Sol 7: Martian Sol-Off

March 3rd, 2019

Sol 7: Martian Sol-Off

For our first day-off of the mission, we played cards, began to complete the Mars puzzle of the MDRS, but above all we spend a lot of time in the kitchen : Gaspard and Aurélien prepared pancakes for breakfast, Jérémy and Cerise baked French baguettes, and Aurélien and I cooked a gratin dauphinois (potatoes cooked in cream and cheese baked in the oven). All that was bettered by the basil leafs brought by Norbert from the Green-Hab.

Outside the Hab, the weather changed all along the day. After a sunny morning and a rainy noon, the afternoon was shared between grey clouds and hail. Even if it wasn’t Mars-like, the sound of rain and hail on the Hab’s roof was relaxing. In the same time our furious Monopoly Deal games were the great activity of the afternoon, even if Gaspard’s luck with cards drawing killed the competition.

This day-off is for us the occasion to present you the results of our water monitoring. We are counting the water we use in different categories: drinking, cooking, dishes, hygiene, flushes and Green-Hab. Thanks to that we managed to reduce our consumption and realized a precise monitoring. We measured in average 88% of our water consumption and classified that in the categories for each sol spent in the MDRS.

Today we recharged our batteries for the week to come that will be busy between the first tests our own simulation spacesuit and the follow-up of the human factors experiments.

More than one third of our mission is done, this first week was balanced between getting our first marks in the station, putting the first scientific experiments into place but also facing the first difficulties. As in all space missions, we are facing issues and we are forced to adapt ourselves and react with what we have here in the station. More than ever, we are feeling that we are making science evolve in the right way to Mars.

Author: Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Sol 6: Telehope

March 2nd, 2019

Sol 6: Telehope

The return of the rain kept us inside the Hab for the morning. So we decided to clean both the lower and upper decks. The sand and the dust of the desert are our enemies, these particles are everywhere here and difficult to remove, but with courage, and a vigorous vacuum cleaning, we managed to make the Hab almost brand-new.

Cerise prepared a bunch of cookies for dessert. Even if she found that the cookies were “different from those she cooks at home”, they were delicious!

The afternoon marked the return of hope for the TELEOP experiment. The digital version is still unavailable because of the loss of the computer’s charger, but Jérémy managed to correct the connection issues of the rover. We all drove the rover under heart monitoring. This is the second time this experiment is performed here in the MDRS by ISAE-SUPAERO crews; it has also been developed by Simon Bouriat, Health and Safety Officer of MDRS 175 in the Lunares station (Poland) in 2018. This is a special experiment for us and our association. It’s pleasant to see the rover run again and we’re waiting for a charger to continue the digital experiment.

Tomorrow is our first day-off, no EVA, no experiments. We will use this free time to reorganize the Hab and have cohesion activities, like playing cards or board games. This is a tradition of ISAE-SUPAERO crews, like for the astronauts in the ISS, Sundays are off. We consider that this free time is indispensable to the success of such missions, psychology and human factors are important. Astronauts need this time for themselves and for crew cohesion.

Author: Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Sol 5: Music Music

Sol 4 : What on Earth is going on?

February 28th, 2019

Sol 4 : What on Earth is going on?

On their way to White Rock Canyon, the EVA team stumbled upon a Coke bottle. In the middle of a Martian hike, Norbert, Jérémy, Aurélien and Cerise are sent back to planet Earth.
Our planet is endangered, with limited resources, and we continue to pollute and threaten her, even if we are all aware of the danger. Here in the MDRS we are monitoring our water consumption, our trash and our energy consumption. For 4 days now we have been following a simple, but healthy and sustainable way of life. We realized that our habits are greedy on resources, on water, on energy. And that it is not that complicated to change and adopt better ones. Even if we want to send humans to Mars, or to the Moon, Earth is and will stay our cradle and our home and we all need to protect her! Countries have the duty to adopt laws to promote ecology and sustainable development, companies have the duty to use wisely their energies and resources, and at our scale with have the duty to adopt a sustainable way of life. We all have this duty for us, for our children and for all humanity.

At the same time in the Hab, Gaspard and I choose to prepare a surprise olive bread for the crew’s lunch. Unfortunately that first try was very different from the texture of French baguettes, but everybody loved the taste and it was a huge pleasure to feel a little bit like in France.

