Category: Journalist Report

Sol 18 – End clap

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

That’s it, we’re preparing to definitely leave this beautiful red planet… It is a mix of many different emotions: joy, sadness, the first impulses of nostalgia even if we have not yet taken off …

The day was dedicated to tidying up. First, for the trip outside, the morning outing was meant to dismount our external devices. In order, MegaAres, PurpleAir, LOAC, weather station, and HF antenna. It was a last EVA strangely filled with emotions: we carried out rotations throughout the mission to ensure their maintenance, for us it was inked in the routine; yet this morning we removed everything and tomorrow we will no longer have this daily appointment. So, we took advantage of it, the weather was good, we took a few last photos in our suits… Our goodbyes to the Martian ground that we have been walking on for the last 3 weeks.

Then it was the time to clean the Hab, to prepare the field for the next crew who will take over on Sunday. Our personal and work affairs, the sports equipment… It is true that, at the end of these three weeks of mission, our stuff was a little scattered all over the Hab: we used to the maximum the space which was dedicated to us.

At each device dismounted, it was an opportunity for us to remember the moments we spent here. Experiments in the ScienceDome, the few remaining plantations in the GreenHab, the radio set up in the Lower Deck… Some activities went well during this journey, others did not work, sometimes we know the reasons, sometimes not… This is the game of sim. We will have the opportunity to go over all this once back on Earth, but whatever it is we are getting out of here happy with the mission as a whole, and the group is more united than ever by all these adventures: We have lived together on Mars for 3 weeks!

PS: To prove to you that the weather was good, take a look at today’s Sun’s picture taken by our astronomer Marine. The observation conditions were really nice: you can spot Sun flares on the surface!

[end]

Sol 16 – Another day at the office

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Another intense day on Mars, the kind of day we will remember once we will be back on Earth.

The program: the last session of ultrasound medical surveillance for everyone, finishing up the geology work in Candor Chasma for Mathéo, Elena, Cerise, and I, repairing the HF radio transceiver… and others.

Definitely, the ultrasound experiment might be our favourite. If you are a subject, you just lie on a comfortable bed, and for the next half hour, until you become what we call “first operator”. This latter is the actual person experimenting. This person has the probe in one hand, and the phone screen with the EchoFinder app on the other.

As I described for you in Sol 2’s report, it is then like a “game”, and to win you have to make a great picture. In the crew, we almost take that as a way to challenge each other, and as you might know, Elena is always the most valuable player… And once you have checked all organs asked, measured your performance, and given your feedback on the protocol given by CNES, you are done.

You become “operator 2”, to assist operator 1’s performance measurement. And because it is finally a time to do experiments together, to talk while changing probes, to share a moment, it is always a great time.

As I said before, the crew went back in Candor Chasma, to complete documentation of the zone, which began yesterday. But, because it was the same kind of “sporty EVA” as the previous one, this one was performed by the crew members that stayed inside yesterday. We had much fewer difficulties to go to the points of interest, for the simple reason that we were wisely briefed by the Martianauts who went there, not to make the same mistakes. And more, we flew the PARROT drone several times, which allowed us to have a clear vision of our environment.

We loved this outing. Being an operator in such conditions is unique, especially when it goes well: our “laser gun”, the LIBS Z-903, worked perfectly. The weather was good, the colours were magical. Take a look at the drone shot of the day!

During the last few days, we had trouble making our antenna setup work. Our last problem was on the feed line, where a transformer decided not to deliver enough voltage for a reason we ignore. We received advice from the Toulouse radio club to solve the problem: using a car battery charger and a car battery (that we usually use for atmospheric experiments). And it worked! You might see that it looks way more “handcrafted” than before, but we safely wired it: Safety first, even before science.

It is interesting seeing us working now, we feel like living in “normality” but in fact, we do not. The sequence of activities throughout the days, the station maintenance, the experiments, the EVAs … All of this makes our daily life, and we almost do not question it… It is just when taking a step back on it that you realise concretely. We might have become real Martians!

Sol 15 – A new Era for geology

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Today was a big day for the three adventurous martionauts that went on EVA. 5 hours was planned for Marine, Léa and Valentine. The longest so far!

