Category: Journalist Report

Journalist report sol 11

At 10:30 pm last night, our HSO heard the clang of our mousetrap and sprung into action with blue painter’s tape. The mouse was still in his cell by morning, with the bait of funfetti cake crumbs turned into dust by his reasonable anxiety. Before we could take him outside, we had a chatty breakfast while discussing tomorrow’s visit from CNBC, as well as technical things like mission summaries, GreenHab teardowns, and Hab clean-ups.

At 9, the Millennial EVA Crew (Engineer, HSO, Journalist) went to Candor Chasma and began the EVA by releasing the mouse. He had become strangely wet in his cage. He fell, cowering, out of the trap and darted behind a bush, and we saw him bound up the nearest tall hill and crest over its edge with Looney Toon speed. We wished him well and hoped that last night’s rains would give him a head start, and then we descended into the riverbed and hiked through the soft sandy floor. The HSO hoped to use her drone to weave in and out of the canyon, but after some attempts it seemed that the dust and many flights had gotten to it. (Some canned air back at the Hab cleared it up.) Upon our return we realized that no more EVAs would occur without a slight sim-breaking presence. While we were gone, our Crew Artist started tearing down the GreenHab, and our Commander spoke to the CNBC journalist who will be interviewing and hosting the segment in which we’ll participate.

The afternoon was quiet. We finished our final 100cameras module and watched 2010: The Year We Make Contact, which clarified many storylines for some and seemed wildly ‘80s to all. Dinner was quick, the dessert rice pudding was coconut, and our sense of the mission suddenly sprinting toward the finish line. Make it stop!

Journalist report sol 12

It was a strange, celebratory, public-facing final day of sim for our crew, which included more drones, more talk of scuba diving, more heat spikes in the GreenHab, more rocks, more 3D scans, another EVA, and now reports—but also on-camera interviews, larger drones, microphones threaded through flight suits, onion rings, helmet-less walks outside, a commencement ceremony with diplomas, and the “fry sauce” of Greater Hanksville.

Today again started with coffee, but it quickly changed when Lucas Milliken, a producer for CNBC, came to the Hab and went through the airlock. For the vast majority of the day, from about 9:15 to 5:00 pm, he filmed interviews and B roll throughout the campus—our Commander was the main narrator, but everyone spoke about their projects and their interest in Mars. We’re excited to see the final cut sometime in the next month or so. While he was speaking with different crewmembers, others tore down the sweltering GreenHab, cleaned the Hab, and touched up their appearances (Journalist included) before their soundbites. Our Commander, HSO, and Engineer took Lucas on an EVA out to Compass Rock, where the drone and 3D scanner described in the past eleven Journalist reports had their ~120 minutes of fame. We broke sim after EVA in order to take group photos—the sound of the non-helmeted air hit us first while standing on the Hab’s outer deck. Mission Support and Lucas both joined us for dinner at Duke’s in Hanksville. Cold and carbonated beverages seemed far more special than they usually do, conversation sped in different directions, and our Commander put everyone’s drinks on his tab. Now, after we clack on our laptops for the last time after having briefly seen the world we’re going back to, what else is there to say? Mars has been a fascinating home for the fortnight, both an isolated and deeply social stage for our crew. We’ll be thinking back and forward to it in infinite ways.

Journalist report sol 8

Mars delivered animal, vegetable, and mineral on sol 8—a day that, to this Journalist’s eye, hinted at what things might be like if we were here for way longer. The animal was a small, adorable mouse the Journalist spotted under the lower kitchen cabinets. After a supply drop, we set out a metal trap including a chunk of a cookie prepared days ago by our Crew Artist. Nada yet; we’re hoping for a successful hair trigger by morning. The vegetables were in fact fruits (tomatoes), used in the chili our Artist made for a wildly successful dinner that went along with mac & cheese. The minerals were—yes—rocks, scanned by our Engineer during EVA just outside the Hab. With our Artist, our Engineer also repaired some tears in the walkway tarps during EVA, which the Journalist found somewhat Buddhist considering the whole set-up will be torn down shortly.

Our Commander and HSO piloted the drone, resulting in one premature crash that ended up being unserious. The two of them and the Journalist set out for Compass Rock, where the HSO used a new filming technique and took a beautiful 360 video of the formation. Sporadic and indecisive rains, along with the simple task being completed, brought them home early. The crew took group photos (cute); ate said chili-mac; and, now, are zeroing in on our Commander’s object of interest with Google Earth and various compass readings to use during tomorrow’s grande-monolith-finale EVA.

