It Definitely Tasted Better than Uranus

A recent conversation from the Musk Observatory, when Mars disappeared from the telescope’s view:

“Mars disappeared! Where’d it go?”
“I ate it.”
“Was it good? Better than a Milky Way?”
“Well, it definitely tasted better than Uranus.”

And later:

“Uranus is just open season for all sorts of puns.”
“Yeah, it’s really the butt of everyone’s jokes.”

. . .

Anyway, we’ve just come in from watching moonrise. You’ve all seen an incredible sunrise at least once in your lives, right? Well I’ve been converted. The moonrise here tops any sunrise I have seen. It helps that the land is so flat … the horizon must be dozens of kilometers away. Biggest sky I can remember seeing. The moon rises straight out of the ground, shadowed side first. I’m blown away by how quickly it moves, pushing something of a creamy film over the stars as it goes. Here at MDRS, I am so much more aware of everything that’s circling around out there (including the ISS, which we’ve determined will be passing over us at exactly 7:20 on the morning of the 30^th). Funny how, after gazing at Mars and the stars, the moon seems so close …

Flush

Yes, folks, that is the sound I just heard. WE HAVE A FUNCTIONAL TOILET!  By tomorrow night, I will no longer be peeing in a plastic-bag-lined bucket.  Cool.  I’m worried, however, that this will significantly increase our water consumption.  So far, we have been consuming less than 30 gallons per day between six people… five gallons each.  That’s less than one twelfth the daily consumption of most Americans, and surpasses NASA’s specifications.  Go team!

We’ve been talking a lot about FMARS, the hab on Devon Island, in the Canadian Arctic.  It’s pretty hardcore; the crew stays there for four months, and the constraints of the Mars simulation are much more strict.  And because the Arctic spends part of its time in perpetual daylight, “night” is just pulling the shades down.  The FMARS crew has taken advantage of this by simulating the 37-minute difference between the Martian day and Earth’s 24-hour day.  That’s just plain cool.  Someday I would love to do FMARS.

It has otherwise been a pretty uneventful day.  I got a compost pile started in the greenhouse, and made some stinky solutions, in which I hope I’ll be able to culture some bacteria.  Poor Theresa, the telescope is still not able to do what she needs for her experiment.  We’re all feeling a little sick and very sleepy.  I think tonight we are going to take a break and watch a DVD on a laptop.  There is also a mouse running around in here somewhere.  New pet?  I think yes.

The Acoustics of a Spacesuit

Today was my first EVA in the spacesuits. The suits are cumbersome, making simple tasks like turning the ATV key or taking soil samples pretty difficult. David and I set out on the ATVs for Factory Butte, about six miles from the hab. I took advantage of my helmet … the acoustics inside are great! I was belting out several appropriately Martian-themed David Bowie songs as we drove across the desert (cue “Life on Mars” and “Space Oddity”). Thank god those helmets are mostly soundproof.

Unfortunately, there’s not actually a trail leading to Factory Butte. About a half-hour after we left the hab, David and I were completely off the ATV route, trying to find a way around the mesas looming between us and Factory Butte, still more than 4 miles in the distance. We decided to play it safe, and turn back (even though we were carrying GPS).

I picked Factory Butte because just north of it are salt flats. This is an ideal place to search for halophiles (salt-loving organisms, typically bacteria or protists), and halophiles are of particular interest to astrobiologists.

Water is a requirement for life. If the water is briny, when it evaporates it will leave highly concentrated salts in the soil, several times the concentration of salt as in seawater, making an environment inhabitable only by halophiles. As water evaporates, it also causes calcium sulfate (gypsum) to precipitate. MDRS is surrounded by gypsum fields, meaning there are many promising places to try collecting halophiles! By studying these organisms, we may gain insight into our search for ancient life on Mars, where a dried-up body of water could have left hypersaline environments analogous to those right here in Utah.

