Category: Sol Summary

Sol:4

Summary Title: It’s all about the Science

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Update since last Sol Summary: Crew 221 had great Mexican tacos and prepared a new batch of kombucha that they inherited from crew 220. It will be ready by the 11thof February! No big evening activities were planned as the crew needed some good night sleep to refill their batteries. The discussions between the crew members, however, become more and more interesting each day.

This morning, the commander woke up the team with “starships” by Nicki Minaj to get the team up and running and also prepared pancakes with fresh banana for the crew.

After a short team meeting to plan the day, the crew teamed up in pairs. Crew Engineer L. Monge and GreenHab Officer J.Todd focused on ISRU plant experiments in the GreenHab to plant black corn in different soils taken during yesterday’s EVA from different places. Crew Journalist H. Kalucha and Crew Astronomer G. Alotaibi started to build the crew robot in the RAM that shall be tested once ready during EVAs, even though several crew members dropped by to help as everyone was excited to build it. Crew Commander M.Grulich and HSO R. Alshammari were preparing the soil samples from the last EVA and inspecting the petri dishes from yesterday. They were positively surprised to find the first signs of bacteria growth from the sample of the EVA space suit before it was cleaned. The air sample and soil sample from yesterday did not show any sign of bacteria growth yet.

In the evening, the crew will have Costa-Rican empanadas and another meditation session shortly before the Australian cultural night, where J. Todd will try to sell the crew on vegemite.

EVA: None

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Journalist Report

Photo Report

EVA Request

Operations Report

GreenHab Report

Astronomy Report

Science Report

Support Requested: None

Sol:3

Summary Title: Martian Exploration finding traces of Life

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Update after last sol summary: crew 221 Earth2Mars had their first sport session, meditation session and cultural night on Mars. The GreenHab Officer J.Todd made the team sweat for 30min using the distilled water containers as weight. Afterwards the team enjoyed their first meditation session, taking a moment to breath and slowdown in our busy day. Following this, the crew astronomer G. Alotaibi and HSO R. Alshammari took the crew to the middle east (Kuwait), explaining traditions and how to dress in the desert using ghutra and ougal that are traditionally used for men. L. Monge then successfully dressed himself Kuwaiti style, based on what we learnt! The team learned a lot and it was just supposed to be a 10 min activity which lasted for hours. R.Alshammari wrote all the crew names in Arabic and we got a lesson on how to count in Arabic using hindi alphabet, which was interesting as the Western World uses Arabic letters. The cultural night finished with an unexpected visit of a small mouse-looking-Martian, which we will try to catch alive in the coming days to release in the wild.

The whole day of Sol 3 was allocated to exploring the Martian surface for traces of life as well as taking samples to grow plants in the Martian soil. EVA team one with M.Grulich, L.Monge, J. Todd took out the rovers to the Moons, searching for traces of water. During the EVA, they found what looks like water channels and saw bubbles in the soil which can be an indicator for microbes’ activities which made the team very excited. Back in the hab, the first microbiology samples were put on petri dishes to be cultivated in the incubator.The EVA 2 team went up towards North Ridge taking also small samples to be tested if bacteria can be grown.

Tonight we are having Mexican wraps and sport session with HSO R. Alshammari.

Look Ahead Plan: Sport Session, Processing of EVA samples and planting black corn and sprouting mung beans, start to build rover

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: sunny no winds

Crew Physical Status: A few crew members experiencing signs of sore throats.

EVA: Morning 09:35AM-12:30 PM

EVA: Afternoon 02:10PM-03:10PM

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Journalist Report

Photo Report

EVA Report

Operations Report

GreenHab Report

Astronomy Report

Support Requested: None

Sol:2

Summary Title: Science Brief and a Martian friend appeared

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Crew 221 is feeling well and woke up to a beautiful day on Mars. The weather today was windless and mostly sunny; perfect condition to set-up parts of our weather station near the hab. The whole crew was working on building our own barometer and rain gage before the crew Greenhab officer and the crew Astronomer could leave the station to set them up on the outside of the tunnels. They experienced some issues attaching the barometer as the cable ties do not seem to work great with lower temperatures on Mars. The EVA team also revealed that we have a visitor around the hab! “Fuzz” is our adorable Martian and the crew 221 made it their crew mascot which we will use for outreach activities for kids.

