Author: Ross Lockwood

Earlier this week we ran into a little problem. Then that little problem turned into a big problem. The solution of the big problem then turned into a little problem, which today, I think we can finally put to rest.

At the beginning of last week, our water consumption was a record-breaking low, or so we thought. According to the sensor in our water thank, there was over 41% of our water remaining on Saturday night.

At first we didn’t notice that the sensor reading wasn’t moving at all, in fact, we didn’t catch it for the first 24 hours. 41%, all day long. The first indication of troubles was that there were gas bubbles in the hot water lines of the Habitat. During dishes, the water-spout would intermittently spew air with the rinsing water. That’s when we first noticed the problem.

Of course, we can’t just stick our heads outside and peer into the tanks, we require our EVAs be planned and approved before we open the door. So we submitted a plan for the next morning to go and check the physical levels in the water tanks.

As a precaution, we filled some big pots from the cold water line, and after we had about 5 gallons stored, the cold water line started spewing air as well. Just to make me scratch my head a little more, there was hot water coming out of the cold water line with the air!

The next morning revealed the true nature of our problem: we had drained the water tanks dry, even with the water sensor reporting 41%. Not only did we empty the water tanks, we also emptied the water lines running to the Habitat’s pump. The hot water coming out of the cold water tap was from the solar heater draining hot water through the cold water pipes. We were officially out of water.

Our first step was to request an emergency robotic water resupply truck to bring us more water (it’s not robots, of course, but we cover our only window so we don’t know who or what is filling our tanks). Then, with some of the water we had saved, we had to go out and re-prime the water lines.

Re-priming the water lines would be fairly straightforward: disconnect the water lines, pour water into them, reconnect them and turn on the pump. The water has to fill the lines for the pump to work, otherwise the pump is just pulling on air and can’t generate enough force to pull the water column at the other end. But we had to do it while wearing our spacesuits.

It took three of us in spacesuits to re-prime the lines, and we accomplished it in record time: under 20 minutes. While we were jubilant that we had accomplished the EVA objectives, we neglected to notice that the water tank’s sensor wire runs along the water pipe as well, and when we disconnected the water pipe, we tore the sensor’s wire as well.

So, here we are with water pumping normally in the Habitat, but now our sensor is reading -15% water levels, a true head scratcher. We’d have to go outside AGAIN to find the problem and repair it.

As an aside, the crew is currently reading ‘The Martian’ for our book club. There’s a passage (above) in here that I thought I’d share to put the next task into some context, “Ever done electronics while wearing a spacesuit? Pain in the ass.” Well, that’s enough context. We submitted an EVA request to go out and find the broken wires and solder them back together.

Delicate electronics are one thing when you have a well-lit work bench, but quite another when you are kneeling on lava rock with a 20 kilogram suit straining your back! Needless to say, the sensor wire was properly repaired and weatherproofed, and we can now read the water sensor data from the comfort of the Habitat! Yay!

We are fortunate to have a western view out our only window here at HI-SEAS. This gives us the opportunity to view spectacular sunsets on simulated Mars. The slopes of Mauna Loa are desolate lava fields as far as the eye can see, and although the view is always the same, it never gets boring.

To capture the splendour of a Martian sunset, I set up my Olympus OM-D EM-5 with a Triggertrap Mobile connected to an iPad to capture a high-resolution image every half a second. The resulting 7,200 images were composed into a time-lapse video with GoPro Studio, and the resulting movie was sped up 120% with iMovie to make it the same length as the song Calm Down by Souvs.

Here’s the final result, I hope you like it as much as I do:

The HI-SEAS crew has been busy getting into routines here in the habitat, but one thing doesn’t feel routine yet: leaving the dome. We’ve only been here for 18 days, and already we’ve completed 10 sorties, accomplishing a number of tasks on our Martian to-do list.

