416-JournalistsReport

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Romain Compère

04/16/2015

Hello Earth,

Today was a cold (and rainy, and snowy… the mystery of water on Mars is solved from now on) day on Mars. Temperature was very low but at least we don’t feel the wind banging the station anymore.

Nevertheless, the crew’s experiments are progressing in a good way. Some of them will need more data but it’s on its way! Florian, after having collected samples outside, succeeded in growing bacteria on LB medium. Tomorrow, he’ll try to isolate some of them in order to identify them with colorations and biochemical tests. Auriane is still taking measurements (with her wheelbarrow) for her magnetic susceptibility experiment but she needs a lot of data if she wants to get convincing results. As for Gaspard, he finally took measurements for his Wi-Fi cartography project. Analysis will come soon. Martin’s telescope is working but the weather doesn’t help (cloudy sky), he only went to the telescope a couple of times, so there is no significant progress on this side. Bastien is also experimenting a few difficulties: his measurement aren’t satisfying because of the flakiness and instability of the ground. He is actually working on a solution to get more precise measurement. And concerning my project, I have to say that I’m very late. Yesterday, I was so sick we had to break simulation to bring me to a clinic. I had “de facto” a strep throat. There, they gave me a treatment and I already feel a lot better: I wrote two pages today.

We had to change the EVA program today: the snow and rain prevented us from using the ATV (you can’t ride with it on the clay roads we have here, it become slippery very quickly). Bastien, Auriane and Gaspard finally decided to go outside around the hab to take measurements. As for me, I had to shoot a few scenes for my film, but I guess everybody understands that shooting Mars’ wet floor would be quite ridiculous.

The pump of the station is still not working (it even caught fire yesterday. Who said we wouldn’t face real problems?), so we carry on with our previous solution. We released today “The Rock”, the crew’s scorpion. We wish him the best in its future life. Finally, we will taste tonight a classical meal: spaghettis Bolognese. Sometimes it doesn’t has to be original to be good, yesterday’s chili was quite… hot…to sum up.

Our thoughts go to our families and friends,

Ad astra!

Romain Compère

Crew Journalist

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