The whole day was under the umbrella of preparing for our science experiments. Everyone was presenting their ideas for microbiology, geology, astronomy, human factors and technology demonstrations. Luis the Crew Engineer was the most prepared with a 9-slides presentation for his projects for the crew 221. A highlight was a cinnamon apple pie prepared for the crew by the commander. Finally, the crew also decided on their call signs:

Maria -Commander will be “Ewok”

Jessica -Greenhab Officer will be “Gobblin”

Luis -Crew Engineer will be “Frankie”

Ghanim -Astronomer will be “Astro”

Hemani -Journalist Officer will be “Juno”

Rawan -HSO will be “Luna”

Tomorrow will be a busy day getting samples for microbiology and plant experiments if the EVAs will be approved. As we are coming from many different places and the crew still has to learn to understand and respect their individualities and differences, the crew 221 planned cultural nights for all 5 different countries and today will be Kuwait! We are excited about it.

Look Ahead Plan: Cultural night Kuwait, Meditation/Sport Session, EVA for microbiology and plant experiments

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: sunny no winds

Crew Physical Status: All crew in good health.

EVA: Morning 12:06-12:50 PM

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Journalist Report

Photo Report

EVA Report

Operations Report

GreenHab Report

EVA Request (AM/PM)

Support Requested:

· Food request for:

· salt (empty in new food supply)

· onions (empty missing in new food supply)

· new sponges

Sol:2

Summary Title: Science Brief and a Martian friend appeared

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Crew 221 is feeling well and woke up to a beautiful day on Mars. The weather today was windless and mostly sunny; perfect condition to set-up parts of our weather station near the hab. The whole crew was working on building our own barometer and rain gage before the crew Greenhab officer and the crew Astronomer could leave the station to set them up on the outside of the tunnels. They experienced some issues attaching the barometer as the cable ties do not seem to work great with lower temperatures on Mars.

The whole day was under the umbrella of preparing for our science experiments. Everyone was presenting their ideas for microbiology, geology, astronomy, human factors and technology demonstrations. Luis the Crew Engineer was the most prepared with a 9-slides presentation for his projects for the crew 221. A highlight was a cinnamon apple pie prepared for the crew by the commander. Finally, the crew also decided on their call signs:

Maria -Commander will be “Ewok”

Jessica -Greenhab Officer will be “Gobblin”

Luis -Crew Engineer will be “Frankie”

Ghanim -Astronomer will be “Astro”

Hemani -Journalist Officer will be “Juno”

Rawan -HSO will be “Luna”

Tomorrow will be a busy day getting samples for microbiology and plant experiments if the EVAs will be approved. As we are coming from many different places and the crew still has to learn to understand and respect their individualities and differences, the crew 221 planned cultural nights for all 5 different countries and today will be Kuwait! We are excited about it.

Look Ahead Plan: Cultural night Kuwait, Meditation/Sport Session, EVA for microbiology and plant experiments

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: sunny no winds

Crew Physical Status: All crew in good health.

EVA: Morning 12:06-12:50 PM

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Journalist Report

Photo Report

EVA Report

Operations Report

GreenHab Report

EVA Request (AM/PM)

Support Requested:

· Food request for:

· salt (empty in new food supply)

· onions (empty missing in new food supply)

· new sponges

Sol:1

Summary Title: Welcome to Mars

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Today we woke up on Mars; it is a beautiful morning and it feels like we are just meant to be here. Our first day of being on Mars is supposed to be about familiarizing with the station. Everyone moved into their rooms and we are working on our cooking skills to eat better food than ramen and noodles, so commander Grulich made a German bread and a carrot cake. The morning started with our first ever EVA preparation. After the training yesterday, the crew was already briefed on voice protocols and procedures and checklists to go on an EVA. We only had to find all the required equipment which took us more time than expected. Still, the first crew was out of the habitat just 15 min later as planned. During our afternoon EVA, we managed to go through all the checklists, so the team was out just 5 min late.

