enabling a deeper immersion. The interface is a work in progress; it will continue to run as we test new functions. We are expecting a new iteration of the software to be sent to the Crew as of tonight.

Outreach

· Media: Several articles and interviews in French newspaper and on radio

· Scientific mediation: We, like all Supaero Crews that came before us, try to share our passion for space and science in general by engaging in intervention in middle and high school. This year, we developed with high-schoolers a 3-step project around growing food on Mars.

Related EVAs: One as early as possible to retrieve some martian soil in which to plant radish seeds.

External point of contact: None

Point of contact within the crew: Mathurin Franck

Status: The plantation has been made early on; it is steadily growing under the advised care of our GreenHab Officer. Updates are regularly sent to the students that helped us create this experiment.

NB: In an effort to feel as immersed as possible, we asked Mission Support to play along with the simulation when communicating with us, which they did. For that Crew293 says thank you.

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Sol Summary – March 2nd

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 02-03-2024

Sol: 13

Summary Title: Winds in the East, Mist coming in

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

It feels very strange to change a well-established routine after two weeks! Usually, our mornings are planned to the second, however today we were forced to do things differently. The daily workout session had to be struck out of the schedule, in order to begin the emergency EVA as early as possible. Because of the very high winds and rain forecast, the outing to change batteries in the afternoon was rescheduled to 8 AM, to avoid the high winds. The objectives were changed, prioritizing the protection of the Field Mill and retrieval of the LOAC. The EVA was a success: all instruments are ready to face the Martian storm, the data has been collected, and batteries changed.

This afternoon, the winds set off a series of unfortunate events: the outer Airlock door was blown open, and the tunnel to the Science Dome was so deformed by the wind that the tarps started tearing. The Science Dome was deemed unsafe to travel to by the Crew, access has been restricted for the time being, until the winds slow down. As for the outer airlock door, Mission Support intervened to close it from the outside, after which we secured it using weights and ropes; the system is holding up so far. An alarm from our Anomaly Monitoring System also rang at 14:02; the issue was handled by the GreenHab Officer, following the protocol developed by our CapCom in Toulouse.

The Crew Engineer has finished the mid-rotation video, which we are excited to share tonight!

Look Ahead Plan:

We are aiming to start photogrammetry at Candor Chasma on Sol 15, if the weather conditions permit it. Sol 14 has been declared a rest day.

Anomalies in work: EVA suits 3,4,5,7,9 , Solar Observatory offline, Science Dome closed off

Weather: Partly cloudy, high winds (70-80 km/h gusts)

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: Atmospheric instruments retrieval and maintenance

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Journalist’s Report, GreenHab Report, Astronomy Report, Operations Report, Photos (6-8 pics), EVA Report, Food Inventory, Mid-rotation science report

Support Requested: NA

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EVA Report – February 29th

Crew 293 EVA Report 29-02-2024

EVA #008

Author: Léa Bourgély (EVA Leader)

Purpose of EVA: Fixing Atmospheric Instruments

Start time: 8:55

End time: 10:30

Narrative: The EVA objectives were to fix some issues with the atmospheric instruments, and retrieve data from them.

8:55 Depressurization starts

9:00 End of depressurization

Curiosity hours 269.5H

Curiosity battery 100%

Perseverance hours 284.6H

Perseverance battery 78%

9:04 Leaving site

9:09 Arrived at atmospheric instruments site

9:20 Loac and Field Mill data retrieved

9:23 Data being retrieved from MegaAres

9:30 First fix : Settings of voltage on relaying device

9:34 Instruments turning on

9:37 All data good

9:50 Instruments turned off

9:51 relaying device at 12.5V with instruments off

9:55 Turning on MegaAres, boitier relais at 12,8V, Field Mill and LOAC.

10:09 All instruments on and working

10:09 Drone videos taken

10:15 Leaving site

10:18 81% curiosity, perseverance 56%

10:20 Pressurization starts

10:26 Pressurization over

Destination: Location between the Hab and Marble Ritual

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518500, 4251000

Participants : Léa Bourgély, Leo Tokaryev, Mathurin Franck

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

Modes of travel : Curiosity Rover and Perseverance Rover, and walk

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Journalist Report – February 29th

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!

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Journalist Report – February 28th

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…

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Sol Summary – February 28th

Crew 293 Sol Summary Report 28-02-2024

Sol: 10

Summary Title: Time Flies !

Author’s name: Marie Delaroche, Crew Commander

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

As we near the mid-mission mark, it feels nice to have some novelty once in a while, to keep us focused and 100% invested in the mission.

This took many forms today: the Crew Astronomer and Journalist were out on EVA with the Crew Scientist, discovering North Ridge for the first time, and tasked with reaching the predefined checkpoints, after having studied a 3D map of the area. This outing, though rewarding for the many beautiful sights and satisfying scientific process, was physically draining for the EVA crew, and the atmospheric instruments presented many issues during the battery change. The crew was warmly greeted upon their return, and after lunch everyone returned to their activities. Our Crew Engineer, quite skilled with editing software, is working hard to prepare the mid-rotation video, while the GreenHab Officer and myself had another EchoFinder session. The software is very buggy, and the hardware is giving us some trouble; we will try to find solutions to mitigate this in the coming Sols.

The deployment of AMI, our anomaly monitoring interface, is also still underway; we are expecting a new and improved version of the software from our CapCom in Toulouse this weekend. Meanwhile, its daily use gives us the opportunity to do some quick troubleshooting and problem solving, keeping us on our toes. We are gradually getting used to it and integrating it in our daily routine!

