Read their story below:

Crew 88 - Steve Wheeler, Commander
9–22 January 2010

Crewmembers:
Dr. Stephen Wheeler, commander / geologist
Laksen Sirimanne, engineer / executive officer
Bianca Nowak, health and safety officer
Paul McCall, astronomer
Diego Urbina, biologist
David Levine, journalist

Introduction:
Crew 88 was composed of six MDRS novices but we managed to come up to speed quickly on the Hab's systems and get some real science done. Our primary scientific goals for the mission were:

• Geology: Analysis and classification of the micropaleontology in the vicinity of the MDRS (Stephen Wheeler)
• Biology: Determination of error in biological sampling due to EVA suit constraints (Diego Urbina)
• Biology: Study of the growth of Physallis Peruviana in the GreenHab (Diego Urbina)
• Astronomy: Reconstruction of the radiotelescope (Paul McCall)

We achieved good results on all of these goals, as well as performing research in several additional areas, as discussed below.

Geology:
Dr. Stephen "Steve" Wheeler, Crew Commander and Geologist for MDRS Crew 88, has a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (Machine Intelligence) and a background in Geology, Paleontology and Micropaleontology. Dr. Wheeler is a pilot in the United States Air Force Auxiliary with the rank of Captain. He is the Aerospace Education Officer of his squadron and has achieved the Chuck Yaeger Aerospace Award. Dr. Wheeler is a Senior Processor of Information Systems for Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Dallas, Texas.

Microfossil study: Dr. Wheeler proposed and conducted a scientific study designed to sample and analyze marine sediments from the middle Jurassic Curtis formation, which is known to contain marine microfossils including Foraminifera and Radiolarians. The purpose of the study was to determine if sedimentary geologic structures could be effectively sampled in full EVA suit simulation and analyzed for the presence of microfossils. This study has been designed as an analogous Mars Geological survey paradigm.

Dr. Wheeler’s study produced positive results. In a sample returned from the Curtis formation exposure near the junction of Utah Highway 24 and Lowell Highway, an Ostracod microfossil was identified with 40x power magnification utilizing the microscope in the Science and Engineering Bay of the Hab. The Ostracod was photographed through the microscope eyepiece and posted to the MDRS Crew 88 Photo Journal Web page for 14-JAN-10 (http://desert.marssociety.org/mdrs/fs09/0114/).

Not related to his aforementioned research study, Dr. Wheeler helped the crew identify and collect other prehistoric marine fossils, such as palecypods, Crinoids, fossil sponge, and fossil coral.

Astronomy:
Paul McCall, Astronomer for Crew 88, is a 22-year-old graduate student at Florida International University. He is currently studying electrical engineering with his research focusing on digital signal processing. Paul is pursuing admission into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Engineering Physics program, which specializes in spacecraft systems engineering and space physics. Paul was the starting quarterback and team captain for the FIU Football team for the last two years.

Radiotelescope: When Crew 88 arrived at the Mars Desert Research Station the Musk Observatory was offline and inoperative. Therefore, our astronomical endeavors were now focused on the radio telescope. Crew 88 finished the reconstruction of the radio telescope that was begun by crew 87. Before crew 87, the telescope's masts were fixed at a height of 10'. Crew 87 dismounted the masts, cut a smaller inner mast to fit each one, and drilled holes to allow the telescope to be adjusted to any height from 10' to 20' in 6" increments to be more easily adjusted to follow Jupiter over its twelve year cycle. Crew 88 completed the reassembly of the telescope and it is now operational again at the 10' height. Paul McCall, Laksen Sirimanne, and David Levine took full responsibility for the reconstruction of the radio telescope, and were determined to get as much of the construction done as possible before Crew 89 arrived. The masts of the radio telescope are ready to be raised to the necessary 20’ level to monitor radio emissions from Jupiter. We have assembled a “Telescope Handover Document”, which was written by David Levine. This document will be given to the subsequent crew which contains the details and intricacies of adjusting the radio telescope.

Unfortunately, although the adjustable masts are in place, the telescope cannot be raised very much above 10' because the coaxial cables connecting the antennas to the power combiner (which is on the wooden pole near the center of the side closest to the Hab) are too short to reach. The system must be adjusted by adding more cable between the power combiner and the antennas (2 cables). Alternatively, the power combiner could be moved and/or raised, which would require adding more cable between the power combiner and the Hab (1 cable). The correct type of cable must be used and the additional length must be carefully calculated in units of the telescope's wavelength.

The plan from Mission Support is to move the power combiner to below the North antenna and add a length of cable between the South antenna and the power combiner as well as between the power combiner and the receiver. This will be done by Crew 89, because there is none of the needed cable or connectors at the hab.

Microfossil study: Paul also had the opportunity to serve as research assistant in Commander Wheeler’s geological research. He participated in many microfossil-hunting EVA’s, along with numerous other EVA’s gathering geological samples of interest. We have been fortunate enough to find different types of fossils and microfossils in the vicinity of the MDRS Hab, and will be putting together a formal write-up on our findings.

