0401-JournalistsReport

MDRS 166

Journalist Report 01/04/2016

Sol 13.

We made a great discovery this morning. Bertrand was and what I saw behind?! A puzzle! So I took it and begun it. Julie helped me a bit but she had to make the dinner. This puzzle was a Solar System Puzzle! When Arthur saw it, he sat down with a little twinkle in his eyes. We hadn’t finished when the dinner was ready, so we ate like a picnic. They were puzzle pieces everywhere on the table.

We wanted to complete it so much that we were late for the EVA. But our solar system is now finished, and I had the honor to put the last piece.

The EVA was fine, we found the compass that we’d lost yesterday and made some tourism to pass the time. We explored Mars a bit more. I used the go pro to make a time-lapse, and I now have a lot of pictures to select for my report…

At the end of everything, we turned back. When I reversed, I feel something that blocked. But just after, everything was good again. After something like one quarter of a mile I started to hear a little strange noise. I could hear it just from time to time, just when the engine wasn’t roaring. I wondered if it was normal or not, because it was really tiny.

But after another quarter mile the noise became louder, and periodic too. I asked the others to stop and we looked what happened. On part of the ATV wasn’t attached anymore! We thought that it was the brake, but the screws were not there. Arthur and Greg went back to the end of everything, where we turned back and where something blocked. They couldn't find the screws. One of the screws was already attached to the brake, but it was rusty and broken.

Mathieu took my ATV for our way to home (ie the Hab, certainly the only building closer than kilometers away). He drove carefully and slowly. I stayed at the end of the queue, so that we could see the ATVs in the pictures made by the gopro. We arrived in good health and safety at the Hab, luckily.

Today and tomorrow every one of the team have the duty to take a shower, so that we can welcome the next team in the best conditions.

Tomorrow, cleaning, washing and all these things are in the schedule too.

I think that Greg and Arthur have decided to invent the way to make the most noise as possible. When they aren’t watching a show and laugh loudly, they break peanuts or other things like that…

So I put some Irish music whole-heartedly, now I can focus!

Last day of sim, we are all a little sad that this great adventure is nearing its end.

But I (and you certainly too) could note that nearly everyone got mad during this two weeks…

“We're still pioneers, we barely begun. Our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, cause our destiny lies above us.”

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

Cooper in Interstellar

Nadine Traufler, Crew Journalist MDRS 166