Halfway Home

Guest blog post from Daddio, my first and forever Valentine, Mr. Tommy Dunn!

Jocelyn asked me back in November to write a guest blog post. I told her I would after the holidays and after her sister’s wedding. I am generally a private person especially when it comes to family. But I think writing this will be an easy task, since Jocelyn gave me so much information to help me get started with writing my first blog post. She's an amazing woman.

Aloha is a greeting that I thought was well outside the compounds of Sebring, Florida. But it will stay with me forever now. When people ask what Jocelyn is up to these days. I tell them she is in Hawaii on top of a volcano, doing research for HI-SEAS and NASA. Then questions follow. I advise them to google Jocelyn Dunn and read more about her and the mission. When I mention isolation, they are surprised and wonder if they could do it, most say no. 

Myself being born and raised in Florida, I grew up watching the Apollo program and then the Space Shuttles lifting off from Kennedy Space Center. We could see them from Sebring. In elementary school when Jocelyn was assigned her first formal science project, I suggested that she do something about the space program. By chance an early morning launch was planned for the very next week. So, Erika and I got our four children up before dawn, made them a bed in the floor of the van, and headed out for the 3 hour trip over to Titusville. Once there, we ended up parking next to a TV news truck. Jocelyn pretended to be a news reporter as we recorded the launch for her class project and witnessed her interest and curiosity in the space program blossom.

The four Dunn children growing up in Sebring, FL - Jocelyn in green hat, sister Kayla beside her, and twin brothers Eric and Steven enjoying bottles of milk.

Let’s begin this with some background in how she reached this point. Jocelyn was an exceptional student, even in elementary school. Her mother and I taught her math and reading at a very early age, I remember her enthusiasm for adding and subtracting long columns of numbers before pre-school. Then by high school, she ran out of math classes to take, so she turned to college math classes. Straight A’s her entire grade school career. I used to jokingly tell her that anything above a C is wasting effort, just trying to protect her from being too hard on herself.

Her interests in space led her to Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, where she excelled in academics in aerospace engineering and played for the varsity golf team. They did very well also competing in national championship tournaments each year. Then onto Purdue, for graduate school in biomedical engineering and now a PhD candidate in systems engineering. As you can see, she is a very driven and disciplined person, student and athlete. 

When the HI-SEAS project popped up, she called me very excited and wanted to become a part of it. As a parent, I cautioned her that spending time isolated, would change her, and we spoke of missing holidays, friends, family functions, weddings, funerals, and time in university. I tried to take a very objective look at what she was saying and advised her to do her homework, find out the who, what, when, and where of it. She did, then applied, but was disappointed not to get in on the first 4-month mission. I told her if it was meant to be it'd happen. 

It did happen, in record speed, like a 60 day notice to participate in the 8-month mission. For Jocelyn to make arrangements with her PhD program, find a sub-lease, and move all of her belongings out of Chicago, was a feat in itself. Before she went off to Hawaii, we had some one-on-one time with her, enjoying some golf, good food and spirits with neighbors, family, and friends. Everyone tried to give her lots of positive influence prior to going into the habitat. 

The last hoorah before heading to Hawaii for HI-SEAS 8-month mission

As for her Mom and I, we relied on that knowing that she is a smart young woman, and we just need to trust in God and her decision of participating in the project. And just in case, to do our part, her Uncle Billy and I worked out a rescue plan if things didn’t go well in the habitat. Let’s just say he is a helicopter pilot and myself being a firefighter trained in air rescue, it would be a piece of cake in getting her out. 

Jocelyn visiting Dad at Road America, American Le Mans Series Race 

For me, I guess the best way that I can look at this is, that we all could be on a beach somewhere looking out at the ocean and still believing that the Earth is flat. It takes people like these six crewmembers who are willing to sacrifice time away from friends, family and fun events, to move science and research forward. They are pioneers. And Its NASA’s way of doing their homework finding out the who, what, when and where.

Daddy Dunn and young Jocelyn on a beach in Florida 

Thank you to the University of Hawaii for supporting the crew. Thank you to friends, family, and interested readers for encouraging this team. A special note to the six of you, continue taking care of each other, I know it must be difficult, all of you are in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your sacrifice. 

And congratulations, you're halfway home!

Cinderella Story

As I write this, my little sister is in the midst of her wedding day, looking like a real-life Cinderella, so beautiful and happy in her gorgeous gown. I sent over a wedding toast video and have heard that "there wasn't a pair of dry-eyes in the place." I was crying too, I'm so disappointed to be missing her big day, it's certainly the worst part about being on this mission. But all-in-all, I'm still so thankful to be here, HI-SEAS is the Mars edition of a Cinderella story for me.

Raising my glass (of non-alcoholic cooking wine) in a wedding toast for my little sister Kayla and brother-in-love Lee Eiland on their big day! Congratulations!!!

