Brr…The Martian environment is fierce with the Crew waking to a chilly 32 degrees F this morning. The analog astronauts would have preferred to stay bundled up in their bunks, but tasks require dedication and dedicated to Mar’s mission they are. The Crew finished the watching the Nightmare on Elm Street series playing in the background, while completing tasks and assignments. The Crew enjoyed an eventful afternoon executing an Emergency EVA Simulation, as well as an evening Rover expedition. The Crew are in bittersweet sentiments with only three days left before the conclusion of the ARG-5i mission. Many exciting new experiences, wonderful moments, and lessons learned defined the Crew’s synergy. They wound down the evening watching ‘War of the Worlds’ and enjoyed some black beans and corn with tobacco tuna-spicy goodness!
The Crew was excited the Martian weather finally dissipated long enough to allow a triple-header for today’s events. The Crew swiftly conducted an Emergency, Off-Nominal EVA, transitioned to a traditional EVA and concluded the evening with a Rover EVA completing performance tasks. They were in high gear and ready to roll and enjoyed every moment.
Simulated Emergency EVA
CO Turner and MS Gonzalez briefed the crew on comms check procedures and timing milestones throughout the EVA. Before EVA, MS Gonzalez rigged Blueberry with a different push to talk system, which was essentially 2 push-to-talk buttons near the helmet’s top visor. Pre-suit donning radio checks went smoothly and both buttons were operational. Upon donning suit completely, MS Gonzalez found one radio button had failed. The crew had to default to single-net operations instead of the traditional split net between intercom and base communications. This is suboptimal because it clutters communications with intercom type communication requirements.
Donning suits took approximately 30 seconds longer than previous iterations. The crew quickly located the valve mechanism and MS Gonzalez coordinated the timing milestones with IVA while CO Turner closed the valve and patched the leak. The handheld camcorder was not utilized and MS Gonzalez used a GoPro to capture the repairs. Total time habitat egress to repair was over 6 minutes. The original plan was to ingress and hand the GoPro to the IVA crew while the EVA crew took the trash out.
MS Gonzalez reported that Blueberry’s fan had fallen into his lower back and was heating up quickly. MS DeJan attempted to reset the fan in its place so that the crew could take the trash out. Halfway through the walk to the trash bin, the fan slid out of its mounting plate and fell to MS Gonzalez’s lower back. The fan was overheating quickly and the heat was localized into one position in MS Gonzalez’s lower back. With MS Gonzalez’s ventilation blocked, fogged visor, and lower back catching all of the fan’s heat, the EVA crew decided to hurry back. Ingress uneventful. Upon disassembly of the fan system, MS DeJan noticed that fan’s cooling intakes were blocked with Velcro straps. Additionally, when compared with Tangerine’s fan, Blueberry’s fan was producing more heat faster, leading to crew suspicion of faulty internals or an impending fan failure.
MS DeJan and MS Gonzalez demonstrating proper donning of gas mask procedures during today’s Emergency EVA.
MS Gonzalez assisting CO Turner in completing the simulated EVA CO leak repair.
CO Turner and MS Gonzalez were successful in locating and capping the CO leak. Go Team!
MS Cecil and MS Gonzalez prepare for the evening Rover excursion. CO Turner oversees the MPU5 relay comms and ATACK station.
Rover EVA
At 1530 CDT, MS Gonzalez and MS DeJan will conduct an afternoon Rover excursion to tree line and around the outer perimeter testing various research projects. The rover was driven by MS Gonzalez first and then MS Cecil. MS DeJan’s checklist was easy to execute. Comms checks uneventful. Starting battery charge 4 green bars. EVA crew let the IVA crew generate scenario at their own will. The crew then conducted a seat swap and MS Gonzalez took over RDC and radio duties. Docking uneventful. Shutdown battery level at 3 green bars, 50%. Charger connected. CO Turner monitored the mission and MS DeJan managed the systems. Comms checks uneventful.
The EVA Crew enjoyed the Rover. MS Cecil received a lot of practice docking the Rover. The Crew improved their MPU5 communication experience even with the technical difficulties. The Crew were able to undock and redock successfully. The Crew successfully followed UNDs SOP for charging the Rover battery.
CO Turner gets her afternoon sweat on.
CO Turner prepared black beans, corn, and Tabasco tuna for dinner while watching ‘War of the Worlds’ together. They topped off the evening with some chocolate pudding and rehydrated frozen strawberries-yum!
MS Cecil has seen little change in project, as predicted. Some sprouts are beginning to wilt. Possible causes are algae water plant food.
Measuring EVA Performance
MS Gonzalez captured valuable data during today’s off-nominal CO leak in the crew module. Both suit donning and total EVA repair time were slightly higher than the first iteration. Possible factors contributing to the lengthened execution include reduced proficiency from no EVA practice over 3 weather days, some crewmember’s prior exposure to the repair clamps, and overall fatigue buildup from the mission. These results, although brief, are parallel with what most literature describes about “just-in-time” training requirements, refresher training requirements, and cognitive fatigue experienced in isolation and confinement.
Mutually Sustained Systems for Space Flight
Tonight requires a CO2 injection. Concrete results in the morning. Paired Hostas enjoying each other’s company. The only positive information produced is a sealed container of Hosta’s/Tomato, or Hosta/Hosta will produce greater than 5000PPM of CO2 in 10 hrs.
Green Study
CO Turner is really impressed with how well the Earth and Lunar test groups are growing. The current lunar microgreen is 7cm in height! There is no growth in the Martian regolith.
Earth Soil Test Group under Red light spectrum.
