Category: Journalist Report

Sol 0

Author : Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Title : "Our new Home"

The six of us woke up after a difficult night in the Science Dome,
because of the lack of comfort but above all because of our excitation
to begin our mission. The whole crew chose to begin the day with a
sport session ! That was a difficult session for some of us, but we
all needed that to wake up and prepare the three weeks of mission
ahead of us.

At 0800 the crew 205 left the Hab to return to their five countries.
Natalia, Dave, Nathan, Maria, Ghenim, Daniel, Hannah and Veronica left
us the station after a full afternoon of training yesterday. We wish
you a good continuation ! You’ve done a good job here in the MDRS,
even if the martian weather wasn’t clement with you. We will continue
to hold the station well and make great science here on Mars !

Then we spend the whole morning taking our marks in the Hab, we took
our first breakfast composed of milk and scrambled eggs. We chose our
rooms, our tiny zones of privacy in the Hab.

For the rest of the day, waiting for Atila to train us, we all worked
on our experiments or on the Hab’s organization :
Norbert, our GreenHab Officer, spend a lot of time in the GreenHab to
discover the plants in here and understand their needs. Cerise, our
crew Biologist and Health and Safety Officer tested everything in the
Campus to assure our safety : alarms, fire extinguishers, medical
supplies and radios. Gaspard, our engineer and the "hacker" of the
team tackled the internet consumption of our devices to avoid data
losses (we only used 100MB up to this time!). In the same time,
Aurélien and I organized in the kitchen the food supplies that arrived
with us. And Jérémy, Commander of our mission prepared all the
material necessary to follow our water consumption.

At 1430 pm, Atila arrived to train us with the rovers and gave us his
last advice.

We had a long discussion on our goals for the mission. And that was
the moment to close the airlock door and begin our simulation.

I am Benjamin, journalist of the crew 206, million of kilometers away
from Earth, in the Mars Desert Research Station. The weather here is
beautiful, even if the soil is still damaged by the storm that stroke
the crew 205’s mission. My crew and I will sleep well after this
tiring day. I am in a hurry to wake up tomorrow to start experiments
and Extravehicular Activities, to live the Martian Dream.

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 23-FEB-2019 Sol 12

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: “North Ridge for the Last Time and Bienvenue Crew 206”

The time flies and after watching our outreach videos yesterday altogether we realized what we achieved. Two weeks ago, we started our journey and today we are already welcoming crew 206.

One particular place was bugging us, and it was a heartfelt wish from half of the crew to go to the place we tried to reach 3 times unsuccessfully: The North Ridge. So, there we went to check this off our bucket list.

After the final clean-up, most of us went up the North Ridge and went for a walk following the track of mountain lions that we saw in the snow. It led us all the way to the top and further north to the top of the North Ridge which welcomed us with an amazing view!

On the top of North Ridge we found the floor covered in fossil shells like the ones we found the other day near Grey Moon, which was amazing for the crew members who could not join that EVA!

Everyone picked up some souvenirs for home! We followed the mountains to redo the pictures we took with the “Fellowship of Mars” and the way down we half walked or slid down the hill without many problems. Once we came back from our hike, Crew 206 had just arrived and we welcomed them with hot soup and coffee!

The afternoon will be used to train the new crew and take a couple of pictures.

It was a great time thanks to MDRS, Atila, David and Mission Control and anyone who followed us through our rotation! You guys are awesome! Stay tuned for our outreach videos soon to come, which we promise will be the greatest science videos you will see this year! We will return to our five different countries around the world!

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 22-FEB-2019 Sol 12

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: “I will survive with unreasonably sized pancakes”

Two weeks have passed. Two weeks of EVAs, laughter, intercultural conversations, puzzles and a lot of coffee and large pancake in American style.

The International Emerging Space Leaders Crew 205 finished the simulation at 1700 today.

What would you do on your last day on Mars? We actually used it to clean the hab. All Crew- Heinzelmännchen were busy vacuuming, mobbing, brushing or packing. As a reward we got mac and cheese cooked deliciously as always from Hannah. The crew journalist Maria also used the time to take the official crew pictures and finishing up the outreach project which will have its glorious premiere tonight exclusively for MDRS. The commander Natalia was busy reviewing and finalizing the mission summary. From 8 strangers who have barely met before we became a team and our friendships will survive past Mars.

The Hab is blinking and the outside is calling so at 1700 sharp the crew members went outside for a little walk around the Hab as far as the ground conditions allowed.

