Crew Photos – April 2nd
Journalist Report – April 2nd
By Alba Sánchez Montalvo
The day started with a slow morning today. The team decided not to do any EVAs during this morning to rest and recover from the sleepless and frenetic days they had before arriving at the MDRS. Maxime made pancakes for breakfast and after that, some people worked on their experiments, played card games or had some time to do sports. After lunch, Louis, Loriane, Maxime and Hippolyte went on an EVA to set up Maxime’s weather station and to start mapping our surroundings for Louis’ experiment. They had some problems setting up their experiments, but after some troubleshooting, they managed to reach their goals for today. Arnaud, Romain, Imane and Alba stayed at the station and worked on their experiments and also found some time to relax. When the crew members came back from their EVA, we sat together to work on the reports about daily life and operations at the station. Hippolyte collected a few little tomatoes from the GreenHab which tastes really well! Tonight, the plan is to have some time for team building after dinner as part of Loriane’s experiment and to enjoy our free time.
Sol Summary – April 2nd
Sol: 2
Summary Title: Chilling (or troubleshooting) on Mars
Author’s name: Alba Sánchez Montalvo
Mission Status: Ongoing
Sol Activity Summary:
The day started with a slow morning today. The team decided not to do any EVAs during this morning to rest and recover from the sleepless and frenetic days they had before arriving at the MDRS. Maxime made pancakes for breakfast and after that, some people worked on their experiments, played card games or had some time to do sports. After lunch, Louis, Loriane, Maxime and Hippolyte went on an EVA to set Maxime’s weather station and to start mapping our surroundings for Louis’ experiment. Arnaud, Romain, Imane and Alba stayed at the station and worked on their experiments. For Imane’s experiment’s, she weighed the stool tubes collected yesterday. She also weighed the next collection tubes. Hippolyte collected the first tomatoes from the GreenHab, they taste really good ! When the crew members came back from their EVA, everyone sat together to work on the reports about daily life and operations at the station before preparing dinner and having some time for team building to finish the day.
Look Ahead Plan: 2 EVAs (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) will be performed. The first one will be performed by Maxime and Alba. They will pursue Maxime’s experiment and explore a new area. The second EVA will focus on continuing Louis’ experiment and automatically flight the drone above more diverse landscapes. To help Louis in his endeavor, Hippolyte and Arnaud will be joining him in his journey. The crew members staying in the station will continue to work on their respective experiments but they will be no need to take medical samples from the crew members.
Anomalies in work: Louis (Engineer) had struggles with setting up his experiment. At first, the drone wouldn’t take off because of magnetic interference even though the drone was isolated on the ground. After a few minutes of troubleshooting with Hippolyte’s help, the drone was able to take off. During the same EVA, Maxime had problems with his weather station. His wind indicator partially broke and a future EVA should be planned to repair it.
Weather: blue and clear skies, sunny and warm the whole day!
Crew Physical Status: everyone is feeling good after some rest
EVA: They began by exiting their station to secure Maxime’s weather station to the Curiosity rover, heading towards Pooh’s Corner. However, the weather station suffered damage on the way, specifically losing its wind direction indicator. Despite this, they managed to set up the station west of Pooh’s Corner and activated its cameras. They noted a low battery alert but proceeded with their mission, planning to address these issues in a follow-up EVA.
Simultaneously, another team struggled with magnetic interference affecting their drone’s takeoff. With some troubleshooting, they overcame this obstacle, enabling the drone to complete its first automatic flight, which validated the basic parameters of their experiment.
Following their respective tasks, they gathered and headed towards Cowboy Corner for further exploration. However, due to navigational errors, they stopped near North Ridge instead, where they decided to climb the hills to gather additional data through pictures and videos. The day concluded with the team returning to their base, marking the end of their EVA.
Reports to be filed: Sol summary, Journalist’s report, Greenhab report, operations report, EVA report, EVA request, astronomy report.
