Crew 5 - Crew Reports

April 7, 2002

Commander's Logbook

Today was off-sim as we moved in the hab and became familiar with the systems. All times are MDT. We have a great crew:

0200 Arrival in Hanksville from Salt Lake City. We drove in two minivans, full to the top with gear, newly purchased supplies, and the crew of six.

0645 The alarm goes off, time to have one last very long hot shower and prepare for the short trip to MDRS. Few of us have slept soundly, for we are stilled keyed up from the evening before and full of excitement for the day's activities. The day is brilliant with achingly long clear horizons and a fresh northerly breeze.

0810 Arrival at MDRS. The crew that greets us is clean, cheerful, and eager to relay the tricks. Judith Lapierre has organized a nicely printed list of handover topics, with assigned crew members. I review it and quickly rattle off the corresponding people in my crew who will pair off for the coming hour of learning and sharing.

0930-0945 Rotation 5 departs in two vehicles, we begin to feel the peacefulness of the place.

The rest of the day is a blur of unpacking supplies, organizing computers and setting up lab and recording gear. Frank Schubert, Dewey Anderson, and Brian Enke arrive to swap in a new generator, reorganize flows and sensors in the greenhouse, and attach a greenhouse door. We have brought a 5' square projection screen and attach it just above the staterooms; we intend to use it to project our daily and evolving plan.

01500-1700 Our first meeting: We discuss Safety (a briefing and forms to fill); Mission Support communications protocol (all incoming messages about the mission must go through them first; we forward everything we receive for them to handle); our daily schedule (tentatively start the primary EVA at 1600 with dinner at 2000 merged with the debrief); chores (assignments with rotations were worked in detail); reporting (follow the previous crew's pattern, but the summary will be written by our resident journalist, David Real).

1730-1900 ATV training and more organization, refilling the generator, etc.

Our sim begins tomorrow with an extensive planning meeting. One objective of this rotation will be to plan two weeks in advance in full detail. We want to determine to what extent we can project our intentions, and to understand how and why they change from day to day. If we are on a late EVA schedule, then reports will be written the next day. So Mission Support will always be a day behind. Can we compensate by projecting more than two days in advance what we plan to do?

Bill Clancey

MDRS Rotation 5 Commander

April 8, 2002

Commander's Logbook

The previous evening we enjoyed a peaceful dinner and mostly spend the evening setting up and organizing the hab. We are too tired to watch a movie. Our bedtimes vary between 2245 and 0030.

0800-0900 The crew has rested well and smiles in conversation over breakfast.

0900-1130 Planning meeting: We extensively review our objectives, methods, and constraints, and individual plans. Planning will be a key part of this rotation. We will plan forward as much as possible, including a schedule for the day. We will forward this to mission support. We will then review and replan the next day. A single document will be edited as we proceed, allowing easy comparison of our expectations and time estimates.

One question is whether we can reach a steady state by which we are able to notify mission support reliably of our plans two or three days in advance, so they may assist us. Our reports will tend to be a day delayed because of late afternoon EVAs running until dinner. To begin the process, we ask mission support for waypoints of areas known to be always wet, occasionally wet, always dry, and windy.

The crew also begins personal logs of when they sleep, do chores, or prepare reports. This is on top of group logging of water and soap usage.

1200-1400 Lunch: getting remaining laptops on line; understanding problem with UPS generator, processing mail.

1400-1630 Greenhouse EVA in full-suit by Nancy and Vladimir to plan seedlings. Proceeded by an extensive training session for the crew. Operation completed entirely on schedule.

1630-1700 Half-hour moment to catch our breaths and debrief. This was unscheduled but necessary before launching into the next EVA.

1700-1730 The EVA crew prepares, others work on learning to transfer files, using the full panoply of methods we have brought along: Compactflash (PC) card, CD-R, USB drives, and floppies. This was not scheduled, but is necessary for reporting tonight.

1730-1930 Second EVA for the new crew (Vladimir and I had a great deal of experience on suited EVAs at FMARS). Andrea, David, and Jan go on a pedestrian EVA to measure wind in various sites for a future experiment.

