Journalist Report
11/08/2014
Dario Parastesh
SAVING LIVES…
Welcome to the HAB from Crew 142!! It’s 7.54 a.m. in the morning and I’m sleeping still. Somebody knock at the door…Hey Dario,
breakfast ready!! Oh no, the first time to be the last sitting at the table…
Not bad after all, there is a first time for everything. Morning started with a quick briefing about daily activities at 8.10 a.m.. By 8.30
a.m. we were all ready to start our activities and as every morning the biologists went to GreenHab to water our plants. Christiane
was ready with her Solar cooker and me busy with organizing and cleaning the EVA preparation room. However, today has been
special for two reasons, the first relates to the first medical training we had at 10.30 a.m. in the Biology Lab as Carmel showed us
how to prepare a stretcher in emergency cases. As my preparation to that is properly nothing, it was an incredible life lesson.
Vincent lent his body to Science and showed the way a person should be put and carried on the stretcher. Moreover, we got the
main principles how to manage panic situations as a patient could be affected by shock. Wow…
Today Mr. Jingles was not here, I mean, we haven’t seen until now…
After the worthwhile instructions have been gone, the lunch came in, and we all ate Carmel’s cous cous…something new in this
already international stuffed HAB.
The second special event today was the EVA, not as itself, but because we had an interesting event. Let’s start from the beginning…
EVA started at 2.10 a.m. as the other days, and me, Digby T., Christiane H. and Carmel J. all were launched outside to continue our
science experiments. It was time for the solar cooker to be tested and Carmel and Christiane were able to bring the Spock (a name
also for that) to a hill top and put the water stew pot in front of the parabola, leaving the sunlight focusing the heat directly to it. As
Spock started working, the temperature gauge increased its value arriving at almost 50 °C. Wonderful, boiling water without
electricity or gas, just the sun… Mars, we’re coming!!! Oh no, I forget every time, we’re already on Mars.
And then the temperature stopped increasing fast. So, since I was helping Christiane in performing temperature measurements, she
decided to move Spock to a more favorable position to the Sun. As we did it, we had to wait and take measures every 5 minutes, so
Christiane said me: “Why don’t performing out a drill?”. I said: “A drill?” and she says: “Yes, a drill!!, let’s do a drill and see how
members react”. Well, and we did it. So, the second special event for today was the drill. As Christiane simulated an illness, the
remaining two EVA members quick arrived and we begun to communicate with the HAB in order to find the best solution. So, we
considered if it would be best to quickly bring the patient (Christiane) inside, and finally we decided to do it, and the HSO Vincent
was prepared to assist her. We had a 30 minutes spent in simulating a real aid, and I can say we really performed well even if some
things were to correct. By the way, after this brief EVA break, me, Christiane, Digby and Carmel returned outside to complete the
daily activities and while Carmel and Digby were busy with the ATV, me and Christiane checked the water temperature out, and
surprisingly discovered it was raised 83 °C. Astonishing, Spock works and tomorrow it’s going to boil…