Category: Journalist Report

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.04.2024
Sol 11
We awoke this morning to a surprise: snow! The landscape was completely blanketed in white and the sky in the early morning matched the ground with a thick layer of clouds. As the sun began to rise, the clouds began to thin making for a stunning sight. It was gorgeous. (And, I am still cursing setting my time lapse up incorrectly this morning such that I missed the transition from 8-9:30 am believing those images auto-captured!) A vision to behold, this snow day was not wholly welcome because the precipitation meant the cancellation of our scheduled EVA. This would have marked our eleventh EVA of mission and our very last EVA. Learning that yesterday actually proved our final EVA together as Crew 289 left us all saddened and somewhat at a loss. Beyond our rest day, each of our days was marked by balancing research at the hab, cooking and cleaning, and one or sometimes two EVAs.
We filled the day with further research, additional team bonding, and winding down our time here in the hab with the beginning of packing. As to research, Riya spent time building her CO2 sensor. She also examined the plants grown in her hydroponics set up under a microscope to investigate visually whether there was any difference between the plants exposed to hydrogen peroxide (radiation alternative) and her control plants. Eshaana was able to gather some additional data regarding the photovoltatics for her mini-farm after yesterday’s clouds foiled our attempts to characterize the shading with time lapse photography. Adriana wrapped up carbonate characterizations of her sediment samples and packed up her oysters for safe transportation back to Michigan. I was able to begin some calculations and cross-comparisons on my reporting research to better understand commonalities and differences between prior Journalist Reports and Sol Summaries. Tomorrow we will summarize our progress on our research during our time on Mars before we begin the journey back home.
On the fun side, we also played some games. The whole crew played a round of Zombie Dice, an amusing push your luck dice game where you are a zombie trying to eat the most human brains while avoiding gunshot wounds. It was quick and entertaining. Nathan beat out Adi 15 to 13 in a surprise defeat in the final round after Adi led the entire game. Fitting in a snack-sized ziplock, the transportability to fun ratio was right on. Then the crew broke out Terraforming Mars which is a substantially larger strategy game that resides in the hab games closet. Only 2 of the crew had ever played previously so learning the game and set up filled considerable time such that many opted out of gameplay. Those engaged in the game were optimistic they would be finished by dinner time, as were the rest of us and thankfully they were! It was fun to pull the game out from the cabinet and realize that the game is endorsed at the very top of the box by someone particularly important in our being able to be here at MDRS: Dr. Robert Zubrin, founder and President of the Mars Society.
We also took some time today to make use of the lower deck for a photoshoot. Donning our flight suits for the final time this mission, we attempted to capture semi-professional images of the members of the crew with packs on and helmets in hand and also versions without gear. We had a good time assisting each other to ensure collars were folded down, patches were on optimal display, and that flight suits were not weirdly bunched. I’m thankful the crew indulged me because I think we were able to have a good time. Also, those who may choose to return to MDRS or pursue other pursuits for space exploration now have themed photos to choose from for their biographies.
After the skies cleared up mid-day, melting away nearly all of the snow, we are hoping for cloudless skies tonight to do some star-gazing. Our first days at MDRS, the moon was too close to full to be able to see many stars. It lit up the whole landscape and drowned out the vast majority of starlight – a notable fact for those not used to this level of dark. (Light pollution has really changed the way that the vast majority of us experience the dark of night.) With luck and good weather, we hope we may be able to view the Milky Way tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Our time here at MDRS is rapidly coming to a close but we are still experiencing many firsts. In addition to new games and new photos, today we also experienced the heart-break of culling our rock collections. (How many pounds of rock samples is too many to take home is a very tough question!) Things are also coming full circle. Our first night at MDRS, Gabe and Adi made strawberry shortcake for the first time. They are teaming up again this evening to treat us and cement their knowledge. No one is sad about that.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.05.2024
Sol 12
We ended sim at 10 am this morning but our work didn’t stop. CO Adriana and HSO Gabe went off an adventure to ensure transportation for the crew while the rest of the crew started cleaning, packing up, and prepping the habitat for the next crew. This included cleaning the buildings further afield (the RAM, the Science Dome, and the GreenHab) as well as the main living space. We also swabbed down the rovers! We will finish up our cleaning – sweeping, mopping, and bathroom wipe downs – early tomorrow morning before we depart back for our homes. Yet again, we are thankful to have had fantastic weather throughout the mission. It has made our clean up mostly mud-free.