1930-2000 Catching up on mission support's responses to us, and logging our 2000 dinner

Bill Clancey

MDRS Rotation 5 Commander

Day 1 Report

Life on Mars Can Be Brutal

By David Real / Belo Interactive

Lost supplies of critical medicine. Computer failures. Even unannounced alien visitors. All on four hours of sleep. And, officially, it's not even Day One yet on the Red Planet.

Five scientists and a reporter locked themselves away Monday for a two-week stay in an isolated area of Utah for a research project sponsored by NASA and the Mars Society, an organization advocating exploration of the fourth planet as soon as possible.

The goal: simulate the conditions of a restrictive encampment on the Mars surface, add some top-flight scientists from around the world, and see what happens. Perhaps problems discovered during an exercise on Earth could play a critical role in preventing a crisis in space.

"This rotation is especially interested in planning," said Dr. William J. Clancey, a NASA scientist who is commanding the mission at the Mars Desert Research Station. "Can we plan our work for several days in advance, at least, so Mission Support will have enough details to help us."

Dr. Clancey, 49, is chief scientist for Human-Centered Computing at NASA's Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale California.

During the next two weeks, his crew will bunk in an unusual two-story structure that looks like a cross between a white grain silo and a stubby Apollo space capsule. The stark, reddish terrain appears eerily similar to the Martian landscape.

The crew can emerge only in tightly controlled circumstances, wearing fabricated spacesuits and communicating via handheld radios with their fellow crew members inside their temporary home away from Earth. Talking with Mission Control during an actual mission to Mars would be pointless, when a reply from such a distance would take 10-40 minutes.

The other members of the crew on this mission are:

• Dr. Vladimir Pletser, 46, is a native of Brussels, Belgium. He is an astronaut candidate for Belgium working at the European Space Agency and is also project manager for an instrument being developed for the International Space Station.
• Dr. Nancy B. Wood, 60, an experimental scientist with a doctorate in microbiology from Rutgers University. She is interested in how microorganisms adapt to harsh environments, such as could be found on Mars.
• Jan Osburg, 30, an aerospace engineer at the Space Systems Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. His specialty is human spaceflight and design of inhabited space systems.
• David Real, 49, a journalist for Belo Interactive and a former reporter and assistant Metro editor for The Dallas Morning News. He and Dr. Clancey were roommates at Rice University in the early 1970s.
• Andrea Fori, 32, a planetary geologist and systems engineer with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Sunnyvale, Calif. She helped choose a landing site for the first NASA mission designed to bring back rocks from Mars.

The team assembled in Salt Lake City late Saturday, spent several hours and hundreds of dollars buying food and other provisions, and finally embarked on a five-hour drive to Hanksville, arriving about 2 a.m. Sunday.

After four hours of sleep, the crew boarded two vans jammed with equipment and provisions and headed toward the Hab to relieve the current crew, the fourth to make a two-week stay. Less than two hours later, Dr. Judith Lapierre, a space scientist at the University of Quebec in Hull, handed command of the Habitat to Dr. Clancey, and a new chapter had begun. It didn't begin auspiciously. A crew member discovered that one of his bags containing vital prescription medicine had been lost. Fortunately, another bag carried his backup medication.

Attempts to hook up the crew's computers to the base station were unsuccessful. By choice, there is no telephone service available, in order that the project may more closely mimic the isolation that crews will face on Mars. So the Habitat's satellite dish provides the only authorized connection to the outside world via the Internet, and computer networking is vital.

After several hours of unpacking, the crew met to learn the rules of everyday life on the station and to assign mundane chores, such as cleaning toilets and cooking dinner.

Our organizational meeting was interrupted several times by visitors who lived nearby and had learned of the Mars mission. They would be our last for the next two weeks.

The day ended shortly after midnight with an exhausted crew, and no solution to our computer problems.

The next day, however, would officially kick off the simulation. On Monday morning, the hatch would close on planet Earth and the crew would open the doors on its new mission: exploring a future on Mars.

