“The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke.”

Chapter 10 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Yesterday, I wrote that Mars had spared us from rain... As though summoned, it fell during the night between Sols 9 and 10. Quentin, our crew engineer, the only crewmember sleeping in a mezzanine above the Upper Deck, was woken up at 4 in the morning: “The Martian winds were so strong, I thought the Hab roof would be blown away. It was extremely noisy, and instinctively I climbed down the ladder to sleep on the Upper Deck.”

In the morning, a single question was on everyone’s mind: would we be able to go out on EVA to retrieve the LOAC, which we feared had been damaged by the rain, and execute the second phase of the photogrammetry experiment? During breakfast, after our daily workout, we let out a sigh of relief: Mission Support cleared us to exit the Hab and not only retrieve the atmospheric equipment, but to go to North Ridge as planned and conduct the photogrammetry EVA. This would be my first outing as EVA leader. 

After depressurizing the airlock, Alice, Corentin and I stepped outside of the Hab, exposing ourselves to the Martian winds. Upon arriving at the MegaAres site, we contacted HabCom to bitterly report that the weather station and LOAC had been toppled by the wind. The PurpleAir atmospheric sensor was also detached from the weather station mast, and mud had infiltrated the electronics compartment. It was decided on the spot to retrieve this instrument as well as the LOAC, which is still operational! The MegaAres mast is also still in its upright position. According to HabCom, a cry of victory resonated in the Upper Deck when I passed on the news. 

We then proceeded to North Ridge to begin the second exploration EVA for the photogrammetry experiment. Upon arrival, we noticed the winds were much stronger, accelerating in narrow gullies. This made it very difficult to communicate, with the sound of the wind resonating around our suits and effectively drowning out our radio communications. Radio contact with HabCom was also very choppy and faint. After about 45 minutes on site and having reached 3 of the 6 checkpoints, the wind had become so strong that we were starting to lose balance. We found temporary cover, and after trying to contact the Hab, I decided to terminate the EVA and return for the safety of the crew. I found that removing my spacesuit and warming up beside the Lower Deck heater after a trying outing was the best feeling in the world…  After debriefing and drinking tea flavored with fresh mint leaves from the GreenHab, we gathered around the Hab table to simply talk and debate amongst ourselves, taking a necessary break from “MDRS talk”.

By early afternoon, the winds had not waned, effectively cancelling the second EVA of the day, the purpose of which being to reinstall the repaired MegaAres antenna. The whirling and thunder-y sound of the wind was almost inebriating as I stayed in the Upper Deck most of the afternoon. 

Some news from the GreenHab: the aquaponic system is nominal, all fishes are still alive and well, and the plants are steadily growing. Adrien is performing daily tests on the water, checking for excesses of any substances that could deregulate the system and affect the health of the plants and fishes.

Quentin is also proud to announce that all environmental sensors are deployed within the station and operational!

They will provide additional data for our human factors experiments, and be used to test an AI developed by CNES, SPooN, and students from Supaero. AI4U, whose protocols Alexandre has started testing in the last few days, is an AI designed to assist astronauts in their tasks, which we will specifically use to assist us during mock emergency protocols.

All crewmembers having gathered around the dining table for the Comms window, we laughed as we speculated on what Mars could throw at us next… clearly, he still has surprises in store for us!

“The rain fell. The great black lid of sky cracked in six powdery blue chips, like a marvelous crackled glaze, and rushed down. He saw ten billion rain crystals, hesitating long enough to be photographed by the electrical display. Then darkness and water.”

Chapter 9 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

If not a green morning, let us have a red one! The colors of the sky over the Martian hills were especially beautiful when we awoke and started our day. Our upper body muscles being sore from Sol 7, Corentin had prepared a leg workout for us to do in the Lower Deck. The objective of this morning’s EVA was to perform more tests and retrieve the MegaAres antenna, as well as placing the last atmospheric physics experiment, the LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter). Everything went very smoothly: the situation with MegaAres wasn’t as bad as we initially thought, and Alexandre has already found a solution to fix the conductivity problem using aluminum foil. After deploying the aerosol counter, we had some time left to briefly explore the area and take some pictures. I feel like I am gradually getting used to moving around in my spacesuit and using tools during EVAs; we know which movements can be impeded, what communications problems can arise and how to solve these problems effectively.

