Sol 2 – A day on Mars’ North pole

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Today was supposed to be a very busy day, and even if it didn’t go as planned, I will be happy to sleep well tonight.

The EVA program was completely full for the whole morning. Changing batteries for the field mill, putting back the LOAC that we took out yesterday (because it cannot stand too wet weather conditions…), installing the antenna for the HF waves propagation study, first look at Candor Chiasma in order to find a great spot to begin the geological experiment (and use LIBS for the first time!).

But it felt like we moved to Mars’ north pole during the night: when we woke up, there was snow everywhere, about 4cm around the MDRS. At first sight, this was really beautiful to see, but we changed our minds when we understood it was compromising our plans… Doing an EVA as long as we had planned would have been risky, so it was decided that the EVA would just aim to change the battery of the field mill (this was the only thing necessary, waiting another day to change the battery would have put at risk its lifetime…).

Also, the snow completely covered our solar panels. Usually, these work in pair with a generator, and they provide enough energy to endure a day at the MDRS, with a crew living and working. So, we had to cut our electrical consumption for the day, keeping only essential devices plugged. This explains the pictures of preparing for the EVA, only using the light coming through the narrow windows to see.

I think this is what trying to live on Mars would look like, everyone will have to get out of their comfort zone, living day to day with the recurrent hazards… But Crew 263 is here to live this experiment, so we accept our fate and hope for better days!

During the afternoon, we were almost all together in the upper deck of the Hab. We made rotations around different experiments, in which sometimes we are operators and sometimes, subjects. On my side, I was mainly focused on producing the first podcast episode, for curious students (and all other curious!) we collaborate with. We hope people on Earth are interested in our mission.

We tried for the first time the ultrasound experiment using a CNES protocol and a Sonoscanner device. It was really interesting, the method is very smart: with one hand, we handle the ultrasound probe, on the other a smartphone with Augmented Reality software. It shows where to place the probe and is thus like a game: we have to put 4 spheres in 4 cubes, and when it is done, we record the sequence. None of us are doctors, but thanks to this protocol we can manage to get great pictures of our organs! We are really grateful to CNES for letting us participate in the conception of this futuristic device!

On another topic, I have to confess something. We are not only 7 in this station… Since we have arrived, someone is there in the Hab upper deck, looking at us all day. He proudly stands at the window. His name is Tomarsto, and he is always there, during great moments and hard times. We hope he will stay there until the end of the simulation, and even more! Take a look at him in the picture of the day!

Sol 1 – Searching for a routine, or almost…

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Yesterday was the day of the firsts, now we need to move on, to evolve, to become real analog martionauts. Although we have not discovered everything yet, things are becoming familiar to us.

We all woke up at 6:45am, in order to be ready for the sport session at 7 am. Our first one together! Valentine had prepared a cardio training, which felt a bit rough to all of us, but we will say that it is normal for a first session (Crew 240 reported similar feelings in Pierre’s -the journalist- report a month ago…).

Anyway, this was a good cohesion moment, a great way to begin the day!

Then, the breakfast was in some sort similar to the previous day, carefully prepared by two members of the crew. It was a hearty meal for the four-brand new martionauts who had to prepare for the challenge of the day: the first crew EVA.

This one had multiples objectives: first, to get used to the suits, the communication protocol, the crew member buddy system… It may seem like it is obviously easy but, be aware that this is not the case, even for people who mentally prepared for a year. Second, to check the status of the atmospheric experiment left on the field by Crew 240: the weather station, the LOAC (an amazing aerosol meter), the electric field mill… There, we had some surprises, and we could not do all of what was planned for this phase of today’s EVA. However, we will put things back in order in the coming days. Last, to do a first on-field trial of the Hololens. I was chosen to wear the glasses (during all the outing) for Augmented Reality (AR) testing. But it did not go well. The glasses fell slowly during the EVA, so much that when this phase began, I was almost half blind… I had to let them completely fall around my neck to get my vision back and we shortened the EVA. Note for the future tests: prepare a better mounting to keep the glasses on. A case to follow!

Lunches are always discussion moments. We speak about a lot of things, such as our “old” terrestrial life or our new Martian life. But lately, the food rationing topic came back frequently: we have three weeks’ worth of food already in the station but how do we manage to correctly feed everyone without being too drastic or too neglecting? On top of that, how to make it taste good every day? Some of us are more likely to be cook than others (guess what, that would not be me…), so they lead the discussion about this puzzle (and I thank them a lot!).

The afternoon was quite similar to the previous one. Everyone was focused on personal experiments in different rooms of the station: ScienceDome, GreenHab, upper and lower deck of the Hab… And it went well!

As the crew journalist, I would like you, dear reader, to come to the backstage of the mission with me, and discover more about my mates I am living this journey with. To give you this glimpse, some days, I may ask some of them what are their thoughts about different subjects. My question of the day is:

Why are you here?

Mathéo did not hesitate for a second, he clearly wants to make a first step into astronauts’ life. He took this MDRS mission as an opportunity to get closer to his dream.

To Marine, research is part of her life, and she aims to make a living out of it. This project is a concrete and original way to get a first step into research, so she has get involved in it!

Léa also has a particularly clear idea of her motivations. The operational aspect of crewed flights is what she is keen on, and analogs are an efficient way to understand the full scope of it!

Elena wants to work in human spaceflight, and in order to be a good an engineer and designer, one must think as an astronaut, and she is taking this mission as an opportunity to walk in astronauts shoes!

Sol 0 – The day of the firsts

Author: Nicolas Wattelle

Good evening everyone. I am Nicolas, and I will the journalist for Crew 263, performing a 3 weeks analog mission in the Mars Desert Research Station, that has just started.

This day was the day of the firsts. First breakfast, first reports, first dehydrated food, first everything on Mars.

