Commander's Check in
Date: 20 Dec 2012
Written by: John Reynolds
Crew physical status: Physical condition is good and everyone is relaxed and rested. The crew are frustrated because of the lack of EVA’s and doing scientific exploration for two days.
Time departed/returned from EVA: #1 None
Time departed/returned from EVA: #2 None
Brief Narrative of Field Mission Results:
EVA #1
EVA #2
Engineering/Hab maintenance: All normal accept the hot water heater froze because of the very low temperatures. The unit is mounted to the outside wall and above the un-heated engineering lock. Both inlet and outlet lines froze. Generous use of a hair blow drier remedied the situation. One minor leak reported at the 90 degree elbow on the bottom of the outlet feed. Suspect frozen water expansion in the plastic pie next to the metal clip tie. Recommend shortening the plastic pipe 2cm and reattaching to the elbow bend again. No other problems reported. We are keeping the central heating FURNACE to an average upstairs room temp at night from tonight at about 65 degrees F during this extended cold spell. Last night the setting was at 55 degrees F. Down stairs wall mounted heater will be set to a higher setting from minimum.
Packages delivered to the Hab: None
Plans for tomorrow: A 4 person pedestrian eva to Teetering rock area going counterclockwise from the Hab ending up in an area close to possible petrified tree stumps found on earlier eva’s. This is a rescheduled EVA due to today’s and yesterday’s weather conditions.
Support requests: None
Miscellaneous: Nicholas Steiner and his film crew have been on location with us again, part of the day inside the Hab. I did a personal off sim inspection to determine the outside environment and concluded it was still too dangerous to go off site and again canceled today's EVA. The film crew also gave an independent assessment and come to the same conclusion. They also reported that local residents stated to them that these conditions were very unusual.