After we returned, we noticed a change in the Hab. Something was off, the Hab was unusually noisy. We quickly realized it was the wind blowing and whistling around the Hab, carrying with it heavy cloud coverage. Alexandre started constantly checking the weather station, afraid the humidity levels would rise, effectively damaging the newly installed LOAC. Today’s quote, taken from the chapter titled “The Green Morning”, in which the protagonist witnesses heavy rainfall followed by the overnight sprouting of a thousand trees, is Alexandre’s greatest nightmare…

Today, we also started taking the cognitive assessment tests as part of the KTHitecture experiment. All crew members are given a series of psychometric tasks designed to see how our concentration, cognition and performance evolve during the mission and are affected by the different environments of the station: this is why you might see us taking the test in places such as the Science Dome, the Hab, and even the GreenHab.

Alice and Quentin also prepared Corentin and I for tomorrow’s photogrammetry experiment: we were given a 2D map of North Ridge and a scenario to contextualize the exploration EVA, both of which we had one hour to study. 

As the evening progressed, the wind started blowing harder and harder, to a point where we had to secure the corridor tarps and both airlocks to make sure they didn’t get blown away. Mars has hit Crew 275 with everything it had: snowfall, a penetrating cold that nearly got the best of our heating and alarm systems, and high-speed winds. Everything, except for rain… at least for now.

“The men of Earth came to Mars. They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims. There was a reason for each man.”

Chapter 8 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

The members of today’s EVA crew definitely felt like explorers, if not pilgrims, unafraid to take on an unexplored Martian area!

We were very excited this morning to launch the photogrammetry experiment by sending out the first of six EVA crews. Alice, the EVA leader, followed by Quentin and Adrien, headed out to North Ridge to begin 3D-mapping a specific area for other EVA crews to visit later during the mission. The objective is to study how performance during an EVA (for example, how fast an astronaut can find a designated spot in unknown Martian terrain) is affected by showing the crewmembers a 3D map of the area beforehand. After today’s “reconnaissance EVA”, two other crews will go to the same location: one will have been given a 3D-map generated thanks to drone imagery, and another will only be given a 2D map. After arriving on-site, the crewmembers had to immerse themselves in the space to determine the best place from which to launch our Parrot drone. It was then flown over the chosen area by Quentin while Alice decided which spots would be the target areas for the next crew. 

Since I will be part of the next EVA returning to the same location, I was therefore not allowed to see the photogrammetry render for myself, but was told it turned out amazing! Quentin was surprised to see that the generated map extended far wider than expected, beyond the area actually explored by the astronauts. The landscape is well defined, with all rocks more than a meter high detected and rendered with great precision.  

This EVA’s other objectives were also completed: Alice gathered some samples for her geology experiment, and the crew ran some more tests on MegaAres and retrieved data from the weather station before heading to North Ridge. In sum, apart from a few communication issues, the EVA was successful!

After debriefing the EVA during lunch, Alexandre reviewed the schedule to find time to solve a problem with MegaAres: after today’s tests, it was confirmed that part of the metallic sphere is not connected to the rest of the electrical circuit; tomorrow morning’s EVA will be necessary to retrieve the spherical part of the antenna to “debug it”. 

It felt good to find ourselves all working together in the Upper Deck of the Hab as the afternoon progressed; I feel like we are becoming more and more accustomed to life as a crew, and considering each other as team members and co-workers, but also as friends.

« “We won’t ruin Mars,” said the captain. “It’s too big and too good.” “You think not? We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things.” »

Chapter 7 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

After dancing, laughing, and singing our hearts out and playing card games over hot chocolate on the night of Sol 6, we allowed ourselves to sleep until 8:30 on this beautiful Sunday morning. Corentin had prepared an intense workout session to drain us completely and give us a fresh start for the incoming week. We had a lot of fun pushing ourselves close to and beyond our limits for activities such as push-ups, squats, and pull-ups; it had been a while since our last truly exhausting and body-resetting workout.