Despite it being a partial sol, today was not free of research. Eshaana (GEO) finished collecting her last set of data for her mini-agrivoltaic farm and then disassembled the whole set up. We gained a new crewmate today when Riya completed the build on her air quality sensor, Russell! Riya also removed all the plants in her hydroponics set up, collected imaging, and figured out how to work the camera on the microscope to collect pictures of the plant cells. The root strength on her stress-free plants is noticeably improved over those treated with hydrogen peroxide (simulating the effects of radiation.) Everyone also completed synopses of their research for submission to MDRS.
We also ate through our (very limited) leftovers and kept ourselves motivated through our work with some treats from Earth including masala chai.
Tomorrow, we depart. Our memories of Mars will be filled with unforgettable moments – unique meals, amazing sights, funny conversations, and more. Serving as a Purdue astronaut has been an honor.
This is Crew 289 signing off from Mars. See you back on Earth in a few days’ time.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.03.2024
Sol 10
Weather makes a big difference and Crew 289 has been remarkably fortunate so far on mission. While it has been below freezing after sundown every day, making morning and evening forays into the further parts of the hab chilly, the sunshine has warmed the days to 30-40°F and resulted in quite comfortable EVAs with appropriate gear. (Ok, it’s typically still chilly riding on the rovers but wandering around warms up an astronaut nicely.) Until now, every day has been practically cloud-free with the exception of one partly cloudy day where we needed to preserve power. Today was genuinely cloudy though and in addition to needing to be cautious regarding power usage, our EVA crew came back quite chilled. Cold and, as ever, hungry but, overall, very happy.
Their destination was White Rock Canyon, a decent clip away southward of the hab. We were uncertain about the presence of the fossils in the location since we were unsuccessful in locating oysters just slightly westward at Barrainca Butte but a close look at the map left us hopeful based on earlier finds along Hab Ridge. Elevation is key to finding oyster deposits and today’s exploratory EVA with Adriana “Rocky” Brown, Eshaana “Butter” Aurora, Riya “Pots” Raj, and Gabe “Terminator” Skowronek was shockingly fruitful. The crew collected over 54 fossils and, best yet, these samples are stunningly clean and well-preserved. You can see the growth plate ridges on the shells! Today’s find more than doubles Rocky’s collection for the mission giving her plenty of materials to work with for her graduate research. We also played with LiDAR and 3D scanning of the fossils to try to document them digitally. We still need to optimize the process, scanning something small versus a geographical feature is not 100% comparable, especially when you want a full scan of the entire shell.
Adi “Michelin” Anibha, Nathan “Shrub” Bitner, and I held down the station today and monitored comms while the EVA crew was out hunting up oysters. Due to the cliffs between us and them, comms were very quiet today. The chatter was missed while we completed research tasks and our cooking.
I tackled breakfast today trying out a new recipe: brown rice and quinoa porridge with coconut milk, brown sugar, and soy sauce. It took well over an hour-and-a-half to cook down into porridge but no one complained. My crew is too kind for that! After shoving food in our faces, I started on bread using instant soup packets brought from Earth as a salt substitute. I finished kneading right as the EVA crew got their comms vests on and dashed downstairs to help them finish suiting up for departure. Everyone had to wait longer on the bread than anyone wanted – it went into the oven right after the return of the EVA team – but everyone was so excited when it finally came out that we hacked into it while still steaming and slathered it in Nutella, peanut butter, butter, and/or strawberries. Fried rice is on the menu for tonight. Can’t wait! It smells gooood.
We are winding down our time now and tomorrow marks our final EVA, assuming weather allows. (We may get rain on Mars!) If we are able to proceed, E.L.F. will be the star of the mission again. In a test today, E.L.F. broke irreparably while completing a practice jump. He reached a vertical height of 1.5” but won’t be doing any more leaping until he can be fixed back up at home. Yet, we’re pleased to hear he is not out of action entirely! Tomorrow we’ll hope to witness his origami moving motion out on the planet’s surface.