Health & Safety Officer Reports

Jan Osburg Reporting

Safety:

Fire safety information and emergency procedures were compiled and posted on the second level. Locations of fire extinguishers and emergency egress routes were clearly marked. To prepare crewmembers for a possible evacuation using the roof hatch escape route, Nancy taught everyone how to use the "roof rope" to rappel down a vertical wall.

Health:

Procedures for medical emergencies were compiled from the HSO manual and posted near the HabComm station. No injuries or illnesses were reported.

Engineering Report

Jan Osburg Reporting

Water Systems: Water consumption in the last 24 hours: 150 l (40 gallons), which seems high considering that nobody took a shower. Potential culprits: leaks, not fully established water discipline, or (most likely) the planting/seeding of the GreenHab trays which took place today (see science and EVA reports).

Power and Fuel: The new generator, which was installed yesterday by Frank Schubert and his team, works flawlessly. The only blackout occurred when too many kitchen appliances were running (but it was worth it, our DGO - Director of Galley Operations - of the day, Vladimir, produced excellent meals!) We are currently refueling the generator in the morning before 09:00h, then in the afternoon around 16:00h, and finally before going to bed, around midnight. We have not run out of fuel yet, so this schedule seems to work.

EVA Equipment (including ATVs and PEV): Yesterday, we also received three brand new ATVs, on loan from sponsor Kawasaki. They run great, and we are looking forward to many exciting motorized EVAs. Lamont took the three old ATVs back. Today's EVAs went fine, but some recommendations were already issued:

• The Platypus water bags and associated hoses should be replaced every month or so to mitigate potential hygiene problems. Spares should be stored at the hab.
• The mouthpieces should be disinfected before a new crew uses them (by immersion in Ethanol?).
• Each crewmember should have a "personal" helmet assigned to him/her during a rotation, to assure maintenance and reduce hygiene concerns.
• Small topo maps of the area with superimposed lat/lon or UTM coordinate grid, laminated and mounted on a board, would help with navigation and documentation of EVA traverses.

Safety: No Data Received

Computers and Communications: A UPS was installed to assure HabComm power supply during generator failures/refueling. Testing revealed some problems which will have to be fixed before the UPS can be considered operational. Most crewmembers' computers were successfully connected to the MDRS LAN. The Net2Phone link to the Flight Surgeon was successfully tested.

General Maintenance & Waste Management: Biolet seems to be working properly, however it is clearly operating on the edge of its capacity. Recommendation for subsequent hab designs: provide two Biolets to a) provide a backup in case one breaks down, and b) reduce continuous load by half, which should result in significantly less olfactory impact.

GreenHab: No Data Received

Geology Report

Andrea Fori Reporting

The Rotation #5 geology study plan was discussed with the team in the morning meeting. During this rotation, we intend to accomplish two goals.

Goal 1: As the last formal crew of the first MDRS season we will broadly assess the geological achievements and process used by the last four crews. This information, synthesized into a series of reports over the course of our two weeks here, will describe the information from two perspectives a) From the perspective of the Earthbound scientist. Assuming that an Earthbound scientist would have only access to the information posted on the web, I'm going to look at ways posted info can be better communicated so that scientists can use the info being sent back from the red planet. b) From the perspective of the in-person view. As a traveler who arrives at Mars after others have begun research, I need to determine if I can decipher notes and gain an understanding of the local geology, reproduce EVA's, figure out where samples are from, etc. The team will be conducting EVAs during this portion of the study to verify our findings. Weaving in what I believe Earth-bound scientist would want to know, from the perspective of planetary geologists, astrogeologists and geo-engineers I'll make suggested improvements for how and what information is recorded and relayed.

Goal 2: Create an overall geological primer of the area so that a non-geologist staff crew member can gain a basic understanding of the local geology.

EVA 61 Report

18:20-19:18 - Duration: 3:18-4:36

Objective: To plant seeds in both rock wool cubes and potting soil to set up GreenHab experiment.

