What did now not abolish us on ‘Mars’ handiest made us stronger — Commander’s fable: sol 13

Dr. Michaela Musilova is the director of Hawaii Condominium Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program, which conducts analog missions to the moon and Mars for scientific compare at a habitat on the volcano Mauna Loa. At the second, she is in explain of the two-week Valoria 1 mission and contributed this fable to Condominium.com’s Professional Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Commander’s fable for the Valoria 1 Mars mission at HI-SEAS

Sol 13 (Jan. 30, 2021)

We survived. We survived now now not handiest the evening, nonetheless the relaxation of our mission. Our preserve on Mars wasn’t the smoothest bolt. On the other hand, as they are saying, refined seas don’t make lawful sailors. A straightforward mission might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally quiet now now not bear offered us with the necessary survival coaching in indecent environments that we had been all after. Collectively, we had been in a feature to make sacrifices and obtain ideas to all of our concerns as a workers. It used to be in the darkest and coldest hours, rather literally, that we bonded basically the most and realized how worthy we need every other on Mars to invent our mission aims.

Our mission’s themes resemble the principle Big identify Wars motion pictures to some degree. As Science Dialog Officer Hillary Coe assign it, the crew first went by a segment of “a singular hope.” That used to be once we knowing that we might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally repair our backup generator to repair our low-vitality mode recount, which used to be in consequence of a spacious dust storm on Mars (aka rain storm on the Tall Island of Hawaii). Our photo voltaic panels couldn’t present us with ample vitality to continue to exist in the habitat when the storm used to be raging for days on raze, as per my previous commander’s fable on sol 8. 

Connected: The Valoria 1 crew is combating to continue to exist the evening — Commander’s fable: sol 8

Drones from a nearby martian build came to help us (aka engineers from the HI-SEAS workers workers). Alas, even the drones couldn’t fix the pickle with the generator in the heart of the storm. This segment used to be known as: “The generator strikes relief.” While the crew used to be a tiny disheartened, we had been most excited by the many salads that we had been rising in our LettuceGrow hydroponic greenhouse. Attributable to the extremely-low vitality mode in the heart of that segment, the greenhouse used to be grew to change into off. The flowers had been therefore relying totally on photo voltaic rays coming by our slight window and the guide watering by Officer Coe. 

By that level, my crewmembers had grown very hooked up to the flowers. They even named them. Below glimpse stress, I additionally named certainly one of the salads “Nádej,” that implies “hope” in my mother tongue Slovak. It thus joined the ranks of Treebeard, Gangsta-G, Sally the Salad, Tank and others. Thanks to a collaboration with the Australian tutorial program STEM Punks, we had a diversity of micro sensors that we might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally exercise to show screen various environmental stipulations of the flowers’ soil, equivalent to soil moisture and temperature. 

While the flowers perceived to be powering by the immense low vitality mode in the habitat, the crew remained very concerned till the closing segment of our martian home race: “The return of the vitality.” The drones had been in a feature to repair the pickle with the generator and the dust storm in the raze calmed down, allowing us to enter “correct” low vitality mode. The flowers survived and so did we. 

Connected: How to develop flowers on Mars

What did now not abolish us made us stronger — as folks and as a home family. This used to be in portion in consequence of all people’s selfless contributions to the mission hoping to help every workers member and make our habitat change into a home for us, whatever the unprecedented stipulations. It used to be additionally in consequence of the personal memoir sharing that I impressed the crew to raze. We talked about our passions, plans for the long run and what made us change into who we’re. I’m very grateful to the crew for paying attention to my memoir, which I shared alongside with photos and my biography “The Lady from Mars” (“Žena z Marsu”). 

I will in no design forget the pleasure on all people’s faces when I announced that we in the raze had ample vitality to make hot water for tea and espresso. As silly as that might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally sound, folks on occasion might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally quiet be uncovered to indecent eventualities to birth valuing the finest things in existence: hot water, hot food and various folks’s firm. The crew had enjoyable some more when I was in a feature to expand our temperature in the HI-SEAS habitat by a couple more levels than the 59 levels Fahrenheit (15 levels Celsius) that it used to be teach at in the heart of our vitality crisis. 

What made me issue basically the most used to be when all people used to be cheerful by being in a feature to shower for 1.5 minutes the usage of a peanut butter can! The crew is handiest allowed to make exercise of lower than 100 gallons (380 liters) every two weeks in the heart of their simulated martian mission, so showers in most cases safe sacrificed in opt on of saving as worthy water as that that you just might doubtless doubtless factor in for ingesting and cooking. The Valoria 1 crew did one of these wonderful job saving water when cooking and cleaning the dishes that we had some water to spare for these so-known as “bucket showers.” One more time, it be the slight things in existence that many folks don’t appear to treasure and treasure relief on Earth till they’re taken some distance off from them.

“The return of the vitality” used to be now now not an easy segment though, as the weather endured to torment us till the very raze of our mission. Alternatively, we had been in a feature to slot in numerous Marswalks in the heart of the rapid gaps between martian dust storms. At some level of one Marswalk, Engineering Officer Michael Barton examined the rover known as Androver, by the Slovak firm RoboTech Vision, in the tense volcanic terrain on the volcano Mons Huygens (or Mauna Loa in Hawaii). The rover used to be in a feature to conquer most obstacles successfully, whereas being remotely operated from contained in the habitat.

I was additionally in a feature to derive samples of microbes from nearby lava caves in the heart of a Marswalk for astrobiology compare. These extremophiles, indecent lifeforms, might per chance doubtless doubtless additionally doubtlessly exist in lava caves on Mars. For these reasons, I even bear collaborations with groups at NASA Goddard and Honeybee Robotics to higher mark how microbes can continue to exist in these environments, and what tools we’ll must search out and derive them on Mars. Operations Officer Karin Metzgar used to be additionally in a feature to manufacture 3D devices of the HI-SEAS habitat, as a test for gathering such files from lava caves. Her files will doubtless be integrated into drones or robots to help in obstacle avoidance and much away mapping of less accessible areas for humans. 

Commander Musilova signing off to journey one final day on Mars with the Valoria 1 crew and the very appropriate martian film screening of Die Onerous.

Observe Michaela Musilova on Twitter @astro_Michaela. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.