Journalist Report
11/05/2014
Dario Parastesh
COOKING ON MARS
Another day for the crew 142!!! The reveille sounded at 7.30 a.m. like
every morning!!
Today was the time for me to prepare breakfast and lunch and clean
dishes and glasses. Not bad after all, I respected the italian
tradition, and we had breakfast with milk, granola, almonds and some
coffee too.
The morning was spent making a quick briefing on the mission objectives,
EVA rotations schedule and mission summary (8.30 a.m.)
while the second part (9.30 a.m.) the status of experiments currently
held at MDRS. A list of the experiments is reported here:
Christiane Heinicke:
- Solar cooker for boiling.
- Permafrost Study.
- Sea ice mackup.
Carmel Johnston:
- Martial Soil planting (with Vincent Versaux).
- Greenhab tasks (lettuce seeds planting).
Vincent Versaux:
- Cyanobacteria experiments.
- Sampling micororganism for gene mining in order to reduce the quantity
of gene and seeds required for planting growth.
Dario Parastesh:
- Drone based mapping/reconnaissance
This day has been very special for me. It has been my first cooking on
Mars, and it was like staying in my home and see a different
landscape through the window!!
To pay homage to my crew members I made an amazing TUNA-WHOLE BEANS
Spaghetti=E2=80=A6What was the result? Nothing remained in
the pot!! Thank crew, you made me so glad!
We are continuing to tighten our bond and we moving to a different
feeling, the feeling of being a unique piece, all together working
to simulate a real life on MARS as our primary goal. And today I brought
a little piece of Italy on MARS, I brought spaghetti here.
Well, it takes time to cook for six people and the first thing you think
about is that they need sufficient energy to be able to do an
EVA. And it was. When all the stuff in the kitchen wa cleaned, in the
late afternoon four crew members went outside for an EVA. So,
rather than be just a cooker for today, I spent three hours in helping
my fellows doing the EVA in total security. That's why I can say
I'm pretty proud of myself. I mean, it was a real EVA like we were on
MARS. At 3:58 p.m. the commander Digby Tarvin and
Christiane Heinicke were ready to leave the EVA preparation room and
going into the Airlock room, where a simulated
depressurizing was executed. And after five minutes they were ready to
be put into the Martian soil!! Absolutely amazing
The excitement of being on MARS turned comical when Christiane found
that she was missing a nut for the solar cooker. She tried
to describe what the nut looked like and where it was likely to be, but
we found ourselves holding a nut up to the window to
determine if it was the correct one. After several attempts, we found
the correct nut and sent it though the airlock system to be
used.
When EVA group 2 was on the edge of the EVA preparation room door
waiting for entering the airlock, I was able to see the
emotions in their faces. But nothing can be done if someone sacrifice
themself to help the EVA groups. And it was me, I stepped
upstairs, sat in front of the HAB computer, opened the logbook and took
my radio starting to communicate to the two groups. It
was fantastic, I really felt as someone trying to change the world, to
help humans enhance their knowledge. I want to say, there's no
difference if you are on MARS or if you simulate to be there, it's the
attitude you have in doing it that gives gives you these
emotions. I had emotions, and the crew had too today. We did a great job
here.
And even now that I am still writing this report, and we preparing to
have a new dinner together, the emotions don't seem to end, all
are ready to a new day full of excitements...