Personnel: Vladimir Pletser, Nancy Wood in full suit; Bill Clancey in helmet only to photograph.

Methods:

Experimental test to compare four rapidly sprouting seed types (alfalfa, arugula, radish, and tatsoi) planted in both rockwool and potting soil. Both will be kept damp with the same circulated Greenhab water preparation. Seeds in potting soil will be kept moist manually. Germination times will be observed and compared, as well as relative growth rates. Observations will be carried out by all crew members; those on EVA will do it in full suit, while maintenance and measurements will be done by VP and NW and others simulating the proposed "virtual tunnel".

Lessons Learned:

We prepared for this by setting up a procedure for planting single seeds (which varied in size), since this is very difficult to do with the suit gloves on. It was still difficult and time-consuming, and sometimes more than one seed was deposited. It would be helpful to have a small workspace in the GreenHab.

EVA 62 Report

18:20-19:18

Objective(s) The intent of this EVA was to search for a windy and dusty location for Nancy's "Transportation of bio materials via wind" study to be set up during a future EVA. This EVA was also an introductory, brief pedestrian, familiarization exercise for the three participants.

Accomplishments

We identified three locations for Nancy to install her sample collection stations. The locations are local, open, high spots where it appears likely that relatively high amount of dirt would become airborne. We recorded GPS coordinates and maximum wind speed that occurred during a 10-second period (see map).

Lessons Learned/Misc. Notes

Some adjustments need to be made to the suits for more a more proper fit. Dave's headset became disconnected and he was not able to participate in Capcom communications. Communications originating from Capcom were often relatively loud and muddled - suggestion was made to speak in a normal tone and 30-60 cm away from the wall-mounted unit.

April 9, 2002

Commander's Logbook

Dr. Bill Clancey Reporting

The previous evening we worked on reports after dinner until about 2230, then we reviewed my DVD compilation, "Best of Devon 2001," consisting of artistic and humorous videos from my stay in FMARS and the Haughton-Mars base camp last July.

0910-1010 Planning meeting. We are picking up speed, as our plans evolve from initial thoughts to a series of steps and follow-ups. We are still not looking ahead beyond the present day, but focusing on immediate, pressing needs.

1010-1300 Individual work: Reporting, reviewing previous crew's reports, handling visitor requests (not allowed, this is a simulation of a crew on Mars), and a variety of personal tasks, such as medications review and reading a geology primer of the region.

1300-1415 An unexpectedly formal, long, and delightful lunch prepared by today's Director of Galley Operations, David Real. We sit and talk about a recent astrobiology press release and what could be learned about publishing information about scientific work before it is has been peer-reviewed.

1430-1500 Andrea Fori, our resident geologist/engineer, presented an introduction to geology and regional formations. The crew finds this fascinating and useful.

1600-1730 A lengthy EVA preparation, including equipment cleaning, testing, and suiting up.

1730-1915 A mobile (ATV) EVA to seek wet areas for soil sampling. This will be reported in detail separately.

1915-2030 Cleanup and email. Reading my email and reporting is taking at least a fourth of my time.

2030 dinner is announced-- Mexican-Martian Treat with Martian "Eggs" over Pineapple (it's a Martian yoke, get it?)

Bill Clancey

MDRS Rotation 5 Commander

Health & Safety Officer Reports

Jan Osburg Reporting

Safety:

Some fuel spilled during generator tank refueling. Lesson learned: always watch the tank level during refueling!

Also, trash bags stored in rear airlock were found to block easy egress (escape route).

A fire drill was held after dinner. The HSO activated a fire alarm on the first level and announced that the Biolet was on fire. Crew response was well coordinated, following the fire procedures posted yesterday. The commander and a crewmember "fought" the simulated fire using handheld extinguishers while the rest of the crew was ordered to evacuate. After the "fire" was extinguished, a debriefing resulted in various updates of the fire procedures. Recommendation: six disposable emergency smoke hoods (e.g. Evac-U8 brand) should be kept on the upper floor to permit crewmembers to escape down the main ladder in spite of smoke, thus giving them a better chance of controlling fires on the first level and avoiding use of alternate evacuation routes (window/ladder, roof hatch). HSO will also investigate possible use of potable water tank/pump and additional hoses for firefighting.

