Category: Journalist Report

Sol: 01

Summary Title: And so it begins…

Author: Sarah Treadwell, Crew Journalist

Sim officially started today at 12:00 p.m. and the crew was prepared and eager to begin. After spending the morning and the previous half day training and settling in, we began our mission preparing for the busy two weeks ahead.

Battery tests were performed on the EVA suits. In addition, current radio systems functions were briefed to us by Commander Marc and Executive Officer Dave. Maps were reviewed and plans were made for destinations for upcoming EVA’s that will test new radio systems that may eventually replace the old.

Our crew so far is very cohesive. None of us knew each other prior to being assigned to this mission and we all come from varying backgrounds and experiences. The scent of our dinner cooking accompanies quiet conversation as I type, and I’m certain that these two weeks will ebb and flow with few difficulties.

Everyone is looking forward to a warm up in the weather over these next couple of days. Personally, I am looking forward to a good night’s rest as the past week and the journey of getting here to Mars was extremely stressful and I had a hard time sleeping last night adjusting to all the new noises of the station. I will be giving some thoughtful interviews amongst my crew members and hope to highlight the hopes and goals they have for themselves and our group as a whole.

To finish and inspired by the crew journalist that preceded me, I decided I wanted to share some favorite space themed quotes over the course of these two weeks:

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” – Carl Sagan

[ Solvitur ambulando ] Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 20 April 2022
Sol: 10
Name of person filing the report: Dr. Benjamin Pothier

Our stay on the red planet is getting closer to its end and it made me wonder if this experience already changed me. All members of the crew are undoubtedly overachievers and multitaskers, a type of profile that fits perfectly with our mission.

Even though we all have our repetitive tasks that in a way summarize our main specialties, from the crew engineer to the commander, from the crew journalist to the executive officer, or from the health and safety officer to the crew scientist, there is at least one task that is always new for us: to conduct EVA, to go and explore the close and far surroundings of our habitat, a human oasis in the middle of this desert land.

The Bard would probably once again enjoy this quote from Heraclitus: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man."

So yes in a way though we are all highly adaptive yet constant human beings in this crew, each and every extra-vehicular activity changes us. We are field researchers, and we solve problems by walking: "Solvitur ambulando". Another step on the Martian soil, then another, then another…

(sator arepo tenet opera rotas)
Crew 245 Journalist report 19 April 2022
Sol: 09
Name of person filling the report: Dr Benjamin Pothier

Our sol 9 might have gone upside down and from 9 to 6 due to the heavy winds that we had to face this afternoon. It was in fact so heavy that no teams went on EVA and even at some point in the afternoon I think that everyone had to take a little nap just to enjoy the comfort of our private room where the sound of the exterior was less loud.

I was in fact the first to wake up very early this morning in order to catch the sunrise from the bay window of the science Lab in order to take some time lapse and still photos.

As I said the afternoon was very windy and when not taking a nap crew members took care of their experiment and duties. Most of us at some point went to see Simone working in the science lab on his DNA research on the soil samples he had been collecting conscientiously for the past few days, like Arepo leading the plough with his hand. So in a way maybe the wind indeed pushed our sol 9 upside down, but by our work we made it full circle and back to its starting position, in a full 360°, like the spherical images of my 360 camera that I am currently processing .

A full circle, yes, that was a great day on Mars.

[ Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ ] Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 18 April 2022
Sol: 08
Name of person filling the report: Dr Benjamin Pothier

Days are becoming more and more packed here at the MDRS station. All the members of crew 245 want to conduct as many experiences and projects as they can while we are still living on Martian ground. From testing a helmet prototype to 3D printing in the RAM, and from 3D scanning rock formations around the station to making a 3D digital copy of the lower deck. It’s been a very busy day and we aren’t done yet as I have to participate with Luca in a neuroscience experiment involving a portable EEG headset before going to bed. We just had an amazing dinner with a main meal prepared by Nadia (Martian shepherd’s pie) and Luca is vacuum cleaning the upper deck as I type my report. These are chunks of our lives on Mars, like meteorites flashing in the sky, burning bright. A strange mix of the raw, the harsh, the mundane and the transcendent. As Heraclitus would say "Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ" or "Nature loves to conceal herself", I do agree though yesterday’s night we managed to catch a bit of her : a night lapse of the station surrounded by the great Bear, the "Ursa Major" constellation. So yes, Nature loves to conceal herself, even on Mars, but like the Ursa Major we face events and remain constant.

