The Underview Effect
For those that have been privileged enough to travel in space, looking down at a unified Earth with no borders and being inspired is often referred to as the “Overview Effect”. Well the crew of F-XI LDM has been privileged to live in the Arctic for four months and we have experienced views that cause what I like to call the “Underview Effect”. This means that the view we have seen right here on Earth is so inspiring that it feels like we are in space or on a foreign planetary body. Last night I took an “underview effect” photo around midnight that was majestic and with a quick 180 rotation and a little change in contrast, it looks like a view from space of an ocean! An older shot seen second was just of the neighboring sky on June 26. The originals are at the end of this post.

Cliché Exploration
Today Simon led a special exploration EVA near the Gemini Hills area to search for fossils. Since this location is ‘before’ the ‘Gemini’ Hills turnoff we have nicknamed the Utah-looking zone “Castle Mercury”. Taking one of our visiting Quebec photographers on the EVA, we made our way up the valley following the river by foot since it was not passable by ATV. We found a good spot to make our way to the top of the castle structure for an amazing view of all the terrain leading back to the hab in the North… a little white spec on the horizon. At the top of the castle we found some fossils. We thought it was pretty cliché to climb to the very top of the feature just to find what we were looking for.

Thomas the Engine & Tripod Snap!
One other “naming” that occurred this week was when I nicknamed the engineering ATV “Thomas” after the little engine that could. The ATV has been hauling water, the generator for EVAs, and it just keeps on trucking. I was able to film the ride to Orbiter with my video camera on my tripod on the front of Thomas. Unfortunately on the way home the tripod snapped at the base mount. I guess there will be some spare parts for the next crew! I am actually surprised by how well most equipment has lasted over the past four months. The crew has been careful with all the equipment, but there will be casualties for the sake of exploration!

Space!
Ryan
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Q. If you didn’t already have something in mind we’re interested in the psychology of being cooped up in isolation with the same people for so long.

A. You might find this hard to believe, but after nearly 100 days of sharing the same 2-story, 8’ diameter living space, the seven of us are all still friends! Our secret? Careful crew selection. We knew before the mission started that we were all compatible as both roommates, and colleagues.

When the initial call for applications went out I approached a few of my closest, most reliable friends in the Canadian space community, and we decided to apply together for positions on the crew. Four of us were selected, along with three Americans, who came with very strong recommendations from our colleagues. In November 2006, the final crew was announced, and we started working together to plan our mission, through weekly teleconferences. This was a great way to start getting to know each other, but not quite enough…

We all have some friends that are easy to get a long with for weeks, months, or years on end, and others, that when put to the test, we can only tolerate for a few days or hours at a time. The Mars Society Selection Committee wanted to determine ahead of time that the crew had at least a 2-week threshold for tolerating each other, so in March 2007 we did a test-run. We lived together in isolation at the Mars Desert Research Station, where we bonded as a team, and also trained in many areas necessary for Arctic survival, including wilderness first aid, polar bear safety, and firearms training. By the end of those two intense, challenging weeks, we knew that we not only got along well together, but that we worked well together, and had fun together!

Q. How do you keep from tearing each other apart?

A. We are all very laid-back, adaptable people, so it takes a lot to upset us. On the rare occasion when we do get frustrated with each other, we make a point of quickly solving the problem, and not letting things build up. Generally, our only frustrations are rooted in misunderstandings, so we haven’t had any real reason for wanting to tear each other apart!

Q. Are you able to get “alone” time?

A. We have “quiet time” from 11:00 pm until 8:00 am, and we are able to get “alone” time in our small staterooms during these hours. Sometimes we work from our rooms (when we really need to focus, or have approaching deadlines), but more often we work together in the common room. We’re all “people” people, so luckily none of us require much alone time.

Q. What do you do to keep morale up?

A. We recognize each other’s accomplishments, and sometimes even give out medals for “achievement”, although most of these are meant as jokes. We also celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, holidays, good weather, the Phoenix launch, and the space shuttle launch! Finally, we all really love the research that we’re doing here, in this incredible, beautiful environment, so morale is already quite high for those reasons alone.

