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!

Battling against the clock!

When envisioning life in a dome, my research ambition was inspired by the valuable data to collect and analyze from this experience, and a big part of me was excited for leaving distractions of the real world behind.  I looked forward to reading a long list of books and imagined these eight months of living in a dome as an intellectual and spiritual retreat.

We've reached the milestone of completing one month of the mission.  In this month, I can say I’ve read exactly one book, and it’s a short one, Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. The battle for personal time that is fought in our great big worlds on Earth, still blazes from a tiny dome in Hawaii.

In daily surveys for the NASA study, we are asked if our day has gone by abnormally slow, fast, or just normal.  Thus far, I have repeatedly indicated that time is moving more quickly than normal.  I decided to investigate our hurried pace by outlining my schedule with some detail.  Now I can see why the days are flying by so quickly!  The schedule here is intense!  

We all have different responsibilities here in the dome in addition to lingering commitments to our lives back home.  Despite our numerous and varying tasks, as a crew, we all sync our schedules to do P90x workout each night, have dinner together, and often play a game or watch a show afterwards.  In dome life, I am free of social media distractions, but I’m probably more prone to the phenomenon of peer pressure.  

Last night provided the example that inspired this blog post.  I planned to do some coding for my analysis of our jawbone wristband data. That plan began to derail when we decided to watch an episode of the Firefly TV series while having dinner.  Prior to this, we had already declared that we will only watch Firefly when all crew members are present, so that no one misses out.  Are you seeing the pressure point?!  If I would have opted out, then no one would get to watch Firefly.  

After one episode, the crew applied some pressure for another, and even more pressure subsequently, until we watched four episodes of Firefly together!!  I definitely lost this battle.  Sorry research, forgive my gluttony, I promise to find extra time for you soon!  It is crucial that we keep a balance of team and individual goals.  If I choose my research all of the time, then our team dynamic will suffer.  But mission success will also degrade if I am not mindful of my personal responsibilities. 

Though the binge-watching felt sinful, I have to say I’m thankful that the crew has introduced me to the Firefly TV series and the concept of a “Space Western”.. yep, cowboys and space exploration!!  It took a couple episodes for me to warm up to the lead character in particular, but only because I saw him first as Captain Hammer, the annoying arch nemesis from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  So far, my favorite episode is called Mrs. Reynolds, I was so surprised and delighted to see Joan from Mad Men as a sly space cowgirl, check it out!

On the transition to dome life

As a crew, we're often asked how we prepared for this mission, and my answer to this question has a glaring contradiction. To prepare for life as a simulated astronaut, I worked on my physical fitness, while also eating as much pizza and sushi as I could find! I was worried that I would not like the food on “Mars.” I thought I would have trouble adjusting to the 2-min showers. I predicted that I might feel cramped, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have this dome life focused on research and teamwork.

HI-SEAS habitat on Mauna Loa, there's no place like the dome!

Now that 25 days have just flown by, I’m thinking the transition back to “Earth” might be harder than our transition to “Mars.” It’s a challenging, busy schedule here, but it's worth every minute, since we are doing stuff I love: research, fitness, satisfying meals, and teamwork. I’m a fourth-year PhD student, so I’ve been immersed in research environments for a while now. The major difference is that the nature of my prior graduate student life was quite solitary. Learning processes are satisfying and fun on their own, but now I realize how much I've missed working together as part of a team.

Here, I'm interacting with crew members to accomplish our mission goals and to maintain a healthy team chemistry, while also gaining confidence in applied engineering and insights for proposing novel research. This past week, we worked on the first Geology task of the mission. Our task was to estimate the volume of a nearby ridge-like feature that is composed of a type of lava called spatter, which is a possible insulating material for building surface shelters on Mars. So, the question was basically how much spatter is deposited in this geological feature.

An aerial photograph of the geological feature 

We divided the task into two separate EVAs. On Monday, Sophie and Allen suited up and headed out with the goal of determining the location of the ridge-like feature relative to the habitat and gathering information about where to start measuring and about the difficulty of exploring the terrain. From this information, we decided to tackle measurements with a three-person crew. On Tuesday, Martha, Neil, and I went out to track the feature and completed the longest EVA we’ve had so far. It’s hot and sweaty in those suits, but we kept going up and down the slopes of the 575-meter ridge to measure angles, input GPS waypoints, and to wave hand signals when radio communication failed.