This morning, we finished our MDRS training with our instructor, focused on EVAs and the principles of sim. On the menu: allocation of our spacesuits, presentation of surrounding terrain maps, test of the rovers. This was very exciting, mainly regarding the potential of our outdoor experiments incoming (especially Marine and Lea for their geological field study, and Matheo for the Astronaut Search and Rescue experiment).

Then, the sim concretely began. We wanted to make this moment memorable, so we took the traditional group picture in front of the Hab before closing the airlock, marking symbolically the beginning of the simulation. At this point, we deeply discussed about our personal expectations for this mission, and wishing each other, three amazing weeks of collaborative work.

Then, all the firsts took places.

The first experiments. This was spirited : after working a whole year preparing them, we are now able to perform them! Marine took charge of the Solar Musk telescope, Cerise began her water quality evaluation, Mathéo and I prepared the gravistropism experiment in the GreenHab… Elena literally sent us in the future of space exploration, we served as subjects for her Hololens experiment: an aid for astronaut using Augmented Reality (in fact, these are large glasses projecting information over our own view, and with useful functionalities to help our experiments…). Personally, I was impressed, and I am looking forward to test it during EVAs!

The first meals. We discovered dehydrated food. Against all odds, it was really good, we were ready for much worse! We will see how it evolves through the days, I don’t want to talk too fast… And, regarding food, as proud French people, Léa and Matheo made the first loaf of bread. While I’m writing these words, we didn’t taste it yet, but it will surely be amazing! I will keep you in the loop…

The first reports. You are currently reading one of them, and I hope you are appreciating it. It is a bit stressful and we feel sometimes lost writing our words, but we will get the hang of it!

P.S: One remarkable point of this first day is the weather. This morning, the wind blew so fast that we really struggled taking our crew picture in front of the Hab. Keeping our eyes opened was a painful challenge (you may notice it one the one linked to this report, it was picked out of 20 others pictures!).

Sol 18: The conclusion – Going back to Earth

Author : Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone! This is our last report on Mars. (It won’t be the longest report I’ve made because it has been a very busy day and we are currently enjoying the best burger ever with Atila).

Let me talk to you a bit about what happened during this last Sol on Mars.

This day was the day of the lasts. Last workout, last breakfast, last EVA, last lunch, last rehydrated food, last everything on Mars.

At 3:00 PM, the same hour at which we started the simulation 3 weeks ago, we didn’t put our spacesuits on, we stepped into the front airlock, we didn’t wait 5 minutes for depressurisation, we opened the door, and just as during our first EVA, the light came into the airlock and blinded us for a moment, but this time it was the light of our dear planet Earth. It was a really weird sensation to leave the station by the same door we passed through so many times wearing our spacesuits for EVAs. This time we could feel the fresh air on our skin, hear the noises around us, talk without pressing the button of our walkie-talkie, breathing fresh air that hadn’t passed through our ventilation system, touch things with our hands and feel the contact on our skin. We took the same pictures we took on our Sol 0 before starting the sim. I think we look pretty much the same. Maybe on today’s picture we look a bit more tired, dirtier and more in shape (thanks to Julie’s workouts). You can still see in our eyes that we feel excited but it has nothing to do with the excitation we felt before starting the sim. On the Sol 0 it was the excitation of going on Mars and performing incredible experiments during 3 weeks. Today we were excited to contact our families and our friends, to see what happened on Earth during the mission, to see the reactions of people on Earth to our mission and last but not least we were excited because of the double bacon cheeseburger we are going to eat for dinner with Atila.

To conclude this last report, I am going to let my crew mates tell their favorite moment of the mission

"Julie: The games at night were a great moment to share with my crewmates. It’s the only moments when you have the right to not be serious, to not think about your work, to laugh, to get to know your partners better. These moments partly made us a real team and above all real friends.

Marion: I really enjoyed the EVAs, those were the moments where I really felt on Mars. I had never seen scenery like this, one moment you’re on Mars, the next you’re on the Moon. The views are breath-taking, every time we stopped at a viewpoint, I tried to print an image of the view in my brain to never forget it.

Maxime: The EVAs shared with my crewmates were definitely my favorite moments, we really felt we were on Mars. Each EVA was unique for me and seeing this amazing red landscape gave me incredible sensations.

Clément: There are many, but a big one was walking back into Candor Chasma for the first time since my first mission. I think it brought back a whole lot of memories from the first time I went there, and it reminded me of how awesome it was to be there at MDRS again!

François: My favorite moment was certainly the end of the day, when all crew members just sat and talked about their day, after all the work done. We could finally rest a little bit and enjoy talking and joking with each other.

For my part, it has been a pleasure to write those daily reports during those 3 weeks and I hope you enjoyed them. Don’t forget, there will be a bonus episode of "Interview with" when we will be back on Earth with Raphael, our Botanist who couldn’t make it to Mars with us.

Sol 14: Interview with: Astronomer – The man who protects us from the Sun

Author: Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone welcome back! In today’s report we are going to talk with Maxime, our astronomer! I’ve been waiting for this episode of “Interview with” for a long time I hope you will enjoy it!

But before starting this cool interview, let’s talk about what happened during this Sol 14 on Mars.

Today was the first day of our last week on Mars. To be perfectly honest today was quite hard. It was the comeback of human factors experiment (and of the terrible « shape test » of the University of Lorraine), but also the comeback of another enemy, the routine. I haven’t talked to you about routine so far but I think it becomes important now. The first reason for this omission is that I try to make the reports I write entertaining so I don’t want to talk to you about the things we do every day. Another reason is that even us, have really noticed the side effect of routine only recently.