Engineering: Paul also served as the assistant engineer under Laksen. He has gained valuable experience with all the systems associated with the Hab and working knowledge of the day-to-day maintenance and troubleshooting of the hab. Because of this experience, Paul is planning to return next year as crew engineer.

Biology:
Diego Urbina, Crew 88 Biologist, accumulated experience on the study of suit constraints of the ISS spacesuits during a period spent at the European Space Agency. One of his intentions was to extend his knowledge to planetary EVA spacesuits, a project for which the mock-up spacesuit at the MDRS was a good source of data.

Despite his mainly engineering background, Diego decided to tackle the challenge of being the crew biologist, mostly for the sake of getting acquainted with this area of knowledge. He never regretted this, and is very thankful for all the things he learned from trial and error cycles and from his crewmates. As a matter of fact he will be getting a microscope at home soon.

He kept a blog documenting his experience on the website of the most important newspaper in Colombia, and a Twitter account where he constantly posted what was going on at the rotation in both Spanish and English.

Suit constraints study: After having selected 5 sites located mostly on the trail that goes north from the Station, a series of "out of Sim" EVAs was done before simulation started. The objective of these EVAs was to gather control data for the study, with a total of 15 runs (3 in each site). Then, 15 runs were done in-Sim.

Each run consisted of:

1. Identifying each of the species or group of plants present in the area, taking a picture of each species.
2. Counting all of the plants, classifying them into each group.
3. Manually cutting a sample of each plant and depositing it into a sealed bag corresponding to its respective group.

The data gathered consisted of the number of plants spotted and their classification into each class, as well as a questionnaire where the crew members specified the exact problems that they experienced. Given that some crew members participated in an EVA to repair the radio telescope, using power tools, feedback was also requested from them on this matter.

Extremophiles: While the subjects were engaged in their suit constraints study, Diego searched for extremophiles in the vicinity of the test sites. Several samples of cryptoendolithic cyanobacteria were found and collected in sites 1, 3 and 5 and they were all photographed under the microscope (an example photo is posted at http://desert.marssociety.org/mdrs/fs09/0114/). As a side-product, evident samples of petrified wood were collected at site 1, dated approximately 65 M years ago, and some bone samples were spotted but not collected.

Physallis Peruviana study: P. Peruviana was grown at the GreenHab in order to obtain fruits that provide radiation mitigation and prevention for the human body. About 50 seeds were planted in different soils, out of which only one germinated. This could be due to the properties of soil number 4 (collected from 1.4 km NE of the Hab), to the (relative) proximity of this plant to the GreenHab heater, or a mix of these factors.

Sprouts were also seeded in the GreenHab, successfully obtaining fresh salad for the crew by the middle of the rotation. The gradient showing sprouts growing bigger when they are somewhat nearer the heater, and the P. Peruviana results, suggest that installing a second heater on the north side of the GreenHab could be appropriate in order to obtain more homogeneous growth in any future plants at the GreenHab. Upon obtaining these results, more sprouts were seeded in order to be eaten by the end of the rotation.

3D mapping of the station: A CAD model of the Hab was built in Google SketchUp Pro. It can be used to clarify any communication that needs a 3D visualization of the interior of the hab. SketchUp is a free tool downloadable from the Google website, and fairly easy to use.

Pictures were also taken of the Hab in order to do a 3D photo-tour in Microsoft PhotoSynth. This media will be available soon.

Health and Safety:
Bianca Nowak, Health and Safety Officer, has a Bachelors degree in Nursing and Hospital Sciences and a postgraduate degree from the Institute for Tropical Diseases in Antwerp. She has a passion for photography and astronomy, and is extremely interested in space. She was the lucky teacher who participated for Belgium at the International Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.

Health and safety: We were fortunate to have no significant health or safety issues during rotation 88. One crew member suffered a stubbed toe early in the mission, which was treated with disinfectant. Another crew member hit his head when climbing the stairs; he was not injured, but we put foam padding on the spot to prevent future problems.

Some previous crews have reported stomach aches. Suspecting that the water might be the cause of the problem, we drank only bottled water or water that had been boiled and run through a Brita water filter (late in the mission we skipped the boiling step and only filtered the water). We had no problems with stomach upset.

Engineering:
Laksen Sirimanne, Chief Engineer and Executive Officer, is the Vice President of Research and Development of the Transcatheter Heart Valve Replacement Program (THVR) at Edwards Lifesciences. THVR is a non-surgical procedure that allows a diseased heart valve to be replaced in a catheterization lab while the patient is awake and on a beating heart, eliminating the need for anesthesia and open heart surgery. Laksen has four advanced degrees, has traveled to all seven continents, and is a private pilot who set a new World Record by flying a single-engine Diamondstar DA-40 from Orange County Airport to First Flight Airport in Kittyhawk, North Carolina in 17 hours, 24 minutes.

Engineering: For the most part Crew 88 did not experience any major engineering issues with the Habitat or the GreenHab. At the end of the rotation all systems including power, water, recycling system, rovers and simulation suits are in working order. This is due in great part to having more than one engineer on the crew and each one taking responsibility for one or more maintenance tasks to keep the Hab functional on a daily basis. In addition, engineering walk-arounds were completed at a minimum of twice a day and all minor issues were attended to and fixed immediately. With David Levine taking on responsibility to keep our communications equipment (radios and internet) functional and also maintaining the EVA suits on a daily basis, and Paul McCall taking responsibility for the daily maintenance of the rovers and also assisting in Hab maintenance, the crew could complete its engineering and science mission objectives unimpeded. We conclude that it takes more than one engineer to keep up with the daily maintenance of all Hab systems.

