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.

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 :)

1.12. Firefighters or astronauts?

 Hello!

Our dark snowless December started off with a visit to the North Karelia Rescue Department, located in Joensuu, and we were lucky enough to learn about the physical requirements of fire fighters, smoke divers, and rescue personnel.

(Surprisingly similarly sounding to astronaut-training.)

We also got very important information about communication within a big organisation, when there's no time to spare.

Our presenter, Jani Kareinen (in the right picture), also showed the firetrucks and the personnels gym to us.
Most of us are now wondering if we're also able to do over 40 squats with 45 kg on our back, although that's probably impossible.

These guys handle nearly 4000 rescue missions in a year, and not even one of them includes that milk you forget in the fridge and it turns bad. They don't have time to rescue everything, but it's surely nice to have them when we really need!

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!