Journalist Report
01/10/2014
Elizabeth Howell
The feel of the spacesuit is familiar now. The procedure of going in and out of the Hab is routine. Now that we have the basics down, I thought to myself during today's EVA, what more can we do to push the science of MDRS forward?
Commander Paula Crock's excellent idea was to measure some of the communication "dead zones" in the area. What was interesting, however, was the lines of sight are not as clear-cut as we would believe.
Sometimes the Hab crew was unable to hear us, but they could see spikes of radio activity on the newly installed radio receiver. More data may be required to figure this out.
As we enter our second week, our conversations begin to turn to how much left we have to accomplish. We work long days, having fun as we do it, trying to collect as much data as possible. Our work is even speedier now that we are accustomed to some of the routines of Mars.