Earlier in the day, the Journalist asked her crewmates what they would be doing at this point in the mission on a longterm Mars stay. We assumed it would still be mostly preliminary tasks—health tests, Hab set-up, water measurements. Whether or not we find the Monolith, we’re grateful to make so much progress in two nearly-complete weeks.

Journalist report sol 9

Your Journalist writes with the most tired fingers of the fortnight, since today was about reaching literal heights and views. Everything started, though, with a nearly-successful mouse catch; we heard the trap close around midnight, but the little guy slipped it before our Engineer could secure the doors. (This afternoon the Engineer obviously fashioned latches to solve this issue, from RAM supplies.) After hearing this news, the crew had some breakfast conversation, and the Millennial EVA Crew then left for a hike-heavy EVA up to Hab Ridge to view the campus from above. This perspective made the Journalist somewhat emotional. Everyone agreed it was the sweatiest EVA despite mild temperatures.

Lunch and dinner prep came before the second EVA, which was more intrepid. The Commander, HSO, and Journalist took rovers to reach a strategic area for launching the HSO’s drone. With the Monolith’s location triangulated, the EVA crew wanted to get the device as close as possible to the formation, which required: driving farther on Copernicus Highway than most had been before, walking up jagged streambeds to reach an elevated ridge, and cresting it to get the best signal for the drone. The Monolith still hid behind a layer of plateau; after much practice, however, the HSO piloted the drone three times toward the formation and captured video and photographs of the thing. It remains lair-like, and sits closer to a river and green vegetation than expected, which makes it seem to preside over an accidental kingdom. The crew soaked up the videos at the dinner table after the EVA before eating burritos near-silently—exhausted, stunned by the highest number of Monolith pixels ever recorded (we think), and filled with beans.

Journalist report sol 10

We’re in the Stargate scene of 2001, in which the mission seems to be moving both slowly and at warp speed as we careen toward sol 13 and our flights out of Grand Junction—or, for our Commander, the drive out in the RV. Today got appropriately stormy after 2pm, which messed with our wifi and made everything feel more at the mercy of the planet’s whims. (Not much compared to a dust storm.)

Two EVAs took most of us to Candor Chasma, where first our Engineer and HSO made a powerful technological collaboration happen: a drone flight that captured the engineer while he 3D scanned rocks and uploaded them to the cloud with Starlink. At the end of their EVA, our Crew Artist joined them outside to recreate the famous Alan Shepard golf photo, using a club constructed by the Engineer with a broom handle and duct tape. On the second EVA, the Commander and Journalist also headed to Candor Chasma. They ventured in for their projects but also paid attention to some odd, marble-like rock (gypsum?) and a plant whose seed pods looked like desert grapes. Meanwhile, the Engineer seemed to fix everything at the Hab, including an airlock door bolt and malfunctioning suits.

Knowing that we’ll start tearing down the GreenHab tomorrow, the Journalist/GreenHab officer snipped the microgreens and herbs to spare. Those went with chicken salad on leftover and only slightly stale tortillas, and our HSO made another experimental fruit bread—strawberry, very successfully. We also have funfetti cake and brownies, and there may be another dessert prepared tomorrow. We have to “leave it all on the floor.”

Journalist report sol 6

We learned a lot about technology today—what it sees from its own eyes, and how it has evolved. An earlier EVA started at 8:30, in which our Engineer, HSO, and Journalist (aka the millennial EVA crew) went out to the sea of shells and surrounding areas. The Engineer wanted to test a makeshift tent to use his 3D scanner in the field—he constructed it out of a bedsheet and two sawhorses—and release the shells he’d collected earlier back into the wild. Our HSO wanted to try flying the drone out to the Monolith, largely to get better images and to better determine its location for mapping. She had two batteries, the first of which managed to get the drone temptingly close to the object of interest. To uncover more of its secrets, she tried a second flight on sport mode, having a better sense of the best trajectory. As the drone launched, however, the winds picked up. The little drone battled gusts and its power drained unpredictably fast. The weather proved too much despite our HSO’s careful piloting, and the device performed a forced landing in an anonymous spot some 600m from our perch, sending a lonely, black and white, probe-like image from its final gasps on the ground. Knowing that the winds might make it even harder to find the next day, the crew calmly tracked their bootprints all over the Martian soil in search. The HSO found the thing after about 15 minutes. (She is its mother after all.) The Journalist managed to get some lowtech footage of the Monolith on her cell phone, aimed through her binoculars, and the EVA finished with some compass readings off Galileo Road, which doubled as another test for the Engineer’s Starlink.

