Mars Desert Research Station

May 10, 2019May 12, 2019

EVA Report – May 10th

Crew 212 EVA Report 10-MAY-2019

EVA #06

Author: Zoe Townsend

Purpose of EVA: First testing of drones and soils collection

Start time: 15:00

End time: 17:00

Narrative:

Today’s EVA was to run two simultaneous experiments. The first experiment was to collect sand and rocks from various points of interest around the Hab. This is combined with the soil (red clay) collected in EVA #4. This soil, sand and rock solution will be mixed with the bacteria from radioactive regions to help with plant growth.

The second experiment was the continuation of the Drone testing, The X-5 and Tarot were tested today, the Tarot was flown around the Hab at different points that were identified as points of interest in EVA #4. Cameras on board took videos of the flight until battery issues prevented further flying. Secondly, the X-5 was flown in an empty area north of the observatory, the flight was sustained but cut short after a maneuver caused an unplanned landing.

Notes from the debriefing:

· Bring water

· Ensure that all the roles are fully defined prior to the start of the EVA

· Standardize the depressurizing time of the EVA (3 mins)

· Ensuring that there is confirmation from the Hab prior to search and recover of Drone.

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

EVA Participants: Hector, Vittorio (Medic), Paolo and Zoe (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103

Mode of travel: (walking or driving)? Walking

May 10, 2019May 12, 2019

EVA Report – May 10th

Crew 212 EVA Report 10-MAY-2019

EVA #05

Author: Marlen Castillo Vilcahuaman

Purpose of EVA: Locating the Martian flora according to Paul Sokoloff’s study, to obtain their soil for the study of microbiological diversity in desert soils. We’ll take photos of the flowers, characterize and pick up their soil.

Start time: 10:30 AM
End time: 11:30 AM

Narrative:

The purpose of this EVA was to find the Martian flora registered in Sokoloff’s paper. Although we have no work in plant ecology for this mission, we thought soil samples from flowers would have an interesting diversity in microbes, which would mean more morphological diversity in the petri dish. We asked for two rovers (Spirit and Curiosity).

However, the LA Times visit altered our plans. We took Opportunity too so that they could come with us and watch our fieldwork during EVAs. Our final point was Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167. But we had problems with Spirit. Just after turning in Galileo Road 1104, one of our crew members reported that Spirit was with 70% of battery.

We were surprised by this battery usage. Hence, we decided to stop at that point (12S 518779.59 m E 4251383.04 m N) and do our recollection work, collecting soils and flowers and doing some photography of them. After 20 minutes of walking and going around the field in search of flowers, we decided to turn around and go back to the Hab.

Spirit arrived at the Hab with 58% of battery. Curiosity’s return was nicer, with its battery being higher than 60%.

We collected four soil samples, identifying them per plant.

Destination: URC North Site and continuing in the first part of the road on the east.

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS):

Looked forward to Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167
Stayed in: 12S 518779.59 m E 4251383.04 m N

EVA Participants: Marlen (Commander), Mariona (EVA’s HSO), Camilo

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103, Galileo Road 1104

Mode of travel: driving and walking

May 10, 2019May 12, 2019

Greenhab Report – May 10th

Crew 212 GreenHab Report – 10-May-2019: SOL 5

GreenHab Officer: Hector Palomeque

Environmental control: Ambient with the door open from 07:00 to 14:30 + door closed from 14:30 to 15:30 + door open from 15:30 to the rest of the day

Shade cloth 80%: on

Average temperatures:
Low: 15.0 °C (±0.85)
High: 32.7 °C (±1.70)

Hours of supplemental light: 0

Daily water usage for crops: 5 gallons

Water in Blue Tank: 157 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 12:00

Changes to crops: All plants look healthy. Half of Basil plants have already bloomed. Tomatoes in the wood table (black pots) still blooming. Tomatoes in the blue tray have already started fructification (1 tomato).

Narrative: The GreenHab door had to been closed at 14:30 due to the rain and then re-opened at 15:30 because the weather has changed dramatically. Plants were watered just once at noon. The usual watering at early morning (at 07:00) was avoided due to the substrate has remained moist since the day before.

