Yep, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. It’s been one of those months. New engineering challenges, new research, and even a new battery. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t had any real amount time to sit down and write much of anything meaningful here.
And, well, today is no exception.
I’ll get back to writing something worthwhile here sooner or later, I promise (I still owe Dave Gingrich an explanation of our heating solution…). But, in the meantime, here’s a quick list of titles for articles you’ll hopefully never see in real life.
For the record, I was egged on by our crew’s media expert, Sheyna Gifford, who has to come up with actual, non-crappy article titles for a living.
Anyway, on with the show!
- NASA Locked Six Scientists in a Dome in Hawaiʻi. The Reason Why Will Surprise You!
- Six People Entered a Dome. You Won’t Believe What Happened Next…
- Try This New, Totally Safe Method of Studying Astronaut Psychology that NASA Doesn’t Want You to Know!
- 5 Simple Tricks for Living on Mars. Number 2 Will Shock You!
- Scientists are Simulating a Mission to Mars Using this One Weird Trick…
- NASA Studied Psychological Effects of Deep Space Missions. How They Did It Amazed Me…
- Meet the Six Scientists Proving That Everything You Think You Know About Deep Space Missions Is Wrong!
- You Won’t Believe What These Six Scientists Did To Study The Psychological Stresses of Deep Space Missions!
Good lord, I hope I never have to read any of these.
Surfing with the Aliens 
Greetings Andrjez,
Thanks for today’s chuckle! I’ve been reading the blog posts of the entire crew since before you entered the dome.
Wanted you all to know that I enjoy reading whatever you decide to write and i’m pulling for you guys to have a successful mission.
The very idea of a trip to Mars captures the public imagination, so i’m willing to bet i’m not the only one who looks forward to your posts. There are no doubt countless others who likewise want to hear about your work and experiences (but are silent observers like me… until now).
Please pass this on to your crewmates; “Your public” is very interested in what you are doing and wants to hear more when you have the time, so write home soon, write home often! Thank you, we the public appreciate what you are doing!
Richard
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Thanks Richard! I’ve never been much of a writer, so, when things have gotten busy here, the blog has been the first thing I’ve tended to eject. I’ll try to get some more posts out soon. In the meantime, many thanks for your enthusiasm, it keep us going!
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Hi Andrzej,
Michael from your favorite flying club back home. Just checking in with you. It looks/sounds like things are going well for you on “Mars”. Things are good back here in Colorado.
Take care.
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Howdy Michael, great to hear from you! I hope you’ve been getting some good flying in (my feet are stuck firmly on the ground here!), and I’m looking forward to seeing you and everyone at Aspen Flying Club when I get back!
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Hey Andrwzrkj*$
Christie gave me the link to your blog today (I am not very up on high tech stuff like blogging). We miss ya’ around the good ole MSA even though Patrick is doing a good job filling in for you. Osiris Rex is back in the assembly bay and looking very cool. We are working on keeping Odyssey around until you land on Mars. Maybe we will pick up the signal that you are alive on the surface. (apologies to Mark Wahlberg).
Noel Hughes
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Hey Noel! Sorry about the delay in responding…I’ve been underwater for a while working on the astronaut application in addition to all of the usual work that goes into running a simulated Mars base. I’ve just surfaced again over the last couple of days.
Anyway, it’s good to hear from you! Glad to hear Patrick has done a good job stepping in…I reckoned he’d be alright, he’s got good folks around him 🙂 I’d heard an instrument issue had nixed InSight for launch, but glad to hear O-Rex is still rolling on! And, of course, glad to hear you’re keeping Odyssey shipshape and flying!
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I was just talking to a friend about these. I love the “weird trick” one. That is hilarious.
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Is simple trick number two for the Martian soil?
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I bet simple trick number 2 fixes the Martian soil for farming.
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Maybe! But act now, and I’ll send you this free* booklet on Martian dietary supplements!
…hey Ryan, good to hear from you!
*add $19,999.99 for shipping and handling from Mars.
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$19,999.99 for shipping and handling from Mars is a pretty good deal! You about made it trough football season. When they start again you will be about done!
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Greetings Andrzej from your Spitzer Team.
Glad to hear that life continues to be eventful and challenging. Mark and the Team have also been challenged and victorious with Stand By Mode recovery that occurred on Thanksgiving Night.
It would be great to hear what you do with any free time?
Bo
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Hi Bo, good to hear from you! Paul and I have been e-mailing back and forth throughout the mission, and he’d been filling me in on the Standby recovery. Glad to hear all the hard work into carrier-only recovery paid off and worked like a charm!
Speaking of Spitzer…before the mission, we were interviewed by Hulu show “Xploration Outer Space” for an episode on Mars exploration, and I happened to be wearing my Microlensing shirt at the time… 🙂
Anyway, to answer your question…free time. Haven’t had much of it lately. I’ve been working on the astronaut application on top of the usual daily NASA BHP science activities and hab engineering, so I’ve been a bit of a recluse for the last couple of weeks. I got a major part of it done this weekend though, so I’m finally able to leave my room and be social again :).
Normally, we’ve got a schedule of nightly activities: movie nights, board game nights, that sort of thing. One of the crewmembers has been teaching us Salsa dancing. If we have spare time in the day, we’re the sort of folks who like doing self-improvement sorts of activities…a couple of crewmembers are learning languages, we’ve got a couple of folks learning the ukelele, Tristan works on his artwork, that sort of thing. As for me, I’ve got a Lego Mindstorms kit and some e-books from No Starch Press that I’ve been using to brush up on robotics. It’s already been helpful…I was able to use some concepts I’d learned from working with the Mindstorms to quickly program an Arduino to collect some additional data for a NASA BHP research task that started up this week.
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Hey Andrzej,
Y’all got a shout out from the Stardate podcast that is produced by the UT McDonald Observatory:
https://stardate.org/radio/program/mars-earth-0
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Thanks for the heads-up on that Andrew! Unfortunately, I’m not able to view the link directly here on sMars, but our mission controllers will be able to download the content and send it to us. I’m looking forward to hearing it!
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Andrzej, I really enjoyed hearing your interview on Colorado Matters this week while driving into work to get Orion ready for you to take for a spin at the Red Planet! Hang in there, and say hi to your old Orion team once you return from Mars!
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Howdy Mike! I enjoyed working with Colorado Public Radio on that interview, and am very glad you enjoyed listening to it! I’m definitely looking forward to seeing everyone once I get “back to Earth”, and would love to take Orion for a spin sometime 🙂
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