Category: Sol Summary

Crew 187 Sol 8 Summary Report 20JAN2018

Sol 8

Summary Title: The Scientist

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Hello Earth!

How is everything going on there?

Yesterday we slept late after our intention of watching The Martian. Pay attention to the word “Intention”, every Martian slept on the sofas before the movie was over. So today we woke up a little late, and started our daily exercises at 8:15 led by me, and because the days are not perfect, in the middle of the exercise routine a crew member suddenly fell to the floor. For 10 seconds we did not know if her tears were nerves, pain or just laughter. Everything is fine! Then we ate breakfast and every Martian started to work in their projects. Besides, Luis and I checked the status of the Astronomy laptop. At 9:10 a resupply food arrived from Earth… Thanks for it!!! We celebrated it with a delicious lunch cooked by Danton, a traditional Mexican fried beans with scrambled eggs with chili was the magic lunch of this Martian day! Culture, customs, experiences, and so on were the topics that we debate during our lunch.

David is working in his project in the Greenhab, meanwhile Oscar found his place in the lower deck. Every Martian is finding his/her favorite place in our home.

Before the darkness arrived, Crew 187 decided to go near the observatory through the tunnels to see the clouds of the Martian sky. No matter how long we are here, the Martian surface doesn’t stop to amazed us.

Ad Astra,

Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Commander Crew 187 – MDRS

Look Ahead Plan:

We are waiting for tomorrow… We are going to El Dorado Canyon again! The lucky Martians are Oscar, Tania, Luis and David.

Anomalies in work:

None

Weather: Temperature: 5°C, Mostly Cloudy, Winds speed: NNE 33.8 KPH, Humidity 56%, Barometer 29.74 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, Science Report, Astronomy Report and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

In the Science dom, a Salinity tester was found. We are wondering if we can us it.

The salinity tester that we found is a Kelway soluble salts tester, model SST.

Crew 187 Sol 7 Summary Report 19JAN2018

Sol 7

Summary Title: Clocks
Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo
Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Earth, how is everything going on there?

Today we decided to start a little late and sleep one more hour because yesterday everybody looked tired after the activities involved to have a home on Mars and do an excursion, so at 08:00 everybody was in the lower deck to do exercises led by Tania, she made us do real exercises! Then we ate cereals for breakfast.

During the day, I met every Martian in order to know how their projects going on. Their projects have different kinds of topics like augmented reality applications, space suit simulators, communication, psychology tests, agriculture, astronomic pictures, and so on.

Today, Danton and I had our EVA to create a 3D Map of the MDRS. It’s splendid the pictures and videos that you can get using a drone.

Until now, this day was the most terrestrial day that we ever have since we arrived at Mars, when we realized that we were almost out of diesel, we activated our protocols of emergence turning off everything that is possible to turn it off (the power of the Greenhab of course not!); allowing to charge the batteries using the solar panel as soon as possible. We were planning to use the energy that we got at night, moreover, we were willing to sleep in the Greenhab because is warm and we wanted to transmit our heat to the plants. We are on Mars; we have to take care of every plant that we have. Fortunately, Shannon arrived at 15:20 and saved our Martian lives with 15 gals of diesel. Every Martian worked together to accomplish the vital activity to refill the tank with diesel and we got it! There are a lot of probabilities to have a stormy day tomorrow and now we are ready for it!

Days before the crew listened a woman yelling, today talking with Shannon about it and the mountain lion’s footprints that we saw in El Dorado Canyon; we can say that we are not alone in the MDRS, around us there are cougars (they yell like a woman).

What a crazy day! … Now every Martian is writing their reports for Capcom, then we are going to eat a dinner together and start to plan our next EVA for Sunday because, for the weather, tomorrow will be inside the Hab.

We want to visit El Dorado canyon again!

Ad Astra,
Cynthia F. P.
Commander Crew 187

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow, every Martian will work on their science project.
Anomalies in work:

The diesel tank was almost over. We refill it with 15 gals more that Shannon brought us.