Tonight, I expect we’ll likely call it an early night after staying up late last night to finish the movie we started New Year’s Eve. We thought we’d watch another hour of the movie but we got drawn into the cricket match of Lagaan and finished the whole thing instead. Adi had to pause to explain the rules to those of us not familiar with the game. We passed a very enjoyable time in the loft but those of us who did not squeak in a nap today are starting to fade.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.02.2024
Sol 9
Here on Sol 9, Crew 289 is beginning to count down the days (and the meals) until departure. Less out of excitement to return to Earth and more to begin the necessary planning to ensure that we can maximally complete our various research projects and coordinate travel arrangements to successfully return ourselves and our equipment. However, today also marks the day where we are beginning to feel the dwindling of our food resources. After tonight, we have 4 more breakfasts and 3 more lunches and dinners here at MDRS. We have plenty of food to keep us fed but, from here on, our kitchen experiments will become that much more experimental. Wish us well!
Breakfast this morning was a choose your own buffet mix of leftovers and cereal with coconut milk. Lunch was a tomato soup cooked by today’s Hab team of CO Adriana “Rocky” Brown, Eshaana “Butter” Aurora (GEO), Riya “Pots” Raj (GHO) and cheesy biscuits. Each was peak inventive with cheesy broccoli soup powder going into the biscuits and soy sauce helping add some salt to the soup and brown sugar some sweetness. Also, apparently biscuit mix also went in to the soup. Ingenious since they needed additional salt and thickener and the biscuit mix had both. Dal makhani – lentils and kidney bean combo – is for dinner.
We did have an EVA today. Electronic LeapFrog (E.L.F.) was the star this afternoon at Candor Chasma, getting a chance to tackle some steeper, rockier, terrain. E.L.F. was able to climb and descend well with a leash assist. Unfortunately, when he prepared to undertake a jump, he lost a wheel so we were not able to measure his standing vertical. (Happily, he’s already been fixed up and will be ready for his third Martian terrain test 2 days from now.) Rarely do we only have one objective during our EVAs and this one was no exception. We were able to collect FLiDAR (drone with a phone) of the chasm and to more thoroughly explore the territory for future EVAs. Before heading back, the team – Aditya “Michelin” Anibha (SCI), Nathan “Shrub” Bitner (ENG), Gabe “Terminator” Skowronek (HSO), and me, Sara “Zinger” Paule (XO) – did take a moment for a group photo. The terrain in the chasm was absolutely beautiful so at one point I entrusted my phone to Shrub today to take photographs while I clicked away with the GoPro (his phone was engaged in the FLiDAR scanning which requires 2 phones, 1 to fly and 1 to scan). I also got some entertaining footage of the drive back to the Hab in the rovers. Shrub declared along the way that thinking of this particular route as comparable to a rollercoaster made it even more fun – it was indeed a delightfully bumpy ride.
So much happens in a day at MDRS and I am only able to give you a taste of the experience. Here is a small sampling of other things that happened today: Rocky checked carbonate levels in some of her collected sediments. Terminator processed a photo of the Crab Nebula (M1). Butter set up a camera for her agrovoltaic minifarm. Pots discovered 11 baby tomatoes in the GreenHab. I finished coding the Journalist reports from prior crews that I selected for sampling a few days ago and also started on coding Sol Summaries, another mandatory report type. And, best yet, for fun this evening, we experimented with “Pots” 3D pen. Her 3D printed piping tip performed admirable in decorating funfetti cupcakes! Beautiful and yummy.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
01.01.2024
Sol 8
Crew 289 got a bit of a later start today after staying up late here on Mars to ring in the new year for humanity. With an EVA planned for noon, that start was not substantially later – more like 9 am than the usual 7/7:30 am. This meant that a number of folks missed the morning internet window (7:30-9 am MT) but no one particularly regretted the choice. We have slightly more communication with Earth than anticipated pre-mission – our evening internet access lasts from 6:30-9:30 pm MT – yet, our communication windows with Earth remain highly limited with crew responsibilities taking up the majority of that time, whether accessing materials to further our research, sharing photos from the day, processing LiDAR, or contending with the all-important 2-hour window of reporting into Mission Support. We love you fam and friends, but if your astronauts are quiet, it is likely because we ate up our time with mission-specific tasks, which definitely includes sleep.
