2022-2023 Field Season (#22)

SOL 20: “SOS d’un tunnel en détresse”

12:39 AM: Somaya, Robin, and I returned from our morning EVA. After starting the day with some stretches, we put on our suits and headed to Sea of Shells in search of beacons. We found them in less than an hour with our route, after climbing numerous rocky heaps in the desert. We then had to use the path created by high school students from Mirepoix, and it turned out to be, with a few details, the same path we had taken! The landscapes were dreamlike, and after taking one last look at this splendid view, we left the area for good.

Upon our return, Meddi and Quentin were cooking cookies that we couldn’t wait to taste!

05:38 PM: We had lunch, and indeed, the cookies were delicious. Just after finishing the meal, Meddi and I went to the Science Dome. Personally, I had to draw it and make a map of the module reserved for experiments so that we could discuss the different possible improvements again. As I was just finishing my task, we received urgent communication from Erin. An alarm went off at 15:06. She informed us that the corridors connecting the modules were progressively depressurizing and that we had to return urgently to the HAB. We ran back, and upon arrival, it was strictly forbidden for us to open the Airlock doors without a spacesuit.

In fact, recently, the weather has not been kind. There were already signs of tunnel weakening when we arrived, and the gusts from Sol 18 didn’t help. Today is the day they cracked, but fortunately, we are prepared for such situations. Erin was even more so because she had already lived through a mission once, and she quickly took control of the situation. She played the role of HABCOM for a second time today, as she was also this morning, to organize the entire EVA. Somaya, Célyan, and I went out in suits and retied a tarp to plug the gaping hole formed by the gusts. After an hour and a half of EVAs, the tunnels were operational again.

Today was the second EVA for Somaya and I, as well as Erin in the role of HABCOM. Today, we can say that the station held strong thanks to the women of the station. It’s a happy coincidence because today is March 8th, International Women’s Day!

SOL 19: Happy Birthday Célyan!

04:36 PM: The morning had two faces. It started calmly, with the entire crew working steadily in the HAB, when around 10 AM, Célyan and Meddi headed to the GreenHab to make significant changes to the crops. Some plants were unnecessarily taking up space, pots, and soil in the greenhouse, so they took care of replacing them with new seedlings. These will be useful for future crews once they grow. After sealing the airlock doors behind their passage, everyone left in the HAB seemed to wake up. We finished our tasks and began decorating the Upper Deck with string lights, balloons, and sweet smells of chocolate cake started spreading through the room. In reality, Meddi was instructed to keep Célyan occupied during the morning so that we could surprise him for his birthday at lunch without him suspecting anything while being useful to the station. At lunchtime, when we called the boys for the meal, the HAB was beautiful, and we all feasted around a good meal, a good cake, amidst laughter and exclamations from everyone.

As we finished eating quite early, we quickly got back to work in the afternoon. Over the past few days, Quentin has been working a lot on his astronomy project. For months, he has been coding a program capable of identifying solar tasks on photos of the Sun alongside his courses, and since yesterday, the main bugs have been resolved. Soon, his program will be ready to process its own photos. Somaya and Robin went to the RAM to build the basis of the SUPAEROMOON rover structure. Meanwhile, Meddi and I are working with the 3D printer, which is still operational, while pounding our keyboards. While I complete a small project related to my role as a journalist, Meddi writes detailed reports on experiments for which he already has results.

Tomorrow, Somaya and I will go on an EVA to conclude the second week of photogrammetry. During the first phase of the sortie, we will search for the beacons using our notes from a 3D map for 45 minutes. Then, as part of CNES’s science outreach project, Proximars, we will test another beacon search route created by middle school and high school students in Mirepoix. It is intended to find the beacons as quickly as possible. These students also wrote the EVA request, which is the request we submit to mission support to be authorized to exit the station, and departure and arrival protocols at the base.