Support Requested: the biomedical team made a request for Sergii to pick up a package at the end of the week and asked for permission to leave the station for a few hours during the last day of simulation to arrange the shipment of the different samples collected during the experience to Belgium.
Operations Report – April 2nd
SOL 2
Name of person filing report: Louis Joseph
Non-nominal systems: None
Notes on non-nominal systems: N/A
ROVERS
Spirit rover used:
Hours: (before EVA): 249.9
Beginning charge: (Before EVA): 100
Ending charge: (On return from EVA, before recharging): 58
Currently charging: No
Opportunity rover used: n/a
Hours:
Beginning charge:
Ending charge:
Currently charging:
Curiosity rover used:
Hours: (before EVA): 250.1
Beginning charge: 100
Ending charge: 62
Currently charging: No
Perseverance rover used: n/a
Hours:
Beginning charge:
Ending charge:
Currently charging:
General notes on rovers: None
Summary of Hab operations: put notes here
WATER USE: 16.3375 gallons
Water (static tank): 481.38 gallons
Static tank pipe heater: off
Static tank heater: off
Toilet tank emptied: no
Summary of internet: Used for music playing, mails, research for experiments, learning languages, watching science videos.
Summary of suits and radios:
Radios 1,2,3,5,8 were used. Few communications losses during the EVA, but these were quickly resolved by changing channels.
Light Suits 2,3,4,6 were used
Summary of GreenHab operations: I oversaw the watering of crops with 4 gallons of water and harvested 8 tomatoes, and some parsley for the evening meal.
WATER USE: 4 gallons
Heater: On
Supplemental light: N/A
Harvest:
Tomatoes (8 pcs) 41g
Parsley (~20 leafs) 1g
Summary of ScienceDome operations:
Imane weighed the stool tubes collected yesterday. She also weighed the next collection tubes. No more activities have been conducted in the science dome.
Dual split: Off
Summary of RAM operations:
The construction of the weather station has been completed and we used the RAM to exit for the EVA.
Summary of any observatory issues: N/A
Summary of health and safety issues: N/A
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: N/A
GreenHab Report – April 2nd
GreenHab Officer: Hippolyte Hilgers
Environmental control:
Heater on (setup temperature = 75°F)
Fan on (to keep temperature below 94°F)
Average temperatures: (Between 12 AM and 5:30 PM) : 75.4°F
Hours of supplemental light: N/A
Daily water usage for crops: 4 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0 gallons
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 168.5 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 5:30 PM
Changes to crops: None
Narrative: I oversaw the watering of crops with 4 gallons of water and harvested 8 tomatoes, and some parsley for the evening meal.
Harvest:
Tomatoes (8 pcs) 41g
Parsley (~20 leafs) 1g
Support/supplies needed:
When I report the average temperatures, does it need to be from 12 AM until the time I do the report, or from the last report time until the new one ?
EVA Report – April 02
EVA #3
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA:
The EVA will be composed of 4 crew members. Maxime and Loriane will work on Maxime’s experiment. They will use the Curiosity rover. Louis and Hippolyte will work on Louis’ experiment and they will use the Spirit rover. They will all go to the same location.
Maxime’s experiment:
Setting up the weather station for a personal experiment. I have chosen a location near the lab that could yield interesting results and that has visibility from the hab so that I can check if my weather station can withstand the harsh environment. Firstly, we will have to go to the RAM (depressurising it), take the weather mast, load it into one of the rovers and secure it using ropes. We will drive towards North Ridge and park the rover at the level of Pooh’s Corner and then go west on foot to set up the weather station, at ~200 meters maximum from the rover. After the weather station is set up and running, we further investigate the area west of Pooh’s corner to check the dust conditions and then go back to the rover and drive north, to Cowboy’s Corner, to take pictures and pick a new location for the weather station when it will be moved in 2 days. We will probably walk at max 500 meters from the Rover to check the conditions of the soil and dust.
