2022-2023 Field Season (#22)

Crew 274 Journalist Report 2-3-2023

Sol: 5

Author: Tony DiBernardo, Crew Journalist

Title: Go The Distance

Crew 274 woke up this morning at 7:30am to the song “Go the Distance” from Hercules and a recorded message from the family of the Crew Journalist, Tony DiBernardo. Tony’s kids wanted him to bring home tortellini from space, which the crew has agreed to keep an eye out for while on EVA.

EVA Activity

Today, the crew performed EVA 2 of 7 from HSO Pender’s research on extending the human exploration of Mars by utilizing supply caches. The 4th EVA will test this research by having the crew conduct a 3-hour hike with a supply cache placed an hour from the hab. On today’s EVA, four crew members drove the cache to the specified location at approximately a 1-hour hiking distance from the hab, secured it to the ground with stakes, and connected it to its solar panels. Our plan is to drive back out tomorrow to check its status to inform next week’s EVAs.

In addition to the cache, the crew dropped off a study to observe what happens to an orange on Mars. This study is a community submission by a 2nd grader from Millersville, Maryland. Commander Guthrie and HSO Pender placed two oranges with temp and radiation tags inside of the logistics cache dropped off by the crew on today’s EVA as well as two oranges placed in a crate outside of the cache which will be exposed to the elements, also monitored with temp and radiation tags. The oranges will stay on the Martian terrain until the end of the mission.

GreenHab

Soon after conducting today’s EVA, GreenHab Officer Hines another sol of daily germination observations was conducted at roughly 11:45 am MST. Currently, the most significant progress has been the development of the cress micro greens, which appear to be almost 75% germinated. While the broccoli and red cabbage micro greens have shown some progress,the remaining sets have yet to show any signs of germination. As for the LDEF seeds, there is still no evidence of progress. Minor adjustments have been made including a more nutrient dense watering solution and adding of the previously used humidity vents to maintain soil moisture.

Heliophysics

Crew Astronomers Loy and Pena were able to slightly observe the Sun through cloudy atmospheric conditions. Of the observed chromosphere phenomenon and sun spots, only chromosphere videos were captured to be analyzed. This data will aid the astronomers’ research on the sun, space weather, and solar cycle 25’s implications to space weather.

Astronomy

180 long exposure images were collected from MDRS’ Robotics Observatory by Chief Astronomy Pena. These images were separately captured through visual, infrared, and blue filters, assisting Astronomers Loy and Pena’s science on HADS variable star research. The images are beginning to be stacked, analyzed, and compared to previous images of this star system, HADS Variable Star V0799 AUR.

Crew 274 Journalist Report 2-2-2023

Sol: 4

Author: Tony DiBernardo, Crew Journalist

Title: Steal My Sunshine

Crew 274 woke up this morning at 7:30am to the song “Steal My Sunshine” by LEN and a recorded message from the Grad Studies Office, offering well wishes on their mission. The team made oatmeal and continued their Emotional Recognition Test and Psychological Surveys.

EVA Activity

Today didn’t go entirely as planned for the crew’s scheduled EVAs. Every night, the crew writes their plans and submits them to Mission Control for approval, which was received before the end of our comms window. The crew woke up and began preparing for the EVA, but due to a miscommunication between Mission Control and the crew, the EVA was canceled, giving the crew more time in the hab than originally planned. They planned the upcoming EVAs, debated the possibility of life in the universe, and gave the hab a good cleaning.

GreenHab

After an active first sol, planting all of his micro greens and LDEF seeds, most of GreenHab Officer Hines’ daily activities include recording data and notes on the continual progress of both subjects. Overall, the most significant progress was seen in the rapid development of the cress, with strong evidence of early germination of the broccoli, red cabbage, and arugula micro greens. Unfortunately, no progress has been evident in the LDEF seeds, though they will continue to be monitored closely in the coming days following an adjustment in growth tent temperature and reduction in daily watering to avoid over saturation.

Astronomy

Astronomers Loy and Pena observed multiple features across the Sun’s upper atmosphere, the chromosphere. They observed 8 solar dark spots and multiple granule features across the chromosphere, but the astronomers’ search for prominences came up short with no findings. Photo and video data was not collected today as remaining images from Sol day 3 are still being stacked, analyzed, and configured.

Hab Design

Hab Specialist Bill O’Hara continued the development of a case study of the Mars Desert Research Station. This study will review the architecture of the MDRS habitable elements from the point-of-view of a crew member and discusses the design, activity allocations, use-of-space, traffic flow, outfitting, systems and stowage capability of each. Today O’Hara completed a review of the Science Dome module, Musk Observatory module, and the tunnel system that connects all the modules together. His next steps will include a review of the lower and upper levels of the hab module which will be scheduled around EVA support and participation and other science and operations support.

Resource Utilization in Spaceflight

Commander Guthrie is on sol 4 of a two-week case study on the self-sufficiency of food requirements for short-term space flight. Its goal is to develop a low impact and sustainable dietary requirement for astronauts who may travel as long as two years in space. It hopes to provide an optimal mass to nutrient ratio based on the astronaut. It uses only pre-packaged dehydrated meals curated for the specific nutritional needs of the person. This study was performed at other analogs but this is the first time a woman is serving as the case study subject. As women continue to make a larger presence in spaceflight, it is important to strive to continue to understand food impact requirements. A notable difference from the analog environment and spaceflight, is that many analogs focus on community cooking and meal times whereas analyzing self-sustainment is more analogous to the spaceflight environment.

Tonight, the crew is keeping an eye out for cloudy skies that could affect viewing conditions for astronomical observations, as well as looking forward to a new day to conduct more research and to improve our analog operations as a crew.