Journalist’s Report
Date 21 Dec 2012
Written By: Derek Pelland
Day three of snow, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...and Santa has delivered us some propane so that we can finally get a hot shower...well a shower at least. Mine was cold, but I cannot complain. After nearly a week in the Hab, I was able to freshen up to the scent of Burt's Bees and shave my face.
With the Hab cleaned, I was able to get some work done on our website and get caught up on things. As a crew we decided on a menu for our upcoming Christmas Dinner and Holiday Celebration. We are going to be making a combination of our favorite freeze dried foods, making a new addition to the list; Diane's Cheese Crisps. This is a mixture of cheese, popcorn butter and fresh tortilla shell, warmed in the oven until it is nice and toasty. "mmmm" is all you hear. I think that we will have some well deserved down time to watch a funny movie and play some board games. April brought something called BananaGrams, I do not yet know how to play but I think it will be fun.
Today I was in the best mood, receiving a confirm on my next mission! "I guess when it rains it pours."
In order to celebrate I did a lot of cooking for my crew, I prepared Turkey Teriyaki, along with Ham Vegetable soup, and gourmet chocolate brownies (Ghiradelli) you know those are good. I don't think that anyone talked during the main course, it was pretty much a race to the bottom of the pot. Either they were that hungry or my meal was the bees knees :) Either way I am happy we don't have to put any leftover into the fridge. This means new meal choices tomorrow!
I had a lot of good music to play today, but Lil Wayne and the Beatles took the top of my playlist. Music keeps the sanity around here when you have to stay put. I performed a dancing EVA in my chair. :) Bobbing my head and moving to the beat.
Back to the food, combined with Commander John Reynolds' famous Galactic Chocolate Ice cream, we jump started the crews' chocolate overdose and chart a carpool lane down the road towards diabetes. (joking*) It was a crew members birthday and we had to show her what we do on Mars. We spent a good thirty minutes ranting and raving over the Commanders Ice Cream, How do you get ice cream up here? No thats what we were really trying to figure out, but he continues to keep the recipe secret. Speaking of good ideas, I believe there may be a little leftover ice cream in the freezer...excuse me a minute.
With a full belly and energy to expend, we began to rip and roar with entertaining stories of our individual lives before meeting each other for this mission. The film crew was here this evening, shooting their documentary on the mission to Mars. Nico "a.k.a Nick Carter" former musician and international celebrity graced us with his company. They joined us for the special birthday dessert and were happy to get away from their typical daily diet of three sandwiches and tea. They had microphones wired up to capture the right mix of background noise and vocals as April recanted some of her experiences of her Army days.
Tonight was pretty relaxed, after dinner we shared a lot of good stories. Erick told us about some of his heroic moments as a firefighter in Guatemala City. He has been able to experience some real life moments of peril. I have never known anyone who has had to use the 'jaws of life' or go charging into a plastics factory fire. He told us about what it is like under the air mask in a blazing fire, how important it is to remain calm and not panic when oxygen runs low. "you just have to be cool and swap tanks, we are trained to do it in less than ten seconds" he said, scooping ice cream in his mouth.
April and I swapped military stories of the days when we were going through Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Weapon Training. (NBC) Back when I was a Marine, and April a soldier in the US Army, we had to spend an extended amount of time sealed in a gas chamber, working with CS Gas that burns like you can never imagine. Between the two of us, we have spend way too much time getting in an out of the NBC suits with gas masks and emergency breathing apparatuses.
Being stuck in a high stress environment with limited mobility and masks is something that we learned is a common thing for the three of us. In a way we were all doing likeminded things in different parts of the World, all leading to us being the trusted one's to fill these space suits and go out on EVA missions in the harsh weather and terrain of the Mars environment. Pretty badass if you ask me!
Diane and Nora were fighting the cold outside in the observatory, lining up the telescopes so that we could do some late night gazing. Diane have this green laser pointer that allows for us to follow the objects in the sky as she tells us what exactly we are watching. The Moon is so bright tonight, acting as Mother Nature's nightlight. My stateroom does not have a porthole (window for you civilians) so I must take advantage of the limited time I am graced with its presence. Perhaps we will see a full Moon on Christmas Eve.
After he repaired the main shutter closing mechanism which had failed on the dome early in the day. Now that were suited and outside, Erick and I spent time operating the telescopes to check out the Galleon Moons orbiting the Planet Jupiter. What a sight in the clear crisp sky! We were making the most of this time out there, considering that we had spent the past 23.5 hours in the capsule. This sounds familiar.. small bunk, three square meals, and one hour of 'yard time' haha. Something about fresh air in your lungs that humbles a person, even if you can see your breath and barely feel your toes :) I had three layers of clothing on under my suit to keep me warm, too bad its not possible to wear two pairs of boots at the same time.
April greeted Erick and I at the air lock, where we proceeded to chill (irony intended) around the fire heater and defrost. The rest of the crew was fast asleep so we stayed downstairs and deconstructed our mission plans for the next days. We are itching to get back out on an EVA and continue with April's geologic collection and explore the Kissing Camel Ridge where she previously found some interesting samples. All work and no play...until the end of the day. We were able to tell some jokes and relax a bit after a long day in the hab. Suiting up with gear, and removing all the layers takes some time, a perfect time to have some great conversations. We hope the ice melts so that we can get a lot more out of this mission in the next days.