operations report – november 12th

Crew 198 Operations Report 12-Nov-2018

SOL: 2

Name of person filing report: Dana Levin

Non-nominal systems: Generator, Report filing, Rover Sojourner, engineering airlock electrical sockets, engineering airlock light, lower deck hab wall heater,

Notes on non-nominal systems:

– Generator: Last night the generator had an underspeed cutout failure. While our crew has not been trained on generator mantinance and repair we were able to obtain assistance from our local benevolent Martian overlord Shannon.

– Event log;

o Around 1930 generator started with SOC at 46%

o 2000 generator cutout, temperature reading at 212F reporting a generator underspeed alert, generator restarted

o 2100 generator failed again, restarted Shannon alerted

o 2140 generator failed again and inverters cutout killing power to the entire MDRS complex. We drained coolant from the overflow tank including removing some congealed substance off the top of the tank, generator left off overnight

o At 0645 SOC was 26% solar began charging batteries

o 0800 generator started after evaluation by DG at 1800 RPM, continued operation for 1 hour and was shut off

o TODAY: 1720 SOC at 84% generator started as sunset. 1745 generator cutoff again.

– Current theory; mechanical obstruction to generator prevents full RPM which means current ops normal habitat power load exceeds generation capacity and generator stalls out

– Report filing: we have had continued trouble with non updated report templates requiring a back and forth between MDRS and mission support demanding reports filed in different formats. This yielded significant crew frustration

o Proposed solution: reports could be turned into google forms. The links to these forms sent to the station crew to standardize filing format. This would also allow centralized data collection and presentation including some values that could be graphed over time and organized for presentation/analysis easily.

o We attempted to formulate such forms but our internet connection did not allow connection to the google servers

– Sojourner: Shannon had used Sojourner two days ago but the battery drained to the point where she was unable to safely return to the habitat. Rover was left about 4 miles north of the Hab beside brae highway.

o Our schedule was rearranged to enable 2 of our instructors to leave the hab to recover the rover in the Hab car while our students were undergoing lectures by a third instructor. This was completed without incident and luckily our pre-planned schedule was sufficient to absorb this unexpected non crew/non sim related contingency.

– Engineering air lock light and power sockets are still inoperable.

– Demos Rover remains with battery drained and empty of water, rover is inoperable.

– 350 ATV is inoperable, likely with a dead battery that has yet to be replaced

Generator (hours run): 2

Solar— SOC % (Before generator is run at night): 84% (see above)

Diesel Reading – 60%

Propane Reading – not taken

Ethanol Free Gasoline – 14 gallons.

Water (auxillary tank) – 60 gallons

Water (static tank) – 380 gallons

Auxillary to Static tank transfer– yes

Gallons transferred: 20

Water in GreenHab – full tank, unsure how many gallons this is

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – yes

Water Meter: unknown where this is located

Toilet tank emptied: no

Deimos rover used: no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Sojourner rover used: recovered and currently charging

Hours: 1 hour

Beginning charge: 31%

Ending charge: 40% (towed)

Currently charging: yes

Spirit rover used: yes

Hours: 1

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 89

Currently charging: yes

Opportunity rover used: yes

Hours: 1

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 87

Currently charging: yes

Curiosity rover used:

Hours: 1

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 81

Currently charging: yes

Notes on rovers: (See above)

ATV’s Used: (Honda, , 350.1, 350.2)

Reason for use: EVA

Oil Added? no

ATV Fuel Used: 1 Gals

# Hours the ATVs were Used today: 1

Notes on ATVs: one of the 350s is still non functional. The battery appears dead

HabCar used and why, where? Yes, to retrieve sojourner from Brae highway and to pump water into greenhab

CrewCar used and why, where? no

General notes and comments:

Please standardize reports and consider loading them into google forms or some kind of email template with a hab specific email. This saves data by preventing redownloading of mail to different accounts, avoids incorrect forms transmitted to crew or filed by crew, and makes data transfer easier

