Journalist Report
11/06/2014
Dario Parastesh
SAMPLING AN EVA...
Good morning from crew 142!! It's a new day and it sounds better than yesterday
Woke up at 7.45 a.m. being all ready for breakfast!
As every morning, 8.30 a.m. meant our meeting starting. Today was the time for a quick check on current activities, everyone stated
about their own experiment situation and we're keeping on to lead them to a conclusion. We all were ready to start our activities at
9.00 a.m.
As I was in charged to end up organizing the Biology Laboratory, I just started cleaning all the room, putting the remaining stuff in
their own shelves. At the same time, Vincent Coljee, Cyprien Versaux and Carmel Johnston were busy in the GreenHab carrying on
their own experiments on the Martian regolith and plants growing. Christiane Heinicke was committed in finishing the solar cooker
and Digby always doing the best to guide the crew to the right way. Well, what I can tell you is that there was an unimaginable
quantity of dust on the first floor! How much time was it not removed from there? I really don't know, but at a certain point
Commander Digby went to the edge of the stairs asking for a mask. I said, Do you need a mask
Digby? Is that what you said? And then Digby: "Yes, we're choking up here!". He was talking seriously, he put the mask on his
face. Not bad after all to keep the lab cleaned. About 2 hours later the first floor was all tidy, ready and fully operating for the new
season.
The last part of the morning saw Carmel preparing lunch and me studying how to fly the drone. Yes, because we're preparing to
fly it in the next few days on an EVA, and the time is ticking. We had lunch at 1.00 p.m., because of an incoming EVA today.
Me and Cyprien Versaux were planned to be in that EVA, and what my role was? It's simple, be a biologist! What the hell I'm
saying...I'm an engineer! But it was true, my role was to assist Cyprien in sampling terrain, soil and rocks around the Hab for
further analysis on them. Amazing! We spent 4 hours out in the sun moving from one point to another and taking the
time, GPS coordinates, UVA, UVB, solar spectrum and samples pictures. We passed these points on the map in NAD 27 coordinates:
- E 0518438 ; N 4250555
- E 0518520 ; N 4250446
- E 0518545 ; N 4250416
- E 0518576 ; N 4250649
- E 0518576 ; N 4250657
- E 0518504 ; N 4250817
- E 0518443 ; N 4250942
- E 0518422 ; N 4250943
- E 0518379 ; N 4250900
The landscape seemed as being on MARS and we didn't have the sensation of walking on our planet, nothing around, just sand,
desert and tracks left by some natural river flows where plants have grown. It was just me and Cyprien.
My first real EVA. We came back at 6 p.m. after the Water Tank and the Gas Tank levels were checked. I can say that I was in the
Airlock chamber and it was like returning from an incredible journey that lasted 4 hours.
The last 5 minutes before entering the HAB again me and Cyprien were feeling the same sensations, shudders on the back, and
when the Airlock door opened, we felt as we were coming back home, because somebody was expecting us for dinner.