Steep slope of the ridge with loose surface rocks, tread lightly...

At times, it felt as though I was skiing, when on the way down rocks would start slipping and rolling away. If it was not too steep, sometimes I would decide to just slide along with the lava rocks, in my clumsy hazmat suit holding a trekking pole! My golf experience also came in handy as I was pacing yardages to verify GPS calculations. The 1-yard stride I have ingrained on manicured golf course fairways still ended up being quite accurate on the rough terrain of a lava field.

Suited up for hiking (or skiing) through the lava field.. and staying hydrated!

What a great day, experiencing awe and wonder as if we really were exploring another planet! We faced challenges, stayed positive, and pulled together to successfully complete the task (estimated 155,500 cubic meters of spatter).

Domestication in progress

Resourcefulness is one of the traits I’ve always admired about Momma Dunn, a mix of creativity and a positive attitude.  She can make a bad day into a lovely one, and she can whip together a hearty meal out of seemingly random, lacking ingredients.  It’s easy to fill up a grocery basket with fresh ingredients, take it home, and toss it together like a master chef.  But putting together a meal from a limited pantry is the sign of a true kitchen master!

The HI-SEAS kitchen is well-equipped with a mini-fridge / freezer combo, a toaster oven, induction burners, microwave, dishwasher, bread maker, coffee maker and an electric kettle.

Cooking on “Mars” requires some gambling and imagination.  Before I served my first meal, and actually it was the first meal of the mission, I recited a quote by John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway!” The dehydrated ingredients seemed so foreign to me.  The first step in cooking here is always add water and wait for the ingredient to rehydrate, which can take several hours.  Though the ingredients are mostly pre-cooked, cooking here takes a similar length of time due to the preparation and experimentation.

The shelf-stable ingredients include freeze-dried meats, veggies, fruits, and powdered dairy.

Initially it was quite intimidating to cook with shelf-stable ingredients, so I was keeping it simple.  Last week, however, I made what the crew dubbed a “taco extravaganza” that included chicken and steak taco options with a traditional spicy salsa and a sweet pineapple slaw.  For some inspiration, I had mission support download and email me the menu for Taco Joint in Chicago.  Here’s a photo of the spread; there were leftovers, still working on the ideal portioning for this group, but at least I am confident with the cooking methods now!

Chicken, steak, yellow rice with black beans, tomato salsa, pineapple slaw, and fried tortillas

Burning the candle

Throughout my life, I’ve often heard the saying “Don’t burn the candle at both ends."  It's useful to have reminders to make tough choices about how to spend your limited time and energy.

Even though joining this mission did feel rushed and similar to the "burning both ends" phenomena, I don’t think this transition deserves the negative connotation of that saying.  I am now much closer to the goal of living simply and passionately.  Instead of worrying about burning the candle at both ends, I’ll make "burning the candle in the right places” my mantra.  I've made it to the right place and feel so thankful for this opportunity.

On a lighter note ;) here at the dome, we are burning tons of calories by committing ourselves to a daily fitness program!  This is our first week of the workout regimen.  My Jawbone UP data shows evidence of how sore my muscles are feeling, since outside of workouts, I've had about 60% less activity today.. I walked around much less because my hip flexors are killing me!  

But no pain, no gain!  Tomorrow is yoga, definitely looking forward to a good stretch!  Here’s some photos of fitness-related engineering from the past week:

Zak duct-taping some steps and a bucket together for our tabata workout, okay, so this is not exactly engineering..

But Martha and Sophie repairing our treadmill motor definitely is!

Our kitchen-made incense holder is important too, keeps the dome from smelling like a gym!  There's a glimpse of our Martian kitchen in the background.

Next post, I'll give you a tour of the place.  We are slowly getting organized.  It takes time just like moving into a new house on Earth!  My sister and brother-in-law can testify as they are moving into their new home this week, congrats Kayla and Lee, can't wait to see your new place too, xoxo!