Q. When you are able to get “off” time what do you do?

A. During our off time we watch movies, play games, email loved ones at home, and play music.

Now, we’re back down to five, and one of those is finishing its pullout tomorrow. If we’re not the last in the field, we’ll be close (damn you, ice cap guys!). Although no snow has settled yet, there’s a reasonable chance that they will have to put the skis back on the Twin Otters for our pullout flights. Winter is coming, the sked is getting quiet, and soon Devon will reclaim its title as the world’s largest uninhabited island.

Tonight we will roll back our clocks for the last time of our Mars Time experiment. Our days will return to 24 hours and we can turn on our computer clocks knowing that the seconds will tick 86,400 times each day in sync with everyone around the world. As this project concludes, the crew is well aware that the mission is coming to an end. This completion of the mission is giving the crew a boost of energy to finish their projects with a bang. We all know that it will be difficult to pack up the hab and make sure all the gear survives the voyage home. But watching Apollo 13 while working today was inspiring in that they too were just trying to get home. The crew was aware that “the checklist is 1000 steps long, and we are on number 8.” I would say we are on step 47, eat Kim’s homemade pizza and discuss tomorrow’s EVAs.

Today I shot the final crew interview, which we all hope will be produced by colleagues into more than just a summary of our four months, but an insightful documentary about living and working on “Mars”. The crew answered questions about their roles at FMARS, their research, how they are feeling after 3 months, what they miss back home, how their family and friends are reacting, and other insights to the mission. This journey began many months ago with the final sunset in Resolute. Even though a bunch of us were playing volleyball with the locals in the community gym during the event, the shear thought that the sun would not dip below the horizon was mind baffling. In one week, the sun will set again in the Arctic, only for a brief period, but the winter will slowly follow. We have felt the temperature drop this week; we have seen rain, fog, and a little bit of snow. There are so many things that we have seen, so many things that we have experienced, and so many more things that we would like to do in the Arctic. A documentary could not capture that experience and nor could a book. I’m sure that the story of our lives will include future visits to the Arctic, other extreme locations in the world, and for some – hopefully all – off the planet and on to Mars.

Space!
Ryan
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Ryan interviewing Simon for the documentary

F-XI LDM Video Log Episode 19 - Chris McKay Interview Part 1

F-XI LDM Video Log Episode 19 - Chris McKay Interview Part 2

Matt, Simon and I were up at the crack of dawn… well it’s always sunny… to watch the Phoenix Mars Lander launch! With our simulated Martian delay we were able to watch the excitement of the rocket launch and the jettison of each solid rocket. I was hoping that this launch would be different and might feature Morgan Freeman narrating the events or possibly someone like Samuel Jackson. “Holy ‘cow’ [can you believe it], that ‘big’ rocket just blasted off!” You can use my Sam Jackson template and create your own quote I was hoping for an onboard camera as well, but this is a budget tight mission and it makes sense that every last kilogram went into fuel and payload.

The F-XI LDM crew wishes best of luck to all the engineers, scientists, and everyone who has put their heart and soul into this project.

One particularly nice bonus to the footage was the apparent phoenix or angel shape created by the smoke contrails of the engines.

GO PHOENIX GO!

Space!
Ryan
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In cuter news, we had an outreach event with the Iqaluit Science Summer Camp a couple of days ago. We gave a presentation online, then video-chatted with the kids using Skype. Then, they had a space suit fashion show (image from the Nunatsiaq News):

How adorable is that??

Today we had our 4th Mars Ed event, with the International Space School  in Houston! It went well until we unfortunately lost our connection  with them due to poor weather both here, and in Houston. However, we  did get to meet each of them (35 highschool students from 20 different  countries!), and talked to them about their project, which involves  planning a human mission to Mars. Many of their questions were about  food, and what we’re eating here.