To tell you more, they were even free of the usual sport session, in order to be in shape all morning long. And according to their sayings, and also their afternoon naps (not for all of them), it was useful! Especially since they reached the goal of the outing: finding sulphate deposit veins! If, like me, you did not know what it looks like, they brought you a picture of it present in the daily pictures!

They left the Hab an hour before the usual one: at 8 am, they first made some maintenance on our devices around the Hab, and then took two of the rovers (cleverly named Curiosity and Opportunity, two of the real Mars “geologists”), heading to North East. They stopped after half an hour driving, and then, searched for (not without any difficulty) the entrance of a place named Candor Chasma.

The EVA was planned in Candor Chasma because it is a place where we might easily observe Jurassic outcrops. It took place in the second part of the geology field study: now, the crew (to be honest, mainly Léa and Marine who are in charge of it) is focused on documenting the presence of Jurassic sulphate deposit in the region. We are not focused on the transition between the two geological eras anymore. It is good to see this experiment moving forward!

Hence, as planned, it was a sporty one, but it went well. They came back to the Hab with precious samples and a big hunger! Fortunately, Mathéo and I were expecting them with a huge dish of Bolognese pasta that we cooked! They told us the whole story, and we had a great lunch.

The afternoon was calmer than previous ones in the Hab, to allow the ones who needed it to rest a little. The “unlucky” ones had to perform human factors experiments, the others went through data analysis.

The event that woke up the atmosphere a little was a tasting of the famous “crêpes Bonne-Maman” made by Valentine. The crew enjoyed the acrobatic cooking as much as the tasting!

I asked my crewmates around me a new question:

What are your “small pleasures” here during this mission?

For Mathéo, cooking bread makes him proud each time he does it!

Léa appreciates very much eating his freshly cooked bread! Along with Cerise and Valentine, they pointed out the evenings after sending our reports, when we gather to discuss, to watch movies…

And, during our work, we all agreed with Cerise, on the fact that working in front of the desert in the Science Dome is something unique. We will miss seeing Mars through this window!

Sol 14 – Happy Birthday Commander

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Do you know someone who has already celebrated a birthday twice in a MDRS mission? Personally, I do!

The first time, it was three years ago, in 2019. Back then, Cerise was the Health and Safety Officer for Crew 206, another Supaero crew. Apparently, she loved this experience, so she decided to become Commander for Crew 263: here she is!

Our commander is now 25 years old; hence, she is our dean here! But, no needs to say, she has not taken a single wrinkle, and keeps her vivacity in her functions!

You might ask yourself, what is the purpose of a MDRS commander? This is someone with experience in analogs, someone for whom living a simulation is not unknown. In our case, she was very useful since we prepared for this mission. From how to mentally prepare to live a MDRS mission, to very practical questions: how warm it is in the MDRS, what clothes to take in our suitcase, what is not to forget…?

Moreover, she is responsible for the entire mission. On one hand, she keeps an eye on everyone’s experiments and stays updated about eventual unforeseen. On the other hand, a bit like Valentine the HSO does, she takes care of the team spirit, and of how everyone individually feels during the mission. So, she is almost everywhere.

This is why it was a hassle for us to organise her a birthday surprise. But we succeeded doing it! It took place at noon for lunch, during the dessert, around a delicious chocolate cake. In order to find her gift, she had to solve enigmas, like in a treasure hunt! To be honest, it was funny seeing her struggling a bit to resolve the first problems. Do not tell her, I would be in trouble, she is my commander…

It was a good moment of cohesion!

During the morning, we went on EVA (yes, I was in again) with Cerise and Mathéo, to test Augmented Reality mapping in an unknown canyon, named White Rock Canyon. Technically speaking, it was not really a success: it is hard to use Augmented Reality in very bright environments. At least, the weather was good and the place we discovered was wonderful.

Valentine was supposed to continue the HF propagation wave study, which is currently really interesting to perform thanks to the Sun activity. But this study is victim of bad luck: in the same time, outside the Hab one of the antennas telescopic arms collapsed, and inside the electrical transformer stopped working correctly… So, we are quite frustrated. We hope to put it back in order before our mission ends!