We’d just like to wish a final, special thanks to some of the great people and Martians that have helped us during our time here.

To Hannah, for keeping the crew incredibly well fed, reading an entire cookbook, and generally giving us all the soul and spirit to enjoy our time here to the fullest

To David and Atila for being our mysterious guardian angels, and always appearing out of the fog over the hills to fix the Hab when we couldn’t.

It was a great experience for everyone and we will always remember our two weeks on Mars.

We want to leave you with our favorite song:

I will survive….

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 21-FEB-2019 Sol 11

Author: Daniel Robson

Title: “The Happy Little Elves – Hard at Work in their Wintery Workshop”

For those regular readers of the exploits and adventures of Crew 205, we are delighted to tell you that the “Great Jigsaw Puzzle of Sol 9 and 10” was eventually completed last night before bed! Good luck to any future crews that open that Pandora’s box…if you can find it.

The morning began with the crew waking up to a fresh, thick covering of Martian white salt deposit. We are certainly living on a White Mars! While not the Antarctic “Mars”, ours is definitely “Mars” but it’s just white today. Over a leisurely breakfast, the crew discussed tasks for the day, including preparing for the end of our mission and the arrival of the replacement crew – only days away!

The outer modules on our base were swept and mopped and all our equipment so perilously shipped from Earth began to be packed away. Back in the Hab many of the crew began preparing our final Mission Summary and the various other documents we intend to fill with the experiences, data, science, stories, and legends of our time here, out on our own little World.

Nathan, the crew’s GreenHab Officer, has now accepted the fate of his second pair of lost headphones and has now moved onto guarding his third pair with the reverence of a Holy Relic. Natalia, returning to her original role of Commander, and Daniel the HSO, both feared they had fallen to the same curse for a few minutes before finding theirs again.

Hannah has once again outdone herself with cooking today, having made an amazing looking spread of pizza’s and chicken and biscuit crackers for lunch, all garnished with basil from the GreenHab, olive oil, and squeezy cheese. Our multinational crew has the best of all worlds, both in terms of countries and planets!

After lunch, the work began in earnest on our Mission Summary. Like the well-oiled machine our team has proven itself to be, we all jumped at our allocated sections, writing up 11 Sol’s worth of information throughout the afternoon. In fact, we were so successful, we’ve actually had to spend some of tonight cutting it back down to length!

Nathan, Veronica, and Daniel also had a chance this afternoon to take some additional outreach photos for their clubs and groups across the world, another fine example of crew camaraderie and bonding after yesterday’s ceremonial t-shirt swap between the University of Leicester and Florida Institute of Technology.

For dinner (continuing the semi-accidental Italian theme of today) we had a scrumptious pesto pasta, again prepared lovingly by Hannah and her brand new homemade chef’s hat. We’ve heard our replacement crew are French so we do hope they approve of the touch.

Maria, the crew journalist has been working incredibly hard at editing and finalizing the crew videos so that we have some to release before our mission home, and also so we can have a group viewing session together on our last night. Her dedication to the art and outreach of science has given the Author a chance to express his more creative side and write this report (although as you may have noted Santa’s little elves don’t make a direct appearance in this issue).

Ghanim the crew astronomer has been compounded by nights of either blizzards and clouds or a clear night with a massive low hanging Moon causing the rolling landscape around our home to glisten from horizon to horizon and frame the stars in an un-Earthly glow. Unfortunately for him and his telescope, such beauty isn’t very good for the delicate optics, and he has been unable to get the observation of the Orion Nebula he has been after for days now.

Tonight (after the jigsaw has been completed and then buried in one of the under-chair storage containers never to challenge our crew again), we intend to try playing a few games such as dominos or possibly have a rematch of Space Chess. As I’m writing this we’re also trying to work out what each crew member’s catchphrase has been for the mission, and while it might not be useful enough for the Mission Summary we’re having fun with it anyway. Seeing as we’ve also now cracked the code for how to view American DVD’s on a European laptop, we may give Apollo 13 another go.

Hoping the World we are coming home too soon are having a pleasant night, and enjoying the weather, however bleak and beautiful it may be.

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 20-FEB-2019 Sol 10

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: “Moonshine and Puzzle Fever”

Crew 205 decided to start a new project: The Mars Puzzle! It seems to be tradition that crews finish this puzzle while being at MDRS and we are planning not to be an exception!

