Author: jburk

SOL 25: The End of the Mission is Approaching

03:17 PM: Over the past few days, everyone was supposed to perform teleoperation of a rover via a virtual reality headset for the HUMANISE experiment, but it turned out there were persistent issues. The start of this activity kept getting postponed until today, which was the deadline by which we could carry it out. It won’t be possible for Crew 311 to pilot a rover in this way, but to gather as much data as possible anyway, the researcher in charge of the experiment allowed us to try the headset by playing racing games. He collects data such as our heart rate during these short sessions, allowing him to analyze our reactions. Everyone takes turns participating in this new activity alongside other tasks. These racing sessions disrupt the inner ear, and many of us had a spinning sensation when we took off the headset!

Robin finalizes his program for managing “Core Data.” Core Data is an experiment by the MDRS crews of ISAE-Supaero that collects physiological data on crew members. This allows the researchers we work with to use it to achieve results. Meanwhile, Erin writes a detailed document explaining all aspects of the experiment, to execute it better and more easily in the coming years.

The end of the mission is approaching, and with it come many questions. We received questions from students at the French Lycée in New York with whom we had conducted science outreach sessions. Célyan and Erin are taking care of answering them via video!

The end of the mission is approaching, but the astronomy project has already concluded! Quentin worked hard over the past few days, and he finally finished it. There are still a few details to refine, but it’s excellent news to know the project was completed during the mission. It can serve as a tool for astronomers on future crews, as Quentin’s program allows measuring the movement of solar spots from images of the Sun.

The end of the mission is approaching: this afternoon, Robin and Célyan disassembled the lamps from the LättaLL experiment, took apart the 3D printers, unplugged some of our extension cords… The evening is quite ordinary in appearance; we work on our reports in the HAB with music playing on the speaker, as if we were going to stay here for months more. No one quite realizes yet that the end of the mission is approaching.

SOL 24: “Mega-Hassles with MegaARES”

04:52 PM: Once again this morning, Crew 311 adapted its organization to the packed schedule of the day. This time, Meddi and I studied both 2D and 3D maps of Kissing Camel Ridge in parallel. The 3D map covered the reliefs of the area, but the software had a lot of trouble reproducing all the flat spaces in the region, so we couldn’t do without the 2D map to continue our research. The areas for placing beacons on the map were very wide, and after the two beacon search sessions were finished, we realized that both teams had found the beacons in the same amount of time.

The morning EVA was very long, and for good reason: we had problems retrieving data from the atmospheric instruments, which hadn’t been done for a while. The MegaARES interface started displaying illegible messages when retrieving the week’s data, and then the interface crashed. We waited a long time before concluding that we would retrieve the rest of the data once we had put away the instruments.

The morning EVA was very long, but it could have been very short because the wind was blowing very strongly, and if it had increased just a bit more, we wouldn’t have been authorized to continue the EVA.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew tested the rover that we had assembled in the previous days, but the results are not conclusive for now. We still hope to make it run in the coming days! Upon our return, some good news arrived: Somaya was cooking batbout (Moroccan bread). Célyan and she went to get a bunch of fresh vegetables from the GreenHAB to enhance the meal. We thus enjoyed delicious vegetarian burgers. Feeling the taste of fresh tomatoes was a pleasure we hadn’t experienced for more than 3 weeks already, and the frenetic discussions at lunchtime gave way to the silence of enjoyment.

06:28 PM: We had little rest in the early afternoon because the day’s schedule was packed, and as soon as our meals were finished, we launched our last daily recording for the Twins2 experiment. We then concluded our discussions about possible architectural improvements in the station with an overall view of it, and everyone returned to their daily tasks.

06:50 PM: Just a few moments before the start of the daily communication window and while everyone was focused on their activities, one of the topics discussed during the brainstorming session became relevant again: part of the tarp covering the newly installed tunnel had flown away. Here, the wind is rising and determined to complicate our last moments in the station! Discussing improvements to the station then takes on its full meaning.