Sunday at MDRS also rhymes with cleaning: after eating freshly baked pancakes for breakfast, we were set on giving the Hab a real makeover. After two very technical EVAs, the Lower Deck was in need of tidying, and the Upper Deck’s kitchen top gave us the opportunity to complete the second workout of the day. We were very proud to have used only 4 liters of water to do the dishes today, given the number of pots and pans left uncleaned after last night’s dinner and the pancakes! Since the beginning of the mission, we have managed to keep our water consumption relatively low, using about 8 liters per day per crewmember (compared to about 150 for the average French!). By 3pm, the Hab looked like it was brand new. Afterwards, Quentin and Alexandre played chess, Alice set her mind to making a new jump rope for our morning workouts, and Corentin and Jérémy installed two flags in the Hab: The United Nations flag and the flag of Humanity. Next to the latter, we placed the whiteboard on which we’ve been writing down quotes for the entire crew to read since the beginning of the mission. Today’s quote read: “Dreams are not what you have when you sleep. The true dreams are the ones that don’t let you sleep.” Food for thought!

In the unusually quiet Upper Deck of the Hab, with only a few muffled voices and music coming from our rooms, Alexandre stood looking out of the window and voiced how beautiful Mars was at this hour: a light pink hue tainted the mountains, reverberating on the last lingering patches of snow. It reminded me of what I have temporarily left behind to join in on this month-long mission: a damaged, mistreated, and disrespected Earth. Let this mission and Bradbury’s quote be a reminder to me and to all of us that protecting and healing our planet must be our top priority!

“He stood looking at the rocket. The ports were open and his crew was streaming out, waving their hands. A crowd of people had gathered, and in and through and among these people the members of the crew were hurrying, talking, laughing, shaking hands. People did little dances. People swarmed.”

Chapter 6 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

We awoke this morning to a perfectly well-warmed Upper Deck, indicating that the generator had made it through the night and won against the cold! After two days of unusual mornings, we were grateful to go back to our regular schedule, with a full-length workout session devised by our Health and Safety Officer focusing on proprioception, and a smooth daily health check. Jérémy told us tales of his previous missions in Antarctica over breakfast, before getting ready for the weather station EVA. Quentin, Alexandre and Jérémy suited up and headed out with their equipment, took the rovers, and went back to the MegaAres EVA site.

Today was our last sol. It is strange how fast it arrived. We were kept busy inside the station, so that we didn’t see time pass by. I was leading the last EVA, bringing Arthur, Louis, Xavier and Simon to the map’s edge. We had planned to explore Lith canyon, for the first time since our arrival. Before leaving, we set our new record doing the engineering check: 5 minutes. It clearly seems that Xavier’s procedures are doing their job.

Lith Canyon

The place we discovered today was unreal: A canyon just opening up in the middle of the desert, leading to another canyon, deeper in the ground, leading to a third one. You were able to see red stripes on every wall, being alone in this very intimate landscape. We had planned to reach another location after this one, but decided to stay here till the end, instead of leaving too quickly. It was also an occasion for us to shoot new pictures holding flags, for those who didn’t take part to my first EVA lead. As the photographer, I was overjoyed, taking beautiful pictures to end the simulation properly.

European Community

This afternoon, we were another time busy finishing our various tasks. We decided to end the simulation at 4:30 pm, to be able to take a breath and have a walk to see the sunset. The impression we had leaving the hab was very strange: this was the first time we were breathing fresh air without any step between our lungs and the atmosphere. We also were seeing everything differently: the landscape surrounding the station is changing and absolutely stunning, and being able to see it without a helmet let us change of perspective. Taking a walk, we realised something very unusual for Europeans like us, that never experienced travelling to desert places: at a time, I asked everybody to stop and to listen. The silence was absolutely perfect. Fascinating while disturbing. Especially because we spent the last three weeks living in the station where the thermic generator is running most of the time, where heating is blowing air strongly, where the pump make the whole floor vibrate every time somebody uses water, and in which we lived at seven, always making noise somewhere. Even during the EVAs, having a backpack and a helmet prevents you from hearing it.

Martian-like shadows...

Sunset over Skyline Rim

So, it seems to be it. Mission is complete. We have already a few things to end up, must clean up the station, and have already between 2 and 3 days left in the USA, but we will leave the MDRS tomorrow morning. It has been a pleasure dear station, I hope that you will be fine. We will surely remember you as the one who taught us so much about space and ourselves without leaving the ground.

