1109-JournalistsReport

Journalist Report

11/09/2014

Dario Parastesh

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY…

Good morning!! No, it’s not, it’s Sunday and i woke up at 7.48 a.m.!! But this our job guys and we work on Sunday. And today as yesterday I’m the last for breakfast…However, we had a great meal, toasted bread and eggs, coupled with ham, Wonderful!!

We all had a good night’s sleep as a turbulent setback occurred last evening. Indeed, Cyprien was on his way taking a shower but as he went downstairs, just a couple of minutes passed before a crash was heard in the Bio Lab. He simulated a serious drill presenting a hand and back spine injuries, and we spent a long working hour in “saving” Cyprien before returning to our regular activities.

So, what after the breakfast? Any plan for Sunday? Yes, why don’t we take a morning EVA? And it was, me, Digby, Cyprien and Christiane stepped into the suits at 9.45 a.m. and in a while were outside to continue experiments about the SPOCK Solar Cooker (Digby and Christiane) and follow on taking more terrain samplings around the HAB (me and Cyprien). Today was the time to fly the drone and several pictures was taken of it. Cyprien helped me in performing this activity. All seemed to be going in the right direction when at 12.30 p.m. the two EVA groups were ready to re-unite and move back to the Airlock room, but they were not prepared to what was going to happen in a moment. After a few seconds of losing Digby’s sight , an instant later a radio communication from him saying he was laying at the hill base and he needed assistance. So we all left our equipment and moved fast to the point denoted. He was simulating a drill, and as I said he was pretending very well. A fracture to the leg was the suspected injury. We quick decided the actions to take, so me and Cyprien put Digby’s arms on our shoulders and moved him closer to the Airlock. On half way we switched by using a hands chair where the patient was placed. That worked. And we had success as the Hab crew quickly ran the emergency procedures. Everything got on the right way as Vincent’s optimal training was previously performed. The commander was in safe and the rescue crew done it again.

Having said that, I can affirm that the crew 142 which has just spent a week into the HAB improves every day. This late afternoon we spent maybe one hour doing physical excercises motivating ourselves. And GreenHab experiments seem to proceed well since our plants are starting to growing in the Regolith Martian soil. This means the GreenHab will soon have edible plants inside and even if we don’t eat them until our rotation at MDRS ends, surely they will be eaten by someone else on MARS…