Bugs and potatoes

Hello, everyone!
If you have been following our facebook page you might remember that we have been experimenting with growing potatoes in various kind of soil. So far it seems that all of the plants are doing great. (There is also some oat growing next to our potatoes. We'll use it to feed the insects we are growing for our experiments.)

A few days ago we received a gift package from our awesome sponsors in Entocube.
What did it contain?
Well, I'll give you a hint. It has lots of legs and it's a great protein source for astronauts.

Now we can test the gas exchange between plants and insects in real life! We are also starting one longer experiment to find out what these insects want to eat the most. Hopefully they find the potatoes as tasty as humans do.
Have a great day!

Five things I've learned during Epic Challenge

Hello, everyone!

This time I'm going to post something different from usual.
My name is Sonja and I've been updating the blog together with Krista, another one of our team members. I'm one of the two high school students in our team. Since we will give a presentation to American high school students regarding our project next week, I feel it could be a good time to share with you a few lessons I've learned myself during the Epic Challenge.

5. Anyone can learn anything if they try hard enough

I have never concidered myself to be very good at biology, chemistry or mathematics. They have always been the most interesting yet most challenging subjects for me to learn in school. In the beginning of last autumn I had no idea what a hydrophonic system was or how the gravity of a planet affects how the plants grow there. During this project I have had to learn about those and dozens of more subjects and suprisingly there hasn't been anything I couldn't have been able to understand. I have learned tons of stuff from our teachers, the NASA experts, the other team members and just by searching for the information. It's amazing how much you can learn if you are invested enough!

4. Good teamwork requires flexibility

One of the main things I've noticed during this year is that not everything goes according to plan. People have lives outside the project and not everyone can always give their all. There is no point in blaming others when timetables don't hold and deadlines lurk behind the corner. You can only accept the siyuation and try to make the best out of it.

3. Managing your own time is vital

I have always had the bad habit of doing everything just before the deadline. Unfortunately that doesn't work when you are a part of a team with little time in thei hands and lots of work to do. Dividing tasks and planning your work really makes everything easier.

2. Keeping an open mind brings pleasant suprises

Insects taste good.
This is one of the more suprising things I've noticed during this project. Before I would have never even concidered putting a squirming, nasty bug in my mouth. Now I can proudly state that grasshoppers with garlic is one of the best things I've ever tasted!
Science is the research of the world around us and one who wants to discover the mysteries of the universe should be able to put their prejustices aside and try new things once in a while.

1. Nothing is impossible

A Finnish high school student working with NASA and innovating technology to habitate Mars with? That sounds absurd, but for me, Netta and our classmates from Red Sandbox that is pretty much our everyday life.
Cooking insects for food and calling to an international space station? Been there, done that.
The Epic Challenge project has taught me many things but perhaps the most important one is this - you can never know what opportunities the life brings to you and it is impossible to determine the circumstances you'll face in the future, but when you have a chance to do something valuable and learn new things, you should take it and try your hardest to make everything you can out of it. Only by taking a leap of faith and testing your own limits you can achieve something truly epic.

One, Two,Three,Testing

Hello, everyone!

This week our main focus has been finishing all the interesting experiments we have been doing lately.
To refresh your memory, these tests include growing different kinds of plants in artificial soil, measuring the endurance and efficency of optical fibre and making sure we find the right balance in the gas exchange between insects and plants.
Did you know that a thick optical fibre can take more heat than a thin one? Or that potatoes can grow in a soil that is compeletely manmade?

 The team is discussing about the details of the final prototype.

Kristina is measuring the amount of light transmitting through a fibre cable.

Jesse is building an airtight chamber... And smiling at the camera.

The heat meter we used to measure the fibre's heat resistance.

We have created life!

...Well, not really. We just wanted to give you an update regarding our plant-growing experiment. The barley is already sprouting and potatoes are looking good. So far there hasn't been much difference between artificial and traditional growing environments so we'll just have to wait and see.

PS: If you are living in the Joensuu area, you might be interested to know that we are presenting our project in this year's SciFest. Hopefully we'll see you there!

6.3. Insect-survey results

Hello again!

