418-CommandersReport

Commander's Report

Date: April 18, 2015

Crew Commander Name: Bastien MATHURIN

Hello Earth,

It was a great day on Mars. Temperatures are increasing and there was no rain during the whole day. What a pleasure! Florian and I are in charge of today's cooking, and we're going to cook chicken with rice, bell peppers and curry spice. It should be tasty!

Today was the following of yesterday: we met two persons from Associated Press (AP). They arrived as agreed at 9:00 am in the station and they make a short report about the atmosphere in the Hab. At about 9:45 am we prepared ourselves for the planned EVA of the day. We went out right after 10:00 am. After short photo and video sequences, we took the ATVs to go to the old streambed. They follow us with their own car in order to make a short report about our scientific experiments. They finally left us at 1:00 pm after a small interview about the life in the station and the objectives of this simulation. It was really a pleasure for us to welcome them in the Hab. They were really kind and comprehensive.

As listed hereinabove, we had requested an EVA for today, using the ATVs. The ground was still a bit wet and dirty but we decided not to cancel the EVA and to ride as slowly as possible with the ATVs for safety concerns. Hopefully, no problem has been encountered during this EVA. The objectives of the EVA were to go in an old streambed in order to perform two kinds of measurements: magnetic susceptibility measurements for Auriane's experiment and hydraulic measurements for mine. It was actually a successful EVA for both experiments.

Following a short talk about Romain's illness, it seems that he is feeling well today. We're all hoping that it will continue evolving that way.

Last but not least, here is a good news: we finally received the new pump for the water supply in the Hab. Our Crew Engineer, Gaspard, spent some time this afternoon in order to remove the damaged pump and to replace it with the new one. It seems that he did a great job: we have now water in all the station!

We're now at the middle of our rotation and there is nothing to add about our relation. Everybody is feeling well in the station and we just don't believe that one week is already gone. Let try to take advantage of the next week!

Ad astra!

Bastien MATHURIN

Crew Commander, crew 153