Summary of internet: functional

Summary of suits and radios: using our own

Summary of Hab operations: nominal despite facility difficulties

Summary of GreenHab operations: none

Summary of ScienceDome operations: none

Summary of RAMM operations: none

Summary of any observatory issues: none identified as we are not using observatory

Summary of health and safety issues: none

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: see above

journalist report – november 12th

Today was our first full day on Mars. We started with very limited power thanks to the system failures detailed by Shannon previously. We also had some lectures from Rick on various space medicine topics, including ultrasound in space flight, winter survival, water survival, and the role of the flight surgeon. We also conducted an EVA and simulated a medical contingency while descending rocky scree. Finally, we had a lecture from Sean Serell, our rocketry specialist, who is directing the launching of our rocket tomorrow. The crew is tired in a good way, and very excited for tomorrow!

EVA report – november 12th

Crew 198 EVA Report 12-Nov-2018

EVA #2

Author: Dana Levin

Purpose of EVA: medical training, establishing com relay

Start time: 1300

End time: 1530

Narrative: relay established medical contingencies handles

Destination: Kissing Camel ridge west

Coordinates (use UTM NAD27 CONUS):

Easting: 518300

Northing: 4249300
Participants: Dan, Joe, Chuck, Jayne, Bindhu, Aakar, Andrei, Ben, Andy

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map Cowdung Road

Mode of travel:

ATVs x 3 (specifically approved by MDRS Director), EVs x3

greenhab report – november 12th

Crew 198 GreenHab Report – 12-NOV-2018

GreenHab Officer: Andrei

Environmental control: (Choose which of the following is appropriate and explain further if needed)

Heating

Shade cloth on

Average temperatures:

Low: 70

High 80

Hours of supplemental light: none

Daily water usage for crops: 4 gallons

Water in Blue Tank—(full) unknown number of gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 0900

Changes to crops: Note all emergence of seedlings, death of seedlings, etc (These are also mandatory to write in the GreenHab book for 2018-2019) none

Narrative: no other information at this time

Harvest: This is our research so it is important that all harvested crops are noted and also weighed and that weight recorded in the GreenHab book and here.

Support/supplies needed:none

sol summary – november 12th

Crew 198 Sol Summary Report 11-12-2018

Sol: 2

Summary Title: Successful EVA and Team Building

Author’s name: Jayne Paulson

Mission Status: Things are going very well.

Sol Activity Summary: We learned about the role of flight surgeons in aerospace medicine, ultrasound in spaceflight, and winter and water survival.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow we are launching a rocket!

Anomalies in work: Generator as described

Weather: Cool in the morning, sunny and perfect for the EVA

Crew Physical Status: Good, no complaints

EVA: Kissing Camel Ridge

Reports to be file: Operations, Green Hab, Journalist, EVA Request, EVA Report, Sol Summary, Crew Bios

Support Requested: None

Operations Report – November 11th 2018

Crew 198 Operations Report 11/10/2018

SOL: 1

Name of person filing report: Dana Levin

Non-nominal systems: Engineering Lock light and power plugs near back section of habitat

Notes on non-nominal systems: they’ve been non functional since our first mission 5 years ago at this point it may be more accurate to refer to the non functional state as “nominal” I will let you know if they suddenly become “off-nominal” and turn on.

Generator (hours run): 7 hours (midnight to 0700)

Solar— SOC 65% (Before generator is run at night)

Diesel – 60%

Propane – psi.

Ethanol Free Gasoline (5 Gallon containers for ATV) – 15 gallons.

Water (trailer) – 400 gallons.

