29.2. The Marsraiser!

Thank you for the Marsraiser!

Thank you to everyone who was interested in hearing about our Epic Challenges, and was brave enough to try insect-food, drive the miniature Mars-rover, or take a look at Mars landscapes with virtual reality. What a special way to spend the leap day of 2016, you taking a leap toward us and us taking a step in reaching our goals.

Krista from bioMARS giving our pitch talk to visitors.

Many were eager to try out our insect-cookies, which had crickets, ants, and some of them had worms.

We also prepared some fried crickets, with chili, and with garlic. Very tasty!

Here are the suspicious faces of bioMARS' Mariia and Kristina, but they had the courage to try some as well!

Everyone at Marsraiser were lucky enough to take the miniature Mars-Rover for a spin.

Here is Olli presenting the Oculus Rift, where we could see a Martian landscape!

Our Epic teams wish to thank everyone who contributed to the event!

Sincerely, bioMARS

Team Red Sandbox

(Isn't it just the worst when you show up at a party and someone's wearing the same thing as you? ;) )

22.2. Call to Tim Kopra

Hello y'all, and with interesting news!

We got to make an arranged video-call to the ISS, and to talk with astronaut Tim Kopra. Arcusys was kind to host the event here in Joensuu. Afterwards some local media interviewed us, and you can check some material here (interview in Finnish only, but Mr. Kopras introduction video is in english).

We cannot say what information was exchanged exactly, but we had prepared some questions alongside Team Red Sandbox about our unique challenges, and asked Kopra for his insight on the matters. His experiences and knowledge of the realities about space-travelling will help us develop our concepts. Not to mention how huge of a privilege it was just to be present at such a call.

Did you know Mr. Kopra is Finnish-American? He is very respectable for his accomplishments in both the US army, and as an astronaut. You can read more about his career HERE.

Thank you for all your support! Next week we have all new exciting news, so stay tuned!

Here we have a picture of some of bioMARS' and Team Red Sandbox' members waiting for the call to start.

3.11. Sauna

Hey! Tonight our team and the Team Red Sandbox, were invited to sauna by our online working/ learning environment developer, Arcusys! 

The night also included us talking about the online environment, and together making it more suitable for our needs. For more information about the company, visit their site here.

NOW that is November already, we start focusing on our specific challenges, and that means reading a ton of articles and information. We try to keep you updated, thanks for the support! :)

Remember to stay warm in the cold Finnish autumn (or if you're not from Finland, still, go to a sauna if you can, really)!

28.10. Lesson and presentations

Good morning! Yesterday (28.10) was a long day, we stayed and studied till half past 9 o'clock PM.

First we learned about information searching, Janne Hietala from Arcusys was kind enough to come and educate us. The information about searching for information was new for most of us, and super helpful for the future. Thanks!

This was also the first time we met after publishing our first drafts of our Mars-presentations, so we talked about them, and asked more questions from each other.

Now we begin working on our presentations again, making them (hopefully) better. Everything is possible after a good night's sleep!