Health:

Inventoried and reorganized the MDRS first aid kit. Most items were present in sufficient quantities; some were added by HSO.

The first aid supplies were arranged into seven components:

• A general-purpose first aid case
• A small first aid kit to be taken on EVAs (stored in main airlock)
• A case with first aid material for eye injuries
• A box with non-prescription medications
• A lockbox with prescription medications (to be released by order of Flight Surgeon only)
• A box with miscellaneous bulky first aid equipment (cervical collars, books, …)
• A box with additional consumables, mainly extra bandaging material, for refilling the other first aid kits

Medical incidents:

• Two band-aids and Neosporin were issued for treatment of a minor skin abrasion
• The DGO (Director of Galley Operations, i.e. cook) touched a hot onion and suffered a first-degree burn on a knuckle (first aid measure: application of cool water for 5 minutes).

Engineering Report

Jan Osburg Reporting

Water Systems: Water consumption in the last 24 hours: 130 l (34 gallons). Recommendation: it would be nice to have a water meter in the potable water line, to get more accurate water use figures. Currently, water use is measured by reading the water level of the tank using a handwritten, external scale on the tank.

Power and Fuel: Generator fuel is running low, available supplies will last until tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. Mission Control was contacted to arrange for resupply through local support.

Recommendation for future generators: get one with a large built-in tank so only one refill per day (or even less) is required.

EVA Equipment (including ATVs and PEV): GPS units for EVA use were set to the required coordinate system (UTM, NAD 27 datum) so waypoints can be directly plotted onto the USGS topo map in the hab, and recorded on the EVA database spreadsheet on Habcom.

EVA communications broke down during todays EVA due to problems with the radios. Recommendation: acquire ruggedized, easy-to-operate handheld radios that can be operated with EVA gloves on (and by relatively inexperienced personnel). These are available for FRS frequencies, so the repeater and the Habcomm base station can still be used. Also regarding the radios, a portable/wireless headset for the Habcomm operator would be nice so he/she could walk around the hab while still being "on-call" for EVA requests. And, finally, the PTT button for the radios should be replaced by a VOX circuit (that activates the emitter whenever the microphone picks up sound above a certain - adjustable - level).

Safety: (see "Health and Safety Report")

Computers and Communications: Nothing to report.

General Maintenance & Waste Management: The "composting material" bucket for the Biolet is slowly being emptied; resupply is required soon.

GreenHab: (see "Biology" report)

Geology Report

Andrea Fori Reporting

We tried to reach a previously recorded waypoint today (see EVA #63 report). The intent of this exercise was to become comfortable with the Because the terrain is so varied, it was impossible to find the waypoint without destroying a fair amount of vegetation. It's obvious that the route that was taken to reach a waypoint should be recorded as well as the waypoint for future reference. Work continues on generally assessing achievements and processes.

EVA 63 Report

18:20-19:18 - Bill Clancey, Andrea Fori & Nancy Wood

Objective(s) To obtain sample for setup of ecosystem columns; attempt to revisit Waypoint 86, known to be usually wet.

Accomplishments

We departed on ATVs in the direction of Waypoint 86. Since the attempted route was impractical and a thunderstorm was visible nearby, we returned by the same route. Three vials of red-brown soil were collected at the confluence of two obvious dry rivulets to provide a sample of "intermittently wet" material. This site is now designated Waypoint 108, coordinates 5 18 180E, 42 50 504N

After returning the ATVs to the Hab, we proceeded a short distance to rock outcroppings obviously subjected to storm drainage and which were covered with ochre-colored microbial material. A small pebble covered with this growth was collected for biology experimentation. Waypoint information on this site will follow.

Lessons Learned/Misc. Notes

Samples required for biology projects were collected successfully. Route finding to previously established waypoints is nontrivial and requires advance planning.