Nothing is more priceless during such long-duration missions than seeing joy on fellow Crewmembers’ faces. Our Crew Astronomer had such a moment tonight, when she learned that there was a possibility for the Solar Observatory to be operational as of next week! We’re all hoping, praying, and crossing all possible fingers.

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow morning (Sol 11), we would like to schedule an EVA to tend to the atmospheric devices, to try and find the source of the issues we are facing during data collection.

The second Photogrammetry EVA is scheduled on Sol 12.

Anomalies in work: EVA suits 3,4,5,7,9, Perseverance rover, radio #6, Solar observatory offline.

Weather: Sunny, low -4°C, high 15°C

Crew Physical Status: Nominal

EVA: Photogrammetry at North Ridge

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

Support Requested:

Ben, thank you for your message regarding the resupply. We are ok to submit a request for scenario 1, with a 2-person crew. Would it be possible for you to leave the boxes not too close to the Hab (about 15-20 meters), to simulate a capsule having landed close to the station? Thank you for your support.

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GreenHab Report – February 28th

Crew 293 GreenHab Report 28-02-2024

GreenHab Officer: Mathurin FRANCK

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

Average temperatures: between 70°F- 100°F

Hours of supplemental light: 10pm-2am

Daily water usage for crops: 8G

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

Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 121.9 gallons –

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

Changes to crops:

None

Narrative: /

Harvest: (include which crop and mass in grams) : /

Support/supplies needed: /

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EVA Report – February 28th

Crew 293 EVA Report 28Feb2024

EVA #007

Author: Lise Lefauconnier (Habcom)

Purpose of EVA: Changing the batteries of the atmospheric instruments, searching for checkpoints at NorthRidge with a 3D map generated by photogrammetry. Taking pictures with a drone controlled by a Crew member in the Science Dome for our “Proximars” experiment.

Start time: 8:59

End time: 12:52

Narrative: The EVA team first retrieved data from the atmospheric instruments and changed the batteries. They discovered problems on the atmospheric instruments that they will try to solve in the following EVA. Then they went to North Ridge where the team had to try and find checkpoints with a 3D map generated by photogrammetry, thanks to the previous EVA. The EVA team also set down a drone in front of the Science Dome, it was piloted during the first 30 min of the EVA by a Crew member inside the Science Dome.

8:59 Depressurization starts.

9:04 Depressurization over

9:06 Drone set down.

9:07 Drone taking off

9:09 Rovers loaded

Spirit hours : 246.1H

Spirit battery: 82%

Perseverance: 73% battery, too low, changed (Next time, we will either not take Perseverance or check battery before loading the rovers)

Curiosity hours: 269.2H

Curiosity battery: 100%

9:15 Rovers leave campus.

9:18 Arrived on atmospheric instruments site.

9:25 Drone update: Pictures for Proximars ok – Now taking pictures of EVA Crew

9:30 Data retrieved from all instruments.

9:33 Leaving atmospheric instruments site.

9:33 Drone has landed

9:37 Rovers leaving site, heading to North Ridge

9:42 Arrived at North Ridge

9:45 Leaving rovers, starting to search for checkpoints.

9:58 Exploring North ridge, searching for checkpoints.

Check up every 15min, everything went right

12:31 Walking back to rover – problem with Erin’s radio: weird sounds and red light instead of green

12:34 Yves’s radio switched to channel 1 in case Erin’s one dies

12:35 Rovers leaving site

12:44 Rovers parked

Curiosity battery 49%

Spirit battery 36%

Rovers plugged

12:47 Entering airlock, Erin’s radio dies

12:52 Pressurization over, entering HAB

Destination: Atmospheric site: between the Hab and Marble Ritual and then East flank of North Ridge

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): Atmospheric Site: 518500,4251000 ; North Ridge: 518750,4251750

Participants: Erin Pougheon (EVA leader), Yves Bejach, Léa Bourgély

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

Modes of travel: Curiosity Rover and Opportunity Rover and walking

Additional notes: Perseverance’s battery was again low so we decided not to take it. Spirit was not at 100% either. Erin’s radio (number 2) died at the end of the EVA (in the airlock). We will check it to see if there is a problem with the radio or if it was just a charging mistake on our side. The team came back at 12:45 and it was sunny outside, so we decided to plug the rovers.

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Operations Report – February 28th

Crew 293 Operations Report 28-02-2024

SOL: 10

Name of person filing report: Leo Tokaryev

Non-nominal systems: headphones of radio 6, perseverance

Notes on non-nominal systems:

the microphone of the headphones #6 aren’t working well enough, other crew members hear the person using the headphones really low. We had to change it for today’s EVA.

Perseverance isn’t charging well, it was only at 73% charge after charging for more than one day.

ROVERS

Spirit rover used:Yes

Hours:246.1

Beginning charge: 82

Ending charge: 36

Currently charging:Yes

Opportunity rover used:no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Curiosity rover used: Yes

Hours: 269.2H

Beginning charge:100

Ending charge:49

Currently charging:yes

Perseverance rover used:No because it was only charged to 73%.

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

General notes on rovers:

Summary of Hab operations: put notes here

WATER USE: 14 gallons

Water (static tank): 350 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: radio 6 headphones’ microphone isn’t working well

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: we left 4 bags of trash in the rear airlock, could you please take them out?

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