After lunch, everybody in the Hab chose to take a nap before the beginning of the human factors experiments. Sadly, both versions of TELEOP experiment failed today : the little rover faced connection issues and the computer of the digital version ran out of battery, with a broken charger. This experiment matters a lot for all of us, especially for Jérémy and so the rest of the afternoon was very difficult for us.

The good news of the day came from Cerise’s water quality monitoring. Yesterday, the results seemed worrisome. After an exchange with the research team, the comparison database that she was using was the one dedicated to space, and to Thomas Pesquet’s Aquapad experiment on the ISS. With the correct database, the water quality is not perfect, but safe to drink and not infected.

After the disappointment of the afternoon, we all needed a distraction. For that, Norbert brought us some fresh carrots from the Green-Hab for dinner and we decided to watch an episode of Nat Geo’s Mars TV show.

Author : Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Sol 3 : Martian Excursion

February 27th, 2019

Sol 3: Martian Excursion

We were born to explore. Since the dawn of humanity, humans have never stopped exploring new places. The first humans settled on all five continents, the navigators of the 15th century sailed all seas, the astronauts of the 20th century flew to space. Today was an exploration day on Mars! The EVA team (Aurélien, Norbert, Gaspard and I) rode the rovers to the Moons area. We walked about an hour on the muddy and slippery slopes of the White and Grey Moons, following the steps of Norbert, our scout of the day, and under the wise supervision of the EVA leader Aurélien.

Once we got back, to avoid fatigue after lunch, I visited Norbert in the Green-Hab and helped him taking care of radishes and carrots while some others were taking a nap. Back in the Hab, Aurélien was waiting for us all to show us his first night observation: Orion’s Nebula.

This afternoon we tested our own analog spacesuit in the MDRS for the first time. This project was born in September 2017, when we first heard about the MDRS and decided to apply to a rotation. We worked since that moment on the conception and fabrication of this spacesuit. That’s why we are happy to see this project finalized here. The prototype is far from what we expected but we are focused on our goal to take some of us in EVA with this suit and we will make all changes and adjustments needed to reach it.

Today we had the first results of our strict water monitoring. And this is a huge improvement compared to the monitoring of crew 189, the last mission of ISAE-SUPAERO students. For Sol 2, the total consumption is 77.4 liters. The Green-Hab is the first source of consumption with 41%, then comes drinking water with 25%, the flushes with 13%, cooking water and dishes water with 5% and 6%. The last 8% are unmeasured and come from leaks or flush volume uncertainties. In comparison, the average unmeasured water for crew 189 was 37% of total consumption.

For more than a year, we worked together on the preparation of this mission. We passed through happy and bad moments, funny talks and long meetings. But now we are here, on Mars, and we are like a family, forged by our common passion for space exploration, our interventions with young students and this mission. What we are achieving now is exciting and fulfilling!

Author: Auzou Benjamin, Journalist

Sol 2 : Life in red

February 26th, 2019

Sol 2 – Crew 206 : Life in red

Une version en français de ce rapport est disponible ici.

At the precise moment my feet touched the Martian ground, and my eyes raised up to the sky, it was like time had stopped stopped in front of me.
There are incredible places that challenge our imagination, with their shapes, their reliefs, their colors. The Martian desert I had the chance to admire this morning was one of those. In front of this marvelous theater, I wish I had the talent of Picasso, Monet or Turner to capture that precise moment, that sky, that landscape only a painting can give back the magnificence.

 

But this EVA had above all a scientific goal: deploy the LOAC (an aerosol particle counter) and the weather station. It was my first EVA, along with Cerise, Jérémy and Gaspard, on the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity. Quite funny that not so long ago, in 2018, they were the only two active “beings” on the surface of Mars.

Aurélien, HabCom of the day, helped us to spend the five minutes of the depressurization with a musical ambiance: La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf. The words to describe this day came directly to me: La Vie en Rouge.

After the concentration and the rigour needed for the EVA, a surprise was waiting for us inside: a pizza crust prepared by Aurélien, while Norbert was bringing his harvest : basil, sage and parsley, in order to give a providential freshness to the meal. We shared two pizzas that we named Verde and Roja. Aurélien and Norbert logically take the head of the Martian food contest.

Then the afternoon was the first one of a routine that will last all through the mission with both human factors experiments: rover driving and virtual reality.

The Sun is falling down on Mars, giving its last colors to the landscape, before putting it in obscurity and let the stars shine in the pure sky. I glance at the horizon, keeping that moment in my memory for ever, today, I walked on Mars.

Author : Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Sol 1 : Good Morning Mars

February 25th, 2019

Sol 1 – Crew 206 : Good Morning Mars!