The wind halted any other EVAs. We sat around the table after an ad hoc lunch (tuna melts for some) and completed our sixth 100cameras module. Then our Commander unleashed his box of tricks: a collection of old electron tubes, early transistors, and integrated circuits, including ones he’s worked on, to show us how technology—and the relationship between analog and digital tools—has shifted over time, become smaller and more ornate, yet no less impressive. We’re now digesting our spaghetti, having watched an episode of Moonbase 8, hearing the wind rush over the hab’s roof vent and remind us of the hostile conditions outside.

Journalist report sol 7

Each report brings more of the same nouns—rocks, drones, photos, bread, monolith—but even a day off of EVAs for the Journalist can’t prevent strange events from making their way into the report. An early EVA sent our Engineer and Commander out for another Monolith triangulation session with various compasses; beyond getting more information, they also found small Monolith-like rocks near their perch. Whether those were offerings, representations, or offspring, we’re not sure. Our Engineer went on a second EVA with our HSO in the afternoon. It was a journey in high winds during the traveling portions. The goal was to 3D scan some rocks and take photos, and once up at the Overlook things seemed to stagnate—no “new rocks,” per se, so no scanning—before becoming strange. A van of aliens parked some distance away eventually approached the crew, letting them know their back tire had been stuck in a hard-dirt divot. (This despite their rented van company being called "Escape Camper Vans.") They needed help; conveniently for simulation’s sake, the rovers weren’t enough to haul them out, so Mission Support was called and dispatched. Allegedly the van-life aliens are going to donate to the Mars Society out of gratitude for the haul—someone should keep an eye on this.

The crew Journalist finished some Terran work, set up her soil desiccation project’s lab stage, and prepared a dinner she admittedly was not confident would be good until it was complete: a simple congee with peas and corn, topped with soy-glazed Spam. (While she was worried Spam “Lite” would be inferior to regular Spam, she’s been pleasantly surprised at the dupe.) The HSO had also made our best loaf of bread yet with apples and spices.

After eating, the crew completed their sixth 100cameras module, which revealed more about the broad arcs of our lives. And, for the third day in a row since a kind but firm warning by our Commander, we’ve used a respectable amount of water and should be in the clear by the end of the mission, knock on wood.

We’re realizing that we need to start finishing projects, collecting results, executing final goals for dinners, and preparing to tear down the GreenHab.

Journalist report 11 Apr 2025
Author: Batoul Tani

Today marked another productive sol for the crew at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), as we continued to advance our scientific objectives under simulated Martian conditions.
Early in the day, a scheduled EVA was carried out under relatively high temperatures. The mission had two primary goals: to collect soil samples from the designated Special Region for Bérengère’s GreenHab experiment, and to inspect and maintain the external equipment for Antoine’s ongoing engineering project. Despite the heat and communication challenges encountered during the EVA, both objectives were successfully accomplished, and the team returned safely to the Hab on schedule.
Bérengère continued her role as GreenHab Officer by planting a new set of fast-germinating crops, like radish sprouts, arugula, cress, and other leafy greens, to monitor early growth patterns in a controlled Martian analog environment. She also continued regular maintenance activities, including watering and development tracking of existing plants.
Meanwhile, Antoine focused on retrieving meteorological data from his external sensor array. This data is vital for assessing environmental variability and ensuring operational safety, particularly in preparation for future EVAs. His engineering experiment also includes long-term monitoring of equipment performance under field conditions similar to those on Mars.
In the Science Dome, Batoul, our crew journalist and science communicator, dedicated the afternoon to creating a new experiment simulating the effects of Martian microgravity.
Throughout the day, our daily scientific protocols continued without disruption. Each crew member follows a rigorous schedule, contributing to a wide range of interdisciplinary experiments that reflect the collaborative and multi-faceted nature of analog missions.
After a productive and challenging day, the crew came together for a group workout session to unwind and relieve the physical and mental tension that had built up throughout the day. It was a moment of camaraderie and relaxation, providing the team with a much-needed break after a day filled with intense tasks and valuable experiences.

