THE PODS

Jon Clarke

A wheezing, groaning sound fills the lower deck of MDRS and an upright blue box materialises in the EVA prep room.  A tall, distinguished-looking, grey-haired man with attack eyebrows emerges, followed by a short, frizzy-haired young woman.  He looks round quizzically.  “Ah, yes, the early 21st century Mars simulation in the Utah desert” he said in a Scots accent. “They practiced how to live and work on Mars in this for many years before actually sending people there.  Of course, had they paid more attention to water purification, the whole Bowie Base debacle wouldn’t have happened.” The young woman looked unimpressed.  “Is that a rat I see? Maybe they should pay more attention fixing holes in the wall.”

Voices yell upstairs “We have uninvited visitors AGAIN!”,“Maybe those Russians are back?”, “Can someone get rid of them?”  Two scruffy-looking individuals clatter down the stairs. “What are you doing here?  Didn’t you see the PRIVATE PROPERTY signs?  We put them up just the other day.”

The grey-haired man snorts.  “I never pay attention to those.  Besides, we didn’t come through the door.” He flashes an ID:  “Here are my credentials”.  The rest of the crew members come down the stairs and peer at them.  “So you are from Roskosmos” says the Russian.  “And from CSA, just up the road” murmurs the Canadian. The Indian crew member adds excitedly “ISRO too!”  The commander scratches his scruffy beard and raises his Gallic eyebrows; CNES and ESA?” The frizzy-haired woman smirks: “Gets them every time, Dr.”   The  two Australian look disgusted “It’s blank!” they say.  The Japanese crew member smiles enigmatically, thinking about his own cabin in the station that’s bigger on the inside.

Their visitors peer at the various pods scattered round.  They are brightly lit, have numerous electronic connections, flashing monitors, and emit occasional beeps and gurgling sounds.  Plants grow out of them, trailing tendrils everywhere.  “What’s this then?  Plants and technology? Asks their older visitor, “That did not end well on the Byzantium”.  “The crew days “We are studying the interaction between the crew and the plants.  The system monitors our stress levels and tells us when to feed and water the plants”.

“How does the system know your stress state?” asks the frizzy-haired woman, “through those?” She points at blinking wrist-watch like instruments. “That’s right”, says one crew member, more grizzled than the rest, “I even have two pods in my cabin to look after”.  Their older visitor rolls his eyes.  “Plants controlling people, don’t you remember the Crinoid?  They crew look blank.  “Doesn’t anyone read the older literature these days?  You’ll wake up one morning with as cyber plant zombies with tendrils through your brains, if you’re not careful.  It won’t be pretty.  Really, humanity’s ability to invent new ways to destroy itself borders on genius!” The Japanese crew member smiled; “Don’t worry Dr; the technology is not from Cybus Industries this time”.

Their older visitor shrugs “Oh well, be it on your own heads, we will be off then. Be careful of the carrots too.  Growing them might help your water supply but could be more trouble than they are worth.”  The woman goes into the blue box, followed by the man.  He pauses at the doorway to the brightly lit interior of the blue box, sniffs, and looks narrowly into the corners. “There’s lots of dust in the air here.  Stay out of the shadows”.  The door closes behinds him, a blue light starts to flash and the box dematerialises amid a wheezing and groaning as of brakes left on.  The crew stand in silence for a while.  “We’ve had odder visitors” the commander says at last.

Food Report for of October 2016

Gratin de vegetable rice: (for 7 person and thinking of having left overs, but you will not.)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup of dehydrated broccoli
1 Cup of dehydrated celery
1 Cup of diced tomatoes
1/2 Cup of dehydrated jalapenos
1 Cup of dehydrated spinach
6 Cup of white rice
12 Cup of water
2+ Cup of dehydrated cheese

Note: You can use any cheese you want or mix of cheese for this recipe, I use half mozzarella and half Colby. The + mean that you will use 2 Cup for the rice and the6 cup of  + is for any amount you will need to cover the plate at the end of the recipe

Step 1: In a mixing bowl insert all of the vegetables with 5 cup of water, reserve for at least 15 minutes.

Step 2: In another mixing bowl insert all the cheese along with half of its volume in water. Reserve until needed.

Step 3: In a pressure cooker insert the rice and 6 cup of water. Boil the rice for 15 minutes. Then reserve for another 15 minutes.

Step 4: Once the rice is cooked, mix well the vegetables with the rice inside the pressure cooker.

Step 5: In a plate that can go in the oven insert the vegetable rice mix and cover with as much cheese that you want.

Step 6: Put in the oven with the top of the oven heating at 350 or until the cheese forms a crust.

Person filling out report: Anastasiya Stepanova

Summary Title: 30 days in simulation

Mission status: Operations are nominal

Sol activity Summary: The crew went on EVA for palaeocurrent mapping and testing the engineering project SSUIt, which has the first field try today. There have been found some errors, that later on were fixed in the hab. Unexpectedly was found great lichen location. The rest of the crew, which stayed at the hab was translating 30 days summary report into Russian, French and Japanese languages.

Anomalies in work: No

Weather: Sunny and warm

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: Geology and engineering

HOW MANY ON AN EVA?

Jon Clarke

Most EVAs in the history of space flight have so  far consisted of two people.  Some of the earliest EVAs, such as the first EVA of all by Alexi Leonov and the various EVAs carried out during the Gemini program involved only one person outside the spacecraft.  A single three-person EVA was performed on Shuttle mission STS-49 to deal with a recalcitrant communications satellite.

The M160 crew are less constrained and we are free to experiment with different numbers and different approaches.  So far we have had two, three, and four person EVAs, and four person EVAs comprised of two sub groups.

Today we tried yet another approach.  We cycled two EVA teams of two people through the airlock in succession.  Each team had different goals and only minimal interaction in the field.

Annalea Beattie sketching lichen colonises on a simulated EVA

The first team visited a previously identified location with a rich lichen community. Annalea drew some of the colonies in the field while Anushree scouted for more lichens and also hypoliths and endoliths.

Alexander wearing his SUIt (Suit User Interface)

The second team visited rock outcrops to record the palaeocurrent directions o each, documented new lichen occurrences and, on an old MDRS suit, tested Aexandre’s  Spacesuit User Interface (SSUIt), wearable technology that provides positional and status information for the user while on a simulated EVA.

Examining a cross-bedded sandstone outcrop near the top of a small mesa, a location almost impossible to visit robotically.  This location had a wealth of geological information and a diverse lichen community

This approach proved an efficient and effective way of getting multiple tasks done with the available human, space suit, and communications resources. We might try this approach again in the future, especially when we need to achieve multiple tasks in a short time frame.