Some herbs and Chard were harvested for preparing the lunch of the Crew.

Harvested: 100g Chard + 5g Parsley + 6g Basil

Support/supplies needed: None.

[end]

May 10, 2019

Journalist Report – May 10th

[status draft

Good evening,

Today was Sol 5 and we had two visitors from the LA Times. The day started with the meet and greet followed by a tour of the station.

An attempt was made to use the solar telescope, but the clouds prevented observation.

Today two EVA’s took places. The first was a midmorning one to explore 3 sights on Galileo road, the URC North sight. This was completed with three members of the crew and shadowed by the two reporters.

The aim was to find plants to identify according to Paul Sokoloff study, however, problems with the Spirit rover meant that the charge ran down to 60% after the first visit and therefore the other two places will require a further EVA.

After the first EVA, we prepared lunch using cultivated foods from the GreenHab, the Green and Swiss chard was mixed into a tomato sauce and infused with Basil and Parsley also from the GreenHab. This was served to our guests alongside the leftover desserts from the Latin American cultural night.

The second EVA of the day was to run two simultaneous experiments, the first was to collect soil and rock samples to mix with previously collected soil. The mixture would then be combined with the radiated bacteria for one of the experiments we are running. The other experiment was a continuation from EVA#4, where the X-5 drone and the Tarot were flown with cameras around the Hab exterior.

Once we returned we completed another round of the problem-solving game.

Kind Regards,
Zoe Townsend

May 10, 2019May 12, 2019

Sol Summary – May 10th

Crew 212 Sol 5 Summary Report 10-MAY-2019

Sol: 5

Summary Title: After the rain, it’s always the sun again

Author’s name: Marlen Castillo Vilcahuaman

Mission Status: A-ok

Sol Activity Summary: There were 2 EVAs programmed for today. We had some issues with Spirit’s battery (see Operations report) that’ll we’ll need to keep an eye on. We’ll see how this rover handles itself in the following days. Oh. And we also had the visit of the LA Times!

Look Ahead Plan: 1 EVA for tomorrow, and new creative ways to prepare our meals (we discovered that this is an entertaining task!)

Anomalies in work: None

Weather: We had a cloudy day. After some heavy rain, now the sun is sure shining!

Crew Physical Status: A crewmember had an incident (please see HSO report)

EVA: 1

Reports to be file: Operations Report, GreenHab Report, Journalist Report, Daily Photo Report, EVA Request, Space Suit Report, EVA Report.

Support Requested: The Non-Burnable trash bag needs to be picked up. We’re also looking for some greens in our food, if possible. Broccoli is running out.

May 9, 2019May 12, 2019

EVA Report – May 9th

EVA #04

Author: Camilo Andrés Zorro Mendoza

Purpose of EVA: Second testing of drones and first drones flight and thermal rover tests.

Start time: 08:00 AM

End time: 09:45 AM

Narrative:

Today we were running two experiments, following the debriefing proposed yesterday we implemented the recommendations of the buddy system. After pressurization process, a walk was done around the Hab in order to select some points of interest for observe it in a safe distance. After, it was making the pressurization process of the RAM and the drones were taking.

Two experiments were running at the same time, in the first experiment a thermal blanket was tested in order to find the most appropriate number of layers to decrease the heat transfer radiation effects without increasing the effects from conduction, for that was made 5 different configurations. The second one two crewmembers tested the takeoff and landing of a fixed wind vtol drone and multicopter drone. A number of lessons were learnt and are summarized below from the after EVA debrief.

– All radios should be at the channel 12 for the EVA operations, communication with the Hab is critical.

– It was clarified that the radios in the Hab should be in the channel 9. Channel 12 it is only when it is a EVA operation in process.

