MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

Sol Summary – April 25th

It began with crew wake up. Weather was partly cloudy with a 50% chance of precipitation and threatening electrical storms all day. Winds were close to 40km/hour out of north. We are still without showers and on water rations as our water supply continues to dwindle. The resupply ship was delayed and nine crew members in the habitat operating off of leftover water from the previous crew burns through the supplies fast. We are hopeful for a rapid resupply. Waste management systems are also still on backups as the primary waste system is down for repairs. That said the crew is in excellent health and enthusiastically took to our morning tasks and after a hearty breakfast and our morning briefings, we took to the rovers once more for an EVA out to Robert’s Rock Garden at Zone 12S Easting 545687 Northing 4249173. Our surveys revealed many interesting finds today including geological samples and a few samples of historical value. Upon return we had yet another unexpected incapacitating incident but our expert medical crew once again stabilized the patient and returned her safely to the habitat where she was cared for until symptoms resolved. 2 incidents in 2 days is surely no more than a coincidence.
The day then continued with a debrief of the days events and a discussion of CO2, water survival field operations, and hypoxia. Once these were done we attempted to help our water shortage by returning to the water delivery tanks from the last crew. We’d discovered a small amount of water remaining in the tanks that could not initially be drained by the pumps. Our flight engineers rigged a pump and lever system to drain the small amount of water that had been left in them into our habitat’s static tank. We were able to salvage an additional 15 gallons bringing our total potable supply up to 53 gallons. Based on WHO standards for Earth based disaster medicine and our own rationing calculations from urine output and activity level, our Health and Safety Officer estimates this will last us about 1-2 more days. We are confident this will be sufficient for the supply ship to reach us. If it does not dehydration will set in. We will become weak, lethargic, confused, and eventually die. Those with female biology will likely outlast the males but even they will not last more than 4 days without water…
We remain enthusiastic and look forward to tomorrows tasks confident that we have solved all of our problems and will have smooth sailing from here on out. Reports on operations and photos will be submitted as well.