Since yesterday the fever has spread among the crew and every free minute not spent working is used to finish the 1000 piece puzzle. We will not stop until we have finished it and we will keep you posted!

The crew journalist could not resist grabbing her camera last night and shot pictures from the tunnels around the Hab with the Moon lighting up the sky almost like daytime!

After a short night with an incomplete puzzle the crew woke up with new energy to start their day. Still the puzzle fever caught most of the crew during breakfast…

Our chef-de-cuisine Hannah and so-chef Dave prepared biscuits and gravy which was a new experience for most of the crew and all of us loved it!

For lunch we had Kartoffelgratin (translated potato casserole) prepared by Maria before we prepared for our EVA!

Shortly after Nathan, Natalia, Ghanim and Maria stepped out to make their way to the Candor Chasma to collect rock samples we realized that the rovers Opportunity and Spirit had not been charging for the past 3 days.

This meant the crew had to troubleshoot and wait until the rovers were at full charge before we could use them. A second attempt was performed at 1430 and with fully charged rovers we made our way down the road. At the end of Galileo road, we realized that the weather was changing, and the EVA crew decided to return immediately. After this short EVA the crew was welcomed by the support crew and an amazing looking lava cake.

The afternoon was packed with crew members filling out the surveys for the leadership project, the continuous care of the ISRU plants (happily still alive) and continued work on the puzzle, which is still bugging us…. But we promise that we will not rest today until it is done!

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 19-FEB-2019 Sol 9

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: “What Goes Up!”

Mars awaited our rising out of our crew quarters with beautiful sunshine through our windows. The smell of coffee was around the table while we prepared our breakfast: mainly oats and cereals.

The meal plan was already made by Hannah, our Chef de Cuisine: chocolate lava cake for tomorrow and salmon soup for lunch. The cake for today will be baked by Maria, and it is a German apple pie.

The crew’s commander is Ghanim, and as every day, he led us as we planned what we want to do. Therefore, people spread to do their tasks. Nathan and Dave’s second home became the science dome as they analyzed the newly found shell fossils and separated the rock samples to decide which ones are worth to bring back to Earth.

Natalia is working on guidelines for future crews. Crew 205 would like to give some help for future emerging space leaders.

Gus, our mascot, is still very active helping explain information about Mars and following crew members around. Maria made some progress with video editing and hopes to send out first videos by tomorrow. Veronica opened the first Mars gym in the downstairs area of the Hab so that crew members could work off the hushpuppies and Hannah’s amazing cooking in the last days.

Everyone is catching up on surveys.

Before the comms window Mars surprised us with one of its brightest Moons since we got here, it is glorious. Tomorrow will be another day on Mars and we can’t wait to discover more amazing DVD and CDs of the almost endless collection here in the Hab, we leave you with this title: “What goes up” Space, Trance, Transfusion.

Tomorrow a geographically inspired lava chocolate cake will await us! Ooh la la!

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 18-FEB-2019 Sol 8

Author: Dave Masaitis

Title: A Sol of Great Mystery

Sol 8 began as others have, with crew members emerging from quarters to start a tea kettle and make breakfast. Crew 205 quickly became inquisitive as they peered outside the portholes of our home to see a mysterious white precipitate covering the regolith ridges, with more falling from the sky. While it seemed to resemble snow on Earth, our previous understanding of Mars told us that the planet does not have enough water for such a weather phenomenon to be plausible. It was therefore imperative to treat this precipitate with suspicious caution, especially as it seemed to saturate the regolith and turn it to a rather slippery mud-type substrate. In the interests of crew safety, Commander Grulich reported to Mission Support and announced that our planned EVA would have to wait for another Sol.

Over breakfast, Commander Grulich and Executive Officer Alotaibi consulted with the crew to realign work priorities for a Sol at the Hab. The mysteries of Sol 8 did not stop there. GreenHab Officer Nathan Hadland was analyzing rock and substrate samples in the science dome, when he called on the radio for the crew to come look at something. He had found some samples that, when washed, appeared to be the fossilized shells of some form of invertebrate. Had the crew stumbled on an ancient sea bed while on EVA? By visual appearance, these certainly appeared to be fossilized shells but further testing would be required before any confirmations could be made. Given that some invertebrates on Earth make their shells from calcite, it seemed reasonable that testing a fossilized fragment with a diluted hydrochloric acid solution should create a reaction…and it did! Samples taken from a sampling site within a couple hundred meters of the fossilized shells rendered beautiful crystalline structures, which are suspected to be either halite or gypsum. Both of these pieces of evidence point initially to a region of planetary surface that may have once been an ancient sea bed, so further investigation will be required. While it is far too premature of a discovery to draw any firm conclusions, the mysteries of todays analysis prove even more interesting than the mysterious white precipitate falling from the sky. Are the two perhaps connected?