We collected more rock samples and more LiDAR scans, some, in fact, of rocks, during today’s EVA. Typically, we reserve the LiDAR treatment for the type that are too large to fit in our pockets but the team is gaining additional facility with LiDAR after initial experiences with the technology in the field and is thinking up new ways to deploy the tool, including possibly a future scan of one of Rocky’s devil’s toes (her collected oyster fossils, this is not a new nickname for her feet). Today we also rescanned the Habitat in an attempt to improve on the earlier scan now that we have established our technique with Riya’s elevated monopod (phone on a stick). Each member of today’s EVA crew, Adriana (Rocky), Eshaana (Butter), Riya (Pots), and me (Zinger), took turns so the scan would not suffer from overly tired arms.
Upon our return to station from the short drive south to Kissing Camel Ridge, we walked into a pre-prepared feast. Aditya (Michelin), Gabe (Terminator), and Nathan (Shrub) were inspired in the kitchen and cooked up mac & cheese with a side of ground beef for those who desired it, green beans & cauliflower, mashed potatoes, and cheesy biscuits. Out of respect for me and Pots, the crew has been very kindly maintaining a vegetarian diet and only cooking up meat supplements on the side. (It is muchly appreciated, crew!)
Tonight, we will enjoy some fresh lettuce and kale for our dinner which was grown in the Greenhouse by Pots and the preceding GreenHab Officers. Many thanks to all who have provided for us through their labor and careful tending of our green growing friends from seed to sprout to nutrition source. On Earth, gardening is certainly a source of joy but on Mars it is truly a life-giving endeavor and the import does genuinely feel stronger here.
Our Crew Engineer has also been working on a unique side project today. The stair/ladder from the lower deck to the upper deck of the hab is steel with raised ovoid cut outs (basically, imagine mouths with spiky teeth) for traction. While house shoes for wearing around the hab are highly recommended on the packing list, Shrub forgot his. (I think we all forgot something or thought we could do without. My mistake was foregoing the saline nasal spray. Poor, poor life choice.) Shrub has made it through 8 sols without indoor shoes/slippers but his sock soles have suffered and his feet are quite a bit more aerated now than they were early on in mission. His new high-tech Mars shoeware involves a clever repurposing of cardboard, strings, and tape. His prototype maybe leaves something to be desired but the fashion modeling is reasonably on point, or, would be if everyone wasn’t dying of laughter.
In other happy news, the crew is clean again! Woo, for shower 2 of mission. Baby wipes can do a lot but it is not the same level of refreshing as showering. We are eagerly awaiting our navy shower versus bucket shower water usage results though I fear the data may be a bit dubious with so many other water needs also depleting our resources. That’s okay though, it will give us rich fodder for debate tonight over dinner.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.31.2023
Sol 7
Martian rest day is the best day! Ok, hardly. High achievers like to get things done and our crew is certainly a group of highly motivated individuals. Yet, we have managed to have a comparably low-key day, especially since it is New Year’s Eve.
The day started with sleeping in and a stack of tropical crepes, supplied by Pots. She flavored the crepes with coconut milk, cinnamon, and the water from rehydrated strawberries, blueberries, and mangos. In addition to the reconstituted fruit, we had an assortment of toppings to choose from: syrup, Nutella, crunchy peanut butter, smooth peanut butter, and honey. Delish.
Brunch was followed with a few rounds of Jenga before the crew broke up for the afternoon to handle 2-4 hours of needed tasks for the day and assorted research responsibilities. Everyone returned to the hab in the late afternoon to watch Bollywood dance videos. Michelin is educating us about Indian dance moves in hopes of some evening time dancing. Ultimately, the videos are the next tactic in his recruitment drive after introducing us to some Indian music last night because he has warned us all he will not dance without at least one other participant.
