Category: Journalist Report

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!

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist & Executive Officer
12.26.2023
Sol 2
Today marks our first full day on Mars. Now it feels like we are really living here since familiarity and the beginnings of routine are setting in. People are establishing themselves in their Hab niches such that if someone is not in your visual field, you still *know* where they are, and that sense of surety is supplemented by comms throughout the Hab which allow us to report in and, perhaps most importantly, easily call everyone to meals. We also have established our communal meal table as a place to gather and share joy. The seven of us regularly gather around it to eat, converse, plan, troubleshoot, and philosophize. Early celebrations of Christmas on Mars and tasty meals have helped cement crew camaraderie and firmly established our dining table as a central gathering area.
On the topic of food, let me tempt you, dear reader, with a brief diary of our meals for the day. Breakfast, supplied by Gabe (HSO) was blueberry pancakes. They were a triumph for his first-time cooking pancakes and everyone remarked on the excitement of the very, very blue pancakes. (Reconstituting freeze-dried blueberries via a soak and the need to be water savvy meant that both blueberries and water went into the batter!) Lunch was a huge pan full of veggie-filled fried rice prepared by Adriana (CO) with an assist from Nathan (ENG) and supplemented by fresh greenhouse herbs. Everyone commented on the amazing aroma as they drifted up the stairs. For dinner, Eshaana (GEO) and Aditya (SCI) cooked a Thai curry, Korean Barbeque Chicken, and supplemented it all with a mango salad. We decided to skip fresh-made dessert tonight in favor of treats brought from Earth after already having gone through a number of rounds of dish washing. (Whether on Mars or Earth-bound, who does not want a break from dish washing?)
Eating is not the only high point of living on Mars! Today the crew accomplished two EVAs in beautiful, if chilly conditions.
The morning EVA crew, who completed their training EVA, went out with the Hab weather station declaring the external temperature as -9C. Thankfully, suiting up plus sunshine is enough to keep explorers warm with the right equipment. Adriana, Nathan, and Riya rolled out to Marble Ritual and secured more rocks for admiring. (Rocks are a primary past-time of Martian explorers.) Commander Adriana, supplied a brief geology lesson that those on comms back on station tuned into eagerly despite the lack of visuals on our end.
After their return and just before noon, Riya (GH) suited up for her second EVA of the day! Aditya, Gabe, and I joined her for a multi-priority mission at Pooh’s Corner. (We encountered no cartoons but did see a few aliens and their transports.) A ton was accomplished on our first research EVA! First up, Aditya flew a drone test flight to ascertain whether Garud, the Purdue drone, could assist E.L.F. with locomotion in the field. Pre-EVA, Aditya fashioned a basket that we could load up with rocks to measure the max weight the drone could lift. Lego-friend Jarold (Jerry) accompanied the rocks on the test flight and suffered a number of fatalities throughout EVA such that he made it back to Hab in pieces, but, thankfully, no more than those he was originally assembled from! Garud was then decoupled from his basket and sent off to Scout Candor Chasma, an important task for planning for future EVAs to test out the mobility of E.L.F. and also a great way to get some amazing footage. In the two-hour EVA window, Riya was also able to complete LIDAR scanning of rock feature in the landscape. Her scans are helping us to better understand the landscape and potential areas for expansion of our Mars base.
The day was filled with other research tasks as well as general maintenance tasks like resecuring mission patches on flight suits, re-sewing EVA harness straps to ensure secure radios, servicing packs, and cleaning. It was a good Sol 2.

Sara Paule, Crew 289 Journalist
12.25.2023
Sol 1
It’s Sol 1 and Christmas on Mars! Crew 289 greeted the day with a surprise Christmas tree and Milky Way candy bars supplied by Commander Adriana Brown which sweetened the chorus of Merry Christmases as the crew kicked off the day. Breakfast was fried potato crisps and scrambled eggs. If you are wondering, dehydrated eggs do kick up into a reasonably normal consistency, at least in the hands of skilled Martian cooks. Many thanks to Eshaana and Nathan for a great meal to start the day.

After some training, to familiarize ourselves with our new home for the next two weeks, we squinted against the surprisingly bright Martian sunlight to capture some crew photos. Then we officially started simulation at 14:00 and got in our first EVA to Marble Ridge. Geologist Eshaana Aurora led Astronomer Gabriel Skowronek, Crew Scientist Aditya Anibha, and XO and Crew Journalist Sara Paule (me) on our explorations for our first training EVA. The day was beautiful – bright blue skies and warm sunshine offset the Martian topography stunningly. We collected assorted rock samples to familiarize ourselves with the terrain and to share with our crewmates back at the Hab who greeted us with a delightful pasta salad with fresh picked kale. Capturing the experience in photo and video proved a fun challenge with the necessary safety of gloves and the complexity of a stunning lack of shoulders for my shoulder camera bag. I need to sprout more arms or design a better way to be camera bag free.