At the beginning of the mission, routine was the perfect ally, it allowed us to be efficient in setting all our experiments which took us a long time. Every day was made of new goals: repairing the 3D printer, first mapping with drones, installation of the LOAC experiment, recycle water for the first time, … But now that our experiments are all set, our work is composed of tasks we perform every day mechanically and it is now hard to distinguish one afternoon from another. With all the fatigue accumulated since the beginning of the mission, it is sometimes hard to find the motivation required to work and the need for a nap after a morning of EVA is becoming more present recently. But it also means that we are being more efficient in our work and that we can now afford moments of rest during the day while keeping on doing our job.

Ok now I have to say, at least for the families, that there is nothing to worry about. I think this slump is a quite normal phenomenon after two weeks of mission. We are still motivated to do the job until the end and excited about what we are living on Mars.

I think we still feel as excited as on the very first day before going on an EVA.

This morning for example, we went to the Moon Overlook, it was the first time for Marion and me who stayed at the Hab last time. We were really amazed by the transformation of the landscape in just a couple of minutes of rover. One moment you are on Mars, surrounded by red dunes and suddenly, you teleport and you are on the Moon, everything around you is gray on kilometers. We took some really nice drone shots but they have nothing to do with the drone shots we’ve been taking since our arrival on Mars! This is one way of breaking the routine!

There are still exciting things happening in the station too! Yesterday, Julie tested the 3D printed funnel designed by Maxime and Francois to recycle water more efficiently. This night she recycled 10 times as much water as she usually does thanks to the new funnel. Now we will be able to take showers more frequently and it will definitely make this last week easier for us!

Now it is time to show you what we talked about with Maxime this afternoon! This is the “Interview with: Astronomer”!

“-Hi Maxime, how are you?

-Hi Pierre, well listen after 2 weeks of mission it’s going very well and you?

-I’m fine! Maxime, do you want to introduce yourself for those who don’t know you yet?

-Of course, my name is Maxime Jalabert and I am in my last year of the engineering cycle at the ISAE-SUPAERO engineering school. I have always been passionate about space, I got my first telescope when I was 6 years old and I spent my evenings observing the stars with my father. It was probably those moments that made me want to be an astronaut one day. In high school I was a very involved member of the astronomy club and it was natural for me to continue with higher education. So, after a Bachelor’s degree at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse I joined the engineering school ISAE-SUPAERO. I had the opportunity to be president of the M.A.R.S club which sends 7 students from the school to the MDRS where we are. As part of an internship, I worked for two months at the Cité de l’Espace as a scientific animator, and last year I was able to design an instrument for measuring the scintillation of stars and satellites from a telescope at the Centre Spatial Universitaire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice. Then, I did an ERASMUS at the University of Stockholm where I followed courses in astrophysics and astronomy. And next semester I’m going to Yale University still in the US to work on space propulsion. As you can see, it was natural for me to apply for this MDRS mission, especially for the role of astronomer.

-Wow, what a background! So, you are the astronomer of this crew, can you explain what is your job during this mission?

-You have to know that Mars does not have a magnetosphere that deflects charged particles from the Sun like the Earth does. My role as an astronomer is therefore to analyse solar activity in order to be able to plan or not plan extravehicular sorties because these charged particles are lethal for us human beings. The shield of the station protects us, but our suits are too thin to provide lasting protection. Strong activity of the Sun results in the presence of visible solar flares on the surface, so my role is to analyse them.

-We didn’t have such issue so far but thanks for protecting us from the Sun! Maxime, you also have an astrophotography project and a research project, can you tell us more?

-Yes, when I’m not on a spacewalk or analysing the Sun I spend my time on these two projects. My research project focuses on the search for supaernovae. The method is simple: for a given galaxy I photograph it several times at different time intervals, I then study the evolution of the luminous flux of the galaxy and if it increases I can then superpose the shots to find the supernova. The method is simple but with about 30 galaxies studied the probability of finding a supernova in 3 weeks is only about 2%. My astrophotography project consists in taking pictures of known objects like the Orion Nebula. After processing, I will use these photos to popularize science, especially in my former high school in my hometown, Limoux. The aim is to transmit my passion for space and maybe even give young students the desire to pursue higher education.

-And what is your favourite project?

-I think I get more pleasure from astrophotography. The infinitely far away has always fascinated me and I still feel a sense of wonder when I see the different pictures taken through the telescopes. Then the idea of transmitting this feeling to people who are more or less sensitive to space through these pictures I find very beautiful somehow.

-Ok I think I understand why. And on another subject, why did you choose to take part in an analog mission?

-The first dream I had as a child was to become an astronaut and to be honest, I still do. So, the MDRS mission was an opportunity to put yourself in the shoes of an astronaut for a certain period of time, while doing some great science. I think, especially the study of human factors in a hostile environment like the Martian environment. In addition to this, we can achieve good communication, always with the aim of raising public awareness of the space world.

-What is your favourite thing about Mars?

-The spacewalks are probably my favourite thing about Mars. The preparation before the spacewalk with the increasing heart rate, the tension when putting on the spacesuits and finally the accomplishment of the opening of the depressurisation airlock with the red Martian desert as far as the eye can see gives me a very strong feeling. Each EVA is a unique experience for me.

-Do you miss Earth sometimes?

-Of course, I miss it, but I think we’ve all prepared for it. On Earth I’m lucky enough to have access to everything in a very short time, whether it’s food we take the car or we walk to the supermarket. If you need information, you get out your phone and look it up on the internet. On Mars that’s not possible, we make do with what we have and it’s quite a challenge when you’ve been lucky enough to live in this societal luxury. I sincerely think that I have taken a step back on my everyday life on Earth and I am happy to have received this sensitivity to our society of overconsumption. Most importantly, I usually talk to my family several times a week and to my friends. Not hearing from them is not easy every day but that’s the part of the game. I really look forward to meeting them at the end of the mission and telling them about this great adventure.”