Weather: Temperature: 5°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: NNE 19 KPH, Humidity 41%, Barometer 29.86 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Report, and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

None

Crew 187 Sol 6 Summary Report 18JAN2018

Sol 6

Summary Title: The eye of tiger

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Is there someone in Earth?

All crew woke up early to do relaxing exercises led by Luis. Then, one by one took the psychological test for Danton’s project while Danton was the Martian chef of the day! he cooked us a delicious combination of Salmon with a salad made of potatoes, cheese and Broccoli. We ate together before our first long EVA take place. The donning’s time started at 13:16, and after 5 minutes of depressurization, the real adventure began! The group already knew each other, it was their second EVA together, this astounding group were formed by Oscar, Danton, Atila and I. We went to unnamed canyon using two rovers (Curiosity and Deimos). A lot of Martian and Terrestrial things happened. Since the moment we arrived, we could feel the magic of the place. We were walking finding deer’s footprints, after 20 minutes we couldn’t believe what we see, we found fresh mountain lion’s footprints, something that reminded us that we are terrestrial. Everyone’s safety is the number one priority, that’s why we stood up in that moment and decided to fly the drone to see if there will be any chance of danger. Fortunately, the drone doesn’t get anything that goes against our safety. In the way back to the rovers, we couldn’t stop to appreciate the saline deposits. As a crew 187, we named this wonderful place as El Dorado Canyon, because El Dorado was an ancient legend about a city full of gold that challenged every explorer who dared to look for it. For us to call it that reflects the curiosity that awoke in us as new explorers of Mars and the desire to leave in there a Latin American mark.

In the moment we arrive to the Hab, Oscar had to get into the airlock because the battery of his space suit was drained and it can represent a potential problem. Danton, Atila and I kept working outside, for 15 minutes more, in the RAM and taking some pictures and videos using a drone.

After this amazing experience, we were so happy to see that the rest of the crew cooked for us, we ate a second lunch together and then everybody started to work in their reports and projects.

This day was a long productive day…Mars, here we are!

Look Ahead Plan:

Danton and I will do a short EVA to make a map of the MDRS.

Anomalies in work:

None.

Weather: Temperature: 3°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: calm, Humidity 38%, Barometer 30.20 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, EVA Report, and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

· We found an uncrewed rover in the RAM and we want to know if we can use it because it will be useful for the project of several members of our crew.

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Crew 187 Sol 5 Summary Report 17JAN2018

Sol 5

Summary Title: In my place

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Houston… Are you there?

Today was a special day! A dear Martian turns 24, our Journalist, Tania, had the best luck that every Martian wants: have her birthday in Mars. After the celebration, everybody started to work in their own Project, the topics of them cover different kind of issues from psychological, space suit simulator, augmented reality applications, device to measure evaporation and so on.

Today, Danton and I, cleaned the Hab, and after that tired task, we ate a delicious Martian hamburger cooked by Oscar, and dinner looks promising: Pizza in Mars!!!

In the Afternoon, we took the pictures for the biography report… It’s amazing how every Martian don’t forget where they came from, and has always their own flag next to them.

Furthermore, this day was one of changes in the greenhab, for security reasons and Atila’s project the storm tanker, the desktop and some woods were moved.

Today, Luis and David worked together in the alarm and water level sensor for the water tank above the rooms, however, the recycled buzzer, reclaimed from a broken radio, was damaged. In the following days, they will look for a solution for it. We are sure that they can do it!

We have an excellent news! We made a power supply connector for a PC monitor found next to the water tank … Now we can see movies in Mars!!!

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow will be an exciting day!… The first long EVA will be made, the lucky ones are Oscar, Danton, Atila and I (Uuoohoo!!!)

Anomalies in work:

None.

Weather: Temperature: 1°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: calm, Humidity 44%, Barometer 30.39 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, Astronomy Report and Journalist Report.

Support Requested:

· We want to ask for more ziplock bags.

