Category: Journalist Report

Crew 314 – Journalist report – 10 apr 2025
Author: Batoul Tani

This morning, Béatrice (commandant), Antoine (engineer), and Arnaud (executive officer) headed out on an EVA. After a quick check of Antoine’s equipment, the crew took Galileo Road toward Candor Chasma, a stunning canyon with striking Martian-like scenery. Dressed in their space suits, they may have felt (just for a few moments) like true explorers on Mars. The EVA went smoothly and offered breathtaking views throughout.
Back at the MDRS, the afternoon was more relaxed, focused on scientific work. Arnaud and Béatrice continued data collection for their joint experiment, which tracks heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep quality and duration, as well as responses to a supplementation protocol (either a placebo or a combination of Lactobacillus helveticus and glycine). Each participant also carries out a daily five-minute cardiac coherence session, a breathing technique known to support stress management.
Meanwhile, our journalist, Batoul continued her research by placing bacterial cultures outside to observe how extreme temperature variations affect their growth, an experiment that may offer insights into the effects of climate change. Bérengère, the greenhab officer, spent the whole day sterilizing spores for her experiment.
To wrap up the day, some crew members took time to unwind or get active. Arnaud finished his afternoon with a high-intensity bike session, a powerful way to cap off a day of exploration, research, and physical challenge.

MDRS Journalist Log SOL 1
01 April 2025
By David Joy

Today Crew 313 woke to blustery but safe winds after a safe entry onto Mars to start Sol 1 and began to prepare for our first EVA. After a wonderful breakfast, we began to suit up and prepare to enter the airlock.

In this EVA five of the six crew members ventured out heading for two separate locations in order to collect samples of gypsum, sandstone, and if possible, sandstone “blueberries”. We made good time to the first location and were able to collect more than enough gypsum. The samples were high quality, and often contained trace colors of yellow, brown, or amber.

We then traveled to the second location, we struggled to find the location, even with the coordinates. We did find a location in which we were able to find the necessary sandstone and sandstone “blueberries”, along with numerous other amazing samples. There were a variety of sandstone samples of various colors, often layered, and the EVA team was successful at locating some of the sandstone “blueberries” which were dark in quality and of average quality.

We were so caught up in the marvel of the Martian geology that we nearly missed our time to return to the Hab. To make matters more interesting, we had a storm come up on us with stronger winds, and temperature drop, and even some precipitation.

We were able to make it back to the Hab only a minute or so late, without anyone getting impaled or left behind (Take that Mark Watney!!!).

We then ate lunch and had time to rest and recover for a bit, at which point we then suited up for our second EVA, in which we would be testing some new helmet designs made by our own crew member Riley Nuttycombe!

Our second EVA was a walking EVA in which we walked to the Marble Ritual site, in which we participated, and then did several things to test the new helmet designs, such as climbing to test maneuverability and sampling to test visibility and productivity, as well as overall comfort. It was a very successful and helpful test, and a safe and productive EVA.

To end the Sol we are preparing dinner, tying up loose ends, and resting in preparation for tomorrow and another amazing and productive Sol.

Crew 313 signing off.

Journalism Report
MDRS Crew 313
April 2, 2025
Sol 2
By Becca Hodgkinson

Crew 313 had two successful EVAs today. In the morning, the crew took rovers Curiosity, Perseverance, and Spirit to a site to the south to look for basalt and breccia analogs. They then traveled north to Kissing Camels to scout for petrified wood samples for their analog rock sample kits. All rovers worked well, and the crew was able to try out different helmet and backpack configurations.

In the afternoon, four members of the crew took a second walking EVA back to the Marble Ritual, gathering even more rock and mineral specimens to add to their collections. All EVA objectives were met, and EVAs were completed within the approved timeframe. Afterwards, the crew finished up their Martian geology experiments in the Science Dome.

Journalist Report Sol 0

31 March 2025

By Emily Lehnart

We are preparing for our exploration of Mars tomorrow. As we met for our inaugural breakfast as MDRS crew 313, we synergistically discussed goals and objectives for our upcoming EVAs tomorrow and Wednesday. MDSRS crew 313 eagerly anticipated the Mars spacesuit training, the Mars rover training and discussed what EVAs look like. Additionally, we created Mars rock kits. Commander Jen Carver shared her infinite wisdom regarding the geological history of Mars. The MDRS crew was in awe. Finally, we took a short walk to the education building to compare Earth rocks and Mars rocks and determine which Earth rocks were analogous on Mars. This will help us tomorrow as we embark on our first EVA to collect Mars rocks. Go MDRS 313 Crew!

Journalism Report
MDRS Crew 313
April 3, 2025
By Riley Nuttycombe

Crew 313 woke up back on earth today and it was snowing! We had planned a field trip to collect more rock samples but it was too muddy to make doing so safe. We stayed in the hab most of the day. We did some cleaning in preparation for our departure tomorrow. Emily Lehnardt and David Joy departed early in the day. By dinner time it had dried out enough for the remaining crew and Ben from mission support to drive to Hanksville for burgers for dinner.

