The Crew experienced a hectic last day at the habitat cleaning and preparing for the upcoming egress. Commander Turner prepared savory Old-Bay eggs for breakfast and then the Crew mopped and swept most of the modules. MS Gonzalez enjoyed a quick afternoon workout before the Crew settled for lunch together. This afternoon, the Crew had the opportunity to harvest the microgreens for dinner! Attached is a picture of the delicious chicken flavored rice with jalapeno tuna and microgreens prepared by MS Gonzalez and CO Turner. Today’s afternoon Rover EVA was an enjoyable last compilation of different challenges to satisfy some research. The Crew ends the night watching Family Guy during dinner and doing Exit surveys. Flight Director Miller’s pumpkin wine made for an interesting Egress cheer. The Crew was happy to sit together one final time to reminisce and share their thoughts of the mission.
While the 5I mission was fun while it lasted, the Crew was prepared and ready to end the simulation. They had put forth their best effort in executing the tasks and completing the surveys set before them. They finished with feelings of accomplishment.
MS Gonzalez’ final workout on Mars.
MS Cecil completing the food inventory for the ARG-5i mission.
The ARG-5i Crew’s final meal together while watching Family Guy-giggity.
MS Cecil and MS Gonzalez harvesting the Hamama Microgreens. MS Gonzalez’ final Mars dinner consisting of Jalapeño Tuna and mixed microgreens over a bed of chicken flavored rice.
Rover Excursion
The Crew enjoyed one last ride for an afternoon Rover EVA. At 1530 CDT, MS Gonzalez and MS DeJan conducted an afternoon Rover excursion. Rover start power was at eight green bars. Rover was driven by MS Cecil and MS DeJan manned the systems. The "Martian weather" provided cloudy weather but the IVA team championed by MS Cecil and MS DeJan enjoyed navigating the terrain and collecting the last rover data. MS Gonzalez and CO Turner enjoyed creating a exciting and thought-provoking EVA course for the EVA Crew to navigate. EVA crew found another radio dead zone at the tree line Southwest of the hab. The Crew experienced the RDC blackout during a mission critical point. After the last data was collected the excursion was terminated and the crew proceeded to dock. After a go around to realign the rover to the dock, docking was successful, and the crew went through the SOP checklist to power down the rover and exited through the airlock. The Rover had eight green bars when powered down.The ARG-5i Crew have enjoyed their final Rover EVA and are satisfied with their level of performance throughout the mission. Although bittersweet, every Crew member is looking forward to returning home, to planet Earth.
The final ride of the ARG-5i Crew lead by MS Cecil and MS DeJan.
MS Gonzalez and CO Turner complete their final IVA manning the comms and systems.
Martian Soil
At the start of this 14-day mission MS Cecil had a simple goal in mind. She wanted to expand her baseline by replicating what she had achieved at home in a different climate zone. The idea was to see if the plants would thrive in the same way as they did in the stabilized enclosed system. This was done with four bins B1, B2, M1, and M2. Within M1 and M2 Martian Regolith made up the base. A layer of separation was created through a layer of small pebbles and a layer of sand. To create the growing zone MS Cecil added earth soil she had specially formulated to work with the more acidic Martian regolith. B1, and B2 were set up in a similar matter only missing the regolith at the base. This was down to track how plants grew in regular earth soil versus ones exposed to Martian regolith. The goal of the project was to allow the base and top to mix slowly over time through micro gaps in the drainage layer and water evaporation. This was done to allow the earth and Martian soils to stabilize each other without the risk of the two killing each other. To add an extra layer of data MS Cecil wanted to see if M2 and B2 would grow better if they were exposed to 24/7 heat from below and 12 on and 12 off on the UVA lights above. Her willing and unwilling test subjects were radish, arugula, and sweet basil micro greens. For what felt like a full week there was no sign of plant growth in any bins. MS stayed to her schedule of checking moister levels and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday testing the Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium levels A.K.A Ph. The first bin to sprout anything was B1 the earth soil no heating pad. MS Cecil had trouble containing her excitement. Though there was worry when sprouts didn’t appeal in M1 or M2. This was set to rest when three days later tiny sprouts decided to show themselves in M1. Even with plant growth MS Cecil continued her daily schedule of checking the plants health and the soil’s moister levels. This became essential as the green hab got really hot, which killed off the first sprouts. This was followed by a cold shift before the crew found a nice temperature on the green hab AC to keep things more stable. This became a good data point on how these micro greens would handle similar shifts to what they would experience on the red planet.
Toward the second half of week 2 it was noted that the plants in M1 were unstable from the roots up. After very, very carefully digging the roots out in a way that would not harm them, it was observed that except for one radish sprout all of the plants curled their roots up to avoid the regolith. This continued throughout the week as each sprout had to be reburied. This occurred because they kept pushing up and out of the soil. This caused low to med damage to the stems from the lack of support the soil would normally give them, mild damage to the roots system of each plant. The sprouts that did not go this rout became highly wilted and laid on the ground until they started to soften and began to reabsorb into the earth layer. There is defiantly something in Martian regolith that plants don’t like! Moving forward with her project MS Cecil will be trying different methods to help the plants in their growth as well as retry the heating pad method with a better set up to keep the temperature stable. The heating pad she found in the hab kept raising the temperature, the pad that could not be adjusted. MS Cecil is very happy with the surprising data she was able to acquire from these trials and with a base line established is ready to move forward with her project. Hopefully with hard work and luck it might just end up on Mars some day! MS Cecil wanted it noted that in past trials she was able to create an environment where Martian regolith turned into moldable clay. This even was not successfully recreated in trial three of the Martian regolith introduction.
Measuring EVA Performance
MS Gonzalez attempted to quantify the cognitive decay that is commonly experienced in isolated, confined, extreme environments. With guidance of Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, it was ascertained that there has to be a limit to the decay. In other words, could the cognitive decay exist after a certain amount of time? Was it possible for the crew of ARG-5i to improve performance based on recency of exposure to training and low-fatigue accumulation? To answer those questions, MS Gonzalez decided to measure a baseline: the crew’s work-rest cycles with Garmin actiwatches and their concentration endurance via morning psychomotor vigilance tests. The measurable of performance was off-nominal EVA’s, how fast the situation was rectified, and how long it took to don the suit. Although few measures were possible due to weather and suit malfunctions, MS Gonzalez collected a significant amount of data to capture ARG-5i crew’s performance.
Mutually Sustained Systems for Space Flight
The two Hostas were left in the sealed container for 11 lightless hours. Again, the result was an off scale reading of 5000+ PPM of CO2. Thence, the plants were removed, watered and placed into storage in the green room. The tank and CO2 injection system were dissembled, cleaned and dried, and returned into the green room. All readings were documented and will be placed into a final report.
Green Study
CO Turner is impressed with how well the microgreens grew in the Earth and Lunar test groups under infused soil compared to the control group. The Martian regolith produced zero results. She is determined to establish growth in the Martian regolith and looks forward to testing different processes in future missions.
Kale, Mustard, and Arugula Microgreens in Earth Soil and Lunar and Martian Regolith
Human Factor Studies
The ARG-5i Crew completed their final human factor studies surveys. Although repetitive, they see the value in acknowledging the depth and breadth of the human psyche and physiological tolls living in a confined environment inflicts on the soul.