That’s it for today’s interview, I hope you enjoyed it! The next episode will be “Interview with: Journalist”. I still don’t know how to interview myself but we will come up with something. Stay tuned if you don’t want to miss this next episode of “Interview with”!

Sol 16: Interview with: Journalist – How to share our experience with people on Earth?

Author: Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone, welcome! Today we are going to do the “Interview with: Journalist”. My crewmates have prepared questions for me and I can’t wait to answer them!

But before, as always, let’s talk about what happened during this Sol 16 on Mars.

We are going to do that quickly today because there is not a lot of time left before the end of the communication window – time has caught up to me as I wrote the interview! Moreover, this was a fairly quiet day.

This morning, Maxime, François, and Clément went to explore the South of the station for once. They went to the region called Kissing Camels. According to them, the south is really beautiful in its Martian style. They climbed a ridge and they found a beautiful view. There was a lot of wind today and they were a bit scared that the winds could get high enough to knock over scientific equipment, but the weather stayed true to the forecast in the weather report yesterday, so they had nothing to fear. They also found some petrified wood. I personally don’t know much about that subject but it is really beautiful to see.

This afternoon, Marion, our crew scientist, made a lot of videos about our experiments. Now I can tell you that videos of “Interview with” and “Focus on” will be released on our YouTube channel when we will be back on Earth. I think it will be very interesting. Marion will work on the “Focus on” part and I will do the “Interview with” part, we can’t wait to edit and show you those videos.

Now it is time for the “Interview with”! Clément, as he was the crew’s Journalist two years ago, will start this interview. I hope you will enjoy it!

“Clément: Hi Pierre! How are you today?

Pierre: Fine thank you! It feels a bit weird to be on the other side and become the one who has to answer the questions!

Clément: Ok so first, can you introduce yourself to those who don’t know you yet?

Pierre: I see that you’ve learned the format of the “Interview with”! Ok so, my name is Pierre Fabre and I’m the Crews 240’s journalist! I’m an engineering student at ISAE-SUPAERO. I have done an Erasmus at Escuela Politécnica de Madrid in Data Science and Machine Learning. During my gap year, I’ve done an internship as a research assistant at LAAS-CNRS, a French lab, in control theory on the subject of event-based command for nonlinear systems.

When we come back on Earth, I will do another internship at Safran, in Paris, in Model Predictive Control. For my last year at ISAE-SUPAERO, I want to specialise in control theory and autonomous systems. In my future work, I would like to associate control theory with reinforcement learning for applications that make sense for me, that help people in their daily lives. Apart from that, I love climbing, especially bouldering. I can’t wait for next semester to go to Fontainebleau in Paris which is kind of a paradise on Earth for bouldering.

Clément: Pierre, as you said in your introduction, you are the journalist of this crew, can you explain what is your job.

Pierre: Ok so, basically the journalist has to send a daily journalist’s report to the MDRS’s staff. This implies going to talk to every crew member to ask them how they feel, what they did during the day, how their experiments are doing. These are the basics. In addition to that, I also have to translate my reports into French every day and send them to Earth. Then, our colleagues on Earth post the reports in both languages on our website and they do posts on social media with the pictures.

Julie: Hi Pierre! I wanted to ask you: Why did you choose to apply for the role of Journalist?

Pierre: Hi Julie! That is a good question! I think that Journalist is an important role. It is important for people on Earth because thanks to the reports, they can follow our mission and share this unique experience with us. It is important for the families who want to have news from us and know how the mission goes. But it is also important for us because it allows us to describe how we feel and what we are doing here which is something we can only do through the reports! I felt attracted by this responsibility and in the meantime, I think I kind of like to write and tell stories!

Maxime: Hi Pierre! I wanted to know: What is your favourite part of the job?

Pierre: Hi Maxime! Hmmm, that is a hard one! I think what I like the most is doing the “Interview with” and the “Focus on” formats. I love “Interview with” because it is a really nice opportunity to talk with every crew member one by one. This can seem a little weird but it is true, there are not tons of occasions like that where you are only two in the same room. The interview itself is really cool and I love to share them with you because it allows you to know us better, but the conversations we have off-camera are even better because we can talk honestly about the issues we deal with, how we feel, and sometimes it allows me to help make things better if I can.

I also love the “Focus on” format for the reasons we talked about in yesterday’s report. I think this mission is a really nice opportunity to talk about Mars, Space, and Science in general to a wide audience and I love the idea that some people might learn things reading my reports.

Marion: Hi Pierre! And what is the most difficult part of the job?

Pierre: Hi Marion! Another hard one! I have once again two answers in mind! The first one is the fact that my days are kind of shifted compared to the other crew members. Let me explain. It is hard to talk about what happened during the day before the day is over. I have to wait until the end of the afternoon before thinking about the construction of the first part of the report (the second part, “Interview with” and “Focus on” episodes are made sooner in the day so they are not really a problem).

So, this means that most of the time my work for the first part of the report and the translation starts when my crewmates end their day and start chilling. This can be very frustrating because they seem to enjoy those moments of resting, discussing, laughing and I can’t share those with them.

Another difficult part is the lack of feedback. The only feedbacks are the ones from my crewmates when they want/have the time to read my reports, the ones from the MDRS staff, and the ones from our colleagues on Earth. There are, I hope, more people that read those reports and it is sometimes frustrating not to have their feedback.

François: Hi Pierre! I was wondering where does your inspiration come from?

Pierre: Hi François! Good question! Before the mission, I was really worried about the lack of inspiration, the white page syndrome. Three weeks is a lot and I wasn’t sure I would be able to find interesting topics every day. Moreover, as the days are passing there are fewer things that happen during the day, as we have noticed already, and as a consequence, fewer things to put in my reports. That’s why I created a plan before the mission. Every “Interview with” or “Focus on” episode was scheduled, I knew when I would do reports about Martian Food or Martian House.