The crew then teamed up on the 500-pieces “Mars Explorers Wanted” puzzle from the hab games cabinet. With irregularly shaped pieces, it has proven a particular challenge but we trust that it will be completed before dinner or, at least, we are hoping so. Otherwise, we’ll be eating dinner on top of the puzzle because our dinner table, which is also our report drafting table, is the puzzle table. Overall, people are mostly enjoying themselves. I think. Then again, Rocky declared at one point, “This is fun. Remember, we’re having fun!” while pounding on the table. Shrub also suggested that a knife would allow us to edit the puzzle to make any piece fit as needed. So, maybe I’m misreading the fun quotient.
There has been bopping throughout the day. Music has been a constant throughout the hab today, including in the GreenHab. We’ve learned that plants like EDM so in addition to the composting, watering, and careful tending via trellising and pruning, the plants are being tempted to grow with good tunes. Music is also good for confined astronauts. Plants and people-alike are in a good mood thanks to tunes downloaded pre-mission. Many tunes are space themed. Rocket Man is a regular occurrence, obviously.
Tonight, our New Year’s Eve celebration will include a biryani made by Butter and Michelin. It is smelling absolutely amazing. Since we skipped lunch today with a late brunch, we did do some minor snacking in the afternoon by raiding the kitchen cabinets for creative tasty treats. Tortillas with butter, salt, garlic powder, and parmesan were the most commonly consumed item. Peanuts and trail mix supplemented. Mostly, these were items to tide us over until we could enjoy dinner since our celebratory biryani dinner was planned last night with much anticipation. It was well worth the wait. The spice was so good.
The post-dinner plan is to settle down in the “couch” space at the very top of the hab with popcorn and a movie. I’m not sure anyone on Crew 289 has really utilized that area of our living space. It is only accessible via a ladder since it is situated above the 6 bunk rooms on the upper deck of the hab and is next to the 1 bunk room that is similarly in the loft space. I take the lack of usage of that area as a sign that our home feels reasonably spacious despite the fact that the central building is only 8 meters wide. Around midnight, we’ll ring in the new year with some sparkling juice – this time a fancy rosé.
From Mars, we are wishing our loved ones and all on Earth, a positive end to 2023 and a beautiful new year.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.30.2023
Sol 6
On Sunday, Mars astronauts rest, which means that Saturday is a full day when on a brief mission rotation. As such, all crew members went out on EVA today so we could conduct our seventh and eighth EVAs of mission. Ensuring we can complete our scientific objectives requires careful planning and management of personnel so that we can coordinate 1) EVAs, 2) research that needs to be conducted in the hab, and 3) normal day-to-day operations such as meals and cleaning. Eshaana a.k.a. Butter has taken point on EVA scheduling in cooperation with CO Adriana (Rocky) to manage geological sampling, LiDAR scanning, and testing of the Electronic Leaping Frog (E.L.F.) robot built by Scientist Michelin (Aditya) and the various steps along the way to get us to our final objectives.
After many days trouble-shooting E.L.F., Michelin finally got to take his baby out for a test run in the Martian terrain today. It was a moment of big anticipation for the whole crew. Shrub (Nathan) and Zinger (me) provided (moral) support. E.L.F. needed a little bit of an assist – simulating the reduced weight in Martian gravity – so Michelin and Zinger took turns feeding E.L.F. commands and gently tugging on his leash. E.L.F. performed successfully in loose rocky soil as well as on some larger rocks (~4 cm) with wheels initially in compact and then in expanded form. His true nemesis turned out to be a small desiccated plant, something he would not encounter on Mars proper, so it was a resoundingly successful first trial run, complete with astronauts crawling about to collect performance measurements. A LiDAR scan of the largest hill E.L.F. climbed will hopefully yield additional slope data at less cost to astronaut knees.
The afternoon EVA focused on geology and involved quite a bit more crawling, measuring, and also bonus digging. Rocky and Butter, assisted by Pots (Riya) and Terminator (Gabe) collected ~90 1mL tubes of sediment from Hab Ridge. Via the team’s close inspection and measurements, Rocky was able to gain a substantially improved understanding of the stratigraphy of the area. While out on EVA, Pots got to use a rock hammer for the first time ever and is now contemplating a change in career to become a geologist – not really but she did love smashing things with it. The crew at the top of the ridge also was able to capture some amazing views of the hab.