0847 : The airlock opens, and Crew 206 is in front of a whole new world to explore : Mars.

The marswalkers of the day, Jérémy, Cerise, Aurélien and Norbert left the Hab to explore the surroundings of the station and to find a proper place for the LOAC, an aerosol particle counting experiment we will deploy tomorrow. But above all that was, for three of them, their first steps on the Red Planet. I think they know best how to describe the feelings they had when they touched the martian ground for the first time.

“This first EVA was a really special and exciting moment. Everything went well, and I just want to go on EVA again!” – Norbert

“I really felt like it was my first step  on Mars, and it is an amazing feeling.” – Cerise

“This was an exciting moment. The team was very professional and it made the experience amazing” – Aurélien

Before that, the morning was really busy. We woke up very early in order to begin the EVA at 0830 so that our 4 marswalkers could avoid the muddy terrain. We began the day with a sports session and then we prepared our first martian pancakes to bear the morning’s program. I was among the three members of the crew who followed this intense session, with seven different exercises during fourteen minutes; it was hard, especially the push-ups. However it is important to stay active, and our daily performances are monitored by our Commander.

During the EVA, I was assigned by Norbert to take care of the Green Hab. That place is amazingly calm and peaceful. I watered all the plants: tomatoes, basil, cress, radishes; they need a lot of water, 8 liters this morning for the whole Green-Hab, but having some greenery in our lives is worth it!

 

Our Astronomer, Aurélien, started his first observations of the sun. This is primordial for us on Mars, as without a decent atmosphere, the solar radiations are a serious danger!

Today was also the beginning of three experiments: Norbert’s radishes are now planted, Cerise took some samples of the drinking water and the whole crew spent fifteen minutes on our Virtual Reality experiment under heart monitoring: half of us watching entertaining videos and the other half as witnesses.

The Hab is now our home, and we continue to make it better and make it our own. The main improvement of the day is a live plan of the sol (martian day) displayed in the hab, detailing in real time the tasks for each of us, but also our data consumption.

After this day of hard work, we all need some time for us to rest and decompress. That’s why we chose to watch a movie together tonight : Le Grand Bazar by Les Charlots, a French comedy. That’s my suggestion, I’ll tell you tomorrow if everybody liked it!

Author: Benjamin Auzou, Journalist

Sol 0 : Our New Home

February 24th, 2019

Sol 0 – Crew 206 : Our New Home

The six of us woke up after a difficult night in the Science Dome, because of the lack of comfort but above all because of our excitement to begin our mission. The whole crew chose to begin the day with a sport session! That was a difficult session for some of us, but we all needed it to wake up and prepare for the three weeks of mission ahead of us.

At 0800 Crew 205 left the Hab to return to their five countries. Natalia, Dave, Nathan, Maria, Ghenim, Daniel, Hannah and Veronica let us the station after a full afternoon of training yesterday. We wish you well! You’ve done a good job here in the MDRS, even if the martian weather wasn’t clement with you. We will continue to hold the station well and make great science here on Mars!

We then spent the whole morning getting used to the Hab, and we took our first breakfast composed of milk and scrambled eggs. We also chose our rooms, our tiny zones of privacy in the Hab.

For the rest of the day, waiting for Atila to train us, we all worked on our experiments or on the Hab’s organization: Norbert, our GreenHab Officer, spent a lot of time in the GreenHab to discover the plants in here and understand their needs. Cerise, our crew Biologist and Health and Safety Officer tested everything in the Campus to ensure our safety : alarms, fire extinguishers, medical supplies and radios. Gaspard, our engineer and the “hacker” of the team tackled the internet consumption of our devices to avoid data losses. At the same time, Aurélien and I were in the kitchen organising the food supplies that arrived with us. And Jérémy, Commander of our mission prepared all the material necessary to track our water consumption.

At 1430, Atila arrived to train us with the rovers and gave us his last pieces of advice.

We had a long discussion about our goals for the mission. And then, it was time to close the airlock door and begin our simulation.

I am Benjamin, journalist of the crew 206, million of kilometers away from Earth, in the Mars Desert Research Station. The weather here is beautiful, even if the soil is still damaged by the storm that struck Crew 205’s mission. My crew and I will sleep well after this tiring day. I am in a hurry to wake up tomorrow to start experiments and Extra Vehicular Activities, and to live the Martian Dream.

Sol 17 : Martian rescuers

Sol 16 : CSI MDRS