Louis’ experiment:
After the first day of test and reconnaissance flights during SOL1. Louis’ experiment will now focus on the first tests of automatic flights with the most basic flight parameters. He decided to further explore the area at the North of the Hab (North Ridge). The drone will now take a predefined amount of pictures over the selected study areas. The goals are to evaluate the consequences of the relief and weather conditions on the variability in the captured pictures. This automated flight will be realized by using another control software than the one used during SOL1: PIX4Dcapture. This application allows to predefine a specific flight area over which the drone will take pictures at the same altitude and with a constante overlap between each picture. If this basic set of parameters is working, more customized flights will be realized, increasing the quality of future captured products.
Start time: 2:02pm
End time: 4:29pm
Narrative:
To perform this EVA, the crew members had to exit the station through the RAM to take Maxime’s weather station outside. The weather station mount was secured securely to the rover (Curiosity) and we drove without any issues toward Pooh’s Corner. Unfortunately, during the trip the weather station itself suffered some damages, with the loss of the wind direction indicator. Despite this setback, the weather station was set up west of Pooh’s corner, at exactly (in UTM WGS 84): 4251250,518500. The movement cameras were turned on and secured. The weather station operated smoothly, except for a message about low battery. The issue of the wind indicator and the low battery will be solved during the following EVA.
On his side, Louis had struggles with setting up his experiment. At first, the drone wouldn’t take off because of magnetic interference even though the drone was isolated on the ground. After a few minutes of troubleshooting with Hippolyte’s help, the drone was able to take off. More research needs to be done to correctly understand the met controlling problem. The drone was used to perform its first automatic flight with basic parameters. This flight proved the feasibility of the basic experiment requirements.
The crew members then headed back to the rovers parked on the side of the road near Pooh’s corner. Then, they took the direction of Cowboy corner to explore the area and take pictures and videos using the drone. Due to some map reading errors, the crew actually stopped on the side of the road near North Ridge and decided to finally climb the small hills of the area to observe the surroundings for future EVAs and to capture pictures/videos. Crew members then took their rovers back to come back to the HAB and end today’s EVA.
Destination: Pooh’s corner, North Ridge, Cowboy’s Corner
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84):
First stop : 4251500, 518500
Second stop : 425200, 518800
Participants: Maxime Foucart (Astronomer), Louis Joseph (Engineer), Loriane Baes (Executive officer) and Hippolyte Hilgers (Green Hab officer)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: 2 vehicles (Curiosity and Spirit)
Crew Photos – April 1st
Sol Summary – April 1st
Sol: 1
Summary Title: Getting used to Mars
Author’s name: Alba Sánchez Montalvo
Mission Status: initiated
Sol Activity Summary:
First day on Mars! This morning, the crew ATLAS had breakfast together after taking their probiotic/placebo treatment and prepared for their morning EVA which was mainly about drones. Half of the crew performed the baseline register for Romain’s experiment and Louis started to evaluate the surroundings for his experiment. During this time, part of the team also started the food summary and Maxime built his weather station mount in the RAM. After lunch, Alba, Arnaud and Imane performed blood cell count in a few drops of blood and collected saliva from the crew members for their biomedical research. In the afternoon, the other half of the team went on an EVA to do the baseline of Romain’s experiment. Once they were back to the station, Alba collected some blood from the crew members to extract serum and they also performed a salivary test for their studies. The crew had a good time together at the science dome during the analysis and right after, they came back to the main hab and they filled some forms for Loriane and Arnaud’s experiment on the psychological part of the simulation. During the day, everyone collected their feces and started collecting urines for the analysis of the biomedical team. To finish the day, the crew worked together on the daily reports.
Look Ahead Plan: the crew will do an EVA tomorrow. The purpose of the EVA involves two main experiments conducted by four crew members. Maxime and Loriane will work on setting up a weather station near the hab using the Curiosity rover, while Louis and Hippolyte will utilize the Spirit rover for Louis’ experiment, which involves conducting automated flights with a drone using PIX4Dcapture software. Both experiments focus on exploring the area around the hab, particularly the North Ridge, to gather data on weather conditions, terrain, and the feasibility of automated flight missions for future exploration.