This is a relief for me because even if I have nothing to say about the day, I still have something interesting to put in my reports! With that source of stress removed, the inspiration comes quite naturally. To be honest, I don’t think my style of writing requires a lot of inspiration, I just try to talk about what happened during the day in a way that everyone can understand and still enjoy.

Clément: Pierre, you’ve spent the last three weeks or so is our only contact to the Earth, but we didn’t have a lot of access to information from out there. How does it feel to know that in a few days, you’ll be able to see the reaction everyone on the outside has had to your work?

Pierre: Wow! I hadn’t thought about that before you asked, but I guess you know what you are talking about as a former Journalist. Let me think. I am pretty excited to see the reactions to my reports, as I said to Marion, the lack of feedback is sometimes hard to deal with, but I’m also quite nervous about it. I really don’t know what to expect, I don’t even know how many people are reading those reports.

I think it will definitely feel good if I receive positive comments on the work I’ve been putting in those reports but it will feel terribly frustrating if I read constructive comments on how to make my report better because it will be too late to do something about it. The worst scenario would be to discover that no one cares but let’s not think about it! Sorry for that messy answer but this is all I have! “

That’s it for today’s “Interview with”! It was really cool to be on the other side of the interview and my crewmates asked me some really interesting questions! I have good news for you, this was not the last episode of this format. When we will be back on Earth, I will do the last episode with Raphael, our botanist who couldn’t take off with us to Mars! I can’t wait to do this interview; it is important for me to do it!

Journalist Report: Sol 15: Focus on: Martian Agriculture – How to grow food on Mars?

Author: Pierre Fabre

February 15, 2022

Hi everyone and welcome back! In today’s report we are going to talk about Martian agriculture with Julie for this new episode of “Focus On”! I can’t wait to talk to you about those cool experiments!

But before let’s talk a bit about what happened during this Sol 15 on Mars!

This afternoon, those who hadn’t gone yesterday on the human factors experiment of the University of Lorraine had to do it. As always it was really tiring and they didn’t seem to have appreciated it. I’ve been talking to you a lot (too much maybe?) about the « shapes test » task and how terrible it was to stay focused during 15 minutes straight but today I want to be fair and talk to you about another task of that experiment. The first task is to click on the button as soon as a cross appears on the screen. It is pretty simple and the aim is to measure your reactivity. We have all noticed that we performed better before the mission and that the more tired we were, the worse the performance was. This simple example shows how relevant this experiment can be in our context and we all hope that they will be able to draw interesting conclusions thanks to our data.

To comfort them, Marion made Martian cookies for the crew and they were honestly delicious! We are starting to think about writing an entire recipe book about Martian food rather than giving you the recipes in my reports. I think it would be cool and we will let you know if the book is published one day!

After that, Marion and François took a moment to do a podcast to answer questions we had received from middle school students. Those questions were really interesting and we really thank them for having sent them. Sometimes, they were quite hard to answer and we had to discuss all together to find a satisfying answer. It is always a pleasure to use this mission and the subject of space as a way to inspire and to talk about science to students. This is something we do a lot at the Mars Club of ISAE-SUPAERO in partnership with OSE which is a social association that acts in favour of equality of chances in education. Raphael, the seventh member of the crew who was not able to take off with us, was in charge of the popularisation of science section of the Mars Club and he did an excellent job. He contacted so many teachers and went, with other members of the club, in so many middle and high schools to talk about Mars, Space and Science in general. We are really grateful for all the work he put into sharing his passion and his knowledge with students. I also see our daily reports as an opportunity to try to talk about Space and Science in general in an understandable and entertaining way so that every reader, no matter how young or knowledgeable they are, can hopefully learn something at the end of the day, at least it would make me really happy if it turns out to be the case.

Talking about learning things, it is time to start this new episode of “Focus on: Martian Agriculture”. I hope you will enjoy it! Let’s see what Julie has to say on that subject!

“-Hi Julie! Thanks for taking time to talk about your experiments with us! Can you start by introducing the startup you’ve been in contact with for this experiment?

-Toopi organics is a French start-up that specializes in collecting urine, their treatment and its use as a fertiliser. I contacted this company as I was looking for experiments about ecology and more specifically on the topic of recycling and better use of our resources. During my research, I found them and their work intrigued me. Simply put, urine can be used to enhance the growth of microorganisms. Thus, Toopi Organics developed a solution from urine creating an efficient fertiliser. For me, reusing and recycling our waste is something that makes sense on Earth but even more so for a Mars or space mission where we constantly have to consciously save our resources and think about possibilities to reuse our waste. This is why I wanted to cooperate with Toopi Organics on this topic of urine recycling for agriculture. They proposed two different experiments on this theme and helped us elaborate protocols.

-Ok cool! Let’s start with the first experiment, can you tell us more?

-The first experiment is on the topic of spirulina growth. Spirulina is a micro alga from fresh water, rich in nutrients and particularly proteins. It is also easy to cultivate locally. These last two characteristics make this alga environmentally friendly and its growth is very relevant in the context of a Martian simulation mission: easy and fast to cultivate, rich in proteins and does not take a lot of space. In this experiment, two containers are used where the spirulina is floating in a solution containing sodium bicarbonate, sea salt, iron and some stabilised and filtered urine. In the first container, the urine is diluted by a factor of 100 whereas in the second one, it is diluted by a factor of 140. The goal is to study the impact of urine for the growth of spirulina and see if a higher urine concentration will affect its growth rate. On this experiment, we had a technical problem and it has to be redone. I hope that our colleagues from Crew 263 of Supaero will be able to redo it and get great results.

