Crew 160 Journalist Report: Sol 2
December 28, 2015
Cassandra Vella
Hello All of Earth!
Crew 160 and I are holding up really well here on Mars through Sol #2. I am doing a lot of cleaning while everyone’s napping after our very eventful first EVA.
Today Marc and Hiroki are on cooking, dishes, and Habcom duty. For breakfast they slapped up some warm and fluffy buttermilk flavored pancakes that we smothered in Nutella, peanut butter and syrup, not all at once of course. Then, for lunch the boys cooked up some tasty pasta and chicken that everyone drooled over. For dinner I will be assisting Hiroki to make black beans with rice and rehydrated potatoes.
Speaking of our first EVA, as I mentioned, Marc and Hiroki set up as Habcom keeping track of the location of the crew members and the status of each member. Those two also wrote down the engineering reports as the crew outdoors read off the readings and checked everything out. The crew outdoors consisted of Lycourgos, Ashley, John and me. On this day, the crew and I learned that I am a bit claustrophobic and had to deal with my loud breathing over the com as I got used to the suit. Not long after I calmed down, my hat managed to fall completely off of my face blinding me completely so the crew really had to calm me down again as they walked me through some head maneuvers, so that I could return to the hike with some viewing capability out of my helmet; I like referring to myself as a space pirate as the hat covered half of my helmet so I only had one eye to see. After we reached our destination, John unfortunately managed to slide down the hill we were on, causing him to be separated from the group. Fortunately, Habcom had sight of John the entire way and aided in our daring rescue as he found a spot with a cool rock covered in an awesome caloplaca trachyphylla culture and we met up with him over there north of the Hab. We started exploring the flatlands on the way back towards the Hab and my hat covered my face even more and with the humidity of my breath and the hat in my helmet, I no longer could see. Commander Lycourgos was guiding me back to the Hab carefully but he got distracted and forgot to mention a big rock ahead causing me to fall down. The other crew members raced over to my sides and promptly picked me back up and made sure there were no breaches or punctures in my suit. Lycourgos was concerned by a possible leak sight he spotted on my helmet connection so with the visibility issues and the possible future breach, he helped me back to the Hab so I could be safe. The rest of the outdoor crew reported the engineer checks and headed in soon after my emergency return. Needless to say, John and I had some crazy scares today, but we’re still looking forward to many more missions out in the ups and downs of the beautiful Martian terrain.
Ashley was scheduled for her shower today, so we’re still awaiting the review of her new, chilling experience.