Today’s EVA had two purposes: find what happened to the atmospheric balloon we lost yesterday, and recover the seismometer, now running for more than two weeks. Xavier was EVA leader, and decided to lead a new human factor experiment, following up on his emergency procedures research: the EVA was conducted without any radio contact, using scuba diving gestures to communicate, and limiting drastically communications. This situation is of course caricatural: a scene in which every member of the team would have a radio failure, is not only very unlikely, but also the scenario where it happens immediately after leaving the airlock and keeps going on during the whole EVA does not exist for the simple reason that real astronauts would just have moved back immediately into the station, aborting the EVA.

Getting back the seismometer

The point was here to exaggerate the problem, in order to test the worst-case scenario, at every stage of the EVA. In this kind of situation, having had a strong briefing before going out is essential, to minimise the need of communications afterwards. It is also crucial to always watch his teammates, not to let somebody alone, or to lose visual contact. This is why moving in the vehicles also required frequent stops, to check if everybody was following, a thing we usually do by radio. The engineering check was done assuming that the crew received today’s habcom, Victoria, but only her, in order not to forget something. Louis, staying in the hab also could remotely monitor what Arthur was seeing, from his Optinvent glasses.

What you could see through the Optinvent glasses

After having completed every task they were asked for by Victoria; Xavier, Arthur and Mouâdh first went North by foot to check the balloon site. They only found the rope and its attach, supposed to be inside the balloon platform. This is how it failed: the connection between these two piece must have been too weak to endure the wind force. The irony is that the camera we removed yesterday was precisely in this gap, so that without removing it, we might have preserved both of it. But I’m not sure that Xavier, the video camera owner would have liked to give it another try… To end with the EVA, my three colleagues had no trouble removing the seismometer from its hole. They came back early, after one hour outside.

Mouâdh and Arthur figuring what happenned to the balloon

The afternoon was quiet, as everybody was working on his final reports or productions. Tomorrow is (already ?) our last day in simulation, so that we were all focusing on trying to end our work properly. It is strange to realise how short the simulation seems to have been, whereas we are already feeling at home in this little hab already. It surely will be strange to leave on Saturday to go back to reality.

Timelapse of the Vegidair

Today’s EVA was all about the atmospheric balloon. It was forced to remain on the ground for many days, and finally, we were supposed to let it fly for 24 hours, in front of the hab, to have a look on it, even if we would not be able to intervene in case of any problem happening. Simon, Mouâdh, Arthur and Louis (who shot today’s photos) left at 9:00 am by foot to deploy it. After some time spent to attach it properly, it was time to inflate it. It is always the trickiest part: three crew members have to run together, holding it, to let air fill it up. It was not very successful at the beginning, being troubled by the wind. But after about half an hour, it went straight up, to reach its maximum altitude. This time, Simon had fixed the camera on the side, so that with a little luck, we would be able to have a picture of the hab. We now know that we had this luck, and the shot is absolutely stunning.

The balloon being settled, the crew went up the hill next to it, to have a good view on the balloon’s area, being able to check it during its first hours up. It was supposed then to go up and down following temperature changes, so that it will land at night, then go up again with the sun. We had determined a whole area, in which it was not supposed to be damaged too hard if it touched the ground, and did attach it well to the ground. The team left it at 11:00 after having removed the video camera from the balloon, as it would have lacked battery and memory long time before the next day, and we ate at noon.

Inflating the baloon

The balloon being settled, the crew went up the hill next to it, to have a good view on the balloon’s area, being able to check it during its first hours up. It was supposed then to go up and down following temperature changes, so that it will land at night, then go up again with the sun. We had determined a whole area, in which it was not supposed to be damaged too hard if it touched the ground, and did attach it well to the ground. The team left it at 11:00 after having removed the video camera from the balloon, as it would have lacked battery and memory long time before the next day, and we ate at noon.

The team as seen by the baloon

The station

It is only after lunch that we noticed it was missing. We had no visual of it from the hab, even if the area was chosen to allow us to check it. We received no other sign of its presence in the following hours. Different scenarios are possible: the balloon had a leak, so that it lost air, then altitude and fell on the ground, there is areas we cannot watch from the hab because of the terrain and it might be here. The rope might have broken, being cut by friction on a stone we used as the base, then is has gone far. The pod above the balloon might have broken, then it is more complicated, we might find it tomorrow, but the balloon might be lost, or we could find both parts of it. Anyway, even if it is not good news, we have another balloon, all the equipment (because we removed the camera), is not very expensive. We bought everything in double as we considered a potential failure.