Water (static) – 60 gallons

Trailer to Static Pump used – yes

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – yes

Water Meter:

ATV’s Used: (Honda, 350.1, 350.2)

Oil Added? No

ATV Fuel Used: 0.5 Gals each

# Hours the ATVs were Used today: .75h

Notes on ATVs: HOnda ATV will not shift into reverse

Deimos rover used: no

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Sojourner rover used: disabled

Hours: 0.75

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 90

Currently charging: yes

Spirit rover used: yes

Hours: 0.75

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 89

Currently charging: yes

Opportunity rover used: yes

Hours: 0.75

Beginning charge: 100

Ending charge: 88

Currently charging: yes

Curiosity rover used: yes

HabCar used and why, where? Yes to pick up water from hollow mountain (2 runs)

General notes and comments:

Summary of internet: functional

Summary of suits and radios: suits functional, radios not used/ 2MARS crews use our own comms

Summary of Hab operations: today was orientation and medical scenarios

Summary of GreenHab operations: maintenance

Summary of ScienceDome operations: maintenance and engineering

Summary of RAMM operations: N/A

Summary of health and safety issues: N/A

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: none at present.

Sol Summary Report – November 11th 2018

Crew 198 Sol Summary Report 11Nov2018

Sol 1

Summary Title The day was very educational with didactic sessions supported by real time implementation of skills learned.

Author’s name Jayne Paulson

Mission Status: Team morale is high and they seem to be bonding well. They are working well as a team and identified appropriate roles within the team.

Sol Activity Summary: am didactic sessions and afternoon EVA

Look Ahead Plan: Our debrief today identified significant strengths and areas for improvement on future EVAs.We plan to implement these changes on EVA tomorrow.

Anomalies in work: none

Weather:Partly cloudy

Crew Physical Status: Crew physical status is excellent, and everyone is excited to be on Mars!

EVA: Recovery of Chinese Satellite

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Engineering Report

Journalist Report (Photos)

GreenHab Report

EVA Request

Crew Bios

Support Requested: None

GreenHab Report – November 11th 2018

Dana Levin

11Nov2018

Environmental control:

Ambient (no heating or/cooling)

Shade cloth off

Average temperature: (N/A until new sensor is delivered)

Changes to crops: Crops appear to be alive, no unexpected plants, animals, or other life has appeared

Daily water usage for crops: 4 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 1730

Moringa research observations: (Currently not operational)

Changes to research plants: none

Daily watering and amount of water used:

Aquaponics: (Currently not operational)

Narrative: Today was the orientation to the greenhab, we now know how to take care of the plants and look forward to doing it in the future

Support/supplies needed: more water

Crew 197 – Final Mission Summary

MDRS Crew 197 Mission Summary
VR CrowdExplorers
Mission Dates: October 21-26, 2018

Commander: Dr. Susan Ip-Jewell
Executive Officer: James L. Burk
Health & Safety Officer: Sacha Greer
Crew Engineer: James M. Ehrhart
Crew VR Scientist: Shannon Norrell
Crew Journalist: Marge Lipton
Director, MDRS / GreenHab Officer: Dr. Shannon Rupert
Crew Spacesuit Engineer: Max Boyce
Crew Spacesuit Engineer: Robert McBrayer

 

Crew 197 grew out of the successful May 2018 Kickstarter campaign for the MarsVR Program Phase 1.  The Mars Society ran a successful crowdsourced fundraising campaign which included offering paid seats at the MDRS as a reward level for the first time.  Two key supporters of the MarsVR Kickstarter purchased seats, and were offered slots on this crew.  The Program Manager and Director of Engineering for MarsVR organized the mission logistics and the overall crew activities.  Other additions to the crew included our Commander, Crew Journalist and two members of the NorCal chapter who had just delivered the upgraded and refitted analog spacesuits to the MDRS for the new field season. This was not a science-focused mission — rather it was a VR and spacesuit engineering focused mission, but we approached it in the same way.

Back row (left to right): Robert McBrayer, Shannon Norrell, James Burk, Max Boyce.

Front row (left to right): Marge Lipton, Susan Ip-Jewell, James Ehrhart, Shannon Rupert, Sacha Greer.

Crew 197 successfully ran our sim focused on VR location scouting for MarsVR Phase 2, and testing / feedback of the recently refurbished analog space suits.  Our mission focused on gathering important data for both of these projects.  A secondary but important objective was to capture high quality photo, video, 360, and drone footage of the MDRS and crews on EVA.  This footage will be used for promotional purposes by the Mars Society.