Trying to do “real” science here is frustrating. The lab downstairs doesn’t have much in the way of fancy equipment. Even if I had the time (two weeks is hardly enough), I wouldn’t be able to do a very close analysis of any organisms I might collect. In fact, even trying to keep collected organisms will be difficult. Halophiles thrive only in specific conditions, sensitive to factors like pH. I’m equipped with little more than a couple jars of agar and some NaCl (salt).

On the other hand, this is a great challenge of my basic, pure scientific abilities … I’ll be proud of myself if I can figure anything out without the aid of the half-million-dollar microscope and army of chemicals I’m used to being equipped with.

Jeff and Derek continue to be engineering geniuses. Hopefully soon we will have a working toilet and an observatory capable of collecting actual data of use to our astronomer. Auvi is building a pretty sweet-looking bipedal robot. David has been a fantastic commander so far … really good at keeping us enthusiastic and on task. I couldn’t have gotten a better crew. Sappy, but true.

Sorry again for the really long post.

Postcards from Mars

Marsy Christmas, everyone!

It has so far been another day of maintenance: still fixing the toilet, still trying to get the observatory computer software working, etc. This morning I got the autoclave in working order, and made plans to start a compost pile for the hab (which will be quite an undertaking, since we want to keep it as true as possible to a Mars mission situation).

Here are a handful of low-quality photographs. (Again, we have very limited bandwidth, so I’ll wait to post dozens of high-quality pictures once I’m back home.) Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image. Hope you enjoy!

Images, from left to right:

1. Crew 63’s first dinner together (clockwise around the table: Me, Theresa, Auvi, David, Jeff, Derek)

2. Gorgeous view (Can you find the hab? It’s the tiny white dot, towards the right of the image and near-ish the horizon line…)

3. The MUSK Mars Observatory

4. Another beautiful view … was there once water on Mars?

5. The Poopsicle

I’m Dreaming of a Red Christmas

Imagine waking up to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, climbing out of your tiny bunk, and watching the sun rise over red Martian cliffs stretching for miles through your porthole window.

That’s what I did this morning.

Today we did safety training. Safety here is critical … the nearest hospital is more than 100 miles away! (Don’t freak out, Mom. I’ll be okay, I promise.) I also got trained to use the ATVs and the EVA suits. The spacesuits, while not exactly high-tech, are fully functional, with sealed helmets (air is pumped in via the backpack), and built-in radios. The suits weigh 35 pounds apiece.

While I got caught up on training, Derek rebuilt the computer in the observatory so that the telescope can take pictures again.

It has become very clear very quickly that most of our time will be spent on maintenance rather than science. If our power dies or our water runs out, we have to find a solution, which is difficult when you can’t just make a quick trip to the convenience store. This is a big part of the simulation … after all, if we were really on Mars, it’d be a long trip back just to pick up some batteries.

The toilet is still unusable. Today we found an icicle of frozen human waste underneath the hab. A poopsicle, if you will.

After lunch the crew took a hike through the desert. It’s amazing just how remote this place is. We stood still long enough to appreciate the unsettling silence. 160 million years ago, this desert was completely underwater. Now all of those eons are visible in alternating sandy- and red-colored layers stacked up in the geological formations of the desert, and a surprising variety of rocks. We have a textbook here of Utah’s geology, and I want to read through a lot of it tonight … I was so frustrated by how little I knew! We also found some fossilized oyster shells.

I spent some time setting up the bio lab downstairs in the hab. We have some basic implements and chemicals, along with two microscopes and a brand new autoclave. The light was broken on the stereo scope, so I’ve jury-rigged a table lamp to do the trick.

Again and again I’ve been blown away by the talent and resourcefulness of my crewmates.

Merry Christmas from Mars, everyone! Sorry for the long posts … I’ll try to put up some pictures soon.

Home Sweet Pod

I have finally arrived on Mars!

Jeff and Derek, two of my wonderful crewmates, came to rescue me in Salt Lake City.  The drive to Hanksville was gorgeous: landscape transitioning from snowy mountains to red-tinted mesas as we headed south. 