To end with, I spend yesterday’s evening with Mouâdh on the observatory. It was the occasion for me to shoot some videos of him using the telescope for the mission video, and to learn a bit more about astronomy, while observing Orion’s nebula or Jupiter and its moons. I also brought the camera, and took some shots, just to make sure that Earth was rotating, while freezing in the desert night, waiting for my long exposition time shots to be taken.

Today, no EVA was planned in the morning, so that we decided to wake up one hour late. After our sport session, we celebrated Mardi Gras in the American way: eating blueberry pancakes. The day was supposed to be studious: everybody has realised that we now have only three days left, and we all want to end the simulation well. Everything that we wanted to be done by the end of it is now supposed to be well advanced.

Personally, I work hard on the mission video (you may notice a name change). I want it to be quality work and try to do my best on it. Video is probably now the best and fastest was to reach a very large audience, to achieve my journalist goal: make noise, spread the idea that it is possible to work for space exploration without being a 45 years old engineer hidden in a lab, or to make it simple: promote our project and the Mars Society’s. The problem is, I don’t really master video editing, and even if I learn as fast as I can, I am not very productive, even if my efficiency increases every day. It is a pleasure to discover the tools we use to create quality projects, and I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a good video camera from a student association from my school, so that I am very well equipped. I now have already hours of work, and absolutely want to be able to release it before leaving, that is why I will have to lock me in for a couple of hours during the days to come.

At the same time, Xavier and Simon are writing a paper on emergency situations on Mars, and how to deal with it. Xavier is comparing it to sub diving, and Simon to alpinism. This is why, this afternoon, during a short EVA, in which I took part with both of them, after a quick engineering check, I was mandated to shoot new photos of them showing how to assist a victim, while being in EVA, to illustrate their explanations. I was also sent by Louis to test our Optinvent glasses. He was following me from inside the hab, using their video camera, and I was able to record my voice during key moments of the EVA, by using the accelerometer, triggered by a head movement.

Louis following Louis with Optinvent

Tomorrow, Simon would probably be able to deploy his atmospheric balloon, according to the meteo. This is why we planned a long EVA in the morning. At the same time, I will stay in the hab, filming my last missing shots, and editing our video.

Today was surely very special: we were going to spend the day with a journalist, living in simulation with us, while his four-men crew was shooting images of us, in situ. After our sport session and breakfast, we waited for the whole crew to arrive. The reporter was the only one to completely follow the simulation rules: he arrived in spacesuit, spent the regular three minutes of pressurisation in the airlock, and was then supposed to follow us till the afternoon.

The first encounter with the team was very reassuring: they were science reporters, knowing why they came here, filming a whole documentary on the subject, being well informed, so that they did not just want to film us as animals in a cage, to gain audience. They were very respectful with the rules of the station, did their best not to disturb us, even if being twelve in the tiny hab was a bit oppressing. After a quick talk, some shots of the hab, Arthur, Louis and Mouâdh left with the reporter in EVA, the journalist crew following them in a big SUV. They first went to the seismometer, checked it, took shots while Mouâdh presented it, and then, headed North, to reproduce yesterday’s experiment of the sextant, on “the Moon”. Like during most of the simulation, the wind preventing us from using the atmospheric balloon.

Yellow Moon

We spent a long time having lunch, as it was the scene the producer chose to interview all of us at the same time. The reporter was leading the conversation, and while eating we discussed about a lot of various subjects, about space exploration, our motivations, how we imagined a trip to Mars, etc. He was very attentive, and raised interesting points. I clearly found this exchange very productive, I hope this satisfied them too, so that it will be released in an authentic way. The fact that the shot was taken during a meal was clever, and clearly helped us remaining natural, as we had something to keep us focused, instead of looking directly at the video camera or one of the four people surrounding us.

The following was a bit more disappointing, as we spent the beginning of the afternoon shooting videos in the different modules of the station, but it was less about science, as the journalists were also looking for some good images. Most of our experiments are not very pretty, so that only some of it had their moment of fame, and had to act a bit to be convincing.

To conclude, it was a very exciting experience, even if we had to sacrifice about half a day to let it happen. We met very respectful and well informed people, not here to try to create something, but really to learn about what we do and understand our goals. It was especially rewarding to get scientific journalists interested by our project, even if journalists in general are paying a lot of attention to our mission, amazing me every other time we receive an interview. It must be because of our topic, space, being so popular.