Otherwise, the whole crew performed human factors test, the ones provided by Université de Lorraine. We feel like we are losing efficiency on it throughout the mission, our attention might decrease… But it is still enough not to forget Cerise’s birthday!

Sol 13 – Sweet dreams

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Against all odds, this morning’s weather has been wonderful. A nice and warm sun was waiting for us to wake up. The wind was slightly blowing, but nothing compared to what was announced. Mars is full of surprises.

So, we were allowed to go out and do the geology outing we could not do the day before, we even took advantage of it to realise maintenance on the HF antenna, change the outdoor batteries, and put the LOAC back on the field (which we took back in to protect it from the potential snowfall). So, at the end of the day, it was a big EVA, especially since the geology study needed us to go to a place named “White moon”, the furthest away we have gone so far. Hence, we had a great breakfast, carefully packed our needed material, and left the Hab for this morning adventure.

We were four, Cerise, Marine, Léa and I, heading to the North, and it went well. We were happy for the geology analysis we made there, and for the new landscapes we discovered…

It did not look like a “classic” Sunday of a Supaero Crew, it was more like a mix between a rest day and a work day (because we already took some rest the day before). Elena went through data analysis of the Teleop experiment (the one where martionauts teleoperate rovers in different positions) and cooked, Valentine tided up the lower deck and spent time drawing, Cerise went on EVA this morning, adjusted mission planning and knitted during the afternoon… To sum up, we worked in a relaxed atmosphere!

Most of us had a (needed) restorative night, the awakening was sweeter than the other days. And our numbers speak for themselves: we have a complete follow-up of our nights using Dreem headbands. These devices are really easy to use and are efficient in the context of our project! We just need to put them before going to sleep (like Cerise does on the photo), and they analyse our brain waves, breath rhythm, heartbeat, and even our detailed movements through the night (you would be impressed discovering how much a person moves during a night…)!

They allow us an access to durations and proportions of sleeping phases: deep, light, rapid eye movement (REM)… What we are interested in, is how all of this data evolves throughout a mission like ours, and also to keep an eye on it and take measures (reorganisation of the planning, relaxation exercises, naps…) if needed. Their data is thus very useful to efficiently keep our mission running.

You might ask yourself if it is possible to sleep correctly with it: do not worry, they are not very invasive, after two or three nights of accommodation (that we did weeks before the mission) you almost don’t feel it anymore. You can peacefully have sweet dreams!

Sol 12 – Bad weather, good times

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

The weather is definitely not kind to us, it pushes us to take some forced rest. Outside, the wind strongly blows, the rain and hail fall, and snow is to come during the night…

On one hand, technically speaking, it means taking the LOAC (aerosol meter) back in the Hab, because it might not survive under the snow, do maintenance on our HF antenna which is put to trouble by the wind, and hope the batteries are empty until tomorrow morning…

On the other hand, today’s experiments needed an outside intervention (geology, Augmented Reality, HF propagation…), more than just doing maintenance around the Hab, so we were stuck on these points.

So, we decided yesterday’s evening to “advance” our rest day, because of this, also because we did not want to lose efficiency in our upcoming work, we try thus to avoid tiredness: after the maintenance EVA, our afternoon would be declared empty, a time to breath, a time to relax.

We are finishing our second week on Mars, and even if some of the last days were not that intense, we lately feel more frequently tired. Maybe the weight of the simulation, maybe the repetitiveness of actions during the days, maybe the accumulation of little frustrations that are taken individually means almost nothing but when added it gets revealed to day light… Maybe a mix of all of that.

Even if we do not know exactly why, one of our strengths is to know how to overcome it: relax! And guess what, we are particularly good at it!

Our afternoon was thus focused on making us having a great time, cooking, chatting, living good! Some of us played games, others drew and painted, listened to music.

This looked like last Sunday, even if outside the bad weather strikes, inside the Hab it is bright and sunny!

Sol 11 – . – – . – – . – – . . . . . – !

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Translate: « We made it! ». We made contact with the other Martian base (radio club in Toulouse, France)! In fact, we heard their signals but we are not sure if we were heard… The Sun has been nice to us for some days, and has charged the ionosphere enough to allow propagation!