-Yes, I hope too! And what about the second one?

-The second experiment is also very original. Thanks to different rovers sent on Mars, researchers have been able to reproduce Martian soil. This Martian soil is much less compatible with agriculture. It requires good fertilisers for plants to grow in and this stabilised and filtered urine could be one of them. This second experiment consists in growing soybeans in Martian soil that were previously inoculated with a solution containing the urine fertiliser. Therefore, I prepared two solutions with Toopi Organics products: one control solution as a classic fertiliser and a solution containing urine that will be used as our fertiliser of interest. In the two “control” pots, I planted soybeans inoculated with the control solution in Martian soil. In the two other pots, I planted soybeans with the urine-based fertiliser. It has been around two weeks since the beans were planted and the results are exciting. The soy beans grew in all four pots however the ones containing the urine fertiliser are growing at a faster rate. After six weeks and with the help of Crew 263 of Supaero, we will measure the length of the roots, the length of the sprout and the biomass to have quantitative results. I am already very happy with the beginning of this experiment!

-That’s so cool! Julie, thank you very much for your time, it was great to talk about those really interesting experiments with you!“

That’s it for today’s episode of “Focus on”. I hope you enjoyed it! The last episode of “Focus on” will be on drones so stay tuned not to miss it!

Sol 13: Preparation – How to prepare a Mars mission?

Hi everyone and welcome back! In today’s report, we are going to talk about the preparation for a Martian mission.

I’m not going to talk a lot about what happened during this Sol 13 because:

1. It is Sunday, so it is not a very busy day

2. It is Sunday, so I think I deserve to rest at least this afternoon.

However, I can talk to you a bit about what happened this morning.

Even on Sunday, we still have work to do on Mars. We had to change the battery of the LOAC experiment as every day. This time, Marion and Clément heroically volunteered. They took that opportunity to install two other instruments: PurpleAir and the electric field mill. From the window of the Hab, I watched them doing their job and they did it really well. They managed to successfully install those experiments which was not easy with the gloves and the spacesuits. Now, we will start gathering data for the CNRS thank to them.

After this intense morning, at least for them two, we will finally have the lunch everybody has been waiting for since the beginning of the mission: Martian Burgers. Our Commander has already started to cook the buns and I can’t wait to taste those Martian Burgers. We will make the burger patties with rehydrated beef and add some fresh cherry tomatoes from the GreenHab. Even Gordon Ramsay has never tasted something like that. We hope it won’t become an episode of Kitchen Nightmare but we feel pretty confident.

Now let’s talk about the preparation of this Martian mission.

As some of you may already know, we’ve been preparing this mission for two years now. In fact, it was supposed to be one year, but due to Covid, we weren’t able to take off last year but we managed to delay the mission to this year.

Let’s start by the beginning of this adventure. We were chosen for this mission in December 2019. A jury composed by former crew members and professors from ISAE-SUPAERO, studied our profiles and had us take an interview to determine if we would be part of the crew and for which role.

After the selection, we started the preparation of the mission. There were, in my opinion, three main objectives.

Find sponsors and collect funds to pay for the mission. Indeed, the mission has a cost and we had to collect 20000€ to pay for everything. This part was hard because we had no experience in this domain. But we learned. We sent mails to companies, we called them and sometimes they were ready to come on this adventure with us and financially support us. Here is a list of those who accepted to support us. This list does not include those related to experiments, we will talk about them later.

-CNES is the French Space Agency. We have been working with them for outreach for younger people via the Mars Club.

-Parrot, a French drone manufacturer who also lent us two ANAFI drones which we use for my drone mapping experiment.

-The Student Association of our School which accepted to support the project via the Mars Club.

-The Fondation ISAE-SUPAERO, which is very supportive for student projects.

-Sahut-Conreur, a French company interested by the use of 3D printing for metal working applications

-Acticity, an association that acts for education of young people which is a value we strongly share

-Planète Mars, the French branch of the Mars Society. They help popularise the idea of visiting Mars in the future.

-Société générale is a large French bank partner of the Student Association of our school. They are always interested in students projects.

Find experiments to bring with us on Mars. This is a very important component of the preparation. There is no interest in going on Mars if we don’t have relevant experiments to perform there. So we did our research about experiments that would be interesting for our mission and we contacted companies and labs. It was really interesting to exchange with researchers and create procedures for the mission. Thanks to our work, we have a lot of relevant experiments to talk to you about in our « Focus on » episodes. Some labs have also accepted to financially support us to bring their experiments.

-SacLab, a ISAE-SUPAERO’s lab for which we perform the TELEOP experiment

-CNRS for which we gather data with LOAC, PurpleAir, the electric field mill and soon Mega-ARES.

-The University of Lorraine for which we perform, not without pain, the human factor experiment that includes the terrible « shapes test ».

And last objective, but not least: become a real crew. This includes:

-Get to know each other

-Learn to work together

-Learn to rely on the crew

This is really important when you are planning on going to another planet with 6 other people you don’t know yet. For that purpose, we have been meeting every week for two years. Once again, COVID complicated everything and we had to meet most of the times on Zoom. Despite that, I think we still managed to create a team spirit and I think that now we are all very good friends!

This preparation was like a marathon, you have to stay focused during two years and never lose your motivation. The second year, after the rescheduling, was the worst. It was hard to go back on working on a mission that was already prepared. On top of that, the borders between Europe and the USA were still closed so we were starting to work again towards a mission we still didn’t know if we could do. Yet we persevered, and despite the setbacks we’ve made it all the way there on Mars, and in the end that means all the work was worth it. Sure, we’ve all changed a little after a year of delay, either from our experiences of work and studies, or simply in our outlook of what this mission means to us, but the joy of getting to work on a mission we worked so hard for is still the very same.