Other landmark moments in our scientific objectives include that Pots and Butter both have multipe sprouts now! The plant growth over the next week will help them measure the effects of radiation on growth and how minifarm shade affect growth of plants respectively. Pots also finished a lego and origami mock-up of her collapsible health station for use in the field. On the engineering front, Shrub was able to successfully troubleshoot the air sensor he built. While it is not yet working entirely as desired, he was able to collect CO2 data in the upper deck of the hab for the first time today. Terminator was able to determine exactly how to obtain intensity measurements for his variable star and is looking forward to graphing data points tomorrow to see how the light changes over multiple days. I also was able to make progress on both of my research projects today. The crew is using quite a few skills regularly each day – a mission like this requires a lot out of a person. Also, I now have Sol and Journalist samples from each crew over the past year to analyze and have word count data for those samples.
It is great to have accomplished so much in such a short period of time and today’s mid-mission report summary gave us a chance to reflect on what all we have accomplished to-date and to begin to plan for the next week (after a bit of a recharge tomorrow for rest day and New Year’s Eve).
It does feel like nearly everything on Mars is a chance to try something and see what works. Meals are certainly no exception. It is always hard to know exactly how much oatmeal to make and Nathan’s overestimate of yesterday yielded us breakfast for this morning, too. While EVA crew #2 was out playing in the sand, Shrub and Michelin teamed up to make some mashed potatoes and black bean burgers. They played with seasoning and both dishes turned out great. Meanwhile, I experimented with some more of the leftover oatmeal – adding chocolate chips, dehydrated strawberry dust from the bottom of a tin, brown sugar, and salt – to create an approximation of a cookie. While baking in the oven did yield a nice external crust, the inside remained a bit too moist to perhaps call the thing a “cookie” but there were no complaints about the flavor and none remaining post-lunch so the trial certainly was not a failure. For dinner tonight, inspired by the possibility of fresh basil from the GreenHab, I’ll be making savory tomato-basil pancakes. I can say, it smells delicious.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.29.2023
Sol 5
We have reached an all-important milestone here at Crew 289: Everyone now has call signs! There are a number of philosophies for generating useful call signs, for example, clarity on the radio or really encapsulating each other’s personalities in a single word. Our philosophy, well, maybe you should judge for yourself based on the back stories.
Adriana (CO) – Rocky
Geologist Rocky got her call sign when serving on Crew 272. Serving for her second stint at MDRS in 2023, she will celebrate back-to-back Martian new year’s! She earned her name based on her passion – rocks – and her very full flight suit pockets. She is trying hard to return to Earth with fewer rocks this rotation than last. We’ll see how she does!
Riya – Pots
You might think that GreenHab Officer Riya got her nickname in association with her duties growing plants. While an apt appellation in that regard, you’d be incorrect about the origin story. Instead, early on in mission she told a joke in the kitchen that just didn’t land (turns out I wholly misheard her). When I just stared at her blinking for a bit, the whole crew started laughing. Turns out, she asked me what you get when you spell “stop” backwards. So, in some ways, I guess I cursed her with her moniker but, I don’t feel badly because we discovered today that it fits in so many ways when she declared, “I want to take ceramics! I want to learn to throw pots!” And, that was not a joke.
Sara – Zinger
Despite my lack of facility with humor as demonstrated from the above anecdote, amusingly, I earned my call sign for my jokes. When I am comfortable around people, I will attempt humor and sometimes it lands. Yesterday I had a few good ones (one in association with the alien dog incident). They stood out in comparison to zero jokes from the prior days.
Gabe – Terminator
Our Health and Safety Officer nearly lost his job to a robot and that’s how he earned his sobriquet. One of the projects Riya is noodling with is designing a portable health facility that could be taken out with folks on EVA – a robot. When we realized that Gabe would need to become a robot to keep his job, he earned his name. We justified it in that Gabe is an astronomer and “terminator” is also the word used for the shadow line of the dark versus light side on a planet. Really, that’s just an excuse though.
Eshaana – Butter
One evening, Eshaana was trying to teach Adi an American accent. Delivered with an amazingly good, yet terrifyingly perfect valley girl, her word of choice for tutelage was “butter.” Apparently, she cultivated an American accent during her time fundraising for Purdue and while surely great for that purpose, it makes the team shudder every time. But-ter.