The established protocol uses 3 modes of modulation (ways to transform our wave to send a message with it) with names that might scare some of you: FT8, CW and SSB. Here again, translate “digital mode” (only decodable with a computer), “MORSE mode”, and “voice mode”. On paper, we maximise our chances to make contact with the first one but we cannot send much information in each message, and the last one is the most uncertain but really facilitates communication. We tried two ranges of frequencies, around 21MHz and 28MHz. We don’t really know why, but today the MORSE mode has been the most efficient one, and the only one to work, and we finally heard something! Valentine and I were very excited while discovering our callsigns (KK7DAC and KK7DAE, lovely) followed by the REF 31 radio club one (F5KSE) in a message received near 9:17 am. Listen: 3 weeks ago, we took almost 13 hours travelling to MDRS from France, and now, at the speed of light, our waves took about a hundredth of a second to do the same course and deliver a message (without any intermediate, no satellite, no internet, no wire…). It is nice to see that the physics we learnt at school works effectively, in a big scale personal experiment! We hope to have the same (or even more) luck next Thursday, when we will try the contact for a last time, always using Zenith Antennes and ICOM devices.

In our propagation study we saw a very good one this morning, but the wind that appeared around noon significantly moved our antennas, and now we need to correctly set them again during an EVA… The weather cannot always be by our side…

On this subject, because of the rain probability, we could not do the geology EVA that was planned this morning. So, our day has had to be reorganised. Some of us took some rest, because here, we all have some moments of tiredness these days. Mathéo and Cerise decided to make cookies for the whole crew, which put us in a very good mood! Pictures to follow…

Yesterday, just when I finished my report, we had a strange exercise. Valentine set an emergency protocol exercise, inside the Hab. The situation was: there is a hole in the module, air is leaking out, the pressure is going low. How to react? We followed a protocol made by a middle school class in Toulouse, with which we have collaborated some months ago. No need to worry, it went (quite) well. We need to admit that during the first minute we were disorganised, but we managed to apply the protocol in time, and everyone was safe at the end. It was very interesting!

Sol 9 – A Hollywoodian movie

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

We are now at a point where the end of our mission is as far as its beginning. It is a strange feeling; this is one of the first times where we concretely think about the “end” of our more than a one-year-long project. But be reassured, it does mean that we do not keep up the good work!

Valentine is a clever strategist. Our HSO, for Health and Security Officer, takes care of us every day with sports sessions, proposing sophrology exercises, keeping an eye on our personal physiological data… She is like the guardian angel of each of us here, and it is great to have her by our side. But this morning, she organised an exercise of rescuing an injured astronaut, but in order to provide great data to analyse, she developed a scenario, Hollywood-worthy.

All began during yesterday’s eve, where she separately took each member of the crew to explain their role in testing a rescue protocol. She told everyone, except Cerise and Léa, that Elena would simulate a fall and an injury, and everyone one would have to abide by the protocol. The aim was to measure different parameters such as efficiency, time to secure the victim, and physiological data from Martianauts living the situation in EVA.

But in reality, she told the true scenario to Léa (who had to stay in the Hab during the EVA) and Cerise (who was Mathéo’s buddy during the EVA): Valentine herself, was meant to simulate being the victim before Elena did. Like this, the situation was more likely unforeseen for most of us and would be more realistic, while keeping the situation under control if something went wrong. In this case, Léa would have been able to inform Marine (today’s Habcom) and same with Cerise and Mathéo. It was very clever.

Everything went as planned, and after the protocol was applied, Valentine revealed the truth to the Marine, Elena, and Matheo who couldn’t be sure of what had really happened (even if Elena seemed to have understood quickly…). And we are now waiting for the data to be processed. This was a very exciting morning, and we had a great time talking about it at lunch!

For the work that has been done inside the station today, we made our second session of ultrasound with the Sonoscanner device and CNES protocol. Since last week, we received some adjustments from researchers, and it was useful. I think everyone improved their “image capture skills”, finding on average one organ more than last time.

On this subject, Elena is really impressive for an engineering student, she made twice a perfect shot! She may begin a conversion… The whole crew seems to appreciate this experiment and is really involved in giving their feedback and feelings about the protocol. This is a pleasure working in these conditions!