Journalism Report

After a late night of transit and training the crew awoke on Mars ready to try our best to complete our mission. When we signed up for this Mars mission, we were excited about all of the possibilities and today those possibilities began to unfold – good and bad. Today we all successfully completed our first set of paired EVAs and got to know the exhilaration of exploring the unknown; the wonder of Martian vistas; and accomplishment of completing a mission. We also got to know the challenge that comes with being encumbered by a space suit; the frustration of not being able to talk to the person next to you without hopping on the comm system; the insane appetite that accompanies the end of a spacewalk; and unique to our mission, navigating the secrecy of the social-behavioral experiment that is our purpose here on Mars this week.

Journalism Report for Sol 2
Red Mars, Green Mars
Mars is known for its reddish color in the night sky and this crew can confirm that the dirt out here is quite red. Each EVA tracks in some dust and this morning’s crew brought in a whole beach’s worth of sand which we had to sweep up afterwards. The red of the Martian terrain is a unique sort of beautiful, but it’s nothing compared to the wonderful green in our GreenHab. This module might be the best in the whole complex. The GreenHab has lots of tomatoes, onions, and basil which we used to make a tasty spaghetti dinner tonight. Not only is it full of plants and veggies to eat, but it’s always warm – and Mars is very cold. Especially today. The GreenHab was a true oasis of warmth today while our main hab heater struggled to keep up with the wind and cold and our crew engineer tried to fix it.

Martian Eats
With all the EVA’s this crew has been completing, the amount of calories we’re consuming is monstrous. To satisfy our appetite we’ve been cooking lots of different foods. The Mars Home Cooking recipe book created by crews 110B, 128A and 128B has provided tasty inspiration for dinner. On Sols 1 and 2 we followed their chicken fried rice and Martian Marinara recipes, making appropriate modifications so that both the meat eaters and vegetarians in our crew could enjoy. While we were able to bring some fresh food with us to Mars, the bulk of our meals utilize the large selection of freeze-dried fruits, vegetables, and protein in our crew pantry. While these items cook quite well – the biggest challenge has been accounting for the time it will take to re-hydrate our dinner before cooking it. Outside of dinner one of our co-commanders has been baking to boost crew morale. Her cookies on Sol 1 and Funfetti cupcakes today were a major highlight for the crew.

Journalist Report
Sol 4: Observations from the Observed
Throughout the week we’ve been monitored by a variety of sensors and surveys as part of the research study we’ve agreed to be the “pilot” crew for. Our role is to help the research team discover any oversights or logistical challenges in their experimental plan so that the first real test crew has a smoother experience – because our experience has been bumpy to say the least. We can’t say much about the surveys, but we can talk about the sensors. Our only constant sensor is a Garmin watch to record our heart rate and sleep quality – we only take them off to charge during dinner. There are few other sensors we only use during EVAs. The first is just a simple audio recorder which we clip to the collar of our flight suit so that the researchers can understand how we’re communicating when we plan and conduct our EVA. Next, we have a tracking device so that the researchers can see where we’re going and a secondary MDRS tracker required for crew safety. Lastly, we have eye tracking glasses that video what we see and identify exactly what our eyes are focusing on – this again allows the researchers to understand what information we’re taking in and using to build our decisions on EVA. Not only are we responsible for donning these sensors each day, but our crew scientist and engineer have sunk several hours into debugging them, especially the glasses. As of today, we have solved multiple problems with the glasses only to find more. The latest discovery is a settings change that requires an ethernet cable that does not exist on Mars. Who puts an ethernet cable on their packing list anyways?

Here is our Journalism report for today.
Strangers to Martians
When we started the Mars mission just a few Sols ago each of us was almost a complete stranger to rest with almost no idea of what we had really signed ourselves up for and now after 5 days in each other’s constant company we have become a true Mars crew. Our crew bonded through the endless training on Sol 0 and then sorting through that same information to determine our crew responsibilities on Sol 1. We got to work with each other to solve problems on EVAs, learning more about each other each time we were paired with someone new. We did daily activities together and exchanged ideas on life habits like how we each like to exercise or how our crew scientist likes to eat random handfuls of spinach to hit her daily veggie count (it’s honestly better than one might expect). We had casual conversations about our lives and our individual research and played games like Pictionary that resulted in an abundance of laughs. We vlogged our Martian cooking, including a few mishaps, and tried lots of dehydrated food for the first time. We gazed up at the stars and wondered whether we could ever explore the entirety of our vast universe. And now on Sol 5 as we approach the end of our mission, we’re conducting our final EVA’s; cleaning the hab; and savoring our last moments on Mars.