Extra Vehicular Activities, or EVAs for short, take a lot of preparation. Before we even get into our suits, we first need to send in an EVA plan to mission control and wait for their approval. Whether we are checking the water level in our storage tanks, or doing a photographic survey of the nearby terrain, we must have permission from our ground controllers first. Luckily, all of our plans have been approved.

On a recent EVA, we surveyed the terrain around the HI-SEAS habitat so that we could plan some longer explorations. You can see the GigaPan Image we created. You can also see the YouTube video I made:

Each of the EVA suits weights upwards of 50 lbs. There are two main types of suits that we are using, modified hazmat suits, and my favourites, University of Maryland’s MX-C suits. Internally, there are fans that blow fresh air throughout the suit, simulating a life support system, and on the MX-C there is a liquid cooling garment that we pump ice water through to keep the occupant cool.

Exploration will play a large role in future EVAs, but we also plan EVAs that don’t involve a lot of travel. Astronomy EVAs, for example, have been a great opportunity for the crew to test their skill at capturing astronomical events such as the recent lunar eclipse.

Of course, real Martian astronauts wouldn’t be able to take a picture of Earth’s moon the way we can, but they might try their luck at taking a photo of Phobos when it eclipsed the Sun!

That doesn’t stop us from doing some real Martian astronomy though. In the next image, you can see the moon during the recent eclipse, and if you look just above the moon you’ll see a red dot: Mars!

There is a particular challenge to amateur astronomy on Mars, and it’s all because of the spacesuits! We can’t see clearly through the domes of our spacesuits, which makes aiming our cameras a challenge. Additionally, we are wearing heavy gloves that make manipulation of the camera controls very difficult! Of course, I have come up with a solution to that problem, but I will save that for another day.

Despite the poor visibility, the astronomy EVA was the most strikingly beautiful for me. With a lower atmospheric pressure, the clarity of the night sky is astounding.

I will be planning future nighttime EVAs to capture the Milky Way, and as a little teaser, I’ll leave you with this image:

It’s now T+10 days since we first arrived on the surface of sMars* and there is a lot to fill you in on.  If you are following me on Facebook and Twitter, you may have seen the geological training we received T-7 days before the start of the mission. I have more to say about that, but it will have to wait for a future post. (*simulated Mars)

The crew settles in for their first night on sMars.

Our “launch” to the HI-SEAS habitat consisted of a bumpy ride up the slopes of Mauna Loa. The terrain changed rapidly from city, to forest, to barren lava fields over the course of the drive. Although there is evidence for rain on Mars, we were greeted by a veritable torrent as we pulled up in front of the habitat. We hastily stowed our wet gear and set about drying and organizing our personal luggage.

The first few days we completed an inventory of our food stores and divided the goods into monthly bins. All of the food we have here is shelf stable, including all the meats and fruits, and should last us the entire trip.

 One of the other goals was establishing communications with our ground controllers and support teams. Although our simulation takes place on the slopes of Mauna Loa, we encountered a number of communication problems that we have slowly been fixing over the course of the week. Our internet connectivity is delayed through a specially configured network server, along with our e-mail, to simulate the speed-of-light delay that real astronauts on Mars would face. This makes communications an order of magnitude more difficult than the low-latency communications we are used to on Earth. Compounding this problem was a very low throughput in our internet signal, meaning that photos and support documentation took minutes to hours to upload to ground control.

Luckily, we now have a fast internet connection, and our file transmission is only limited now by the delay server.

The habitat is built to simulate actually living on Mars. Our power is generated from a solar array and stored in batteries to get us through the night. Our toilets are self-contained composting units, which surprisingly don’t smell! We consider the entire habitat a pressurized environment, which means we can’t open a window or crack a door if things aren’t comfortable. If we step foot outside, we need to be inside of a spacesuit.

The primary goal of the HI-SEAS study is to evaluate the group dynamics and crew cohesion in a high-fidelity Martian environment. Of course, we can’t simulate a lot of the real aspects of Mars, but the steps that have been taken make the habitat really feel like it’s sitting on the slope of Olympus Mons, detached and isolated from Earth. So far, so good. Over and out.