Once back in the habitat, we had warm soup and hot chocolate. Then the crew was working on the first surveys for the crew HSO Rawan and crew journalist Hemani, while the rest of the team also is working on the mission plan.

Tonight, we will have our first sports session with Jessica, our GreenHab Officer. Every day we are going to either have a sports or meditation session and every second day we have a cultural night to learn about each other’s cultures.

Look Ahead Plan: Sport Session, Science Day

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: cloudy with high NW winds 25-40km/h gusting 60km/h no precipitation or snow

Crew Physical Status: All crew in good health.

EVA:

Morning 10:15-14:00 low wind speed

Afternoon 14:05-15:14 higher wind speed

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary

Commanders Report

Photo Report

EVA Report

Operations Report

GreenHab Report

EVA Request

Astronomy Report

Support Requested: None

Crew 221 Sol Summary Report 02-02-2020

Sol:0

Summary Title: Training and preparation time

Author’s name: Maria Grulich, M.Sc.

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Crew 221 Earth2Mars arrived on the station meeting members of MDRS-MAU crew 220. The handover of the station was done yesterday from two commanders Shawna and John. Both crews went out for burgers and after a night in the science dome, the crew started their final preparation to start our journey to Mars. Everyone is very excited after one year of preparation to get here to start the rotation.

This morning we waived crew 220 ‘goodbye’, being happy that we could meet this incredible crew and see what they have accomplished. Crew 221 will try its best to also accomplish most of their mission goals.

Today the crew spent all day preparing filling up the water tanks, getting rover training and moving into their new homes and having our first MDRS meals on the completely new oven.

Tomorrow we will wake up on Mars we are looking forward to our launch!

Look Ahead Plan: Internal Crew Training, Voice Protocols, Planning

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: A 20 percent chance of snow before 11 am. Mostly sunny, with a high near -3. Windy, with a northwest wind 45 to 48 km/h.

Crew Physical Status: All crew in good health.

EVA: None

Reports to be filed:

Sol Summary
Photo Report
Operations Report
GreenHab Report

Support Requested: None

Crew 220 (MAU) Sol 13 Summary 1Feb2020

Summary Title: Touchdown!
Author’s name: Shawna Pandya, Commander
Mission Status: 1g-ominal
Sol Activity Summary: Touchdown! We awoke on Earth today and spent the day on post-mission logistics and teardown. After a wonderful pancake breakfast together as a group, the MDRS and MAU crews came together, and as one well-oiled machine, completed MDRS checkout, took down every last piece of MAU station, loaded the vehicles and ensured that our crew left no trace on the Red Planet. Later, we enjoyed a delicious homemade pizza lunch followed by a dessert of brown sugar brittle, and greeted incoming MDRS Crew 221. We briefed the new crew, took some last pictures to cement our memories of Mars and will be soon headed off to a celebratory dinner together. How time flies…Till the next time!
Look Ahead Plan: Till next time…so long and thanks for all the fish!
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: -6C low / 6C max, 0C average, 10% chance of precipitation
Crew Physical Status: Earthbound!
EVA: None.
Reports to be filed:
Sol Summary
Commander’s Report
Photo Report (joint with MDRS)
Operations Report
EVA Request: None
Support Requested: None – rather we would like to thank YOU all for your wonderful support during this mission!