In the car we had lively discussions of who was the nerdiest crew member.  Let me tell you, it is fierce competition.  Jeff, for example, has worked on engineering self-piloted airplanes and knows the value of pi out to around 250 digits.  I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!

By sundown we reached Hanksville, a town of 200, whose main attractions are the Whispering Sands Motel and a convenience store that is literally built into the side of a mesa.  From there, we took a 20-minute drive into the wilderness down Cow Dung Road (no joke, that’s its name), which is really more of a beaten trail than a road. 

The moon is full, and so bright that I have a very distinct moon shadow!

We finally arrived at MDRS.  I have never smiled so big.  The landscape is truly alien, and I will be making it my home for the next two weeks.  My little landing pod in the middle of a vast desert.

Inside, I met the rest of my crew:  David, Auvi, and Theresa.  Arriving as late as I did, I missed the transition from Crew 62 to Crew 63.  Upstairs in the hab are the bunks and main living space.  Downstairs is a laboratory (which, as the only crew biologist, I basically have to myself … yikes).  

Above the main window are three clocks set to different “time zones”: Houston, Mars, and MCC Earth.

The toilet is broken thanks to frozen pipes.  David and Jeff are fixing it, but frankly, I enjoy using the great outdoors …

Anyway, after dinner, Theresa (our crew astronomer) set up the observatory for a quick astronomy lesson.  The stars out here are phenomenal (I’ve stopped counting shooting stars), though right now the full moon is drowning them out.  Look up at the night sky soon; Mars is very close to the moon right now.

Tomorrow we will begin the full simulation, which will entail putting on the EVA suits and going through the airlock every time we go outside.

We have very limited bandwidth here, so I probably won’t be able to upload many pictures until later. 

It is cold (15 degrees F) and I am exhausted.  I am in love with this place.

Stuck in Salt Lake

After canceled flights into and out of Chicago, I finally made it to Salt Lake last night. Unfortunately, my crew left yesterday afternoon for the station (roughly a 6 hour drive from Salt Lake City). My ride to the bus station never showed up this morning. Now I am stuck in Salt Lake for another day, and exasperated.

On the upside, Salt Lake City is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and currently covered in snow. Also, for the record: the Mormon Temple is enormous … quite visible from an airplane.

space will be small, so pack light

True to form, I finished my packing at the very last minute. I am going to have mini-Christmas here at home and then in two hours I’ll be at the airport.

Don’t worry, I have not forgotten to pack a couple adult diapers.

Just kidding.

Volume-wise, I’ve managed to pack almost exactly the same amount for two weeks’ time as I did for more than a month in Africa. My sleeping bag, socks, and hiking boots account for almost all of the bulk. The rest: two pairs of shorts, two pairs of pants, two t-shirts, waterproof shell, Chacos, Nalgene (maybe I’m imagining things, but I think it still reeks of lemongrass “tea” and Tang, since I haven’t really washed it since its last adventure … GROSS!), super warm and fluffy Mountain Hardwear jacket (which will double as pillow), long underwear, camp towel, a teensy bottle of shampoo (no showers), toothbrush & toothpaste, camera, laptop, a couple books (some of which I will be leaving in the hab for future crews), utility knife, headlamp, deodorant (crucial), and duct tape (even more crucial).

I have no idea what to expect, and I can’t wait.

Today NASA Called

This afternoon I received a call from Darlene Lim, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center. She does a lot of field work in some of the harshest environments on Earth, studying biology and geology in Mars analog environments like Devon Island in the Canadian high arctic and the Atacama Desert in Chile (which hasn’t seen rain in 400 years).

She’s looking for a field assistant for this summer.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Crew 63

I’ve learned a little bit now about my crew:

Crew 63 hails from Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Bangladesh, and Canada. It seems to be a younger crew than usual (perhaps because this crew rotation is during the holidays), which is exciting! There are three engineers, a journalist, and an astronomer. I am apparently the only biologist. Scary.