Thank you for everyone, who answered in our first survey (about eating insects)! During the Marsraiser-event last Monday we asked some new survey-questions, with the opportunity to taste actual insects in different forms. 

We prepared crickets (sposored by EntoCube), in both chili and garlic and herbs. The brave tasters were surprised in a good way, many referred to the crickets to remind them of just snacks like chips or similar. 

We also baked some nice cookies, with cricket-powder, ants and worms. So nice to see people open up to new experiences without too much hesitation. Hopefully the astronauts will be as open-minded to the idea!

Some data-analysis of the FIRST SURVEY showed us that (with over 300 answers):

• 72 % of the people would be willing to taste insects (positive or indifferent)
• Top 4 of preferred insects were grasshoppers, ants, worms and beetles. Not many would be willing to eat spiders, wonder why?
• Taste is the main attribute, when people are deciding what to eat. Health effects come second.

During Marsraiser, in the SECOND SURVEY, we found that (with 28 answers):

• People were more positive about eating insects, after they tasted them during Marsraiser (when asked both beforehand, and after tasting). Positive feelings grew 24,7 percentage points, while negative feelings decreased 10,7 percentage points.
• People were also open to take insects into their daily diet, once they tasted them. 
• Total of 92.6% was feeling positive after tasting.
• 74% was willing to eat insects as a part of their daily diet

When looking at our survey-results, you have to keep in mind that the aims were different. In the first survey we wanted to find out peoples over-all attitudes towards insects as food, and in the second we were studying how does actually eating the insects affect those prejudices (or if it doesn't affect anything). 

(More information on analytics with graphics you can check HERE. )

 Few pictures of our epic cooking:

Here we have about 300 pieces of delicious food just waiting to be prepared.

First we of course killed the crickets, as humanely as possible, and then boiled them for a few minutes, and let them dry out. Then we divided them into two groups, one waiting to be fried with garlic and herbs, and the other with chili and lime.

The outcome was very nice! Just waiting for this to become a socially accepted in the western cultures too!

Until next time, and please comment, would you eat insects instead of/ with your regular diet?

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.

There's always more to find out!

Hello, everyone!
First of all I want to thank everyone who filled out our insect-eating survey! Now we have plenty of data to analyze and use in our future concepts. We are also glad that so many of the participants are willing to try out actually eating some insects. Now the only thing we need to do is to find some nice grasshopper cookie recipies...
This week we started doing more experiments. Because we have so much to find out and only a finite amount of time we split the group into three sub-teams.
I won't tell precise details about these experiments yet but I can tell you we need an air-tight cabinet, fly maggots and some basil saplings. Sounds fun, right?
The other sub-teams' stuff is so secret even we don't know much about it. (Or then we were just too busy with our own plans to ask them. Who knows?) Hopefully things will clarify over the next week.
I hope you all have a wonderful day!

20.1. T(eam)-shirts are here!

Hey everyone!

We are tributing our (so far) successful journey to science with our official T-shirts, and as January has boosted us to experiment designs, and more detailed concepts, it's nice to be identified as a team, rather than just individuals.

We are bioMARS!

Currently we're comparing different types of systems used to grow food, and figuring the best concepts from our own ideas.

We're investigating the wide web for people who've done it before us, so feel free to leave us a link to an experiment on food-growing, if you know some! :)

2016: Back to business!

Hey!
Tonight was our first official meeting of 2016, and now that we're roughly halfway through our time of the Epic Challenge Joensuu (we're scheduled to finnish in May), we will begin experimenting with our selected concepts for food growing units, and prototyping!

As we have come up with more than a hundred concepts, now each team member will try to make a testing experiment of two promising concepts, and provide the rest of the team with information on those concepts, so it will come easier to get rid of bad concepts.

Our journey has concentrated more on theory up till now, but things are about to get more exciting once the prototyping phase begins! Thanks for following us also on Facebook!

Until next time!

16.12. One hundred concepts?!

HEY, tonight we tried to categorise and choose good concepts from ~100 different ones. That's not too easy, but you know what, we're not stupid either. 

We will continue our evaluating process, and choose the best combinations from everyones ideas, which we can prototype and develop even further in 2016. 