There were a few issues that were encountered early on in the mission, including a brief system-wide power failure due to the installation of a new diesel generator and some intermittent water pump issues, but these issues were corrected immediately and since then all systems are functioning nominally. Perhaps the most notable issue we have encountered is a degradation of Internet connectivity during the last four days of the mission. We bring this up as an exception to the high level of Hab functionality that we have maintained during the course of this mission since we have not been able to troubleshoot this issue at the time of the writing of this report.

In addition to Laksen’s duties as Chief Engineer and Executive Officer he was also a participant in several research and technical experiments. Laksen was the primary investigator along with Bianca Nowak on a GPS geo-tagging experiment to GPS-tag EVA trails for creating trail maps in the vicinity of the Hab on Google Maps and Google Earth. He also collaborated with David Levine and Paul McCall on the assembly of the Radio Telescope. Along with the rest of Crew 88, Laksen was a participant in Diego Urbina’s spacesuit mobility experiments.

Executive Officer: Laksen also served as the mission's Executive Officer, which involved communication with all members of the crew both before and during the mission, managing paperwork, and assisting the Commander in his duties. In this role he coordinated the following two studies:

Food study: Crew 88 also completed the food study proposed by Dr. Kim Binsted. The study consisted of alternating days of eating dehydrated food where only boiling water was added to precooked meals, to days of eating dehydrated food that was "cooked" where several combinations of ingredients were added to complete the meal. Each crew member completed the Food Study Form each evening and forwarded the completed forms to the Crew Commander at the end of the rotation.

Habitat architectural layout evaluation: As part of a study conducted by NASA Johnson Space Center, Crew 88 filled out architectural layout surveys on days 3, 6, 9, and 12 of the rotation. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the efficiency of the Mars Desert Research Station’s (MDRS) architectural layout with a crew of six, to assist in future habitat configurations. The two areas evaluated included both the MDRS upper HAB deck areas (crew quarters, galley, communication station, and translation paths) and the lower LAB deck areas (geology station, biology station, engineering/maintenance station, Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) station, and waste containment system (WCS)). The purpose of this assessment is to reveal gaps in habitat operations and provide input for areas of opportunity for follow-up human factors studies.

Journalism:
David Levine, Crew 88 Journalist, is an award-winning science fiction writer who worked for 25 years as a technical writer, software engineer, and user interface designer for Tektronix, Intel, and McAfee. He came to MDRS looking for the "telling details" that make stories believable, and got not only that but an amazing adventure as well.

Journalism: David fulfilled his primary mission as Journalist by posting almost 10,000 words of daily reports to his blogs on livejournal.com, dreamwidth.com, and bentopress.com, along with over 70 photos (N.B. photos were small, only 20-80 KB in size). He also posted several brief status updates per day to his Twitter and Facebook readers. These updates reached nearly 2000 "friends" (registered readers) and an unknown number of unregistered readers, and received over 100 comments. He also took over 700 photos and 25 video clips, some of which will be used in future outreach, public education, and publicity opportunities. After returning to Earth, David will write articles and essays about his experience at MDRS, as well as fiction incorporating the things he has learned here, and attempt to place them at national publications. He will also speak about his experience at science fiction conventions and other venues.

David also maintained MDRS's official web presence by selecting and uploading the crew's daily photos (despite many technical issues), managing the MDRSupdates Twitter feed, and fixing and maintaining the webcams. When we arrived at the Hab we had only 3 working webcams; now all 6 are working, and all are level and pointed at interesting things. These are all important public-relations and outreach elements of MDRS's mission.

Engineering: In addition to his journalistic duties, David used his technical background to assist Laksen and Paul in keeping the Hab and rovers running. He participated in the daily engineering rounds, diagnosed and repaired electrical and plumbing problems, and made sure the radios were properly stowed and charging every night.

David took responsibility for the EVA suits, making sure that all backpacks were properly charged and straps tightened after each EVA. When we arrived we found only five working backpacks and one badly cracked helmet; David repaired the helmet and replaced a dead battery to bring us up to six functional suits, then fixed hoses, replaced fuses, repaired cables, and unstuck zippers to keep all six suits running for the whole rotation.

David also used his technical writing skills to create a series of one-page Quick Guides to help get new crews up to speed quickly on the Hab’s systems and to offer fast, focused answers to their questions when things go wrong. These are intended to be the documents we wished we'd had when we first arrived. They have been emailed to the Mars Society and to the next crew; laminated printouts will also be handed over to the next crew, and the "Quick Guides.doc" file has been left on the Hab laptop so that it can be updated by future crews.

Other: David also worked on the reconstruction of the radio telescope (much of this work was done in EVA suits), rode along on GPS tracking runs, and participated as a research subject in the food study, suit constraints study, and Hab architecture study.