Crew 220 (MDRS) Sol Summary 01Feb2020

Sol: 13

Summary Title: HabComm this is MDRS – Over

Author’s name: Connie Delisle, PhD

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: The MDRS-MAU crews woke up at 08:00 and began for their Mars departure. The signature red sky gave reluctantly gave way to a light blue as the sun began to glow. The morning ritual of sky-gazing and sipping coffee will remain a cherished memory of Mars. The Crew was treated to a pancake breakfast by Crew Engineer Wise. Following the meal, Commander Hanacek delegated Crew members to station clean up – MDRS lower deck, upper deck, airlocks and stair, the RAM, and the Science Dome. We were fortunate that MAU Crew Engineer Roberts cleaned Spirit and Curiosity rovers – scrubbing off the red mud by hand. We really appreciated that he took this on knowing he had to depart for Earth later that day. The MAU Crew was joined by a few of the MDRS Crew members for the better part of the afternoon to take down the MAU Station which is a series of portable structures – airlock, living quarters, crew activity / meal, and cooking area. Due to cycles of Mars soil freezing and thawing, the station required a great deal of regular maintenance and engineering support. We are grateful we are resourceful! Marufa Bhuiyan, MSc. and International Astrology Researcher joined me in cleaning the upper deck. The arrival of a beautiful new gas stove was a highlight for me as I was preparing to make pizza with the herbs form the Green Hab for a late lunch. As part of a multi-tasking habit from Earth, I let lunch preparation sit and accompanied the MDRS Assistant Director on the check-out walk through. I am pleased to report that the Station is ship shape. The rest of the afternoon was focused on packing up the MAU station into the UHaul, writing reports and completing science research studies.

Look Ahead Plan: This evening activities includes finishing reports, briefing the incoming crew and going to town for shared meal. The entire MDRS-MAU 220 Crew will depart will tomorrow at 04:00 to the Grand Junction Airport and other points on Earth.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Tonight, the temperature is predicted to be 0 degrees Celsius, falling to -8 overnight and rising to a daytime high of 2 degrees Celsius tomorrow. No perception predicted.

Crew Physical Status: All the Crew is in good health. Some are excited to return to Earth. For myself, I will never fully return there. It’s too important to let the space created to lapse into the blue.

EVA: None planned.

Reports to be filed:

Commander Report

Sol Summary
Photo Report
Operations Report
GreenHab Report

Support Requested: None. Thank you infinitely!

Crew 220 (MDRS) Sol Summary 31Jan2020

Sol: 12

Summary Title: End (almost) of the Mars Journey: Station-to-Station Medical EVA

Author’s name: Marufa A. Bhuiyan, International Astronomy Researcher and Connie Delisle, PhD

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: The MDRS-MAU crews woke up at 07:00 on this beautiful red planet – Mars. Captivated by its timelessness, we confirmed this was indeed a real “time” through using our precious radios located at both stations. About time and space – we understand that time passes at different rate for different people and we need space for ourselves. No wonder we needed a reality check – it was a breathtaking view outside on Mars. Let us not forget to have a quick glance (about sky, land and weather) as we did here on Mars, watching through Mars unfolding though the unique round-shaped kitchen windows in the Hab. No humans (or animals) were running around outside; I could not spot anyone! The crew had some brief but intensive conversations in the short span of our quick regular breakfast together. Today’s topics included: culture, science, world politics, religion, human behavior to name a few. Since we had a pre-scheduled join MAU-MDRS Medical EVA (MEVA) at 09:00 we finished our breakfast really quick and postponed our precious conversations for the next round.

