Sol Summary
Sol: 12
Earth Date: 02/10/2017
Written by : Sneha Velayudhan

Meet the Sunrise with Confidence – Crew 174!!

An exotic sunrise brought in a sense of enthusiasm among the crew members to start a new day on Mars. I noticed the sunrise and started asking the crew members to capture the beautiful sunrise on Mars. Soon Arpan and Saroj took their cameras and captured the sunrise from the hab. Thrilled by looking at the sunrise, I took a camera and rushed to the observatory area wearing the spacesuit to capture the sunrise.

As we are nearing the end of our mission, we have an urge to capture as many moments as we can while we are on Mars to take back with us memories that will last our life time and inspire the young minds. During our regular team briefing, we decided about the reports to be sent today and tomorrow. Saroj and Arun prepared for the EVA while Arpan and Mamatha helped them with the checklist and getting geared for the last EVA of our mission. Saroj is always excited for the EVA but today he seemed to be more excited as it was a windy day on Mars. Its a default weather condition (harsh and windy) when Arun and Saroj plan on an EVA!! They left for EVA with a rover and ATV. The hob was silent as Arpan, Mamatha and I were busy working on our experiments, Mamatha completed her sample collection inside the hab while I went to the green hab, watered the plants and studied the growth of fenugreek plants. I returned to the hab and started working on the reports while Mamatha and Arpan prepared yummy vegetable fried rice for lunch.

The weather was getting harsh and the EVA crew had passed the scheduled return time. This caused some concern but we laughed it out stating Saroj must be enjoying his EVA against windy conditions. After sometime we heard the noise of the ATV and there was some reception over the radio. We were happy that they were back as we were waiting for them to join us for lunch. As soon as they entered the hab, we were excited to ask about the EVA. During the lunch, it was all about the Martian winds blowing against them, the pictures they clicked, the view they saw from the EVA location and a real Martian EVA they had. The story was narrated by Saroj, they were at the first location ‘Yellow Moon’ looking for rock samples for Arun’s geology experiment. They finished the experiment, took pictures and while returning, the ATV did not start! that was a OMG moment for Saroj and Arun.

They were in the middle of an EVA, not in contact with the hab and the ATV was not starting 🙁 Tension was rising as they were thinking for an alternative solution to get back to the hab safely. They did have a rover with them but did not want to leave the ATV behind as that would have called for an unscheduled EVA. Finally, the Scientist  with his engineering background tried to start it, Saroj was able to adjust loose battery contact and start the ATV. Saroj mentions that this was a real Mars EVA for him as there were a lot of uncertainties which he had to handle along with the unfavorable weather.

The day ended with these stories, sharing pictures, planning the arrangements to welcome Crew 175 and other details about our mission completion.

Kind regards,

Mamatha