Sol 7: Busy, busy, busy!
Sunday dawned a gorgeous, sunny day. Well, I say dawned, but really, we had a slower start to the day, given Sunday is our day off. After a bit of a late night on Sol 6, all the Mangalyatri crew opted for a bit of a sleep-in. We had leftover bread, fruits, and cereal for breakfast (well, brunch), and discussed our upcoming EVA. Daniel also headed straight for the Science Dome to continue his experiments.
Annalea and Bharti were both thinking of trying out the one-piece suits, rather than the two-piece suits, so we decided to fit them early to save time when preparing to leave for our EVA. They both greatly enjoyed the one-piece suits and quickly had them adjusted for their size. So back on the charge the suits went, until it was time for our EVA.
After a quick bite to eat, the EVA team started to get ready. It was a speedy donning of the suits, as all the adjustments had already been made, and we were excited to get in the field. This EVA took us just south of Cowboy Corner to a ridge that has been interpreted as a palaeochannel. There, we explored various palaeochannel signatures such as cross-bedding and great examples of upward fining. We also found another bed of concretions, but these were much smaller than any previously observed by the crew members. There were still remnants of snow on the northern side of the ridge, despite the warmth of the day, and we were glad to have rugged up a little bit before heading out.
Back at the Hab, Mehnaz, our GreenHab officer, read some more about evapotranspiration for her research, as well as check on her research plants to see them sprout! Mehnaz also misted the plants in the GreenHab to ensure they didn’t wilt too much during the day. Aditya has been working away with the remote telescope and showed us his image of the Pac-Man Nebula and has also got data to process for an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy. He has submitted another request to image the Crab Nebula tonight, and we’re all anxiously waiting to see his processed images of these gorgeous celestial objects. Rajvi continued to be a stunning Crew Engineer and worked away to better understand the systems in the Hab and test Suit 6 which was not running properly, so it needs troubleshooting before it can be taken out again.
Daniel kept working away on his experiments in the Science Dome after successfully doing a PCR and gel electrophoresis this morning. By this afternoon, he had conducted another PCR targeting biogeochemical cycling genes for the same DNA from the soil sample and is awaiting a gel to finish. Daniel continued his DNA extractions on soil collected on today’s EVA too. He’s a busy biologist!
We got some additional afternoon excitement when seeing some Earthlings paragliding in the thin Martian atmosphere. We’re all just pleased they didn’t come too close to us!
Feeling like a bee … busy,
Clare Fletcher (292 Mangalyatri Journalist)
GreenHab Report – February 11th
GreenHab Officer: Mehnaz Jabeen
Environmental control: heater on , fan off , door close
Average temperature
6:30: 70. 1 F, 27%
14:00 : 97.2 F, 15%
17:30: 77.8 F, 26 %
Hours of supplemental light: 22:00 – 02:00
Daily water usage for crops: 7 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0.2 gallon
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 152.8 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 14:11 : mist , 17:30 : water
Changes to crops: None
Narrative:
Sol 7 started early, I went to the GreenHab three times to do my usual duties. The Weather condition inside the hab was comfortable and warm. I Checked the moisture levels of each crops in the morning and they were all the same as usual. Following are the moisture levels :
1. Tomatoes, Cress, Pea : 60-70%
2. Cucumbers, Oregano, sage, Dalli, Cilantro, Cives: 80 %
3. Basil : 40-80%, Parsley: 90%, Red Cabbage 70-80%
4. Radish 70-75%, Corn Salad, Dutch Lettuce: 80%
5. Onion, Broccoli, Arugula, Carrots, Kale : 70- 90%
In the afternoon around 14:00 the moisture levels slightly depleted and the leaves of the few crops namely radish, tomatoes look wilted. I have been watering the crops adequately i.e not under watering or over watering. That is when I realized it is because of too much heat during the afternoon so I mist all the crops for a little more humidity as the humidity level was 15% during the day . I used a full bottle of mist spray (0.2 gallons) and noticed that the new seeds had sprouted in the big blue tub. I felt so content. Soon afterwards I felt to the science dorm to check my experiment pots in the growth tent and noted the reading of the moisture levels for each pots given:
1. Pot 1 : 60%
2. Pot 2: 70%
3. Pot 3: 70%
4. Pot 4: 70%
All the seeds in the pots were sprouting except the ones in pot 1st. I assume it is because of the low moisture level. Therefore I watered the first pot a little bit more and left for hab.
Harvest: None
Support/supplies needed: None
EVA Report – February 11th
EVA #008
Author: BHARTI SHARMA
Purpose of EVA: To collect concretions and soil samples for biology and engineering projects. To map and locate different types of structures and features for geology and geo-conservation studies.
Start time: 13:30
End time: 16:00
Narrative: Bright sunny day and our CREW members ABC were all set for exploration. Bharti drove the rover (the first time that long) to the destination. The crew started the exploration journey to identify as many rocks, concretions, cross-beddings and if there is any igneous intrusion. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any igneous intrusion. However, there was a thin layer of shale bedding (shale is a sedimentary rock formed by the compression of mud), and there were some signatures of meta-sedimentary rock such as meta-conglomerate. We were able to mark the locations of several cross-bedding features. However, the cross-bedding was on the big boulders of the country rock which got weathered away from the top so, slope angles were not measured as they would not be accurate. We found various micro-folding on the sandstone bed. Overall, our in-detail geology EVA was great.