—
Benjamin Pothier

The Explorers Club (NYC) International Fellow Member
PhD Researcher, CAIIA (Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts)
Planetary Collegium, Plymouth University.
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/benjamin-pothier

[Astronomos ] Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 17 April 2022
Sol: 07
Name of person filling the report: Dr. Benjamin Pothier

On sol 7 we woke up earlier than usual so that we could conduct an extravehicular activity a bit far away from our habitat. We watched the sunrise from the main window of the hab while enjoying our breakfast and a nice Italian coffee before exiting the station.

The mood of the whole crew was great on this Easter morning even here on Mars far away from the cradle of Earth’s civilization.

We certainly have developed our own vernacular habits, rules, and private jokes, but the experiments we have to conduct and our sparse contacts with the Mission Control Center keep us rooted in our very earthly origins.

I certainly haven’t met any Martians here but human beings who decided to risk their life to expand the human knowledge of the universe. The afternoon EVA crew just came back and they installed a camera outside the station so that I will hopefully have some time-lapse of the station tomorrow morning. I also plan to take some photos of the sunrise from the bay windows of the science lab and we’ll see tomorrow morning how it went.

We have our own celebration of Easter tonight and I am happy to treat the crew with some French delicacies after yesterday’s Canadian treats from Nadia, Paolo’s pesto di pistacchi siciliano with Vittorio’s orecchiette pasta, and today’s lunchtime Simone’s Pasta alla carbonara. We all enjoy those special meals on a daily basis until the end of the mission will still be made of freeze-dried products. Despite the restrictions we have to go through, the mood of the crew is usually light and our level of performance high.

For this specific mission, we don’t have a dedicated crew astronomer, but that’s probably because each and every member of our crew are at the same time very grounded while our hearts and minds are looking toward the stars. I’m sure that the Poet would agree with me and quote Plato on Sol 7 :

"For it is obvious to everybody, I think, that this study [of astronomy] compels the soul to look upward and leads it away from things here to higher things."
—
Benjamin Pothier

{De rerum natura ] Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 16 April 2022
Sol: 08
Name of person filling the report: Dr Benjamin Pothier

As I continue this daily diary of our stay at the station on Mars I can’t help but think about the strings of events in my Life that brought me there with my crew mates. The latest events being the pandemic on Earth that forced us to postpone this mission twice. We had a visitor from Earth this morning and we had to first ask him to do a test before being allowed to enter the station. We couldn’t risk any contamination of any members of our small autonomous crew. We did our first attempt to connect with the ION SCV3 satellite this afternoon but we will try to connect with it later this week.

We all definitely feel at home now here in the habitat, and the constraints of the mission are just our daily normal: Research, daily reports, water restriction, freeze dried food, isolation, sand storms, daily tasks orders, confined space.

Some crew members went on E.V.A this afternoon and I watched them coming back through the amazing bay window of our science lab. It is such a treat to have the opportunity to conduct research in a room like that. There, amidst the chaos of the Universe itself, as the Bard would tell, everything seems peaceful, neat and in place :

“The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order.”
—

"Getting grounded" Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 13 April 2022
Sol: 03
Name of person filing the report: Dr. Benjamin Pothier

This is Sol 3 for our team and we have already reached our cruise speed in terms of carrying out and planning our experiments in the field. Despite the constraints of the Martian environment and the food and water restrictions, the crew has adapted well to our new normal. I personally plan to take my next shower in a couple of days and we all understand that every resource is precious here. It’s all about ISRU, or In-Situ Resource Utilization and I’m sure that we will all be more and more creative in the next couple of days with what we have at hand in order to enhance and optimize our performances, be it during cooking, DNA analysis or drone photogrammetry.

Everyone is important in our team because the success of our mission, from our comfort to plain survival, depends on each and every skill. If Buckminster Fuller spoke about the "Spaceship Earth" in 1969, our station is our Spaceship, a very grounded one, because the environment around us is hostile, and in Space, everything tries to kill you. We don’t go outside without our spacesuits and we need to plan and rationalize our use of each and every resource that is available to us.

I joined our Crew Scientist Simone and our Health and Safety officer Nadia during an Extra-Vehicular Activity this morning, documenting their process of soil sampling for an upcoming DNA analysis experiment. This afternoon our Commander Vittorio with our Crew Engineer Luca and our Executive Officer Luca installed a ground station antenna that should let us communicate with some satellites in the next couple of days.

I can’t wait to collaborate further with all those crew members on the several projects that we have planned. Civilization was always about collaboration on Earth, and it is the same in our small resilient community. We are slowly getting grounded on Mars and I can’t wait for the next sunrise.

Crew Journalist Over and out.

Crew 245 Journalist report 12 April 2022
Sol: 02
Name of person filling the report: Dr Benjamin Pothier

After the Tempest

Yesterday’s night was quite demanding for the crew as we had to face heavy winds and sand storms that made our habitat almost shake during the night. I think the comfort food that we prepared with Nadia, our Health and Safety Office, helped the crew to stay resilient during this quite unexpected tempest on Sol 1, even though we are very lucky to have such a professional crew of trained individuals who are definitely ready to welcome the unwelcoming.

