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.