· We found in the lower deck some geological samples, we don’t know where they came from, and if we can throw away.

· There is a red cart in the greenhab, we want to know if the spare parts for it have already arrive.

Crew 187 Sol 4 Summary Report 16JAN2018

Sol 4

Summary Title: Knights of Sidonia

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Mission Support,

How is everything going on in Earth?

Our sol today started at 07:13 with relaxing exercises. The Martian cooker, Oscar, did a great job today, the health of the crew is in good hands. Several days have passed in Mars and now everyone is working on their projects. The EVA of the day was conformed by David, Atila, Luis and Oscar; the Martian place of the EVA was Overlook Reach, where Oscar could test his space suit, called Condor, which was building by himself with the cooperation of the Colombia air force. In addition, David and Atila could collect some samples for their projects.

Furthermore, at 12:13, Tania and I started to work in the Musk Solar Observatory, the view of the sun from Mars is so amazing.

As lunch, we ate a magic food, that since the moment it was over we were already waiting for the dinner. In the afternoon, we spent a great time together talking about our experience, backgrounds, how the issue of the space is going on in Latinamerica. Now we are family… a Martian family!

At 14:00 a group of person from Earth arrived to our Hab to give us hot water, the days will be warmer… Thanks Earth for it!

By 17:30, all the crew went to the Greenhab to work in there. It’s awesome how you can do incredible things in a new planet working together. Every Martian helps each other in their project and collaborate to build a fantastic atmosphere in the Hab.

This day was a relaxing day after busy ones in Mars. After the capCom, Danton will teach us how to act in case of emergence. In case of an accident in Mars, will be known how to act!

Look Ahead Plan:

Tomorrow will be a science day in Mars, every Martian will work in their own project. Moreover, Luis and David will work in an alarm and water sensor for the water tank above the rooms… Crew 187 is working to help with it! We know the annoying that is for a Martian to wait if the water tank is leak or not.

Anomalies in work:

The charger of the Astronomer’s laptop is not working well. More details will be explained in the Astronomer Report.

Weather: Temperature: 1°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: NNE 11.27 KPH, Humidity 34%, Barometer 30.35 in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Report, Astronomy Report and Journalist Report.

Crew 187 Sol 3 Summary Report 15JAN2018

Sol 3

Summary Title: Spaceman

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Mission Support,

Greetings from Mars!!! One more day in the red planet, it’s
breathtaking how every Martian has been integrated. At 07:20 we were together at the lower deck to do some relaxing exercises in the lead of by David, who also cleaned the Hab with Luis. At 08:00, we ate breakfast together while we did the briefing.

The day looked promising because today we will be our first EVAs. We wanted to assets the performance of the crew with the suits
operations, so the routine of each EVA was to walk over even terrain, then drive using ATVs and Curiosity; and finally we made summit in Overlook Reach. The first group of the EVA was conformed by Atila, Oscar Danton and I; their time of donning started at 11:00 until 11:30, in that moment the real adventure began and lasted until 13:00. Later, in the habitat they gave advices to the following group of EVA. The second group was conformed by Atila, Tania, Luis and David. Their expedition lasted until 15:30. Both EVA was led by Atila. After each EVA, the crew started to exchange their feelings about to be in a real expedition, that feeling of been a Martian is unique!

By the way, between the 2 EVAs, at 13:20, Tania and I, went to the Musk Observatory just to check the status.

As lunch, Oscar cooked rice with cheese and meal, it was a delicious lunch! Later, Shannon visited us to explain about the map on Mars. She suggested us to visit wonderful places like Copernicus highway, Lith canyon, Tank wash, Candor Chasma, and so on… We plan to visit those places, thanks for your advice!

Today we are going to have our first movie night in Mars, we are so excited for that!

Look Ahead Plan:

There are two main things that the crew are waiting for tomorrow, do an EVA to collect some examples for Atila and David’s experiments. In addition, the Musk Solar Observatory will be used… Can you imagine it? Look the sun from Mars!!!