It seems they aren’t the only ones wondering! I’ve started contributing  to a weekly column in the Fredericton newspaper (The Daily Gleaner),  and this week they also asked about our meals at FMARS. Here were some  of my answers:

Here at FMARS we’re eating only foods that would be shelf-storable for  a ~2 year Mars mission, as well as fresh sprouts and lettuce we are  able to grow ourselves (thanks to AeroGrow for donating two  AeroGardens!). Luckily, because so many foods are available in freeze  dried, dehydrated, and powdered forms today, we’re not feeling too  deprived. We cook most of our meals from scratch, using basic  ingredients. We have bulk amounts of dehydrated vegetables, textured  vegetable protein (TVP), pasta, rice, oatmeal, powdered milk, eggs, and  cheese, flours and baking supplies, and canned meat and fruit. We have  smaller amounts of beef jerky, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, and of course  some chocolate and coffee!

 Every day we take turns doing chores (including cooking, dishes, and  cleaning), so with a crew of seven, we each end up making dinner once a  week. We have a fairly complete kitchen (including a small range and  small oven, a microwave, and a bread machine), and most of us really  enjoy cooking as a creative outlet, so as a result the meals here have  been excellent! In addition, with our trusty bread machine, we made a  loaf of fresh bread each day, and have gotten competitive with creative  bread recipes. I think “eating conditions” are much better than any of  us expected, and we’re not getting tired of the food yet… Although I’m  really looking forward to fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and steak when  I get home, and what I’m missing most are fresh strawberries!

I think the preparations conditions here could be quite comparable to a real Mars habitat; our entire kitchen area is quite compact, and relatively energy efficient. Today’s Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions have much more simple “kitchens”, and astronauts mostly eat pre-made, re-hydrated meals. This seems to be okay for short duration missions, but preliminary research that has been carried out here and elsewhere suggests that meal preparation may play an important role in crew morale, and group dynamics. This crew definitely agrees that meal preparation is one of the high points of the day, and although it’s not as time-efficient as simply re-hydrating our food, the psychological benefits outweigh the time put in.

Out of Sync

During July we were told we would loose a day because of the Mars Time drift, but we didn’t know when this would happen, and where are precious day would go! During the past week it has become apparent that we have lost a day as we are only 6 hours off of our normal time zone. A lazy Sunday morning for us is actually dawn for a workweek for everyone else. Since we have many methods of counting the mission days a little bit of confusion was bound to happen. So for the record today is sol 29 of Mars Time, Sunday or ”Ryan Day”, day 79 of our simulation (or is it 80 since we have had all those extra minutes?), and it has been over three months in the Arctic for most of us (4 for James). No matter how you do your day accounting, the crew is in the last three weeks of simulation and will be coming home soon.

Dreams filled me head last night containing mixed memories and perceptions of events I missed. I could see my best friend Lauren on her wedding date, which was earlier this week, and I kept imagining the amazing food that they must have had from her mother’s catering business. In some of my dreams I could hear the pitter patter of rain hitting Lake Ontario and the docks of a yacht club knowing that I could just roll over and sleep more in my warm bed. But some dreams do come true and when I opened the covers on the windows this morning, I found a moisture covered glass and a dark cloud covered terrain behind it. We have rain! Just a light drizzle, but rain. Bad weather seems to be our Sunday staple, which is actually great weather to relax and unwind in the hab for a change.

Our Saturday night was under par on the excitement level, but at least we were able to watch Zoolander during dinner and I was able to get some paperwork done in the evening. There is nothing more exciting than filling out human factors ethics proposals! It was a good experience and I’m glad that started the process, but it’s not the most relaxing thing to do (this is so I can have the crew fill out questionnaires about the human factors program). It was a warm night last night so I decided to watch a cold movie in bed. I watched Eight Below the heroic story about an Antarctic dog sled litter left behind at the end of a field season due to rapidly approaching bad weather. The dogs were cute and the cold footage definitely helped make my room seem well ventilated. Sunday was as productive with more work on my PhD and human factors work, but I did take some time to just chill out and watch another movie on my polar shelf in my room. Sometimes you just need to do something completely different to make your day off seem like it is under your own control. I worked in my room and just gave myself some personal time. I feel that this worked and I will be ready tomorrow to start our week of EVAs and various outreach presentations. This will be out last full week of Martian Time as we drift back into the right time zone and then our final weeks will seem fast and furious being on the earthly constrained 24 hour clock.

Space!
Ryan
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