Anomalies in work: Romain’s drone lost its connection during the EVA in the afternoon. Louis forgot some material for the complete use of his drone.
Weather: Cloudy and sunny in the morning, a little windy and warmer in the afternoon.
Crew Physical Status: nothing special, everyone feels good and active.
EVA: Despite Romain’s issue with the drone, we achieved our planned goals.
Reports to be filed: Sol summary, Journalist’s report, Greenhab report, operations report, EVA report, EVA request, astronomy report.
Support Requested: we asked for a table to place it in the science dome.
Operations Report – April 1st
SOL: 1
Name of person filing report: Hippolyte Hilgers
Non-nominal systems: None
Notes on non-nominal systems: N/A
ROVERS
Spirit rover used:
Hours: 0.1
Beginning charge: 84
Ending charge: 73
Currently charging: Yes
Opportunity rover used:
Hours: 0.2
Beginning charge: 100
Ending charge: 86
Currently charging: No
Curiosity rover used:
Hours: 0.1
Beginning charge: 100
Ending charge: 84
Currently charging: No
Perseverance rover used:
Hours: 0.3
Beginning charge: 76
Ending charge: 71
Currently charging: No
General notes on rovers: None
Summary of Hab operations: No
WATER USE: 52.28 gallons
Water (static tank): 497.72 gallons
Static tank pipe heater (on or off): off
Static tank heater (On or off): off
Toilet tank emptied: yes
Summary of internet: Used for music playing, mails, research for experiments, learning languages.
Summary of suits and radios:
All radios were used, no problem to mention
Light Suits 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 were used
Summary of GreenHab operations: I simply added a piece of cardboard under a cucumber to support it. I watered all the plants and added fertilizer.
WATER USE: 4 gallons
Heater: Off
Supplemental light: N/A
Harvest: None
Summary of ScienceDome operations:
During the morning, Imane weighed the empty tubes for the feces collection. During the day, the crew members collected their feces for the biomedical team.
During the afternoon, Imane, Alba and Arnaud used the science dome for blood and saliva collection to assess stress and immunity markers as well as material preparation for the next few days. We’ve also processed blood samples after their collection. We have frozen the saliva samples and performed a measurement of AMMP-8 in saliva with the ORALyzer ® for the evaluation of oral health.
From 8pm till 8am on Tuesday 2th April, urines will be collected to assess stress levels through neurotransmitters and metabolites analysis.
Dual split: Off
Summary of RAM operations:
Maxime built the weather station pole for his experiment, using wrenches and zip ties to create a secure structure for the weather station.
The RAM was also used for Romain’s experiment as an isolated place to work with the TapStrap. Every Crew member needed to use the device, with accelerometers, placed on the fingers to send commanders by moving them. No equipment of the RAM was used.
Summary of any observatory issues: Nothing that wasn’t already accounted for.
Summary of health and safety issues: 1 person had a headache but it was quickly resolved
Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: Except the EVA request, N/A
Journalist Report – April 1st
Crew 296 Journalist report
By Alba Sanchez Montalvo
First day on Mars! This morning, the crew ATLAS had breakfast together after taking their probiotic/placebo treatment and prepared for their morning EVA which was mainly about drones. Half of the crew performed the baseline register for Romain’s experiment and learned how to do different manipulations with his drone. On the other hand, Louis started evaluating the surroundings for his experiment with his drone.
After lunch, Alba, Arnaud and Imane performed blood cell count in a few drops of blood and collected saliva from the crew members for their biomedical research. Right after that, in the afternoon, the other half of the team went on an EVA to do the baseline of Romain’s experiment. Once they were back to the station, Alba collected some blood from the crew members to extract serum and all crew members performed a salivary test for their studies. Maxime went into the Musk Observatory to learn more about how to use the instruments. The crew enjoyed a good time together at the science dome during the analysis.
Later, the crew came back to the main hab and they filled some forms for Loriane and Arnaud’s experiment on the psychological part of the simulation. To finish the day, the crew discussed their next steps and worked together on the daily reports.
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