Author Archives: wilsonzak
Fish Name Contest Voting
The suggestions are in and the crew has selected our favorite 20, now they are going back to you for voting. Voting is open until next Friday (February 6th). https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/89THPKV Martha has a explanation of the candidate names up on her blog. Final Days of the Fish Naming Contest!
Mission Patch
We got a mission patch designed, as the mission was beginning, and the finished product just got delivered. They turned out quite nicely. There is one symbol to represent each of our individual research areas. Clockwise from top: Jocelyn – Brain/puzzle, to represent her research on stress, sleep, exercise, etc. Sophie – Tensegrity robot, for […]
More Interviews
Another interview mostly discussing our communication delay and the app we are using to send delayed voice messages, text and picture. Part 1 Part 2
3D printed iPad wall mount and a couple of reasons 3D printing is cool
We have a couple older spare iPads sitting around from the last mission and I got the idea yesterday afternoon that we could use one to monitor our sensors/power. We constantly monitor our power so that we have enough to make it through each night using just our batteries. I thought always having it there on […]
New interview
I did an interview with a reporter from Vox.com last week about life inside a plastic dome. http://www.vox.com/2015/1/14/7540273/mars-simulation
Name Our Betta Fish
For Christmas one of the presents to the crew was a small aquaponics set up. Aquaponics is like hydroponics in that you grow plants without soil and instead use water to transfer nutrients, but adds fish into the mix to supply the nutrients rather than having to artificially add them. So now we have ourselves […]
Information week article on communication and isolation
An article Martha and I did an interview for: http://www.informationweek.com/it-life/phoning-home-from-mars-on-christmas-eve/d/d-id/1318408?_mc=sm_iwk_editor_davidcarr
Ridiculously Epic Dinner
The inability to get a burger and fries here has been getting to me. One previous attempt was made at it but our ingredients aren’t really conducive to either of those. I decided the next best option was BBQ beef and chicken sandwiches with tater tots. The problem comes when you have to make everything […]
NBC news segment
We had a segment air about us on the Nightly News tonight on NBC that we filmed for back at the beginning of November. http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/first-step-mars-begins-volcano-here-earth-n275921 The New York Times and now NBC; pretty cool to be getting mainstream media coverage.
Snow on Mars
The summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea had a blizzard watch last night and we woke up to snow on the summits this morning. About as Christmas like as you could possibly expect on fauxMars/Hawaii. Sorry for the poor quality photo; it is hard to get good shots out of our window. Happy holidays
Almost Mars 