It is well-known that astronaut selection is an extremely competitive process. So this HI-SEAS simulated mission may be the closest I ever get to being a real astronaut. In 2013 NASA astronaut selection, there were over 6100 applicants and only eight candidates were selected. Then for the 0.1% selected from this elite applicant pool, there are still competitive layers for these candidates to filter through before donning a spacesuit and living the dream of a spacewalk.

One of the NASA researchers told us a story during training week that demonstrated the competitive nature of astronaut work-life. He said that they received negative feedback about one of their behavioral questionnaires, and it turned out that once they investigated the issue a bit further, it really had nothing to do with the primary content of the questionnaire. It was because one of the first questions asked whether or not crewmembers had been part of EVAs (extravehicular activities) recently. The fact that some of these astronauts were not selected to go on EVA tasks is what made the question unpalatable!

Here on simulated Mars, we have more-or-less a rotating schedule for the geology task EVAs. Even though we all love going on these long EVAs to explore the volcanic terrain, it has not been a point of contention. We might miss out on a “cool” task from time-to-time, but we all have had multiple opportunities to don the spacesuits and play pretend astronaut!

Thus far, I have only worn the bright yellow-green hazmat suits (aka "janky" spacesuits). Yesterday, however, I had the pleasure of suiting up in our mock spacesuit that we are testing for researchers at University of Maryland.  Check me out!!  I will gladly volunteer to be a space suit model if anyone is interested ;) Actually, the suit did fit perfectly as if it were made for me!  I was as happy as Cinderella putting on her lost slipper, and the crew was delighted that it didn’t take the usual amount of effort for sealing someone inside!

Recent EVA to a nearby cave-like lava tube that could be an emergency shelter

Surprise, Surprise!

The crew has noted that we don’t get many surprises here. The landscape never changes; it’s always other-worldly, red, and desolate. Our schedules are similar from week-to-week, and when we do get a surprise, it’s usually a negative, such as a back-up energy system failing to engage. However, there are many aspects of this mission that have been pleasant surprises for me! 

Mostly sunny, sometimes cloudy, this surreal view never gets old!

Numero Uno:  The shower situation is not bad at all!  Note that, this is coming from a gal who used to shower for at least 15 minutes per day, and here we each get about 7 minutes per week!!  Tonight, I took a 1.5-minute shower and felt clean, satisfied, and refreshed.  Well actually, I was in the shower for 10 minutes, but I had the water running for only 1.5 minutes.  I can’t imagine going back to my old routine when I return to Earthly life, it wasted so much water!! 

Checking the water level in our tanks that “bots” refill about once per month

Number Two:  I underestimated how much I would crave new music and photos, and I overestimated how much reading I would do here. I loaded down my suitcase with eight books that I’ve been wanting to read, and unfortunately, I have only read two of them.  What really makes my day is reading emails, seeing photos of family and friends, or hearing a new song that someone sends me.  I listen to music most of the day while I am working, mainly because there’s quite a bit of background noise (sound-proofed walls are lacking in the dome), and at night we play music of the chef’s choice while having dinner together.

Martha and Neil making their own music, aka "Fake Band on Fake Mars" ;)

Number Three:  We are learning so much in the kitchen!  Everything is homemade here, each week, there's at least a couple days with baking involved.. breads, rolls, pie crusts, bagels, scones, pizza dough, doughnuts.. you name it, we’ve probably tried it in glutenous and gluten-free forms!  As for our main dishes, last week, we did “take-overs” where we each learned to cook one of the meals that another crew member had made in the past, and that is literally the first time that any of the meals have been repeated, so much variety and deliciousness!  We also have ice cream parties from time-to-time, started out by trying plain ole vanilla, but since then we’ve had success at nutella gelato and raspberry-lime sorbet. And for me, solely based on learning to make "out of this world" flan, I can say that this mission has been a success!

Yours truly with homemade pretzel rolls (the lighter ones are gluten-free)

Number Four:  I am surprised that I am never bored!  After living in the vibrant city of Chicago, one might think that hanging out with the same five people for eight months in a 1000 square foot dome would be a hellish contrast.  However, time is flying by, the six of us are still getting along great, and I’m not even bothered by being inside most of the time.  It helps that I have alot of research going on.  Also, we have quite the extensive inventory of board games.  So far, I think my favorite games are Citadel, Puerto Rico, and King of Tokyo.

Number Five:  One of the subjects that NASA is researching here is how to facilitate crew autonomy.  With missions to the International Space Station, the crews can still continuously communicate with mission support.  In contrast, with a Mars misison, there is a 20-minute delay as communications travel the wide-distance between Earth and Mars.  Since it is logistically burdensome to rely on directions and orders from mission support, a Mars crew should operate in an autonomous manner to efficiently achieve goals.  I’ve been surprised by this whole dynamic with mission support.  Rather than giving orders, they are on-call for 12 hours per day, waiting to support our needs, and not only our needs but also our wants!  We receive daily news updates, and we can request recordings of sports games or special broadcasts like the State of the Union address earlier.  I still feel connected to current events on Earth, even though I have limited internet access and communications with the outside world.

