Journalist’s Report
Written by: Eric Watkins
The Life of Crew 121: The ATV's return
It has been nearly a week since Crew 121 first arrived on Mars, but the crew feels as if many weeks have already gone by. If the crew thought the days on Earth seemed long, the days on Mars are even longer. Since traveling to Mars, the crew has had to make some major adjustments in order to function at high efficiency and attain the right amount of sleep. It is early in the morning and the sun can be seen creeping over the Martian peaks. From certain rooms, the brightness of the sun can be seen shining through the cracks; it was bright enough to misinterpret the sunlight for the Hab’s lighting system even though the lights were still off.
No one has awakened yet except for the crew’s trusty engineer. You could hear her shuffling around the Hab, pulling out miscellaneous equipment, or repairing whatever needed to be fixed. Before the crew went to bed last night, it was decided by the Commander that everyone would be able to sleep in the next day as there weren’t any studies designated until after their EVA. However, even before the crew’s alarms were set to go off, they briefly awaken to the sound of the plumbing system turning on/off before falling right back to sleep once again. As time continues to pass, alarms can be heard going off one by one (i. e. Bob Marley [“Is This Love”], Ragtime music, the Rooster call, and the ordinary beeps/buzzers of typical alarm clocks) and the sounds of crewmembers scrambling around to get up. A few of the crewmembers appear to be moving slower than usual given that they either kept waking up or had trouble falling asleep throughout the night.
After the crewmembers finish their breakfast, it is now time for them to get ready for the busy day ahead of them. The schedule for today centers around another EVA for Crew 121, for which they are finally going to be using the ATV’s, thanks to Mission Control. The purpose of any EVA is for the crew to hopefully find something of interest on Mars. Whenever the crewmembers need to use the ATV’s, additional equipment is needed to be utilized to ensure the safety of the crew. As the crew suits up for their EVA, they all make sure memorable moments are captured on camera. An hour passes and it is now time for the EVA team to head off. The team says their goodbyes and departs for the airlock. Those who stay behind, watch from the windows as the crew speed off on their ATVs. With nothing much to do, the rest of the crewmembers begin preparing food so that it will be on the table when the EVA team returns.
A few hours go by without any communication (COM) with the EVA team, so the commander decides to check in with them, but there is no reply. With nothing coming in from the team, the commander assumes that they are probably out of COM range. Time continues to tick and communication is still non-existent between the Hab and the EVA team. As time nears for the EVA team to be heading back, the commander makes another call out to see if they can be reached. This time they are able to hear garbled chatter on the other end but no words can be made out. Waiting a few seconds, the commander asked “are you on your way back?” After a brief pause, garbled chatter begins again and the commander is able to make out, “Hab we are on our way.”
Until next time. . . .