Journalist Report
03/12/2013
Eiji Onchi
March 12th,
Continuing with yesterday's update, we had a really great dinner. We almost forgot it was
dehydrated. Of course, we are managing every ounce of food we have to make it last till the last
day.
Today's morning bread was French Bread. As you can see, it is already a ritual to bake bread in the
morning (Eiji waking up at 7 a.m.) to have a nice side dish as a replacement for rice. (We miss rice
so much!). We also have a shortage of salt, which makes it quite hard to find flavor in our meals.
Funny thing is that Andrea always, but always, is nagging us for not being on table when food is
served. That's the HSO/Cooker for you! As for washing the dishes, we adopted a new way to take care
of it giving us the chance to do the dishes up to 3 times a day with little water consumption.
First, clean the plate from solid residue with paper. Second, fill 2 buckets: one with water + soap,
while the other collects the water used in rinsing. Third, put the dishes in the soapy buckets and
wash. Fourth, rinse the dishes with sprinkle like flow of water and collect that water on the second
bucket. The soapy bucket will last for a day, allowing to wash plates and cutlery for breakfast,
lunch and dinner; while the other bucket is used to flush the inside toilet. This give us a clean
toilet! Aside from that, the porta-potty is slowly getting unbearable because it wasn't emptied when
we arrived and is starting to get quite hot. Saul, Eiji and Humberto did their first EVA to place
and test Barsoom (our project). The limited movement, weight of the suit and narrow visibility made
it feel so real that we didn't want to take our mask off in the emptiness of space. And shortly after
that we were attacked by Starfighters! Well, more like 3 motorbikers taking the wrong road and
ending up in front of the Hab. Monica is doing a great job at the Green Hab and mission support is
always helping us when in need.
At Mars we have around the third of gravity as Earth, so it is a must to do some exercise;
otherwise, our muscles will shrink because low gravity. Humberto made us do some warm ups and muscle
work and Eiji teach a little bit of break dance to get in the mood. Now we are watching the sunset.
Is it day or night back at home? Are we looking at the same star? Only the sight of Phobos and
Deimos in that deep black sky remind us that we are a few (millions) kilometers from Earth. Have a
good day/night!
Eiji Onchi