Author Archives: wilsonzak
Merry Christmas from Mars
The Mars version of 12 days of Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdx3rz3ZHvE Clearly we are a bit lacking in singing ability and also wanted to get it done it one take, so you’ll have to take what you can get. Props to Neil for the filming/editing. The hab is decorated and I made 3D printed star for […]
Electronics on Mars
We are ridiculously over gizmoed. The psychological studies that are the main research goals for the mission require us to fill out numerous surveys every day (at least 4). Many of these are doable on any computer but some require specific apps not all of which are available on every platform. The desk in my […]
So what are we doing here anyway?
The main reason we are all here is to provide data about crew selection and crew cohesion for long duration isolated mission (like a mission to Mars). In pursuit of this goal we have about 40 tasks per week that we are doing. Most of these are surveys that take just a few minutes, though there […]
Italian night
Well tonight was my night to cook and I settled on spaghetti and meatballs (arrabbiata since this crew like everything spicy). I pretty much never even attempt Italian; when you have Italians in the family it hardly seems worth it. Not quite up to their standards but for Martian food it will do. The sauce […]
A Martian Thanskgiving
A number of people asked about our Thanksgiving plans so here is what we came up with. Menu: Turkey with roast veggies stuffing (two kinds) gravy bread green beans mashed potatoes succotash cranberry sauce out of dried cranberries sweet potatoes with homemade marshmallows All in all pretty standard Thanksgiving fare I suppose. Turned out great, […]
Why do we need spacesuits
Sophie (http://domesoph.siterubix.com/) made a great outreach video about why we need space suits on Mars. http://youtu.be/oA9hm8iE2w4
Space.com Q&A
We did a Q&A with space.com. Check out the Article.
The Great Outdoors
I got to spend an hour outside today, and by that I mean I spent an hour sweating in a plastic suit. We don’t get out much, we’ve been in the dome for slightly more than a month and before today I had been outside for perhaps half hour total over the course of a […]
Martian Food
I worried a bit about the food that we would have here on Mars in the lead up to the mission. The food at MDRS (where I did my previous Mars mission) left something to be desired and the first mission at this habitat was a study looking at the palatability of food for Mars […]
Almost Mars 