Aditya – Michelin
Don’t believe him when he tells you he got his call sign for his ability as a chef. While his cooking is solid, he got it because his puffer coat makes him look a bit like a tire. That makes perfect sense, right?
Nathan – Shrub
Our crew engineer interacted with a plant. Once. A shrub. In fact, he took a picture of it when GreenHab Officer Riya insisted he do so. He’s since pointed out a number of them on EVAs so now he’s Shrub.
As you can tell, the crew is really coming together. The camaraderie is really great as is the science. Today was a good day for both. We discussed bucket list travel locations, hotspots at Purdue, movies, books, favorite superheroes, and space science. Everyone also made solid progress on their various research projects. There was a lot of quiet time this afternoon and evening throughout the hab as folks processed data, troubleshot projects, and engineered sensors and robots. A morning EVA also was very productive. The team generated LiDAR scans of the hab and HabRidge with carefully engineered scanning equipment – an elevated monopod (phone on a stick) and FLiDAR (drone with a phone). Post-processing, we will be able to compare scans and methodologies. You need a flair for creative problem solving, ingenuity, and persistence to get things done on Mars. A sense of humor isn’t strictly necessary but it surely makes everything much more pleasant for everyone.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.28.2023
Sol 4
When exploring Mars, you never quite know what you are going to discover. Today we set out in search of additional oysters. Yesterday, the crew explored north of the hab but today we set out south along Cow Dung Road in the area of Zubrin’s Head to the furthest destination our crew has yet to visit. Adriana (CO) and Eshaana (GEO) suited up again, this time leading me (XO) and Nathan (ENG) into the field. Unfortunately, while we explored extensively, covering a radial walking distance of 2 km and climbing up and down the local formations, devil’s toenails proved elusive despite comparable sediment layers to the formations examined yesterday at Hab Ridge.

While we were not able achieve our primary objective, the EVA was still eventful. Today, without our HSO on EVA, I was tasked with carrying our first aid kit. This small taste of the figurative (and literal) weight that our HSO Gabe experiences when traversing the landscape was eye opening. To be sure, I was deeply thankfully we had no need to use it despite some rougher terrain, such as scattered fist-sized rocks and even loose packed sand. In fact, at one point on the decline of the absolute smallest sandy slope, I lost traction completely and fell directly on my padded behind. (No damage done to myself or any equipment.) At that particular moment I was not even recording anything so I cannot even use photodocumentation of our explorations as a viable excuse!

Other highlights include, of course, additional Martian rock samples and as ever, the stunning beauty of this planet we are temporarily inhabiting. We also took a moment for fun – can’t be all work no play! In a call back to Adi’s now famous teapot power pose (originally stolen from Riya), we were able to capture a crew shot in front of a hunk of holey Martian rock.

On the decidedly surreal front, we did have an encounter with an alien during the expedition. Most unexpectedly, a dog-shaped creature in a cape, blocked our passage during our transit out to Zubrin’s Head. Despite our close presence in the rovers, the creature was undeterred from its own explorations and remarkably recalcitrant about moving out of the road. Eventually we were able to pass the lifeform at slow speed and proceed with the EVA but for a few tense moments it was unclear if we were in danger of an altercation while the alien stared us down with its dead eyes.

On the return to the hab, the EVA team was greeted by pizza. Delivery is not possible on Mars so ours was painstakingly made by the team back at station. Riya (GHO), Gabe (HSO), and Adi (SCI) collaborated on two veggie and cheese pies with grilled broccoli and grilled chicken on the side. The dehydrated mozzarella and Colby cheese, rehydrated and melted worked quite well as did the roti-based pizza crust. A heavenly sight to behold, one was dubbed the “Mona Pizza.” Unfortunately, we were too hungry to preserve it for the Louvre so da Vinci is still safe from being shown up by Crew 289 on the art front. (He’d better watch out in the realm of engineering though.)

Riya was chef extraordinaire today serving instrumentally in pizza and also provided us with delicious crepes topped with rehydrated strawberries, Nutella, and peanut butter. We have dinner still to look forward to post-comms window. And, maybe we will have a rematch of last night’s rousing game of Uno. Personally, I interpreted the landmark moment of our first game, whether or not it created new, enduring rivalries, as a sure sign the crew is settling in well all together in our Martian base.

