Sol Summary – December 27th

Sol: 05

Summary Title: Still Waitin’ On A Sunny Day

Author’s name: Pat Pesa

Mission Status: Crew is excited for the good weather to come!

Sol Activity Summary: Crew 218 is finding new tasks to keep us involved despite the lack of EVAs due to weather. Today some improvements were made to the GreenHab, and more to still be done tomorrow.

Work also continued with the Engineer’s Indoor Climate-Comfort project.

Look ahead plan: No EVA planned for tomorrow, due to the weather conditions, but sunny and dry days are on the horizon! Future GreenHab improvements will take place pending approval, and the Crew is planning on creating facility training documents/videos for future crews.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Intermittent flurries, around 30 degrees

Crew physical status: Healthy

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report, journalist report, HSO incident report

Support Requested: none

Pat Pesa

Geologist, MDRS 218

Sol Summary – December 26th

Sol: 04

Summary Title: Waitin’ On A Sunny Day

Author’s name: Pat Pesa

Mission Status: Crew is hoping for good weather soon, but also enjoying the extra bonding time indoors.

Sol Activity Summary: Little action in the Hab. Our Greenhab officer has been taking great care of the plants and we have all appreciated the greenery that is otherwise so sparse on Mars.
Due to weather we have been severely limited in our research, but progress was made today in our Engineer’s Indoor Climate-Comfort project, and our Health and Safety Officers project quantifying EVA Stress and Workloads.

Look ahead plan: No EVA planned for tomorrow, due to the weather conditions, but hoping for sunny and dry days to come soon!

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Foggy morning to a sunny afternoon, around 32 degrees

Crew physical status: Healthy

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report, journalist report, science report

Support Requested: none

Pat Pesa
Geologist, MDRS 218

Sol Summary Report Dec 25th

Crew 218 Sol Summary Report 25-DEC-2019

Sol: 03

Summary Title: ChristMars

Author’s name: Shefali Rana

Mission Status: A very merry ChrisMars

Sol Activity Summary: The crew woke up to a white Christmas this morning (and to the merry sound of Christmas carols).

After an (extended) attempt at the Mars puzzle and some hot chocolate, Cesare, Pat and Ben headed out to the tunnels to shovel snow while Jonathan and Shefali harvested some fresh greens for the much anticipated Christmas lunch. We were joined by our friendly neighborhood Martians for lunch. Spinach spaghetti, a (very calibrated and precise) salad and mashed potatoes. Yum. The star of the meal was undoubtedly the melt-in-your mouth cocounut macaroons courtesy Chef Pat. We were very excited to open the special Christmas presents (Thank you Cesare) and were heartened to receive Christmas wishes from around the world. Thank you class 9EW. Accompanied by the signature Cane Mintella hot chocolate (TM pending), we got cracking on the puzzle and finally finished it. The satisfaction. With out bellies and hearts full of joy, LuzMa, Pat and Ben relaxed for some Spongebob time and were joined by another furry little Martian friend. Cheers.

Look ahead plan: No EVA planned for tomorrow, due to the weather conditions

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Cloudy and Snowing, around 40 degrees

Crew physical status: Healthy

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report, journalist report

Support Requested: none

Sol Summary – December 24th

Sol: 02

Summary Title: The Weather on Mars is Frightful, but the Hab is so Delightful….

Author’s name: Pat Pesa

Mission Status: Crew is disappointed in the canceling of EVAs, but enjoying the beauty of the snow.

Sol Activity Summary: Crew started the day with some yoga, started some measurements for indoor heat stress analysis, and made significant progress towards a Martian Puzzle.

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow we will stay inside the Hab once more and have some Christmas festivities.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Cloudy and Snowing, around 34 degrees

Crew physical status: healthy

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report, journalist report, EVA report

Support Requested: none

Pat
Geologist, MDRS 218

Sol Summary – December 23rd

  

Sol: 01

Summary Title: Waking up on Mars

Author's name: Pat Pesa

Mission Status: Crew is Excited!

Sol Activity Summary: Crew started off the day by taking some pictures before full simulation begins. Once "shutting the hatch" and starting full sim, we went on two EVAs to give the crew a chance to train procedures.

