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Pre-Mission Update from Hugh S. Gregory T-Minus 12 hours
by Moonbase Team 
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Feb 24th, 2006 22:57MST
. . . . . . . this is Artemis Control.
We've just passed the T-minus 12 hours, and 5 minute mark in the countdown towards the departure of the Artemis One crew from the Selene Launching Complex aboard the BIg Blue space to luna transporter.
At this time Crew Scientist-Surveyor Hugh S. Gregory, reports a safe arrival at the Whispering Sands Motel Pressure Dome in Hanksville. His Earth to Moon transit aboard the Skyjumper "Anik 21" was uneventful and he was met at Grand Junction Spaceport by Don Foutz aboard his personal pressurised moon rover "da van". Hugh reports that going in by Grand Junction has many advantages over going in via the Selene Launching Complex, the two big advantages were, 1.) no rush hour traffic and 2.) a two hour drive versus a nearly 5 hours drive.
Mission Commander Kokh and Crew Nurse Fung-Schwarz completed most of the provision assembling today. Tomorrow they will greet the final arriving team members and execute a de-orbit burn on the lunar lander Big Blue to start their descent into the Artemis One landing site.
All systems on the Artemis One Hab are reported to be functioning nominally. Next report when events warrent it.
This is Artemis Control.. . . . .
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02/25/06 11:19:47 am, Pre-Mission Update from Hugh S. Gregory T-Minus 3 Days
by Moonbase Team
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Feb 22nd, 2006 00:02PST
. . . . . . this is Artemis Control at T-minus 3 days, 10 hours and 24 minutes until Descent Orbit Insertion commences for the Big Blue lunar (simulated) lander. At this time all crew members have reported in on their preparation for the first attempt in over 34 years to return a human presence (in simulation) to the lunar surface.
Mission Commander Peter Kokh reports that the plans for the construction of a tunnel from the Artemis One Lunar Habitat (actually the MDRS Habitat) to the GreenHAB grey water recycling greenhouse and farm are now complete and that the proper materials for this construction are awaiting collection at their various Depot's at the Selene Launching Complex in Utah (SLC aka Salt Lake City, Utah). This tunnel will be a perminent addition to the Mars Desert Research Station and wlll remain behind when the ascent stage of the Big Blue lunar lander/ rover lifts off on March 12 to return the Crew to SLC where they will change to their respective commercial Earth return transports.
Crew Scientist Leslie Wichman reports that her prepartions for her plans to upgrading the existing flow meters for the GreenHab water reclamation system to enable instrumented data output, as well as the addition of filters to allow the meters to function more consistently are proceeding on schedule. Leslie will also be installing and testing a "solar still" to try to harvest some of the GreenHab recycled greywater for drinking water purposes. She has also been corresponding with other crew members to figure out how to collect the crew activity and food consumption data she needs for one of her projects without impacting the already busy crew schedules. Finally, she reports that her recovery from a nasty bout with the flu is nearly complete and that she is on time and track for seperate arrival at the Artemis One landing site at approximately T plus 3 days and 2 hours into the Artemis One Moon Base simulation mission.
Telemetry at this time indicates all systems are nominal on the Big Blue lunar lander currently docked at the Comfort Inn portion of the Selene Launching Complex. Reports from the Engineering Desk indicate that the (simulated) nuclear power plant at MDRS failed to power up yesterday morning for a battery charging cycle on the MDRS Hab and current crew had to make a Rover EVA into Lowellville. There they requested the assistance of the Mars Society's local representitive and engineer to get the power plant affectionately known as Wendy fired up. Don Foutz made two EVA's to the lander site yesterday and latest telemetry indicates operations are once again nominal.
All of you back on Earth can observe the activities of the crew currently in residence at the MDRS hab by web cam. To do this point your web brouser to
Here you will also be able to observe the activities of the Artemis One Moonbase (simulation) crew as they live and work on the analogue Moon at MDRS starting on Saturday February 25th.
Further reports will be transmitted as events warrant.
This is Artemis Control. . . .
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Pre-Mission Update from Hugh S. Gregory T-Minus 5 Days
by Moonbase Team
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Feb 19th, 2006 23:35PST
. . . . . this is Artemis Control.
We are now at the T-minus 5 days, 12 hours and 25 minutes until the Big Blue lander commences Powered Descent Initiation to ferry the Artemis One Crew to Hanksville Utah and the start of the Moon Society's first every Lunar Surface Excursion Simulation. At this time the team members are continuing their final preparations before launching off of Earth for their respective flights to SLC where Big Blue (our simulated Lunar Lander) awaits us.
William Fung-Schwarz, our crew RN began his mission preparation about a year ago...after his return from MDRS Crew 33. After a summer of data synthesis, literature review, contacting other human factors scientists, he was left with a 264-page draft of "the survey"...although the human factors survey is only one portion of the overall study (there are focus groups, activities, and interviews)...it is the central feature that the whole study rests upon. William has since put in about 4 months of revisions, additions, deletions, and a field trial...he submited the survey (and other study documents to the ethics committee at the University of Utah...called an "Institutional Review Board". This is a big step for a new investigator. The IRB was very friendly and helpful and he was awarded "approval" in about 3 weeks to continue. Currently he is now helping Laurel and Peter coordinate "cargo" requisition and purchasing for our mission as well as making some last minute modifications to the mechanical counter pressure (MoonSkin MCP) analogue suit that he will be trialing during our Moonbase mission.
