122-CommandersReport

Commander report

01/22/2015

Romain Charles

Our days often gravitate around the EVA. It's an important step in

gathering data & validating our 2 important experiments: EVA Planning Tool

and Terrain mapping. Our crew rotation is coming to an end and today was

the last time that we could work on them. Tomorrow's EVA will be oriented

toward outreach.

EVA - Wissam (EVA Lead), Rebeca, Romain

We have now a good routine for the preparation of the EVAs and the team

left the Hab at 10:00. It was a beautiful day and all the targeted

terrains were successfully mapped. Unfortunately, on a high risk terrain,

the quadcopter had a contingency and will not be able to fly again before

the end of our stay on Mars.

All the crew members were safely back at the Hab at 14:00.

The main highlights were:

• Engineering activities

• Successful terrain mapping

• Quadcopter contingency

Water situation

This morning it was impossible to pump the water from the static tank to

the loft tank. Having freezing temperature outside, we remembered

Shannon's advice and followed it. We waited for the temperature to be

warmer at noon and tried again to pump the water. This operation was then

successful. This issue is quite easy to solve and we'll make sure to pass

the information on to the next crew. However, I would recommend to have a

closer look at this issue as soon as possible. The tubes can easily be

damaged by freezing water.

Cleaning supplies

At the beginning of our rotation, before starting the simulation, our crew

bought many cleaning supplies (napkins, wet wipes, hand soap, hand

sanitizer, mop, etc…). It's still unclear to us if cleaning supplies

should be provided, like the food, by the Mars Society or if each crew

should be responsible for their own cleaning supplies. We request feedback

from Mission Support on this issue ASAP as this information will also be

important for the Crew 148 arriving in 2 days. It would allow them to stop

and purchase supplies before driving to Hanksville.

Upcoming EVA

We are sending a request for approval of an EVA on Jan 23rd, 2015. Andrew

(EVA Lead), Danielle, Renee, Scott & Romain are planning an EVA to use the

Phoenix rover and do some outreach activities around the Hab.

One last EVA, one last day … already! Our team is working well together

and in our latest discussion, we wondered how long we could have

continued simulating a Martian research station. It's hard to answer but

one thing is for sure: more than 12 days!