1217-CommandersReport

Commander Report

Mars Log: 2014.12.17

Hello from Mars…Mars…Mars…this is your Martian Commander Daily Report

about life on this wondrous “sim” Red Planet …and today it is all

about music, music and more music sprinkled with moments of creative

science and “eureka” moments.

Well, what a musical day we experienced from awaking to sounds of

Vienna Boy’s Choir angelic voices from the alarm on my cell phone to

the calming musical voice of our 3D yoga instructor. After breakfast

our two crew members, Julielynn, Michal and I, broke into a

spontaneous dance rocking out to Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” with

the mops and brooms while Matteo acted as the filmmaker. What a

creative and fun way to do Hab house-cleaning and getting our daily

dose of cardio-exercises. In the future, Martians settlers living in

long duration isolation and confinement in a small Hab will need to

find creative ways to perform the mundane daily chores including

creating creative ways to spend the time.

Music soothes the Soul and calms the Mind even on Mars and this crew

is a musical team preparing and rehearsing for the MDRS approved Space

Music Band Project. Making musical instruments out of scraps and junk

is quite interesting and requiring precision and “out-of-the-box”

mental energy. So be ready for a taste of MarsWithoutBorders Crew 145

Band. This is such a great way for the crew to bond and increase crew

cohesion …finding and sharing our common interests and hobbies.

Matteo and Michal conducted their first EVA today and tested the UAV

quadcopter and rover during a successful terrain scouting and mapping

project. Julielynn did a great job as HabCom while I cooked a hearty

lunch of jambalya rice and baked beans piled high with hot spicy yummy

Sriracha and seedy chilli sauce. In honesty, I can eat cardboard if

Sriracha is smothering it! But really, eating on Mars is incredibly

tasty if you have the imagination to be experimental and courageous to

try new recipes…it is just like art and painting but you get to eat it

afterwards!

After lunch and debriefing, the crew decided to do another dance

exercise routine with 70’s disco music which then inspired us to

organize a disco party night this weekend or maybe on Christmas Day.

Yes, Crew145 will be spending this special day together in the Hab so

we are planning a big Martian Xmas celebration to share with all

Earthlings.

I was so happy to work with Matteo this afternoon developing a

prototype emergency medical rover for our testing tomorrow during the

medical EVA or MEVA. This will be a sort of rehearsal for the

anticipated production film crew arriving on Mars this Friday from

Earth. The semi-autonomous-GPS controlled EMR rover will carry a

“dummy” injured astronaut during a simulation search and rescue and

medical evacuation from the injury site back to the Hab. It will be

very interesting to see if this will work.

So, all in all, it has been a musical and magical day for Crew145 and

it has not ended as I am sitting here writing and waiting for the

upcoming mindfulness meditation session with my crew team who I

respect and trust. These are my colleagues, my friends, my companions

but most of “my family”.

Life is so special and precious. It can offer you Gifts that you at

first do not notice until that one moment when unexpectedly you take

notice and you finally understand why you are here. Music does fill

the Soul. Until the next Mars comms...be Safe my Earthling family.