1105-JournalistReport

Journalist Report

11/05/2014

Dario Parastesh

COOKING ON MARS

Another day for the crew 142!!! The reveille sounded at 7.30 a.m. like

every morning!!

Today was the time for me to prepare breakfast and lunch and clean

dishes and glasses. Not bad after all, I respected the italian

tradition, and we had breakfast with milk, granola, almonds and some

coffee too.

The morning was spent making a quick briefing on the mission objectives,

EVA rotations schedule and mission summary (8.30 a.m.)

while the second part (9.30 a.m.) the status of experiments currently

held at MDRS. A list of the experiments is reported here:

Christiane Heinicke:

- Solar cooker for boiling.

- Permafrost Study.

- Sea ice mackup.

Carmel Johnston:

- Martial Soil planting (with Vincent Versaux).

- Greenhab tasks (lettuce seeds planting).

Vincent Versaux:

- Cyanobacteria experiments.

- Sampling micororganism for gene mining in order to reduce the quantity

of gene and seeds required for planting growth.

Dario Parastesh:

- Drone based mapping/reconnaissance

This day has been very special for me. It has been my first cooking on

Mars, and it was like staying in my home and see a different

landscape through the window!!

To pay homage to my crew members I made an amazing TUNA-WHOLE BEANS

Spaghetti=E2=80=A6What was the result? Nothing remained in

the pot!! Thank crew, you made me so glad!

We are continuing to tighten our bond and we moving to a different

feeling, the feeling of being a unique piece, all together working

to simulate a real life on MARS as our primary goal. And today I brought

a little piece of Italy on MARS, I brought spaghetti here.

Well, it takes time to cook for six people and the first thing you think

about is that they need sufficient energy to be able to do an

EVA. And it was. When all the stuff in the kitchen wa cleaned, in the

late afternoon four crew members went outside for an EVA. So,

rather than be just a cooker for today, I spent three hours in helping

my fellows doing the EVA in total security. That's why I can say

I'm pretty proud of myself. I mean, it was a real EVA like we were on

MARS. At 3:58 p.m. the commander Digby Tarvin and

Christiane Heinicke were ready to leave the EVA preparation room and

going into the Airlock room, where a simulated

depressurizing was executed. And after five minutes they were ready to

be put into the Martian soil!! Absolutely amazing

The excitement of being on MARS turned comical when Christiane found

that she was missing a nut for the solar cooker. She tried

to describe what the nut looked like and where it was likely to be, but

we found ourselves holding a nut up to the window to

determine if it was the correct one. After several attempts, we found

the correct nut and sent it though the airlock system to be

used.

When EVA group 2 was on the edge of the EVA preparation room door

waiting for entering the airlock, I was able to see the

emotions in their faces. But nothing can be done if someone sacrifice

themself to help the EVA groups. And it was me, I stepped

upstairs, sat in front of the HAB computer, opened the logbook and took

my radio starting to communicate to the two groups. It

was fantastic, I really felt as someone trying to change the world, to

help humans enhance their knowledge. I want to say, there's no

difference if you are on MARS or if you simulate to be there, it's the

attitude you have in doing it that gives gives you these

emotions. I had emotions, and the crew had too today. We did a great job

here.

And even now that I am still writing this report, and we preparing to

have a new dinner together, the emotions don't seem to end, all

are ready to a new day full of excitements...