Journalist report for the 12 april 2025
Author: Batoul Tani

Today’s operations were marked by a successful EVA, carried out despite strong winds and slightly reduced visibility. The crew proceeded cautiously and managed to explore the region as planned. Additionally, the team used a geological hammer to investigate the terrain and search for potential fossil remains, adding a valuable scientific component to the excursion.
In the Science Dome, Batoul, our Crew Journalist, reached an important step in her microbiological work. Her first sets of bacterial cultures have now completed their treatment phase. She closely monitored the samples throughout the process and will obtain her first results tomorrow, which will help evaluate bacterial survival under simulated Martian conditions.
Bérengère, our GreenHab Officer, dedicated time to plant care and environmental control in the greenhouse. Despite the intense heat inside the GreenHab during the hottest part of the day, she was able to tend to the crops and ensure optimal conditions for plant growth.
For the rest of the crew, the day was relatively calm in terms of experimental activity, with most projects requiring only routine monitoring. Daily tasks were carried out as scheduled, ensuring continuity of data collection and system maintenance. We took advantage of the bad weather to shoot videos for our social media.
Sadly, as the sky was cloudy and the winds were too strong, we didn’t make any observations with the musk observatory.
Overall, the day unfolded smoothly, balancing field exploration and laboratory work, and setting the stage for new results in the coming days.

Crew 314 Journalist report 13-04-2025

Sea of Shells—a location named for its geological past as the floor of an ancient Martian ocean—was the focus of today’s EVA. Four crew members departed the MDRS under the soft light of the Martian morning, their objective both scientific and operational. The site offered an ideal opportunity to collect environmental data and test equipment under field conditions.

Leading the EVA was GreenHab Officer Bérengère Bastogne, whose ongoing research explores the potential interaction between Martian soil and fungal life. Her aim is to assess how fungi might contribute to future life-support systems by facilitating nutrient cycles or soil regeneration on Mars. Today, she successfully collected two soil samples from the Sea of Shells to support this investigation. Accompanying her was Crew Engineer Antoine, who inspected a technical installation exposed to the strong winds of the previous sol to ensure its continued integrity.

The EVA team split into two rover crews, with Béatrice driving Opportunity alongside Antoine, and Bérengère piloting Curiosity with Arnaud, the EVA leader. Early into the drive, Mission Support advised the crew to reduce their speed to preserve battery life. By 10:20, the team had reached their target zone. Due to unexpectedly rapid battery depletion—Opportunity had dropped to 57%—the team made the decision to park earlier than originally planned. They proceeded on foot to complete their tasks, including drone-based aerial photography of the surrounding canyon, which will aid in terrain analysis and documentation.

The return journey was completed without incident, although communications were briefly disrupted between 11:26 and 11:40. Upon regaining signal at the intersection of Cow Dung Road and Galileo Road, the team confirmed the inspection of Antoine’s installation and completed a summary of their findings. Driving duties were rotated: Antoine briefly took over Opportunity, later returning control to Béatrice, while Arnaud drove Curiosity for the full return.

Meanwhile, at the MDRS, the fourth medical emergency simulation was conducted in the Science Dome. This session focused on teamwork, communication, and decision-making under pressure, key elements of Crisis Resource Management. The scenario was led by the female crewmembers, who executed the exercise with confidence and coordination—reinforcing the importance of regular training in isolated environments.

Inside the Hab, regular activities continued efficiently. The arrival of fresh supplies, including eggs, coffee, and red peppers, allowed the crew to prepare a homemade cake for dinner—boosting morale and adding a sense of normalcy. Physical training remained a priority, with biking and strength exercises scheduled as part of daily routines. Bérengère also contributed to team identity by sewing the MDRS logo onto the crew’s flight suits. Health and Safety Officer Odile took time to engage in a creative activity, sketching a peaceful scene to capture the day’s mood and provide a moment of mental relaxation.

Astronomer Louis spent the afternoon working in the observatory, capturing high-resolution images of the sun. He compiled and refined a composite image, continuing his documentation of solar activity from the Martian surface.

Later in the day, the Science Dome experienced a temporary power outage, attributed to an energy overload caused by cloud cover and reduced solar input. As a result, experiments by Bérengère and Batoul were postponed until solar charging resumed. Nevertheless, Batoul continued her sample preparation, adding color markers to aid in future identification and microscopic analysis.

Sol by sol, the mission advances through methodical research, logistical coordination, and shared dedication. While the Martian landscape remains silent and still, it serves as an active laboratory for discovery—one shaped by both science and the human pursuit of knowledge.