Some analysis of the fossils may continue into the evening, and the crew will enter its communications window to file their daily reports to Mission Support. Following this, the Commander and Executive Officer will discuss the crew’s priorities of work for Sol 9, before having a dinner of salmon and hushpuppies prepared by one of our more apt cooks, Communications Officer Hannah Blackburn. After dinner, we will likely engage in some table games or perhaps watch Apollo 13, before laying down to get some rest before another Sol.

Author: Natalia Larrea

Title: “Oh I will survive!”…. with the taste of cinnamon rolls and the sound of “Starman”

We woke up with the smell of fresh coffee and home-made cinnamon rolls made by our COMMS Officer (Hannah). Thanks to her and her excellent culinary skills, we are surviving in the Red Planet eating food as if we were back home on Earth (and even better I would say!). All the Crew sat down to enjoy breakfast all together as usual, but this time listening to the sound of Gloria Gaynor and her “I will survive” and David Bowie’s “Starman” from Dave’s (HSO) iPad. Full of energy, all the crew and our new Martian mascot “Gus” (found a couple of days ago on the Martian surface) started singing and dancing to the rhythm of these songs with big smiles on our faces. It was a great way to start our working day.

In the morning, the EVA team composed by Daniel (Commander), Veronica (ENG), Nathan (GHO), and Dave (HSO) left at 10.00 am driving Curiosity and Opportunity heading to the “Moon Area”. The team continued collecting geological samples over there, following the initial research performed a few days ago. They made further discoveries including some fossil shells and interesting igneous rocks with crystals hidden inside. Meanwhile, in the Hab, Maria (XO) supervised overall workflow and conducted sample inventory in the GreenHab and in the Science Dome. In the afternoon, we could see some clouds rising in the horizon. By 1.30 pm some snowflakes started hitting the ground. Since “Crew safety and security first” is our main motto in this mission, the team decided to cancel the EVA scheduled for the afternoon. We took the opportunity to continue working on our different projects and tidy the Hab. Nathan (GHO) spent the afternoon in the GreenHab and the Science Dome doing some regolith sample characterization, watering the plants, and taking care of the A. Thaliana -ISRUexperiment (it is truly exciting to see how some of the seeds are growing in Mars like soil!). Hannah (COMMS) worked on food inventory and other tasks while Satana’s music was playing on the background. Dave (HSO) and Natalia (MEDIA) had the chance learn more about astronomy and variable stars thanks to the explanations from Ghanim (ASTRO). Martian mascot “Gus” is also helping us around the base. He is assisting us in putting together some outreach videos – dedicated to all of you Earthlings out there following us – about our life in here and about Mars (to be released soon… stay tuned!). This afternoon was also a time for doing some fixing around the base. Vero (ENG), Dave (HSO) tighten some loose screws here and there and together with Maria (XO) they fixed some loose sheets in the tunnels tighten all the cable ties and discovered that one bigger sheet is lose over the science dome tunnel. Our leadership team for the day – Daniel (Commander) and Maria (XO) – finished the evening working on the daily reports and planning for tomorrow.

Today we completed Sol number 7. This has been an important milestone as it marks the middle of our mission. It has been one week since we started exploring these lands, adapting to this new life, overcoming daily challenges, and advancing admirably in our research projects. EVA suits now feel like a further extension of us. We have become much more efficient in our daily operations thanks to the new routine and processes that we have implemented together as a team. All the daily tasks around the base seem now to be part of our normal life. But above all, it has been one week since we became a “Martian family”. We can feel now how we have become a single unified team, driven by our shared-passion of conducting science and exploration, and supporting each other in all the steps along the way to achieve our mission goals. We have found a great balance between hard work and relax time, pushing our personal boundaries and advancing in our mission objectives. We have passed already one week here and we cannot wait to see what excitements the next days will bring!

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 16-FEB-2019 Sol 6

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: The Fellowship of Mars

Once upon a time there was a small hole in a ground, also known as the MDRS, in Hobbiton just reachable over one main airlock. It will take travelers a long way to reach that little door in the hills and not many people dare to make that journey across the desert, therefore Hobbiton was left alone and isolated. The habitants of Hobbiton lived peacefully for a long time before the shadows reached them and all EVAs seemed to have a curse to them.