Destination: Hab surroundings

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

EVA Participants: Zoe, Vittorio (Medic), Paolo and Camilo (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: None

Mode of travel: walking

May 9, 2019May 12, 2019

Operations Report – May 9th

SOL: 4

Name of person filing report: Paolo Guardabasso

Non-nominal systems: None

Notes on non-nominal systems: Nothing to report

Generator (hours run last night):

On (last night): 8:00 PM

Off (this morning): 7:00 AM

Solar— SOC 85% at 7:20 PM

Diesel Reading – 97%

Propane Reading – 46%

Ethanol Free Gasoline – 4 gallons

Water (Axillary tank) – 0 gallons

Water (static tank) – 230 gallons

Axillary to Static tank transfer – no

Gallons transferred: No

Water in GreenHab – 160 gallons

Water (loft) – Static to Loft Pump used – Yes

Water Meter: 143406.8

Toilet tank emptied: No

Deimos rover used: no (out of order)

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Sojourner rover used: ASSIGNED TO DIRECTOR

Hours:

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging:

Spirit rover used: No

Hours: 92.1h

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging: Yes

Opportunity rover used: No

Hours: 58.7h

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging: No

Curiosity rover used: No

Hours: 94.3h

Beginning charge:

Ending charge:

Currently charging: Yes

Notes on rovers: Nothing to report

ATV’s Used: (Honda, 300, 350.1, 350.2, 350.3)

Reason for use:

Oil Added?

ATV Fuel Used: Gals

# Hours the ATVs were Used today:

Notes on ATVs:

HabCar used and why, where? Nothing to report

CrewCar used and why, where? Off Campus

General notes and comments: Nothing to report

Summary of internet: Signal was down during the morning, then returned after lunch.

Summary of suits and radios: Some repairs were done on the suits.

Summary of Hab operations: A fantastic pesto sauce was prepared with the basil from the GreenHab

Summary of GreenHab operations: Nothing to report

Summary of ScienceDome operations: The damaged autoclave has been successfully used for heating (the pressure functions are unavailable). [From Director]: the binocular scope is damaged. I used it this evening and it will need some adjustment and

hopefully I will be able to fix it. I will try tomorrow morning.

Summary of RAM operations: It was depressurized to allow the EVA crew to take the drones for the experiments.

Summary of any observatory issues: Nothing to report

Summary of health and safety issues: Nothing to report

Questions, concerns and requests to Mission Support: The water heater is on, but it seems to be not functioning properly. Is there a procedure we are not doing correctly?

May 9, 2019May 12, 2019

Science Report – May 9th

Crew 212 – LATAM III

Submitted by GreenHab Officer Hector Palomeque

1. Solar Observation/Astrophotography/Stellar Clusters:

• The eyepiece of MUSK Telescope was successfully assembled.

• First picture of the sun with MUSK Solar Telescope (a bit cloudy).

• Deep Sky Robotic Telescope still observing a star cluster (interrupted due to the bad weather).

2. X-5:

• The first flight of 2 on 3 drones in a Martian environment was performed during today’s EVA (SOL 4).

• Manual light off and landing did for checking that Drones are working correctly.

• Drones operation with space suit was tested.

• Waiting for the weather forecast to schedule and perform the next experiment (photos of the MDRS Hab and other areas).

3. VESTA:

• One flight of the Drone-Multicopter were performed around MDRS Hab during today’s EVA (SOL 4)

• Interesting points around MDRS Hab selected.

• Drone successfully connected to the computer for planning an automatic mission.

4. Observation Rover:

• Linux system correctly launched and running in a crew’s Laptop.

• Still needing to download the script from UK for uploading it into the Raspberry Pi Rover board.

5. Space Farming:

• Red-Clay collected for preparing a mix for Martian-like regolith.

• Broken-Autoclave used for boiling in order to disinfect/sterilize the material as much as possible (without problem nor danger).

• Broth culture media for selected Chernobyl and Fukushima bacteria successfully prepared and sterilized (no contamination detected in negative control after 24 hours).

• Chernobyl and Fukushima bacteria correctly inoculated in Nutrient Broth.

• Chernobyl and Fukushima bacteria already showing sights of growth.

6. Keep Talking:

• Crewmembers getting a better performance during the game. Some teams already have reached the Difficult Level.

• The fourth day of playing (corresponding for each SOL).

7. Ethnography study:

• Audio-recordings with the information collected during the observations of the Crew 212 behave already sent to the Colombian Aerospace Research and Develop Group (Colombia).

8. Pulse Oximeter Measurement:

• No update to report.

9. Software for macroscopic characterization:

• Nutrient Agar in Petri dishes prepared using the Broken-Autoclave (all correct).