Speaking of settling, living on Mars requires a different mindset. Using resources, especially water, responsibly is one of the primary preoccupations of the crew whether researching, cooking, hydrating, washing dishes, or for hygiene. Having demonstrated responsible rationing to date, CO Adriana rewarded the crew today with our first showers. Ever experimenting, the crew consensed that for this shower we would use the bucket method and later on in mission we would try the “navy shower” method to cross-compare water usage of the two different methods. Those who have already partaken of their shower agreed that it was truly a pleasant reprieve to clean with water and soap rather than baby wipes.

Okay, one resource that is essential to our research is computational power. Comms window was a rare treat tonight. If you look closely, you’ll notice 9 laptops and tablets to 7 people. Gabe was dual wielding computers to compare his data on his personal laptop to his photometry info on a separate laptop with special astronomy software. Adi decided that was too cool to not copy. Researching and progress reporting are going well!

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.27.2023
Sol 3
Today was a single EVA day but it was an important one. Adriana (CO) was able to gather the bivalves she needs for her research from Habitat Ridge with the help of Eshaana (GEO), Riya (GHO), and Gabe (HSO). The crew trekked out on foot to dig in the sediments of ancient oceans for evidence of past life. They were able to find and collect a total 36 samples of the species commonly referred to as “devil’s toenails” from two different sites along the ridge. In their exploration they located a unique dark layer of sediment which Adriana hypothesizes formed in an unoxygenated environment. They also found some beautiful calcite samples. Upon return to the hab, Adriana made “oyster soup” – washing her oysters in a beaker in the Science Dome. Site 1 samples were crusted in sediment but Site 2 samples were beautifully clean. Both will return to Earth with her for further processing to determine the water temperatures the oysters grew in when alive.
Much of the day was spent in maintenance and science at the hab. Aditya (SCI) was able to get E.L.F. fully operational – minus maximal battery capacity – last night after referencing his original schematics during the evening comms window. Today he focused on securing E.L.F.’s brains (wiring) in preparation for EVA operations in the upcoming days. With some careful planning, he was able to identify next steps for preparation, engineering, and crew training over the upcoming days. The crew is excited to participate.
Nathan (ENG) completed soldering in the RAM of a new battery pack for the sensors the Purdue team is testing out. The battery pack will power air quality sensors for the hab.
Eshaana completed set up of her mini-farm and got it fully planted as well as the plants labelled, and watered. She also troubleshot the Arduino and updated an error. She starts collecting data today.
Riya planted kale in her hydroponics set up and will do so on 12-hour intervals throughout our stay on Mars. She will simulate the effect of radiation on the leaves with the use of hydrogen peroxide. She also tested out her LIDAR scanning on the lower deck of the hab with Aditya posed as a teapot as signature feature. Additionally, she began engineering collapsible structures for multipurpose usage in space with intricately folded paper and legos.
Gabe (HSO) is eagerly awaiting pictures of the Crab Nebula which we are optimistic the telescope will collect tonight. He also was able to complete two photometry (intensity) measurements of the variable star he is studying (SW Tauri) which is in the Taurus constellation. This evening he will clean surfaces to prepare for sampling dust in future days.
As for me, Crew 289 has indulged me and completed two days of surveys on the various skills they have used throughout the mission so far and I began processing that data and got the pre-mission survey downloaded. I look forward to learning more about what traits are most important for astronauts.
Food consisted of a breakfast of biscuits with jam and other tasty topics, lunch was broccoli cheese soup with bread, and dinner consisted of a pasta with chickpeas.
Mars is a place for learning and today we also had a number of firsts! Today’s lunch, cooked by Aditya was his first ever soup. He felt empowered to spice it up and it turned out great. He also decided that it would be a good idea to try Nutella in his soup. Everyone else decided to pass despite his argument that it was a good combo. Eshaana’s first was in the realm of sewing. She reattached patches to her flight suit post-EVA. We also had a number of hab maintenance firsts to include a change of the air filter and cleaning of the hab toilet tank. Thank you, Nathan and Riya for handling those important tasks. However, the most exciting first will come tomorrow: We are looking forward to our first showers on Mars!