Anomalies in work:

The commander room’s door was locked from inside. David and Atila worked together to open it again! Now we know that a locksmith is a profession in Mars.

Weather: Temperature: 2°C, Fair weather, Winds speed: NNE 6 MPH, Humidity 60%, Barometer 30.31in

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, GeenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request, EVA Report, Astronomy Report, Journalist Report and HSO Report.

Support Requested: None.

Crew 187 Sol 2 Summary Report 14JAN2018

Sol 2

Summary Title: Across the Universe

Author’s name: Cynthia Fuertes Panizo

Mission Status: All nominal

Sol Activity Summary:

Mission Support,

Greetings from Mars!!! After a very long journey we finally arrived to Mars yesterday, where we spent some quality time with the previous crew. Today is our first day managing everything by ourselves, we awoke early at 06:30 for the farewell of crew 186. We are so excited to be in Mars, we started our day talking about the rules and the schedules that we are going to follow during this awesome experience. Then we settle down in our home. One of the surprise of the day was the moment when we opened the food suppliers and found food from Russian Space Food Laboratory… Thank you so much for it!

For lunch Oscar cooked us tuna salad and potato… our first lunch in Mars!!! By the afternoon, Dr. Ruppert explain us in detail the protocols that we have to follow and we had our EVA’s training with her. Later, we started to plan the following EVAs.

Look Ahead Plan:

Dr. Ruppert will tell us the final part of the protocols of the simulation in the morning. Later we are going to do 2 EVAs in order to assets the performance of the crew with in suits operations. It’s almost some hours more and we are going to know the feeling of walking and be a part of expedition in Mars.

Anomalies in work:

We suspect that there is a leak in the toilet. The water level’s start to increasing little by little but then it works normal again. We hope it continuing working in a good way.

Weather: Temperature: 4°C, Fair weather, Winds calm, Humidity 60%, Barometer 30.35 inHg

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, Journalist Report, Greenhab Report, EVA Request

Support Requested: Mission Support, please add my email to the e-list of MDRS Mission Support.

Crew 186 Sol 12 Summary Report 12JAN2018

Sol 12

Summary Title: A Bountiful Harvest Before Entry Interface

Author’s name: Max Fagin

Mission Status: Nearly complete…

Sol Activity Summary: After an animated debate over dimensional analysis and its applicability to breakfast foods (TLDR, we found a way for ‘The Pancake’ to be used as a non-SI unit of time, of distance, and of mass and energy; Manuscripts to be submitted to both Nature and Science upon our return) we geared up for the final EVA of our mission to the base of Skyline Rim. Once the EVA team had departed, Mark and Max began to harvest the microgreens from GreenHab. The EVA team returned with spectra and samples of the shales found in the region, along with a handful of shell fossils they had picked up on the way back through the Moons region. On Mars, such a discovery would be the scientific finding of the century. But here in the Moons region, they are so common as for it to be almost impossible to avoid stepping on them.

Once the sun had set, the team rotated through GreenHab and the Science dome collecting, weighing and cataloging our bountiful harvest of radish microgreens, green beans, cilantro, dill and lettuce. Finally, for our last meal in sim before our return to Earth, we subjected the food to its most critical experiment of all: Ingestion.

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow is handoff day. Looking forward to meeting the members of Crew 187 who are now en route. Safe travels!

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: 11C, Wind calm, Fair, Humidity 40%

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: Geological sampling of shales in the colluvial fan at the base of Skyline Ridge

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, Science Report (Geology), Journalist Report, GreenHab Report, EVA Report, Mission Summary

Support Requested: None

Crew 186 Sol 11 Summary Report 11JAN2018

Sol 11

Summary Title: The first of the lasts

Author’s name: Max Fagin

Mission Status: Preparing for a grand finale EVA to a geology site we have saved especially for our last EVA.

Sol Activity Summary: The sun came back out today, much to our appreciation (and the appreciation of our solar panels). Any problem can be fixed in a spacecraft as long as you still have power and comms, and it has been a great weight off our shoulders to only view cloudy days as a mild annoyance, rather than a critical power threat as they might be on a pure solar mission.