Our Crew Engineer Steve Winikoff has been finalizing his studies on MDRS Engineering Systems and between this task and his regular day job, he has found time to research, design and impliement a web based "fill in the blanks" Crew Engineers daily report form. This is a long overdue improvement for documenting engineering activities at MDRS and FMARS and his efforts to standardise this reporting process is greatly appreciated by the Mars Society Engineering Team.
Ben Huset reports his pre-mission conditioning for the cold of the Lunar Nights is proceding well as is own astronomical observation schedule has him outside for many hours under the crisp, clear, sub-zero winter sky's. Ben is looking forward to further upgrading work on the MDRS web cam system and together with Hugh S. Gregory, will be tackling further upgrades and repairs to the Musk Observatory. Both Ben and Hugh are Astronomers on the Musk Observatory Team and Hugh is the Principle Investigator of Project MOSS, the Musk Observatory Supernova Search.
At this time all systems are Go on the Big Blue Lunar Transfer vehicle, currently docked at the Comfort Inn portion of the Selene Launching Complex awaiting our arrival and instruments show that systems on the Artemis Habitat are reported to be nominal with no major red flag events having occurred since the last telemetry session.
We will keep you posted as events unfold.
This is Artemis Control. . . . . . . .
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Pre-Mission Update from Hugh S. Gregory T-Minus 8 days
by Moonbase Team
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Feb 16th, 2006 23:12PST
. . . . . this is Artemis Control.
We are now at the T-minus 8 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes until the Big Blue lander undocks from the Selene Launching Complex to ferry the Moon Society's first ever Lunar Landing Simulation crew down the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, UTAH. Although individually scatter across the North American continent, crew members are continuing with their pre-flight preparations.
Our Miami, USA based German Radio Science Journalist Guido Meyer reports that he is pretty much done acquiring radio stations willing to air "The Martian (Lunar) Chronicles" ... has arranged the placement of 26 reports so far, each between 2minutes 30seconds and 30 minutes long. He has also filed at least one newspaper article. During this evenings comm's session with Artemis Control Guido confirmed the first in the radio series of reports will go to air next Friday while the crew is "in-transit to the Selene Launching Complex, Utah. It will be a kind of a preview of our mission, including soundbites from Rick Tumlinson ("The Space Frontier Foundation"), Edward Hudgins, Washington Director of the Objectivist Center and author of the book "Space: The Free-Market Frontier", Harrisson Schmitt, last man on the moon with "Apollo 17", including some german scientist.
Crew Scientist-Surveyor Hugh S. Gregory, the Principle Investigator for Project M.A.S.T. passed a major preparation mile stone today with the acquiring of a brand new Garmin Global Positioning System receiver which is absolutely critical for acquiring the final data needed to complete Project MAST. He will spend the next few days in the local lunar simulator, practicing the skills needed to use this new instrument during our Moon Mission Simulation.
At this time monitoring systems report that there is a possible minor water line leak somewhere external to the Artemis Habitat itself. Under the guidance of Paul Graham, the Mars Society's Engineering Team Coordinator, trouble shooting is underway to discover the source of the problem, so that it can be examined and a fix diagnosed. This anomaly will not adversely affect the deployment of the Artemis One in a little over eight days time.
Weather at the Moon Landing simulation site has been high winds for the past few days and for this weekend, a possibility of rain or even snow has been forecast. Next report as events warrant it.
This is Artemis Control. . . . . . . .
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Pre-Launch 8 Days 12 Hours
by Tom (admin)
. . . . . this is Artemis Control. We are now at the T-minus 8 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes until the Big Blue lander undocks from the Selene Launching Complex to ferry the Moon Society's first ever Lunar Landing Simulation crew down the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, UTAH. Although individually scatter across the North American continent, crew members are continuing with their pre-flight preparations. Our Miami, USA based German Radio Science Journalist Guido Meyer reports that he is pretty much done acquiring radio stations willing to air "The Martian (Lunar) Chronicles" ... has arranged the placement of 26 reports so far, each between 2minutes 30seconds and 30 minutes long. He has also filed at least one newspaper article. During this evenings comm's session with Artemis Control Guido confirmed the first in the radio series of reports will go to air next Friday while the crew is "in-transit to the Selene Launching Complex, Utah. It will be a kind of a preview of our mission, including soundbites from Rick Tumlinson ("The Space Frontier Foundation"), Edward Hudgins, Washington Director of the Objectivist Center and author of the book "Space: The Free-Market Frontier", Harrisson Schmitt, last man on the moon with "Apollo 17", including some german scientist.
Crew Scientist-Surveyor Hugh S. Gregory, the Principle Investigator for Project M.A.S.T. passed a major preparation mile stone today with the acquiring of a brand new Garmin Global Positioning System receiver which is absolutely critical for acquiring the final data needed to complete Project MAST. He will spend the next few days in the local lunar simulator, practicing the skills needed to use this new instrument during our Moon Mission Simulation. At this time monitoring systems report that there is a possible minor water line leak somewhere external to the Artemis Habitat itself. Under the guidance of Paul Graham, the Mars Society's Engineering Team Coordinator, trouble shooting is underway to discover the source of the problem, so that it can be examined and a fix diagnosed. This anomaly will not adversely affect the deployment of the Artemis One in a little over eight days time. Weather at the Moon Landing simulation site has been high winds for the past few days and for this weekend, a possibility of rain or even snow has been forecast. Next report as events warrant it. This is Artemis Control. . . . . . . .
-- Hugh S. Gregory - Spaceflight Historian - Chief Documents Editor for MDRS and FMARS research stations - Commander Crew 35, Crew Scientist-Surveyor Crew 45