Author: jburk

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-23-2024
Sol: 11
Summary Title: The Martian
Author’s Name: Prakruti Raghunarayan
Mission Status: Active
Sol Activity Summary:

Aravind, Avery, and Noah went on a walking EVA across Hab Ridge. Rishabh and I were on comms. They were in the area behind the hab eventually able to see the Hab and me and Rishabh. They took a lot of cool pictures of the ridge and valleys across it. They were also able to take a picture of us on the Hab Ridge from the Hab.

Then, we took a short break before preparing for mine, Kristina, and Rishabh’s EVA. During this break, the astronomy team (Avery & Kristina) assembled and were working through their code. And the science dome team (me, Aravind, and Noah) were classifying samples and deciding what I would bring back from the next EVA.

Avery was on comms while me, Rishabh, and Kristina went on our EVA. We drove to Marble Ritual and walked some areas there. Rishabh taught Kristina how to use the drone and they got more footage. We also got one last soil sample from the area that I needed to confirm certain results we were working on! Then, we decided to get some content for our socials and donors and drove back. Rishabh was able to film us with the drone while driving back.

Then Noah, Aravind, and I went back to the science dome and prepared the new sample in the jar and started working on our analysis. We finished the volcanic activity analysis and impact. Now we are working on the sustainability samples and the PDMS ones.

The astronomy team processed four sets of solar images!

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-13-2024
Sol: 2
Summary Title: The First Adventure
Author’s Name: Prakruti "Pari" Raghunarayan
Mission Status: Active
Sol Activity Summary:

Pari, Aravind, Noah:
Today, Noah did a morning check on the radishes. Then we went on our first test EVA to Marble Ritual. We tested comms and took Perseverance as requested by Mission Control. We are pleased to report that the rover is working fine. We took Curiosity as well. When we got to Marble Ritual we parked and walked up a hill to test out our mobility in the suits. We were able to hike, take samples of some rocks we found that we believe will be interesting to look at the composition as the map indicated some sort of river bed that we would further like to investigate. We were able to drive back and end the mission smoothly. I (Pari) was also on comms when Kristina, Avery, and Rishabh went for their test EVA as well.

Avery, Kristina, Rishabh:
For Sol 2, we went on our test EVAs to Marble Ritual, taking photos for geological reference and social media outreach. Then, we had tacos for lunch and cleaned up the Hab. The weather was not suitable for observing, so Kristina and Avery worked on processing yesterday’s images. Later, Pari gave a debrief outlining a plan of action for the rest of the day, tomorrow, and the media visit

Crew 299 Sol Summary 05-13-2024
Sol: 1
Summary Title: Pilot
Author’s Name: Prakruti Raghunaryan
Mission Status Active:
Sol Activity Summary:

Kristina and Avery Summary:

First thing, we had a morning debrief to discuss a plan of action. Then, we received the laptop and did a secondary round of laptop repair attempts. We found the battery was dead, and the boot drive wasn’t connected. After, we fitted flight suits with the whole crew and chose which ones were best suited for each of us for our future EVAs. Once that was completed we broke for lunch and planned tomorrow’s EVAs. Command got back to us on the issues with our laptop. For the third time, we troubleshooted astronomy laptop logistics and got it working by plugging the boot drive into Avery’s laptop. With the current solar storms, we will try to get the Musk Observations working before sunset. One possible issue is that since the astronomy laptop could only connect to one USB, it may not connect to the telescope, as one USB port is currently being used to connect to Avery’s laptop. Then, we did our psychological evaluations and dinner.

Pari, Aravind, and Noah:

We started the day with a morning debrief to mark the start of our simulation. We created a plan for the day with the rest of our crew mates and headed to the science dome. We exfoliated four different types of samples: unsorted Martian soil, fine Martian soil, potting soil, and vermicompost. We also checked on the radishes and watered them. Then we went back and suited up in our flight suits. We did the adjustments for the EVA suits (for the two piece and one piece). We broke for lunch and took a short break after. Next, we had a meeting to plan the EVAs for tomorrow and the day after. We planned two EVAs for tomorrow and are likely getting more external sample to test out from the river bank. Then we went back into the science dome and exfoliated more of the unsorted and fine soil onto the PDMS. We also tested out the microscope. We created a LinkedIn page to showcase our current progress and are waiting for our crew members to finish up the astronomy project. Now we will break for dinner and do the psychological evaluations.

Crew Engineer did maintenance and checked the suits before try ons.