  

Gunshow in our Hexoskin shirts, which monitor and record workout performance

The Sixer:  After a few months of living in confinement and cooking like we do, you might wonder if we'll be needing some larger clothing in the next resupply ;) However, on the contrary, we actually are becoming healthier and stronger as the mission goes on.  We stay on schedule with our daily workouts, take vitamins religiously, and give ourselves time to relax when needed!  Also, because we do not have any physical contact with the outside world, we aren’t faced with flu bugs or common colds.  A real Mars crew will have other health concerns that are not simulated here, such as radiation damage from being outside Earth's protective atmosphere and muscle / bone atrophy from working against less gravity.. but on fake Mars, it seems only fat deposits are shrinking!

Exploring the New Year

On the first day of the year, I treated a new page in my journal as if it were a blank canvas of highest quality, writing each word carefully because I wanted to preserve the purity of a new beginning; but instead of a perfect start to the new year, jumbled thoughts came tumbling down. In shaky penmanship I wrote something about making this new year better by not eating so many cookies ;) No matter how many cookies I will gluttonously consume, I have a feeling that this year will be a special one. There’s no place like the dome!

We still have five months of the mission to go, but I’m already starting to plan some vacation time with my family. I look forward to golfing, scuba-diving, tandem jumping from a helicopter, ordering from restaurants (what a treat that will be after eight months of cooking everything homemade), beach time, etc. etc. However, I'm mindful that in life after the dome I won't be able to wear slippers to work anymore, and I will certainly miss days like yesterday where instead of sitting at a desk writing code, I was outside all day exploring!

While on the EVA yesterday, my senses could have fooled me into believing that I was scuba-diving in saltwater. I sipped on my camelbak and my lips tasted salty as my eyes burned from the sweat dripping down my face. Exploring lava tubes gave me the illusion of cave exploring in ocean water.  

Altogether, we explored eight lava tubes, which are cave-like channels where lava once flowed during an eruption. Our task was to collect data about lava tube size, condition, and formation in order to assess their feasibility as human shelters. We targeted skylights which are basically pits where lava once pooled. Some of these skylights were too steep and inaccessible, so we couldn't actually see the lava tube openings, but we were able to climb down into other skylights and check out the lava tube openings.

Top left: deep, inaccessible skylight, Top right: view from inside an accessible skylight, Bottom: lava tube opening in the interior wall of an accessible skylight

For this task, we made a tool that we have nicknamed “TAD” for telescoping airflow detector. Airflow at the opening of a lava tube serves as an indication that the channel is open and connected to other openings. TAD also has markings on the line to enable depth measurement. It looks like a fishing pole, we're living the saltwater life on simulated Mars!

Reeling the TAD down to measure the depth of the pit, while watching the lightweight paper at the end of my line flutter from airflow in the lava tube.

We hiked about 3km in rocky, sloping terrain, the planned path is on the left, and the actual path our teams took through the lava field is on the right.

EVA #31 was strenuous, exciting, and a great success. This was the first geology task EVA in which we were able to collect all data in one sweep, without needing a follow-up EVA on the next day. I am also proud of the fact that we still did our P90x workout later in the afternoon! In a few days, we will be P90x grads, a big thanks to Tony for getting us in the best shape of our lives!

Dome's First Christmas

We're the first HI-SEAS crew to experience Christmas in the dome. Since previous missions were in the summertime for four months, it seems we're doubling the time and quadrupling the holidays! 

For some of us, this was also our first Christmas apart from our families. We tried to carry on Christmas traditions from home, played board games, watched movies, and made delicious treats. We actually used the rest of our sugar supply on cinnamon rolls, cookies, and icing. This should make my New Year's resolution of "no cookies" quite easy until February's resupply!

From left to right in first row: Allen, Sophie, Martha, Jocelyn (Me!)

and in the back row from left to right: Zak and Neil

Christmas in the dome might be as close as it gets to living in a snow globe! Rather than cute puppies and snow-covered fir trees, the contents of our globe includes an indoor garden, six adults in space pajamas, and gadgets galore. Sadly, snow does not fall when NASA gives our world a shake or twirl ;) but magically, we did have a white Christmas with snowfall on the peak of nearby Mauna Kea, as shown in the photo below.

Snow-covered top of Mauna Kea in the background with my radio call sign "Fancy" on display, this was a Christmas gift from Neil Scheibelhut aka "Rex"

Over the holidays, instead of shopping to the tune of classic Christmas songs, we laughed along to “Hung for the Holidays” album.. true story, the Christmas music selection here is rather limited. For gifts, I wrote poems, Martha was knitting, Sophie sewed stockings, Zak baked us treats, Allen made mnemonics in Russian out of our names to describe each personality, and Neil took beautiful photos for us! Thanks and photo credits to Neil Scheibelhut!