Building on lessons from yesterday’s MEVA, MDRS crew members felt mentally organized and capable of implementing what they learned in Mars which to humans is an austere environment. MDRS MEVA crews drove the rovers (e.g. Curiosity and Spirit) from MDRS Habitat to Mars Academy USA (MAU) Station which took only a few minutes. We were confident about starting our journey to MAU station because we had a professional doctor (Dr. Johannes Svensoy, MD), an efficient videographer who is also the Commander for MDRS (John Hanacek) and two talented crew members (Connie Delisle, PhD and Marufa Bhuiyan, MSc.) from different parts of the planet Earth. As soon as we reached MAU station, we were cordially greeted and well received by two sophisticated MAU crews (Matt Wise and Lee Roberts, MSc.) from the MAU station. Commander Hanacek did a great job in setting up the plot for injury site (simulated injured astronaut) in a proper location (GPS Coordinate: 12518124, 4250680) while we were waiting for other two crew members (Wise and Roberts) to return from MDRS to fetch radios we determined we needed. The combined team (both MDRS and MAU crews) proceeded to execute a Search and Rescue (SAR) and quickly located the injury site. They two attending medical professionals (Wise and Svensoy) executed the initial medical assessment (P-MARCH-P) protocol. Since all injuries on Mars are deemed as major, we called for METHANE and injured astronaut (simulated/dummy) was transported in the “Golden Bubble” – a pressurized medivac device prototype invented by Crew member Wise. As soon as both rovers arrived at the MDRS station, we had another simulated incident near at the corner of the GreenHab – simulating the rover running over crew astronaut Marufa Bhuiyan’s (who tries to be a human) right foot. Immediately two Crew astronauts helped the injured astronaut, the medical professionals also took great care to assess the condition.

The MEVA ended successfully today; by that I mean we will learn from our errors and take to heart the things we did efficiently. An exciting achievement was in getting the drone in the air and taking Arial shots of the MEVA.

Just after the lunch, the GreenHab Officer went to our amazing green-looking spaceship we call “GreenHab” to put some labels, setting up recycle bins, and cleaning/sweeping the Hab for the next crews. We request MDRS to replace these labels with permanent labels or, re-label these newly planted seeds (e.g. Ginger brought by our crew member Matt Wise, Romania Lettuce, Radish Sparkle, Bell Pepper (California Wonder) and re-arranged a mystery seed; no one knows what plant it is, probably a surprise for the next MDRS crews. In addition, we added a new red handled paint brush (to clean dust), seed bank (not labelled yet), hand sanitizer, napkins, and labelled two recycle bins/tubs (organic and inorganic/non burn) for the future crews.

Look Ahead Plan: Sol 13. Today marks the close of the MEVAs. Commander Hanacek issued orders to focus on report writing, preparing the end of mission report for the MDRS leadership, completing inventories and cleaning.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Tonight, -6 degrees Celsius and a high of 4 degrees Celsius tomorrow. No perception predicted.

Crew Physical Status: All the Crew is good health, despite a very short night.

EVA: None planned.

Reports to be filed:

Journalist Report

Sol Summary

Photo Report
Operations Report
GreenHab Report

Support Requested: Final garbage pick-up on Feb 2 (our departure date). There is only two rolls of toilet paper left – the incoming crew will require some additional toilet paper no doubt.

Crew 220 (MAU) Sol 12 Summary 31Jan2020

Summary Title: Sol long, Marswell
Author’s name: Shawna Pandya, Commander
Mission Status: Winding down… (already?!)
Sol Activity Summary: Today is our last Sol at MAU station, and we made the most of it! The Sol started with MAU Station hosting MDRS Engineer Wise as its Ambassador, yielding a fruitful and productive exchange regarding mission and engineering operations and logistics. Next, both MAU and MDRS stations conducted a a joint medical EVA exercise which tested the EVA team’s search-and-rescue, medical assessment and evacuation capabilities. The team shone and performed admirably amidst a complex situation! The afternoon was rounded out with check out cleaning, inventorying, report-writing and wrap-up activities, leaving the evening free for the crew to enjoy each other’s company one last time amidst art and Indian food. Sol long, Mars! You’ve been good to us.
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow, we return to Earth!
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: -6C low / 5C max, 0C average.
Crew Physical Status: MAUtacular
EVA: Successful search-and-rescue, medical triage and evacuation mission accomplished today in a joint exercise with MAU.
Reports to be filed:
Sol Summary
Commander’s Report
Photo Report
Operations Report
EVA Report
EVA Request: None
Support Requested: Commander requesting a half-sweet almond milk mocha with an extra shot of espresso pretty please