However, tonight was the last official meeting of 2015, so it's individual work for the rest of the year. We will still post some holiday cheers in here, and in our Facebook!

Thanks, bye for now! :) 

Pre-Christmas party Bowling!

Hey, and happy early Christmas to us! 

BioMARS and Team Red Sandbox teamed up and went bowling together, to a local bowling bar called "Cosmic" (Get it? Working with NASA? Mars? Cosmic?). It's important to relax between working on a difficult challenge and studying hard, and what better way than with the great people you also work with?

Our bowlers were prepared for the black light, which made white clothes glow!

Hely, Kristina, and Ana making the pins scared for their lives :)

Perhaps Joni is giving Maria some tips? :)

There were no winners or losers, but we all had a great time! Thank you, Team Red Sandbox, let's not let this be the last time :)

18.11. Chitchat with Dr. Camarda

Hey!
Tonight our bioMARS had a chance to speak with Dr. Charles Camarda, as he is one of our main specialists and teachers during this Epic Challenge. Of course we had talked with him previously, but to have a personal chat to tell about our recent work, and to ask more specific questions was very nice.

<- Here are our faces right before starting the chat. The photo is blurry because the photographer must've been shaky from excitement. ;)

After that we had a Q&A with Space Veggies, whose mission a few years back was very similar to our goals. They kindly answered our questions and were also interested in our challenge and progress.

Bye now!

11.11. Q&A

Hey guys!

This Wednesday was partly a Q&A with ISRU expert Mr. Garrett Carman, and partly discussing about our communal knowledge on plant growing and food properties.

ISRU stands for "In Situ Resource Utilization", and that means making what we need from where we are and what we can take from there, for example, on Mars. We talked about creating energy and material, like glass fibre from the regolith or soil. Thank you, Mr. Carman, for answering our questions!

We will now make lessons for each other considering our challenge, so everyone learns from everyone and in the end everyone knows everything. ; )

4.11. Deep (Mars) diving

Hello!
It's been a long day, it's 8:30 pm again, and we started leaving the lecture. Only the girls stayed to take a picture for you guys to see our tired but happy faces.

What is our agenda now? In November we will dive deeper in our specific challenge (of growing food on Mars) and actually we had a nice way of rephrasing that to make our new problem:

0. “To develop an Earth-independent Food Production Capacity Increasing System”

0. In short, EFPCIS.

0. This is beautiful, we'll go with this one. 

0. Also, check our Facebook-page for our upcoming ABC's!

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)!

31.10. Happy Halloween!

Trick or treat! 

Tonight we decided to leave studying for a moment, and celebrate a little. We went to one of our team members home, Krista's place, and carved some pumpkins, ate some apple pie (made by Kristina) and shared some laughs about life in general. Can you recognise some characters from our group picture? 

 Carving pumpkins can get a little messy, but the results were great! One pumpkin was a little stinkier, so we carved it outside to ease the pain. The finished Jack-o-lanterns have a alien/space-theme, and one has our logo on it! 

Timo played a little guitar for us, and here's also a close-up of Mariia's costume, how cool is that! Our group wen't artistic with all our costumes, even the finnish people (Halloween is not very Finnish); Sonja, Jesse, Timo, and Krista!

                             

                         

Here is also a picture of a little party-crasher, Maul, with the Jack-o-lanterns!

We're all hoping everyone's Halloween is more treats than tricks,

Yours truly,

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!

21.10. Work hard, play hard?

Hey!

We and the other Epic Challenge team, "The Red Sandbox" went and watched the movie The Martian yesterday!

Afterwards we talked a little about the differences of the movie and NASAs real Mars plans. We sure hope they're not sending Matt Damon there, he seems to get into a lot of trouble in space.

But we enjoyed the movie and suggest You go see it as well!


PS. About our current workflow, we are individually studying different Mars-themes, which we will then (at the end of the month) teach to each other!

15.10. Our Facebook-page and official logo!

Hello everyone! We are super excited to show our official logo at last. 

You can also check out our Facebook-page now!

We are planning a trip to the movies soon, can You guess what movie we want to see? ;)

Comment what could it be!

Thank YOU for reading our blog, please like and share our Facebook if you want to follow us more!