Rumors rumbled in the underground and the powers of good in Middle Mars were wondering what curses begot these shadows.

Frodo, aka Ghanim, who lived in the Shire of MDRS in Hobbiton, got a ring on Valentine’s Day and it seems something was whispering during the night. Gandalf aka Atilla, a Wizard from the South, was a good friend of Frodo’s and had secret knowledge of the ring and he knew to whom this ring belongs: Sauron a witch master from the dark times. He who seems to manipulate all EVAs from the fire mountain on North Ridge. It seems he built a ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them. This ring has to be destroyed.

A secret meeting was held in MDRSshire and the Fellowship of Mars was formed. Together with Gandalf and master Elrond aka David, the powers of good of MDRS of Middle Mars, a mission was planned.

Today the Fellowship of Mars woke up ready to leave the shire of Hobbiton.

Four brave members of the Fellowship 205 dared to take that journey to conquer the fire mountain and to throw that ring into the fires where it was made so it cannot reach out with its power to Hobbiton and cancel more of our EVA’s.

The four members of the Fellowship of Mars were: Dave aka Gimli, Daniel aka Legolas, Nathan aka Sam and Ghanim aka Frodo. They left at 0930 this morning to conquer the fire mountain: North Ridge and to throw that ring into the fires where it was made.

Determined, they set off ready to face the devil that came from that mountain. With fast steps they reached the bottom of the mountain but half way up Frodo felt the burden of the ring. Sam stayed therefore with Frodo on the bottom to take more samples of that mountain to learn all about its geology to know what the Fellowship is dealing with. Gimli with his axe grew up in the mountains and Legolas with his elf feet could easily master the difficulties of the North Ridge. As the fastest of the group they decided at the end to go alone to make up the best way to bring Frodo and the ring up one day.

Once they reached the top the other four members of the Fellowship: Arwen aka Veronica, Eowen aka Hannah, Tauriel aka Maria, and Galadriel aka Natalia, observed the Fellowship and their successful return.

For the afternoon Arwen, Tauriel, Eowen and Galadriel had another mission to save Middle Mars. They wanted to take out the drone to take pictures of the land as there seemed to be another myth about a dragon in the mountains of kissing camels. The four girls of the Fellowship of Middle Mars were sent out to an observation mission. Arwen and Tauriel took Opportunity towards the mountains whereas Eowen and Galadriel took Spirit. Shortly after they left Hobbiton the EVA suit of Eowen had a problem which had to be fixed by Galadriel and Tauriel the two Elves of the group.

Once they reached the Kissing camels Eowen as the experienced mountain girl from North Carolina, lead the group up the mountain for Arwen to fly the drone over the land of Middle Mars. Tauriel had the task to document the terrain with pictures.

The rocks and the fog made it harder for the four to reach the summit, but after a while they found the secret path to take. Proud, they fulfilled their duty, they came back to the MDRSshire in Hobbiton to celebrate with mac and cheese, safe in the knowledge that the shadows are defeated for now.

Ad Astra!

Crew 205 Crew Journalist Report 15-FEB-2019 Sol 5

Author: Maria Grulich

Title: New Crew member…

Today we had no EVAs scheduled due to the rainy weather conditions of last night. This means we had time to focus on our science objectives and for the crew journalist to start to interviews the crew. Today’s commander is Nathan with Veronica as XO.

Yesterday Natalia found a Martian during the EVA! As we did not know if the Martian will be friendly or not, we had to keep the little guy in isolation. Today Natalia approached him and named him Gus. Gus seems to be a very friendly Martian and happy to follow us on all our activities.

In the morning Gus followed crew astronomer Ghanim around who explained to him everything about variable stars and how to observe them with the telescope we have here at the hab. Later on, he was very interested in the Science Dome and helped Nathan analyzing his rock samples.

In the Green Hab Gus checked out how we grow plants on Mars and how Dave is planting new seeds. Gus also learned how we maintain the Hab and the space suits by following Veronica around. The space suits were so interesting that Gus wanted to try one on and Hannah gave him a radio and Gus tried on a space suit. He also talked to Daniel and he learned everything about safety and what it takes to be a Mars astronaut.

Gus is now our newest crew member and you will see him around as he wants to learn more about our habitat and Mars.

Ad Astra!