Two-Step is Sophie's call sign, her blog is http://domesoph.siterubix.com/

Foxy is Martha's call sign, her blog is http://martianadventures.wordpress.com/

Stitch is Zak's call sign, his blog is http://almostmars.com/

Sasha (Cawa in Russian) is Allen's call sign

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM "MARS" :) See you in 2015!

"It's all data!"

After two months of Mars-living, I’m starting to crave some food items from Earth, namely peaches and some type of pork (carnitas or bbq would be awesome), but still I am feeling satisfied thanks to some steady research progress and the desserts galore!  Tonight to celebrate our two-month milestone, our lasagna dinner was followed by brownies with homemade ice cream and fudge topping!  

It was nice to relax and celebrate, since lately I’ve been slaving over some code for getting data from our Jawbone activity monitors.  We are all wearing Jawbone UP wristbands 24-7, enabling constant data collection about our lives here.  However, from the Jawbone website, only simplified summaries of daily aggregate data are readily downloadable.  So, I recently finished a Python project that digs into the Jawbone UP app for a wealth of full and detailed data.

Check it out on GitHub and pass it along to your friends who use Jawbone:

http://joceydunn.github.io/get_jawbone_data/

For my research in data analytics, I am collecting and analyzing all kinds of data from the crew, ranging from data about our sleep and activity to recording our meals to logging our entertainment and media usage to identifying physiological markers of stress to tracking the jokes and memes that emerge and fade away!

Speaking of memes, the title of this blog post is one of our earliest jokes that still pops up and amuses us.  During training week, one of the NASA researchers, Pete, initiated this meme by commenting "it's all data" after we were being silly and ridiculous.  It's a bit sarcastic, but also points to a deeper truth that all data has value, even our quirky jokes! 

Living in this semi-controlled environment presents the opportunity to analyze social, physiological, and psychological impacts that are often too variable and unpredictable in our daily lives on Earth.  With limited factors on our lives here, it’s all relatively easy to track.  We are not going out to eat, meeting with new people, or catching flights across the US.  There’s a predictability that gives promise of good data quality.

I'm tackling projects that would have been overwhelming previously.  This big move to "Mars” has been a powerful transition for my personality as well, feeling stronger, happier, and more determined.  Change is good, but at this two-month mark, I am glad that I still have six months to live with this amazing crew and continue the research of my dreams! 

Turkey Day on "Mars"

For Thanksgiving last year, I was at the family compound in North Carolina, we had three kitchens going as we prepared all the side dishes in the universe and cooked three turkeys, fried one, baked one, and smoked one!  It was quite the contrast to be cooking on “Mars” with two induction plates and one toaster oven!

Here in the dome, we made a list of the dishes that we traditionally have with our families, then brainstormed on how to make them with shelf-stable and freeze-dried ingredients.  We also discussed cooking plans in the context of our limited energy supply.  Typically, we prepare our dinners at around 2pm then reheat later, so that we do most of the cooking during peak sunlight hours when our solar panels are generating the most power.  

On thanksgiving we just started even earlier to squeeze in more kitchen time!  I woke up extremely exhausted because I was up until 5am coding. It was totally worth it, had a breakthrough with acquiring data from Jawbone API that made me feel like a python programming wizard ;) I felt very thankful, and, despite being tired, had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  (PS - stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on my research progress)

Sleepyhead making peanut butter- banana - chocolate chip cookies, delicious! 

We cooked all morning, then had a mid-day yoga break, which boosted my energy and helped me make it through the rest of the day!  We watched a couple recordings of football games, thanks to our amazing mission support team, while also treating ourselves to pedicures. Later we enjoyed our feast, played scrabble, and danced the night away!

Our Commander Martha watching football and getting a pedicure from Sophie!

As for the feast, amazingly it all turned out as hoped :) even our experiments like homemade marshmallows!  We have freeze-dried meats and veggies that are pre-cooked and diced.  On our EVAs, we didn’t see any turkeys to hunt ;) instead, we rehydrated some diced turkey and made a skillet with potatoes, onion, and carrots.  As for the fixins, we had sweet potato casserole with homemade marshmallow topping, green bean casserole, succotash, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes.  Zak followed his mama’s recipe for crescent rolls.  Martha made fresh bread for one delicious stuffing!  And our gluten-free crew members, Sophie and Neil, made a cornbread stuffing that blew my mind!

Our Thanksgiving spread on "Mars" did not disappoint!

After dinner, the crew decided to dance off the calories :) Here’s a little montage of our festivities, ’twas a happy thanksgiving in the dome!