Sol 7 – From Interstellar to gravitropism experiment

Author : Nicolas Wattelle

Rest has been great (we all appreciated Christopher Nolan’s movie), now it is time to go back to efficient work! And I think we did: our schedule was not really full so we took advantage of it to prepare the next days, and to do what we usually have not the time to. The upcoming days are very exciting, this is partly due to the weather improvement, so we can broaden our EVA plans and make the mission go forward.

During the day, our focus was thus on planning, data processing and maintenance. For the planning, discussions have taken place during the whole early afternoon on the upper deck, and one of the great news is concerning the geological field study (mainly for Marine and Léa who are in charge of it) that might begin no later than tomorrow. Cerise, our commander, make a great job everyday to handle the tricky moving planning, dealing with all constraints (even the last-minute ones), and she always tries to satisfy each of us’ interests. She is a great commander (honestly, without any will to become the favourite).

In the middle of all this, two remarkable novelties: Elena has started the preparation of a spirulina culture; and Mathéo tried for the first time to pilot the drone from inside the Hab during an EVA. Léa who was Habcom at this moment, found this very useful to be able to follow the astronauts this way, it is much easier to understand their progression with this point of view (can you spot the astronauts on the today’s drone shot?).

Also, maintenance has been performed on the Solar Musk cupola, on the field mill (we had a mishap with it during the last EVA) and on the gravitropism experiment.

But what is gravitropism? Plants grow, we already know that, but in fact, they grow in response to stimuli. The stimulus can be various things: light, water presence, heat, fertilizer… In these cases, we respectively speak about phototropism, hydrotropism, thermotropism and chemotropism. Each plant is sensitive to these phenomena, like in a competition between the latter, and each plant is more or less responsive to a phenomenon. We know since the XVIIIth century that plants react to gravity. Gravitropism (and so gravity) is one of the reasons why roots go down and rods go up.

During our mission, and in collaboration with middle and high school students, we try to observe and disturb gravitropism. How do we do this? Thanks to inertia! We grow plants (ones with rapid growth, like lentils, beans, wheat…), on a turning wheel (almost 30 cm of radius), in order to make seeds feel centrifugal force. This way, when you add the contribution of this force to gravitational force, you obtain an inclined resultant (the force is not purely vertical anymore). And we might be able to see modifications in the growth. This is the idea of an historic experiment named “Knight’s Wheel”.

We had some trouble doing this experiment during our first week, but today, we took this experiment back to zero, hoping it will show interesting things before next weekend. Plus, we plan to experiment another unperformed protocol during our last week: what if we turn the wheel vertical? We are very curious to produce data on it!

PS: In addition, you can find in the daily pictures the M81 galaxy 11,74 million of light years away, observed by Marine. A picture like this might leave us dreamers, imagining a solar system similar to ours, and who knows… An inhabited planet like ours?

Sol 6 – Rest Day, simple day

Today was our first rest day. In fact, almost. We did two short EVAs, one for changing batteries for our outdoor devices, and another one for Mathéo to do his first session with the HoloLens Augmented Reality Experiment.

Otherwise, we spent the day together in the Hab, cleaning our place, cooking, speaking about our lives, and watching movies. Mars is starting to feel like home. We loved this time, and I think these kinds of days will be crucial for future long-term space missions and also our analog one which is filled by activities and experiments: breaks are essential. This first week has been really intense, and everyone here needs this time of rest, with simple things. Have the time to take a step back, to appreciate together, to think… And have a clear mind to begin the upcoming week!

And more, even if I have not spoken much of it the last few days, each time we spend “everyday life moments” together, each Crew member has the same unity feeling. Particularly when we sit all around a table to have lunch, to have a coffee, when we discuss on the sofa… I think our crew is deeply united, benevolent to the others, and this mission might create an indestructible link between us, because of our common work and because here we represent the daily human contact to each other, almost like a family. These moments have thus entirely their part of importance in a crewed mission.

For now, I will end this report here, because my crew mates are waiting for me to begin the movie Interstellar, and I do not want to miss living this moment! See you tomorrow!