Category: Journalist Report

1 Nov 2019 Sol 5 Journalist Report
by Sandy Dance
Last night was a very warm night, largely due to the filter in the heater having been changed yesterday, allowing it run far more efficiently. Today is a very normal day, we have settlled into a routine, the various science projects now proceeding apace.
For instance: at breakfast, lunch and dinner, Dianne our nutrition scientist is beavering away studying the total nutrient loss from food waste. Consequently she carefully weighs our dirty dishes and cooking pots, and again after they are clean and finds the difference. Its a remarkably painstaking task, and also requires a lot of data entry. Its really interesting how much food is wasted, in preparation, plate waste and spoilage. So far total waste is 31 gm per person per day. Total calories wasted all up is 400 calories per day for the group! This would be a significant loss on Mars.
The other major science project, the micrometeorite study, had a big step forward this afternoon. Andrew and Dianne went on EVA and finished the 10 metre grid installation, and began the magnetic sweep. They managed the first two squares (2 m^2) and got a lot of magnetic particles. We are cock a hoop with this development, although since the particles are so tiny, its hard to tell whether they are volcanic magnetite or micrometeorites. It requires a microscope to make the distinction: the meteorites should be spherical, the magnetite shards. We await the chance to have a look.
So after a relaxing meal of chicken, kidney beans, rice and vegetables, we settle back for the evening.

Crew 214 Journalist Report
Thursday 31st Oct Sol 4
by Sandy Dance

A bit of a focus shift this morning when we realised we were using more water than we should be. So we sat around the table discussing how to reduce our water consumption: washing hands with sanitizer, washing dishes less often, keeping the vegetable rehydration water for future uses, washing ourselves even less often (we’re all in this together, so hopefully won’t notice!).

Andrew and I went out on an EVA this morning to install the string grid for the micrometeorite experiment in the location selected yesterday. This was a lot of fun, sticking satay sticks in the soft ground at the 4 corners of the grid, running 4 pieces of 10 metre string around the square, then the sticks at each 1 metre step around it. Fun until one skein of string decided to ravel into a hopeless knot, which took ages to unravel, in gloves. A lesson for Mars, find a way of controlling balls of string.

Anyway, it was a great success, we completed a good percentage of the grid as we expected, and were able to move onto the next exercise: running a magnet over a local anthill to see if the local rocks were magnetic. They weren’t, which should help the integrity of the micrometeorite experiment. We then moved to another location which had a line of sight back to the Hab and successfully sent a heliograph signal: a mirror flash.

Handy if all other forms of comms fail, if a little impractical.

The afternoon was spent in kick-back mode after our exertions, albeit including a bout of tying down more eyelets in the tarpaulins covering the tunnels.

Today David returned to the trailer outside the hub (or blasted off in the returning shuttle); it is a shame to lose my fellow vegetarian and his benign presence.

Wed 30 oct Sol 3
After a particularly cold night we wake to a clear sunny day. This is in some ways our first ‘normal’ day, we have finished bedding in and training up, now for normal life, on Mars.
We have recieved CapCom permission to have an EVA in the afternoon, so we will spend the morning preparing for that. In the meantime, good news, food arrived from Hanksville, however not including the milk and pasta we were hanging out for.
So the morning was spent tying loops on bits of string for use out in the field, as a grid reference system for the micrometeroite experiment. This consists of a 10 metre by 10 metre grid in 1 metre steps. A magnet is used to attract meteorites, if any, from the ground, and the total from each square metre is bagged for offline study. Sounds simple, but executing all these steps in suits can be quite tricky.
In the morning others were busy tying down the tarpaulins sheltering the ‘tunnels’ that connect the various parts of the MDRS campus. This is necessary due to the occasional high winds in these parts. Maybe not such a problem on Mars since the atmosphere is about 1% the density of ours, the gale in ‘The Martian’ movie notwithstanding.
In the afternoon an expedition of 3 Martians and 2 rovers headed north up the track to suss out which of four potential meteorite sites were best for setting up the grid. Out in the backblocks they came across a cougar print, not exactly to be expected on Mars, but a fascinating finding anyway!

Tuesday 29 Oct Sol 2
Journalist: Sandy Dance

After a relatively warm night, we awake to light cloud, the rising sun striking pinks and whites off the surrounding hills.
This was the day we were expecting our first EVA, but due to forecast high winds, it was unfortunately cancelled.
Nevertheless, the morning was productively spent trying on the spacesuits for the first time. There are two types, the one-piece exploration suits, and the two-piece suits. We all stand around while David shows how they work, the protocols around the charging of them, unplugging, radios and how to wear them, etc. We try them on, lots of pushing and shoving, adjusting of straps, and finally, feeling comfortable: ready to step out on to the Martian surface!
Later, around lunchtime, we hear the good news that we are cleared for EVA, so expect to try out the suits around the hab and in the rovers this afternoon.

So indeed, later we had our first foray outside in the suits. How exciting as the minutes counted down in the airlock, before finally emerging onto the ‘surface’! Even better, we get to travel in the ATVs, cute electric cars that lurch over the landscape at what feels like high speed.

We finally get to a turnoff and get out, with some difficulty, in our suits. Out here the feeling of isolation is intense, barren hills marching off into the distance. We stumble over the rough ground intersected by shallow watercourses and scrub, and anomalously find the odd cowpat, or something pat. Nevertheless the illusion of actually being on Mars is almost complete, its quite a deep
experience: this is what it would feel like!

Monday 28th October Sol 1

After a freezing night (literally) we awake to a cold but clear day. The mountain to the south (Henry Mountains) is wreathed in cloud, and shows a glazing of snow. Today is our first day ‘on Mars’! This takes a bit of psychological adjustment.