Sol 12: Focus on: 3D printing – How to repair or construct things on Mars.

Author : Pierre Fabre

Hi everyone, welcome back for a new episode of “Focus on”! In today’s episode we are going to talk about 3D printing with Maxime. It is going to be super cool!

But, as always, we are going to talk about what happened on Mars during this Sol 12.

First, as today was a Saturday, we didn’t have sports this morning for the same reasons as last week. I think it is worth mentioning it because it felt so good to stay in bed a little longer. Everyone looked happier and smelled definitely better than usual at breakfast.

Then, the day was similar to a week day. On Mars, we work on Saturdays!

We started this day by an EVA. As I told you yesterday, we went back to the Special Region to do drone mapping. This time, Marion and I, who stayed at the Hab yesterday, were part of the team and Maxime was our EVA leader.

We started our EVA, as usual, by changing the battery from the LOAC experiment. Then we made a first stop at the crossroad with Galileo Road. I wanted to map the part of the Hab Ridge situated after the North Ridge for my drone mapping experiment. Everything went well and I will soon have a beautiful 3D map to analyse. I’m starting to be more efficient and confident with the drones and it is very satisfying. Even if I never told you before, I think you can easily imagine that manipulating and operating a drone with a spacesuit and gloves is not easy at all. Next week, we are going to do another round of comparing how my crewmates perform on this terrain regarding whether or not they have the 3D map. The episode of “Focus on: Drone mapping” in which I am going to explain you everything is coming soon so stay tuned!

After this stop, we kept going North with the rovers until reaching the Special Region. It was pretty similar to the description our crewmates gave us, except that in reality it was a lot more impressive and beautiful. We were really amazed by the view we had from the top of the Ridge. I took some really nice drone pictures and videos up there. We will definitely find a way to show you those cool videos when we will be back on Earth I promise, but you can already have a taste with the photos.

It was a 4-hour long EVA, the longest ever made in this crew, and we were very tired when we came back. When we went upstairs after leaving our spacesuits, we had the best surprise you can expect when coming back from an EVA like this. Our lovely crew mates had cooked fried rice, a lot of fried rice. It was the best thing I’ve tasted since my arrival on Mars (yes, better than the famous Martian Pizza). If some of you want the recipe, I can ask my Commander and put it in a next report. (I will probably do it anyway as I will not receive your feedbacks).

This afternoon was a pretty calm one. Some crew members, including me, took that opportunity to take a well-deserved shower. On Mars, we don’t take shower as frequently as on Earth. The average time between two showers in the crew is one week. Now you start to understand why I said before that we usually smell bad at breakfast. As mentioned in the “Focus on: Water on Mars” episode, water on Mars is even more precious than on Earth so we have to use it carefully!

This afternoon, our team of 3D printing engineers, Maxime and François, finally managed to print the piece to assemble the base and the mast of the Mega-ARES experiment. This was a very long journey with lots of ups and downs. Thanks to their hard work, we will soon be able to assemble the experiment during an EVA and start gathering precious data for CNRS.

Talking about 3D printing, it is time to start this new episode of “Focus on” with Maxime! Let’s see what we talked about!

“-Hi Maxime! How are you today?

-Super thank you!

-Maxime, I asked you to do this episode of “Focus on: 3D printing” because you are in charge of a 3D printing experiment. But first let me ask you something. Why is 3D printing relevant for space application?

-As you know, on a space mission we are isolated and it is very difficult to have new objects from the Earth. On Mars, if we break our hammer, we have to wait 6 months before getting a new one. That is why we use 3D printing. We are able to build and replace any objects to optimize our experiments for example. In the International Space Station, there is a 3D printer, and the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet used it to print… a fork!

Moreover, the European Space Agency is working on new printers able to print buildings on the Moon from the lunar regolith. Hopefully, we will be able to see them working at the end of the decade.

-Ok I see, it is very convenient! And now, can you explain what is the objective of your experiment?

-Through the composite repairing in a frugal context we want to demonstrate the relevance of the use of additive fabrication in space applications. This project is held by Pr. Yves Gourinat, professor of Mechanical Engineering and Structures at ISAE-SUPAERO.

In our context of a Martian Life Simulation, we had to choose a printer according to the trio Volume – Mass – Energy, the main parameters of space exploration. Thanks to our school, we are able to use the 3D printer « Creality CR-10 Series V2 » which respects the parameters below.

The first operation consists in repairing an impacted carbon structure. During an EVA, I saw a small impact on our HAB. On Mars, this one can lead to a leak and put us in danger in the station. With the software AutoDesk Fusion 360, I designed a fitting piece and printed it with our 3D-printer with the help of our engineer François. Obviously, we are not allowed to modify the Hab but with this experiment we are able to prove the relevance of a 3D-printer for a space application.

-Ok nice! And do you use the 3D printer for other purposes?

-As I mentioned at the beginning you can use the 3D-printer for many reasons. On our side we used the 3D-printer twice.

Our HSO Julie aka July works on a recycling water experiment and she asked me to participate by printing a specific funnel for her new dispositive named « Dudish » in the memory of our Botanist Raphaël, who couldn’t come to MDRS.

And Clément asked me to print a piece to maintain the mast of the instrument Mega-Ares.

-Wow, so cool! There are so many applications of 3D printing, I’m not surprised that some people want to use it in space application! Maxime, thank you very much for your time, it is a really cool experiment that you have and I enjoyed talking about it with you!”

That’s it for today’s “Focus on” episode I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! I also hope you learned something about 3D printing. If you like this format, stay tuned because another episode is coming soon!