It is therefore quite an honor to start this first journalist report just after the Tempest, as the Bard would say it.

We started our second day on the red planet with a delicious breakfast made of freeze dried food, and perfect coffee made the Italian way that kept us motivated and sharp during the day. Today was for me my first opportunity to go on EVA with our crew scientist Simone and our executive officer Paulo. The landscape around was beyond my expectations and I documented the team gathering soil samples for a DNA analysis experiment. We are all getting slowly acquaintained to the procedures of the station and the hazards of the planet, sharing with each other’s crew members past experiences that brought us to all end up on this outpost on Mars. I am already convinced that our differences will be our force as a group, considering that we at least also all share three things in common: professionalism, attention to details and a strong sense of humor.

We spent the afternoon working on our research and our health and safety officer Nadia taught us how to use the smart garment with integrated sensors that will record most of our physiological datas in real time during the whole mission including at night. the Astroskin was already tested on the ISS by the Canadian Space Agency so we are very lucky to be able to use it on this Mars mission.

I’m sure tomorrow will bring a fair share of excitement and novelty, and I will close this journalist report for today as I need to get to the kitchen to bring my special touch to tonight’s dinner, and once again earn the surname that the crew already gave me, "Chef Pothier", over and out.

(The last day on Mars) Journalist Report
Crew 227 Journalist Report 8 April 2022
Sol: 12
Name of the person filling the report : Sirga Drouet

Last day on Mars for the crew 227 : Tharsis.
This morning was the last EVA for Cyril, Jean, Julie, Ignacio and me.
One of the most beautiful EVA of our adventure. On the program ECG for Jean’s experience, 3D mapping for Cyril in the Candor Chasma. We started by climbing a rock to have a good view to choose the most optimal place to enter the canyon. Julie did an incredible climb for someone in a space suit ! You had to know your body exactly and have confidence in yourself. That’s just like Julie 😉

She quickly found an entrance thanks to her position. So we left in the direction of this area which had not yet been explored by our team. A magical place we entered very quickly and soon the strata of rock pillars stood in front of us. An oasis of wonderful landscape. We returned and then our life on this planet came to an end little by little. The tidying up began and the red vision of the outside will remain marked for life.

Thanks to:
Cyril Wain, Commander
Jean Jacobs, Executive Officer
Audrey Comein, Crew scientist
Julie Manon, Health and safety Officer
Ignacio Sánchez Casla, Crez Astronomer
Cheyenne Chamart, Green Hab Officer
Julien Meert, Crew Engineer
To have lived this exceptional experience together.
To have gone through the ordeals to get there.
To have discovered this world
To have cried, laughed, discussed, innovated, learned
To live it all
Thanks to MDRS and Cap Comm for supporting us
Without forgetting Mecktoub who is now free in the desert

I hope that through my stories I have succeeded in sharing this dream with you
Above all, never let go of what matters to you !
If your future is on Mars do not forget to put your starred scarf.

Sirga Drouet, Communication Officer

[Clear Sky] Journalist Report
Crew 227 Journalist Report 6 April 2022
Sol : 10
Name of the person filing the report: Sirga Drouet

Hello Earth, this is Mars on sol 10.

Imagine, putting on your scarf, and going out of a lighted room to the Observatory.

The moment when your eyes acclimatize to the brightness is incredible. In the beginning, a few lights, then the dark night turns into a Milky Way where the number of luminous points is incalculable, the shooting stars pass by, we are there to contemplate the universe which offers itself to us, suggests us a tiny part of its immensity. This vision gives us the desire to travel through space and not just stand there.

We are there to cultivate the silence without anything interfering and time is no longer a dimension in our eyes. This is the moment we experienced last night before giving way to sleep.

This morning the dawn came to tickle our sleeping eyes and the feeling that everything is possible in the first hours of the day takes us back.

But we have other projects that take us out of our dreams.

Today EVA walked to North Bridge for Julien’s last game against me. We climbed hills that changed color as the day goes by. This morning it was red then orange. As we climbed, the sun brightened them more and more and we were at the challenge point.

Thanks to our training we were faster, more efficient and confident. We went straight back home after this escapade. After lunch, everyone had their stuff. For my part I made cookies with my accomplice for the snack without saying that they were filled with insects, the team saw only fire and my stratagem worked wonderfully hehe.

The day passed at one of its speeds and it is already time for Cap Comm.

It’s always a pleasure to wake up in March and I hope that tomorrow will be fruitful.

See you soon
Sirga