Our team was comprised mostly of rookies.  Only Dr. Ip-Jewell and Dr. Rupert had prior experience in sim at the MDRS.  As a result, we struggled to learn all of the ins-and-outs of running a sim, going on EVA, and closely following all of the program rules.  Towards the end of our rotation, we felt we hit stride and were able to accomplish several advanced activities with a minimum of mistakes.  Our team gelled very well and our culture as a team was an important part of our time at the MDRS.  We all share a passion for space and for helping the Mars analog research program, and that helped us to bond quickly and assist each other well with tasks outside our immediate area of expertise.

Crew 197 arrived at the MDRS just after a major weather front had moved through the area, and the terrain was still recovering.  It had been quite muddy prior to our rotation and also during the afternoon of Sol 1, there was another rainstorm which drenched the area.  As a result, we were not able to go on EVAs until Sol 3.  Our original plan was for a 72 hour sim, stretching from the evening of Sol 1 through the evening of Sol 4.  Because of the poor terrain and other factors, we ended up running the sim from the morning of Sol 2 through the morning of Sol 5.

 

Overview of Team Goals

  • Create a research whitepaper for using VR to train analog simulation participants.
  • Pilot out MDRS Training Scenarios and script/enact new scenarios.
  • Update interior/exterior scans for MarsVR future releases.
  • Capture video & 360 footage for future promotional activities.
  • Prepare the station for beginning of field season.
  • [Added during rotation] Scout out MarsVR Phase 2 EVA terrain locations.
  • [Added during rotation] Pilot out and gather feedback on refurbished analog spacesuits.

 

Summary of Activities

Sol 0

5 of us arrived in Grand Junction and spend a couple hours searching for Susan’s luggage (her luggage was on a different bus than her), then we acquired a refrigerator for the Hab and successfully mounted it along with supplies and luggage to the roof of our rental Nissan Pathfinder using a complex and well-engineered system of bungees and nylon rope.  We felt this was our first Martian engineering challenge that we successfully overcame with teamwork and a “can-do” attitude.

 

Sol 1

We repaired the tunnels, mopped the floors, moved and organized equipment to prepare for our sim.  Two of us also drove the Hab car to a remote location for repairs.  Then we conducted an extensive training session/discussion with Dr. Rupert.  Also, Robert McBrayer installed padding on the new Hab stairs (which had pointy metal features) to help our bare feet!

 

Sol 2

We started the day with yoga and tai chi (something that became a morning tradition for our short crew rotation), then we went into Sim and talked about what we all hoped to get out of our mission.  We did a suit training session where we all tried on the suits but due to the weather did not get to go out on our planned initial EVA to Pooh’s Corner.  We also did a CPR exercise led by Susan Ip-Jewell where we all tried out a CPR technique.

 

Sol 3

Our first increment of the Pooh’s Corner EVA was achieved quickly by James B., Max, Shannon N., and Jim E.  Because we had over 45 mins left, we decided to take out a couple rovers to scout the first VR location, but quickly learned the importance of filing EVA plans in advance and to “Think like a Martian, Act like a Martian” by not taking on additional unnecessary risk.  Our afternoon 2nd increment of Pooh’s Corner with the remaining crew was successful and Max gathered feedback from everybody on the suits and their experiences.

 

Sol 4

This was by far the most productive day of the sim.  We went on two long EVAs, scouting the trail to Candor Chasma and Lith Canyon/Burpee.  We learned a lot about GPS coordinates and how to take readings from devices, but also the differences between GPS decimal, hours/mins/secs, and the UTM NAD27 CONUS coordinates that are used at MDRS.  We also learned about the rovers and their gears and how fast the batteries are draining when they are not in the correct gear!

 

Sol 5

We extended our sim a half day to accomplish an additional EVA to Candor Chasma/The Summerville.  We acquired a large amount of photos, videos, and 360 footage there.  Afterwards we ended sim and prepared the Hab for the next crew.