• MDRS soil bacteria cultivated in Nutrient Agar.

• Waiting for bacterial growth (24 hours).

• EVA scheduled for collecting rhizospheric soil of MDRS plants.

May 9, 2019May 12, 2019

Science Report – May 9th

Spacesuit Engineer: Camilo Andrés Zorro Mendoza

Spacesuit report

Sol: 4

Sim suit used: 3, 4, 8 and 9.
used for 2 hours

Sim suit: 3
Voltage level before EVA: 13.4 V
Voltage level after EVA: 12.8 V

Sim suit: 5
Voltage level before EVA: 13 V
Voltage level after EVA: 12.7 V

Sim suit: 8
Voltage level before EVA: 13.2 V
Voltage level after EVA: 10.5 V

Sim suit: 4
Voltage level before EVA: 12.9 V
Voltage level after EVA: 10.6 V

May 9, 2019May 12, 2019

Journalist Report – May 9th

Today we woke up to start with a morning EVA. Two experiments were run in tandem, this was the rover and drone project. The rover project was the retesting of the thermal blanket, with assistance, as per the debrief of EVA#4. The initial results suggest a successful experiment. In addition two of the three drones went for their first flight test. This involved first finding points of interest around the Hab, these points will be explored in future EVA with drones.

First observations using the solar telescope were undertaken by two crew members looking through the eye piece. Next time there is hope that the pictures can be taken of the sun.

Secondly, the problem solving experiment was ran twice. This was to make up for the missed day on Sol 1 where the crew misunderstood the explanation of the game.

After a successful European Cultural night where pasta, cheeses and desserts of Europe were showcased the left over pasta was eaten today. Basil was harvested from the GreenHab and used to make homemade pesto for the pasta. The carrots will be used tonight for the Latin American Cultural night as part of the Peruvian dishes. We love the Greenhab!

Interviews were compiled for the WOMAD festival science tent. These videos will be used as part of a final video presentation that will be displayed at the festival. In addition, written statements were taken for The Engineer blog.

Oct 1-16— Work Party

(Oct 20-23—TMS Conference in Tempe Arizona)

Oct 24-28—Crew 266-- Spaceward Bound High School

Oct 30—Nov 12—Crew 267—WOMARS

Nov 13—26—Crew 268-- Mars Society All women crew

Nov 27—Dec 10— Crew 269--The Aerospace Corporation Team

Dec 11—17 (one week) —Crew 270 -- NASA Spaceward Bound Utah Cohort 4

Dec 18— 31—Crew 271— Mars Society crew

Jan 1—14, 2023— Crew 272-- Purdue

Jan 15—28— Crew 273— Spanish Language Crew

Jan 29--Feb 11—Crew 274— APUS ARG-1M

Feb 12—Mar 11-- Crew 275— Supaero

Mar 12—18 — No Crew (Spring Break)

Mar 19-25 (one week) — Crew 277— Class

Mar 26—Apr 1 (one week) — Crew 278— Class

Apr 2—15— Crew 279— M.A.R.S. UC Louvain

Apr 16—29—Crew 280— Hypatia

Apr 30—May 13—Crew 261— Transatlantic Mars Society

May 14—27— Crew 281— Project Possum Alumni

June 1—3— University Rover Challenge

June 4-10 (one week)— Crew 282— Martian Biology III

June 11-17 - Summer Closeout Crew

The Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert was established by the Mars Society in 2001 to better educate researchers, students and the general public about how humans can survive on the Red Planet. It is the second Mars analogue habitat after the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station was established in 2000.

Over 200 crews of six-person teams have lived in 1-2 week field visits at MDRS to simulate life on the Martian surface. Researchers and students alike have explored the Mars-like terrain in the area surrounding the station in full “spacesuits”, maintained the station’s systems, grown plants in the GreenHab to support themselves and even recycled their waste water.

Our activities at MDRS are not only about informing the public, but also conducting real research to bring humanity that much closer to the reality of human exploration on the planet Mars.

Annual field seasons at MDRS run approx. October through May. Anybody can apply to be on a crew, and we also need volunteers to help with the project.

Management Team

Mission Support