Post-EVA, we did a quick bit of cleaning and as the sunlight faded, the crew turned their attention to kicking off their various maintenance tasks and research projects. On the fresh food front, Greenhab Officer Riya Raj replanted some radishes, broccoli, and carrots all while capturing some beautiful photos. For her research, she got her self-contained hydroponics system unpacked in the Science Dome and ready for planting tomorrow. Geologist Eshaana Aurora assembled her mini-agrovoltaic farm in the Greenhab. As a self-professed night owl, she plans to continue her work post-dinner by securing the brackets.

Focused on the electronics functioning of the Hab and surface exploration, Crew Engineer Nathan Bitner assisted Crew Scientist Aditya Anibha with some troubleshooting to get the origami drone Aditya designed and assembled at Purdue ready for tomorrow’s test EVA. The robot, dubbed by the crew the E.L.F. or Electronic Leaping Frog, unfortunately is currently not operational due to the turbulence associated with travel to Mars. Aditya was able to ascertain E.L.F. is getting power and receiving commands but he will further troubleshoot the unresolved issue tomorrow. We are all excited to see it in operation. Meanwhile, Nathan was able to verify the sensors that Crew 288 placed are indeed working and set up connection to the Adafruit dashboard with Purdue mission control. We expect he will have it fully operational tomorrow. Great progress!

Christmas dinner is on the stove – a risotto and an apple pie. I am hopeful the crew will forgive me for any sins with the risotto – alternating stirring and report writing kept me on my toes. I trust the pie baked by Adriana will be absolutely delish, especially since in a holiday spirit, she made it C-shaped for baking. We will toast Christmas with some sparkling cider. Holidays are joyful workdays on Mars!

Lipi Roy, Crew 288 Journalist
12.21.2023
Sol 11
It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. The breathtaking beauty of the Martian landscape, the unintended rock sample collections, unexpected alien creatures, and surprise drone gifts. Crew 288 appreciated these simple joys one last time as they went on their last EVA of the mission…
Today, the crew woke up to an excited Ryan preparing breakfast. Ryan, I know you’ve been eager to make your special peanut-butter and banana pancakes but isn’t 7 AM a bit too early? Just kidding, I know it takes time, and we all appreciate you for doing a great job with that!
After the filling breakfast, Cesare (commander), Hunter (Crew Geologist), Ryan, and Jilian (HSO) prepped for what was going to be the last EVA of Crew 288. Walking along the Galileo Road, they enjoyed breathtaking views and collected rock samples.
Let me quote the EVA lead, Hunter, on his special request to talk about the journey in detail – “we continued uninterrupted until reaching Somerville Overlook (yeah, who’s the one interrupting, Hunter?), where we spooked some (alien) pronghorns. There were approximately nine of them, and one had a glowing red nose which the crew didn’t second guess given the season. At the Overlook, we established a station on a small hill covered in a thin layer of grey, silt-sized regolith like material.” Sorry, Hunter, that’s all the footage you’ll get for today. But I’m sure the crew had a great time and collected some interesting samples and photos!
Back at the Hab, Riley worked on documentation of her research, Ryan harvested some fresh Parsley for dinner, while Hunter worked on characterizing his rock samples. Meanwhile, Cesare and Jesus made amazing whole-wheat bread. I tried preparing Chocolate brownies, but due to the absence of eggs, it turned out to be what the crew has named – ‘choc slop’ (thankfully, they did not call it choc flop). I better not make fun of Ryan’s baking anymore, after that.
Our last dinner in the Hab comprised of the GEO-special Tuna tomato sauce pasta and a well-concluded discussion on our spacecraft back to Earth. It’s going to be quite a day tomorrow- sending back samples, preparing the Hab for the next crew, and acquiring logistics to ensure our safe journey back home.

Lipi Roy, Crew 288 Journalist
12.22.2023
Sol 12

One last look at the exquisite Utah landscape, one last day of work, one last dinner together. As we return to Earth on our last day of mission, we reflect on the deeply enriching experience each one of us had…

Our final day began with another round of spam fried rice – driven by Crew demand (and the need to finish leftovers) and supplied by Hunter (Crew Geologist/ on-demand chef). Fueled by this ‘meal of the mission’, Jesus (Crew Engineer) and Hunter proceeded to go all the way to Grand Junction to rent a car (our spacecraft back to Earth) while the rest of the crew stayed back and cleaned the Hab. The successful end to the mission was celebrated with a dinner at Burger Shak (where Hunter undid his spam-fried-rice respect by not living up to the expectation of finishing leftover fries).

It feels like it was just yesterday we stepped into the Hab, excited for our first EVA. Hidden behind the shared EVAs, board games, dinners, and laughs, was a tapestry of diverse experiences, tapping into a shared purpose, and fostering a deep sense of camaraderie. As much as seeing our families and friends for the holidays (and getting human showers everyday) is enticing, I am positive we will all miss the usual sight of Baby Yoda, the Christmas-tree-card unfolding ritual during every dinner and sharing a good meal after wonderful EVAs.

With that, I officially sign off as crew journalist of crew 288. Until next time!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!