Destination: South of Cowboy Corner – 518681, 4252888
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518681, 4252888
Participants: Annalea, Bharti and Clare (the ABC)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Exited the Hab through the main Air Lock, drove the driveway to Cow Dung Road 0110 to the north until the crew reached the south of the Cowboy corner. The crew conducted the detailed field within a radius of 400 m only
Mode of travel: Curiosity Rover and Opportunity Rover, and walk within a radius of 400m only.
Astronomy Report – February 11th
[category
astronomy-report]
Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan
Crew: 292
Date: 11/02/2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS WF
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: NGC 1952 Crab Nebula
Images submitted with this report: None
Additional Notes:
1. Skynet shows both MDRS WF and RCOS 16 telescopes are down with a camera error.
2. Do you have any updates on the solar telescope?
Crew Photos – February 10th
Astronomy Report – February 10th
[category
astronomy-report]
Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan
Crew: 292
Date: 10/02/2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: None
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: None
Images submitted with this report: NGC 281 – Pacman Nebula
Additional Notes:
1. Skynet shows both MDRS WF and RCOS 16 telescopes are down with a camera error.
Astronomy Report – February 9th
[category
astronomy-report]
Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan
Crew: 292
Date: 09/02/2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: RCOS 16
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: AG DRA
Images submitted with this report: None
Additional Notes:
1. Further photometric observations on AG DRA with BVR filter are planned to be submitted tonight.
2. Skynet shows the RCOS 16 telescope is down with a camera error.
Astronomy Report – February 8th
[category
astronomy-report]
Name: Aditya Krishna Karigiri Madhusudan
Crew: 292
Date: 08/02/2024
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS-WF
Objects to be Imaged this Evening: M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
Images submitted with this report: NGC 5904 Globular Cluster.
Problems Encountered:
1. Only a single bias calibration frame was generated in Skynet. No dark and flat calibration frames for the filter were generated.
2. The images were initially calibrated using the single bias calibration frame, aligned, and stacked using AstroImageJ. Later they were processed and stacked once again into a color image using Photoshop. MDRS astronomy laptop was used to carry out the analysis. However, I could not find the camera raw option in the filter menu. As a result, I could not make fine adjustments to the image.
3. The images obtained through the luminous filter seem to be more noisy. The final image with and without the luminous layer is attached to this email. Maybe due to the lack of calibration frames?
GreenHab Report – February 9th
GreenHab Officer: Mehnaz Jabeen
Environmental control: heater on , fan off , door close
Average temperature
8:25: 75.3F, 40%
13:56: 75 F, 40%
17:25: 73.8 F, 32%
Hours of supplemental light: 22:00 – 02:00
Daily water usage for crops: 7 gallons
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0.031 gallons
Water in Blue Tank (200 gallon capacity): 152.9 69 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: 17:30
Changes to crops: More ripe tomatoes, radishes, grown kale and lettuce
Narrative: I started sol 5 having a treat to my eyes in the morning when I opened the airlock to go to the GreenHab. The red mountains were covered with snow. I cherished the moment, took a photograph and headed to the GreenHab. The GreenHab still looked very green and fresh. The moisture levels for all the crops looked pretty much the same i.e. 75-90%. After taking the readings I headed back to the hab and worked on my research project. Aditiya, our crew astronomer, helped in finding some parameters to derive the equations of PET and ET . We obtained daily climate data from the Loa climate center in Utah as we found out it is the nearest climate center that has data for all the parameters we needed. Around afternoon we came up with an experiment that we can try to validate my research which is impact assessment of the GreenHab Hydrology. In the evening I went to the GreenHab to do my usual duties. Clare, our crew journalist and Rajvi, our crew engineer, joined and helped me harvest some ripe radishes, fully grown lettuce, kale and leaves of red cabbage and water the crops. By the end of the day I went to the science dorm to check on the pots that I left in the growth tent for my experiment, water ½ cup in the pots ( 4 in number), noted down the temperature (80.6 F) and called it a day.
Harvest:
Radish: 172g
Kale: 96g
Red Cabbage: 73g
Lettuce: 33g
Support/supplies needed: None
EVA Report – February 9th
Crew 292 EVA Report 09-02-2024
EVA #005
Author: BHARTI SHARMA
Purpose of EVA: To draw the geological structure for space art and measure the dip angle of the outcrop.
Start time: NA – the EVA got cancelled
End time: NA – the EVA got cancelled
Narrative: The EVA was cancelled because of snow outside as roads were inaccessible and the weather was not clear at all for the EVA fieldwork. We will aim for this spot when the weather is clear, as this spot is of utmost importance for our research.
Destination: South of Cowboy Corner – 518681, 4252888
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518681, 4252888
Participants: Annalea, Bharti and Clare (the ABC)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: NA – the EVA got cancelled.
Mode of travel: NA – the EVA got cancelled.
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