 

Evaluation of Results of Team Goals

  1. Create a research whitepaper for using VR to train analog simulation participants.

Not Achieved. We were not able to work on this at all during the rotation.  However, we did gather lots of knowledge and information about how MDRS crew members are typically trained, and we will be doing follow up work to finalize the Phase 1 training scenarios as part of the final release of Phase 1, after the public Beta.

 

  1. Pilot out MDRS Training Scenarios and script/enact new scenarios.

Partially Achieved. We successful articulated the entire spacesuit donning/duffing procedures and the airlock procedures, which are currently being implemented in the MarsVR Phase 1 codebase.  Additional conversations and enumeration of the steps of training procedures for the GreenHab, Kitchen, and other Phase 1 scenarios still need to be accomplished.

 

  1. Update interior/exterior scans for MarsVR future releases.

Not Achieved. Because the IKEA cabinetry was not yet installed prior to our rotation, we were not able to accomplish any of the updated interior scans we intended.  As a result, we did not arrange to have the LIDAR unit delivered during Sol 2, as was the original plan.  In addition, the tunnels were not fully repaired prior to or during our rotation, so we were unable to rescan them.  Because of the weather and other factors, we were not able to go on a scouting mission (in sim or out of sim) with Dr. Rupert to acquire scans of dinosaur fossils or any other notable landmarks.

 

  1. Capture video & 360 footage for future promotional activities.

Achieved. Our crew acquired an extensive set of photos, videos, 360 panoramas, 360 video, and drone-based overflight videos of the MDRS and the surrounding terrain.  James Burk, Shannon Norrell, Jim Ehrhart, Sacha Greer, Marge Lipton, and Robert McBrayer all contributed high quality assets to our crew’s library of these, which are in the process of being uploaded to Dropbox and put into use by the Mars Society’s Public Relations staff.

 

  1. Prepare the station for beginning of field season.

Partially Achieved.  Our crew helped with: Hab cleanup; water acquisition and transport; Hab car repairs; acquisition, transport, and installation of a new upper deck refrigerator; repairing and covering of the tunnels; installation and testing of the HAL system to mitigate the low bandwidth environment; testing and minor repairs to the analog spacesuits and their chargers; and testing out all Hab equipment.  We were not able to complete the tunnel repairs but we did drive in new stakes and cover/zip-tie most existing tunnels.  We offered to test & validate some of the damaged batteries in the Science Dome but it was decided not to save any of those.

 

  1. [Added during rotation] Scout out MarsVR Phase 2 EVA terrain locations.

Achieved. Because we were unable to perform interior scans, Burk and Norrell decided to focus their main efforts on scouting EVA locations for future terrain scans during Phase 2 of MarsVR.  Working with Dr. Rupert, we identified several interesting regions surrounding the MDRS such as Candor Chasma, the Summerville, Lith Canyon, and Barainca Butte that we scouted and acquired imagery of, both during in-sim EVAs and out of sim.

 

  1. [Added during rotation] Pilot out and gather feedback on refurbished analog spacesuits.

Achieved.  All crew members had an opportunity to go on EVA at least once, and to try at least one of the suit designs.  Several crew members did multiple EVAs and tried multiple suit configurations.  Feedback from all crew members was gathered by Max Boyce and important data on the suits was gathered by Robert McBrayer.  All of this will be provided to the NorCal chapter for future suit upgrades and redesigns.

 

CONCLUSION

We did not achieve our original objectives of the mission, but we felt we did accomplish a lot by successfully running a 72 hour sim with no significant problems (ie, nobody “died”, we never had to break sim, and we successfully maintained all the Hab equipment.).  In addition, we gathered important data for the VR location scouting and usage and feedback of the refurbished analog spacesuits.

Crew 197 had a positive experience at the MDRS which we will take with us for the rest of our lives.  We’d like to thank our families and the Mars Society for making this mission possible.

In gratitude,

Crew 197

 

 

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