Author: jburk

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-17-2024
Sol: 5
Summary Title: Funky Smelling Friday
Author’s Name: Prakruti "Pari" Raghunarayan
Mission Status: Active
Sol Activity Summary:

We had two EVAs today, one for drone mapping and the other one to test out the Geiger counter. We got some interesting samples and results by Zubrin’s head and the topological map is being made (in progress). We checked in on the science dome (the radishes, the samples, etc) and looked at the observatory and spent a considerable amount of time trying to reboot and readjust the code since it was giving us a lot of trouble due to computer issues. We also tried to power saw a previous rock we collected but it did not go according to plan. We need to figure out a new plan of action for the igneous rock.

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-15-2024
Sol: 4
Summary Title: Man Down
Author’s Name: Prakruti "Pari" Raghunarayan
Mission Status: Active
Sol Activity Summary:

We started the morning by holding a debrief for our activities today. We had an incident where we suspect the septic fix broke into our water supply.Three of us spent the entire day in the science dome today. A crew member first started by going and checking on the radishes as was informed by another crew member yesterday that there was a little bacterial infection that we suspected. So we figured out that trimming the edges might be beneficial to stop the spread. Three of us trimmed the edges and started exfoliating the samples. We exfoliated the four samples we came in with (fine martian soil, unsorted martian soil, vermicompost, and potting soil). We then analyzed and exfoliated the samples we have collected the last few days (the ones we found by the chasm, compass rock, and marble ritual). We have a few patterns we have seen and are going to be further analyzing these. We did have a little incident where a mortar and pestle broke and a vial cracked as well. We created a sharps bag (double bagged) and will be dropping it off tonight for pickup.Another crew member worked on some personal code development with respect to the drone footage in order to generate 3D models for mapping. They also checked the water levels and attempted to trace back why the usage for the day was nearly double the day prior. The preliminary estimate is that the septic tank cleaning might have used the HAB water supply. Another crew member participated in a group meeting then got straight to coding for the Robotic Observatory images and continued after lunch. Another crew member was feeling ill this morning, however their fever broke.

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-14-2024
Sol: 3
Summary Title: The Five Mile Success
Author’s Name: Prakruti "Pari" Raghunarayan
Mission Status: Active
Sol Activity Summary:

Pari, Noah, Rishabh:
The three of us went on the morning EVA and drove up to Galileo Road and walked a total of five miles to get to Compass Rock, Candor Chasma, and back to where we parked. It was an exhausting EVA, but totally worth it. We were able to pick up multiple rock samples (a red rock, an igneous rock, and a stone we want to further analyze). We shot the chasma with the drone and got some great footage. We did notice that the battery for the Spirit rover depleted much faster than the others. Then, Noah crushed up some samples we got today, and we are going to spend the day analyzing that tomorrow with Aravind. Rishabh did his daily checkups and got the drone footage. Noah was on comms for the second EVA. We used Opportunity and Spirit.

Avery, Aravind, Kristina:
For Sol 3, we captured more images at the Musk Observatory. Following this, we ate shakshuka for lunch and began processing the robotic observatory FITS files. Soon after, we went on a Camel Ridge EVA to collect samples for our Crew Geologist’s project. We will soon have pizza for dinner and continue data processing. Aravind was comms for EVA 1. We used Opportunity and Curiosity.