We congratulate each other on a successful ‘journey’, and get on with the day. This is mainly about bedding in systems: getting the radios working, making equipment for the micrometeorite experiment, setting up the fire blanket for the kitchen.

The radios were a bit of a mess, with a number not working in different ways, but we were able to get a working minimum set functioning eventually.

Today we are expecting our 5th team member, David, to arrive, or ‘descend in the latest shuttle’. David is very experienced in the MDRS, so will be able to train us up in the use of the suits, etc.

The afternoon shift was spent working on equipment for the micrometeorite expedition, tying and marking string in 1 metre lengths for the grid to be set up later in the field.
After another delicious re-constituted meal, we move onto the CapCom reports and wind up the day.

Journalist Report October 27

Journalist: Sandy Dance

After travelling the world the team members finally assemble and meet each other, mostly for the first time, at the Days Inn in Grand Junction Colorado. We spend an afternoon buying all those last minute things we require for 2 or 4 weeks in the wilderness. And incidentally get to know each other.

We are a good team: Diane the nutritionist, Andrew the geologist, Sandy the IT and generalist, and our Commander Guy, the heritage consultant. Unfortunately the 5th person we were expecting had a medical withdrawal and couldn’t make it. Luckily Shannon was able to donate one of her interns to the team, David who studies mechatronics at Peru University.

That afternoon we drive the 2 ½ hours to Hanksville. There we meet up with Shannon in the hot and dusty little, but strangely attractive town. This is at the Rock Shop run by one Cathy, a funky little place with a vast array of geological specimens, especially dinosaur coprolites!

Finally we drive to the MRDS down a dusty little track winding around barren hillocks and crazy shaped rocks, turn a corner, and there it is: the Mars habitat.

We spend the rest of the time shifting supplies into the hab and tidying things up.

After a knockup meal, we collapse into bed, each with our tiny but lovable “stateroom”.

Sunday 27th October

We wake at 7am for a hearty breakfast of coffee, tea and porridge, then knuckle down to a morning of cleaning the hab and base, charging and preparing the spacesuits, checking the radios, rearranging the furniture, and moving rubbish from around the hab out of site.

The weather turns cold, cloudy and windy, not like yesterday.

Guy and I manage to skive off at one point and take a walk up the hill, something we can do today as we are not yet in ‘sim’. The walk up is over a hard crust of clay lying on top of very soft and dry clay powder. Our footsteps break through if we’re not careful, we don’t want to leave a permanent trace. The surface is rendered by rain and drought into a sort of elephants hide of minute erosion texture. We make it to the top and are greeted with a magnificent panorama around the horizon: eroded hills, buttes, mountains in the distance, all in a palette of pinks, greys and greens. One feature, Factory Butte, looks like its name, but with a skirt of eroded scree at 45 degrees.

Another knockup meal, lunch prepared from the dry goods (we are going to get used to this): cheesy dumplings with thick soup, just the thing!

Journalist’s Report

Saturday 26th October

After travelling the world the team members finally assemble and meet each other, mostly for the first time, at the Days Inn in Grand Junction Colorado. We spend an afternoon buying all those last minute things we require for 2 or 4 weeks in the wilderness. And incidentally get to know each other.

We are a good team: Dianne the nutritionist, Andrew the geologist, Sandy the IT and generalist, and our Commander Guy, the heritage consultant. Unfortunately the 5th person we were expecting had a medical withdrawal and couldn’t make it. Luckily Shannon was able to donate one of her interns to the team, David who studies mechatronics at the National University of Colombia.

That afternoon we drive the 2 ½ hours to Hanksville. There we meet up with Shannon in the hot and dusty little, but strangely attractive town. This is at the Rock Shop run by one Cathy, a funky little place with a vast array of geological specimens, especially dinosaur coprolites!

Finally we drive to the MDRS down a dusty little track winding around barren hillocks and crazy shaped rocks, turn a corner, and there it is: the Mars habitat.

We spend the rest of the time shifting supplies into the Hab and tidying things up.

After a knock-up meal, we collapse into bed, each with our tiny but lovable “stateroom”.

Today was Sol 11.

We undertook a morning EVA, the idea was the test the suits for the suitability whilst undertaking exploration of another planet. This was aimed at looking at oxygen in the blood after exercise, therefore the EVA was walking up to a ridge such as would be typical for explorations in the future.

Afterwards the crew members continued on with their individual’s projects. There was progress in processing the Eastern Veil Nebula photos, soy bacteria was grown in petri dishes this is for a logically first step identification method, in the radiation bacteria project 1 lettuce has sprouted and finally, the rover revival has continued where now 2 out of 4 wheels are functional, there is hope that it will make one EVA before the end of sim.

Due to poor weather most of the Crew stayed within the Hab today. Therefore, the group made cookies and prepped the pizza dough for Shannon’s arrival tomorrow.

Today was Sol 10.

This morning there was an EVA taken by two crew members who went to Marble ritual. The aim of the EVA was to continue on with drone testing. However, during the testing of the search and recover function with a dummy aeroplane, there was a take-off failure.

After the EVA, maintenance work was done on the Hab. The water pump was changed to prevent further leaking. After the installation the pressure increased enough to activate the hot water in the boiler. In addition the water filter was changed.

There was progress made on the processing of the all the photos of the pelican nebula and the robotic telescope finished the observations on the Western Veil Nebula. Poor weather prevented further observations in the solar telescopes. Work progresses on revising the rover, a final attempt will be made with a 2am conference tonight with the UK.

The crew continued on with their group problem solving game.

For outreach a space outfit was made for a Barbie to encourage women in STEM fields with a university in the UK.

Finally, the crew prepared homemade bread and pizza, harvesting tomatoes for both bruschetta and margarita pizza.