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow we will start weather and structural research projects with an EVA by the CMD, GEO, and ENG. *Note: weather might impact EVA schedule.*

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Mostly Cloudy, around 30 degrees

Crew physical status: healthy

EVA: Two EVAs both to Marbleridge Wall. The 1st included CMD,HSO,JOU. The 2nd included GEO,ENG.

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report, journalist report, EVA report

Support Requested: none

Pat

Geologist, MDRS 218 

Sol Summary – December 22nd

  

Crew 218 Sol Summary Report 22-DEC-2019

Sol: 00

Summary Title: Final Preparations

Author's name: Pat Pesa

Mission Status: Everyone is Learning!

Sol Activity Summary: Our first morning on campus was this morning. We
started off early with facility operations training. Next we finished
filling the static tank with water, and restocked on shelf stable food
to last us the remaining two weeks. After lunch the crew continued
training with Rovers and EVA suits, with plans on using both in full
simulation tomorrow. The evening concluded with final briefing from
Mission Control, Crew Dinner, and then submission of reports during
our daily communication window.

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow will be our first EVAs and Rover use.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: Clear and Sunny, around 30 degrees

Crew physical status: healthy

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report,
greenhab report, journalist report, HSO Beginning of Mission checklist,
Mission Plan

Support Requested: none

Pat
Geologist, MDRS 218 

Sol Summary – December 21st

  

Crew 218 Sol Summary Report 21-DEC-2019

Sol: 0

Summary Title: The Final Approach

Author's name: Cesare Guariniello

Mission Status: everything is great!

Sol Activity Summary: our approach trajectory is getting us closer and closer to Mars. After the final review of procedures, tomorrow we will have our first Sol on Mars. Today we reached the habitat that will be our home for the next two weeks and began familiarizing with it and learning about GreenHab operations. The crew is a little tired from the long travel, yet excited about the adventure ahead. After arriving at MDRS, we took a quiz that tested our theoretical knowledge of safety and operational rules, before filling half of the water tank for our rotation. The evening ended with the traditional crew dinner at Stan's before our daily communication window.

Look ahead plan: tomorrow we will complete our training, with operations, EVA, flight suits, and mission initial briefing.

Anomalies in work: the lack of an outgoing crew required us to adapt to the situation with the help of the assistant program directors. No anomalies though

Weather: cloudy, around 34 degrees

Crew physical status: healthy and recovering from travel

EVA: none

Reports to be filed: sol summary, commander report, operations report, greenhab report

Support Requested: none

Cesare
Commander, MDRS 218 

Sol Summary – December 12th

  

Crew 217 Sol Summary Report 12Dec2019

Sol: 3

Summary Title: Grand Finale

Author’s name: Atila Meszaros

Mission Status: Sol 3 and end of the mission. Excitement for the future of this new and excellent program and organizing and cleaning the hab for the crew departure.

Sol Activity Summary: As the mission was beginning to end, there was only one more thing we needed to do: launch some rocket! During an hour and a half, we built, designed and put together our missiles, some of us more gracefully than others. After a harsh hour fighting with our crafts abilities (yes, S, I mean you), we had to wait for the magic glue to dry. In the meantime, part of the crew proceeded to perform our morning EVA to Hab Ridge to collect devil's toenail, seashells from the Jurassic. We organize and plant several new seeds in the GreenHab, we created miniature environments in our terrarium, made of Mars simulant soil, and planted the cutest succulents in the world (my little baby is called Piko). The rocket launching during our last EVA was something I'll never forget, Jenn and Shannon had a successful launch and recovery, while Teresa and I will keep trying. An amazing day on an amazing mission with an amazing crew.

Look Ahead Plan: Crew 217 is taking off and going back to Mars! Well, part of it, the two regular Martians will stay holding the base. The crew will be departing on different hours and by noon the Hab will have a week-off.

Anomalies in work: Nothing to report.

Weather: Warm during most of the day, partly clear skies, almost none winds.

Crew Physical Status: Tired, healthy, and accomplished.

EVA: The last two EVAs of the mission. During the first one, part of the crew explored the Hab Ridge area, next to Sagan St to collect Graphia, macroinvertebrate fossils for education purposes. The second EVA was focused on the first rocket launch during the sim.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, EVA Reports 3 & 4, HSO Report, GreenHab Report, Science Report, Commander Report Operations Report, Journalist Report, and Photos

Support Requested: None

Sol Summary – December 11th

  

Crew 217 Sol Summary Report 11Dec2019

Sol: 2

Summary Title: Mars needs teachers

Author’s name: Atila Meszaros

Mission Status: Second day on the red planet and rocking our mission goals.