Sol 11: Interview with: Engineer – The man who keeps the station in one piece

Hi everyone! Today is a new episode of “Interview with”. We are going to talk with François, our crew engineer I’ve been mentioning multiple times as our hero. I can’t wait to show you what we talk about but before, let’s talk a bit about this Sol 11 on Mars.

Today, we realised that we are closer to the end of this mission than we are to its beginning. For some members of the crew, it’s good news because they miss their families and friends and are becoming nostalgic about life on Earth. Apart from that, the crew is doing well, everyone is healthy and in good shape. This was mostly for the families who are reading this report, there is nothing to worry about.

For her second time as EVA leader, Julie decided to explore a very mysterious region of the surroundings of the station. This region is located far north from the station and it is called: the Special Region. Even on our map, the zone is partially hidden by red stripes that give it a forbidden aspect. My crewmates decided to go there to find out what was truly there with the idea of potentially going back tomorrow to map the area with the drone if it was worth it. They went as close as they could by the road with the rovers. Then, they climbed on a ridge and were amazed by the view. If you looked to one side of the ridge, you could see a really narrow canyon that would be very interesting to 3D map. If you then looked to the other side of the ridge, the landscape was now made of dunes with beautiful red colours. They climbed down the ridge and started to explore the canyon. I can’t wait to go there tomorrow to map the area with the drone and see this incredible view from the ridge with my own eyes!

In the meantime, Marion and I stayed at the Hab and performed the TELEOP experiment. I’m starting to appreciate to teleoperate this rover on the moon: going to a particular zone, grabbing a sample and docking it to the lander. It is pretty similar to a video game! It is definitely funnier that the « shape test » from the experiment of the University of Lorraine. But they are both really interesting human factors experiments.

Talking about the « shape test », those who were spared yesterday had to do it this afternoon. It is pretty funny to see them walk into their room full of life and joy and leaving it dead inside. I’m not exaggerating (ok maybe a bit), this is really hard when you are as tired as we are. But this was the last day, there won’t be human factors experiments this weekend and that is such good news.

Today we had also good news from the GreenHab. First, the soy beans Julie planted some days ago are starting to grow and we can already see a green thing making its way out of the soil. It was the first thing she had ever planted so she was really excited when she discovered it this morning. She has also recently put the Spirulina in the two solutions I talked about in a previous report. We hope the Spirulina will grow well and that we will see the difference between the two solutions which have, as you already know, two different concentrations of filtered and stabilised urine. It is fine if you don’t remember, we will do an episode of « Focus on » to talk in more details about this cool experiment, so stay tuned!

Maxime, our astronomer, also managed to find time to edit some observations we received from the telescope of New-Mexico during the night. He turned those observations of M-42, the object he made the telescope point at, into a really amazing picture. He will soon be able to explain you better than me his work as an astronomer in the next episode of « Interview with ».

But today it’s François’ turn! Let’s see what we talked about this afternoon in the RAM!

“-Hi François how are you? Can you introduce yourself for those who don’t know you yet?

-Yes sure! I am 21 years old, I am a student in aerospace engineering at Supaero, in France. I am currently doing a double degree in engineering physics at KTH, an engineering school in Stockholm, Sweden. In my curriculum, I also did an internship at the German Space Agency (DLR) on the optimization of rocket trajectories. And apart from my curriculum, I really like climbing and mountaineering.

-Ok cool! So, in the crew you are the Engineer, can you explain what does that means?

-My role is divided into 3 parts. The first consists of daily checks of the functioning of the station. We try to live as much as possible on our own resources or at least in the short circuit which implies having a total trust in the devices that surround us. I therefore check the water level every day in the tanks, the production of electricity, the level of charge of the suits and rovers, the filling of the toilets…
Then I have to fix everything that misbehaves in the station. A poor quality of water or air involves a change of filters… Right now, I work on the batteries of the suits that seem to work badly. I have access to the RAM (Repair and Assembly Module) where many devices are at my disposal to try to adjust these problems (multimeter, soldering iron…). But let me reassure you, most of the time, the station is fully functional.
Finally, and this is the part I prefer, I help other crew members in their personal experiments. I had to repair a 3D printer with Maxime for his experiment, help Julie make a water recycling system…

-Wow this is cool! And what is your favourite part of the job?

-My favourite part is without hesitation the last of which I have just talked to you about, the one where I help the others in their experiments. The repair of the 3D printer is in particular a good memory. We spent 2 days with Maxime to disassemble and repair it, replace defective parts and see it again functioning was very satisfactory.

-And is there something you don’t like in your job?

-What I like the least in my activities may be the repetition of my activities with all the daily checks that are repeated and especially the emptying of the toilet. However, it is necessary so I do it with a good heart (and I especially hope that the crew will get me a burger after the mission for all the times I emptied the toilet). I think that the feeling of being useful to the crew and to a smooth running of the mission is an increasingly important motivation for me, as the mission advances. Indeed at the beginning of the mission, it is the excitement that motivates, realizing new tasks being always enjoyable. But the more the mission is moving, the more important it is to have a lasting motivation for the daily tasks.

-We will definitely offer you a burger when we come back on Earth, you deserve it! On a more personal subject, why did you choose to participate in a MDRS mission?

-I chose to participate in this analogue mission to approach even more the field of space exploration. During the 2 years of preparation, I had to discuss with many researchers, inquire about inhabited flights and Martian exploration missions … It was very beneficial for me. I also think that this mission is a good way to help the research at our level. We participate in experiments of laboratories on human factors which study our psychological and physiological evolution during the mission. I hope the data gathered will be relevant and will help them in their work.

-I hope too! Thank you very much for your time, it was a very cool interview and thank you one more time for the work you do every day in the station!”

That’s it for the interview with our Engineer, I hope you enjoyed it! Remember that next time it will be Maxime’s turn so stay tuned!