The clear weather allowed for our last navigation EVA to take place as scheduled. We now have four complete demonstrations of an astronaut using nothing but the radio beacon to safely return to the hab, two where the astronaut had no experience with the system, and an impaired range of vision. I’m very pleased with Justin for producing such a practical aid to navigation in places where no gps is available (such as Mars … for now at least). It’s an early back to school for some of us, as Melanie has begun taking us on short engineering EVAs to test the efficacy of the VR training module she has developed for teaching EVA tasks. Around the hab, we continue to check off the last remaining items on our individual projects so we can face handoff with a clear schedule.

On a personal note, today was the first day I really saw GreenHab as more than just a greenhouse. I remember contributing to the Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Greenhab after the fire, and it has made me immeasurably proud to see it continue to thrive and grow under Mark’s skillful control while we are here. Stepping into the tropical heat and humidity of GreenHab today after a cold and dry EVA felt as relaxing as stepping into a hot tub. I sat down amidst the plants to appreciate the magnificent oasis thriving in this red/brown landscape, and the environment was so placid that I was not at all surprised when I woke up 15 minutes later to find I had drifted to sleep in my chair. Greenhouse, oasis, zen garden, GreenHab is much more now than just a place where plants grow.

Look Ahead Plan: Our last EVA will take place tomorrow, with one final geological survey to the highest elevation site on our list at the base of Skyline Ridge. Harvesting of our carefully grown GreenHab bounty will also take place tomorrow, we are planning to exit sim at noon on Saturday 01/13.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: 6C, Wind SSE 8km/h, Fair, Humidity 52%

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: Preliminary photography of the Plane of Dirt / Skyline Ridge region for the last geology EVA, then walk back to the hab to test the radio navigation system.

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, GreenHab Report, Journalist Report, EVA Report, EVA Request

Support Requested: None.

Crew 186 Sol 9 Summary Report 09JAN2018

Sol 9

Summary Title: Weathering the mild storm

Author’s name: Max Fagin

Mission Status: Spending the day in hab due to a light snow

Sol Activity Summary: We awoke to cloudy skies and a light snow dusting all around the habitat. The snow was still falling by the time we had finished morning yoga and breakfast, so we decided to postpone today’s EVA. The snow let up by the late morning, but by that point, too much time had passed to complete the EVA before our scheduled return time. This will happen on Mars, there is no more a guarantee of cooperative weather there than there is on Earth, and it’s something future crews will have to learn to work around. Instead we broke out our blankets, sleeping bags, and laptops, and spent the rest of the day working on our own projects. We shared an all crew lunch of mac-n-cheese prepared by Melanie (which was a nice departure from routine, as we are usually on our own for lunch due to EVA scheduling). GreenHab is nearing harvest time, and two dinners from now we are planning a green feast of its bounty of microgreen, lettuce, beans and herbs. And we were even happier to receive a radio call in the afternoon indicating a supply ship had delivered us a new bread maker! We have set it up in our kitchen, and are planning to break it in (de-flour it?) at dinner tonight.

Look Ahead Plan: The uncompleted EVA 8, scheduled for today from 1030-0130, will be rescheduled to tomorrow from 1230-0330, which is after the rain/snow is forecasted to have stopped and the temperatures will have risen above freezing. Sam Albert will also be replaced with Mark Gee as the lost astronaut, but the route and objectives of the EVA remain unchanged.

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: 3C, Wind N 6MPH, Overcast, Humidity 87%

Crew Physical Status: Healthy

EVA: None

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary, Operations Report, Journalist Report, GreenHab Report, EVA Request, (no EVA report)

Support Requested: The snow and sleet can be heard falling through the vent holes at the escape hatch at the top of the habitat. We have put two old dish towels across the chicken wire to catch it and keep the wooden floor of the attic dry. Is this acceptable as a permanent solution?