Sol Activity Summary: We started the day earlier, as we needed to cover a considerable amount of activities. The morning began with a double breakfast on my side and our first Biology class from our favorite Ecology teacher, Shannon Ruppert. The main objective of the day was to get 3 types of biology samples: gypsum from the Moon areas, water from pre-selected ponds and some fragments from the mysterious unidentified green layer. All of them were collected wonderfully. We aimed to plated them on agar so we would be able to determine qualitatively the biological content of them. In order to do that, we MacGyvered the agar making business and created (patent pending) the "Petry baggies". Today has been a wonderful day, I saw Shannon put a suit and go on an EVA for the first time ever, and you don't usually see that. I haven't been in sim for a while, but spending this week with wonderful people, one more inspiring and dedicated than the next one, it's really fulfilling. I haven't been in school for a long long time, but if I had one of these teachers for just a day when I was growing up, I would have definitely changed my life. Looking forward to seeing their work and how this experience will create new and better programs for their kids.

Look Ahead Plan: Last day of the mission! We will start preparing the rockets for our afternoon EVA. Part of the crew will be doing the first last EVA to Hab Ridge during the morning. After lunch, we will be working on the GreenHab, planting and making a terrarium with Mars soil simulant. During the afternoon, small rockets wait for us to be launch And during the evening, we will try to wrap up the mission and spend our last night together.

Anomalies in work: Nothing to report.

Weather: Colder than yesterday, partly clear skies, light winds, and an impressive full moon.

Crew Physical Status: Healthy, a little bit tired, but happy.

EVA: Our first two long EVAs tackling our scientific goals: water holes, gypsum, and unidentified green layer sample return.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, EVA Reports 3 & 4, EVA Request, GreenHab Report, Science Report, Operations Report, Journalist Report, and Photos.

Support Requested: Science Dome materials and instruments (listed on the Science Report). 

Sol Summary – December 10th

Crew 217 Sol Summary Report 10-DEC-2019

Sol: 1

Summary Title: The First Day on Mars aka Taco Tuesday

Author’s name: Shannon Rupert

Mission Status: Our Mission is in full swing. We awoke to our first Martian day and made the most of it.

Sol Activity Summary: We spent the morning sharing our teaching experiences and activities, and at one point while I was smashing #10 cans on the upper deck, the crew was busy downstairs creating a habitat out of cups, plates, straws, file folders and recycled plastic containers. I was reminded of that Apollo 13 scene where they dump everything on the table to create a solution for the scrubber problem (“Failure is not an option”). After lunch, we trained in suits and rovers while taking our first short EVAs to the Marble Ritual. Everyone was super excited about wearing the suits and being outside. Then we settled down to a wonderful Taco Tuesday dinner with homemade tortillas and space ball taco meat. We created our work plan for tomorrow, then decided to spend the rest of the evening doing COMMS and relaxing. It’s been a wonderful but busy day.

Look Ahead Plan: We will spend the morning in the lab making plates for our halophile experiment. Then part of the crew will go on an EVA to Lith Canyon to collect pothole water samples for analysis and they will also collect samples from a green layer in the stratigraphy here and we will plate them to see what is living there. Finally, a second EVA will go to The Moons to collect gypsum samples to plate.

Anomalies in work: Atila and I needed to go to town for supplies and that set us back a couple of hours so that is why we pushed the plate making back until morning. It’s hard to create a Martian pace with only three days to do so much, but I am trying.

Weather: Sunny and very warm for this time of year

Crew Physical Status: Happy, healthy, some of us are clean, all of us will sleep well.

EVA: Two short training EVAs to the Marble Ritual, XO lead both of them.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report. GreenHab Report, Operations Report, HSO Beginning of SIM checklist, Bios/Photos, Mission Plan, Journalist Report and Photos.

Support Requested: Teachers need to be added to the eList. We may not be able to send all reports this evening as we don’t know how much internet we used this morning. We have decided to turn off the wifi from 6 am to 7 pm every day as everyone still wants to use their phones for photos and in this way, we won’t have to worry about using the internet.

Copyright © The Mars Society. All rights reserved. | Main Site