MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

Journalist Report – May 15th

Journalist Report 15 May 2017
Prepared by Juan Jose Garcia
Images by Juan and Janet
Sol 2
The morning started off with the first EVA of the mission. The astronauts shuffled out of the airlock than Avishek and I could photograph them. We stepped outside and monitored their progress from the science dome. The window in that building frames their explorations quite scenically.
We split our allotted EVA time in to two time slots so we could all get a chance to feel out the suits and test out the terrain.
The first team was Charlie, Cassie, and Janet. They found a dinosaur bone (yes, seriously)
The second team would later find no dinosaur bones.
After the first EVA, I made lunch for everyone. Rice, chicken, and re-hydrated peas. Cooking transports one back home. It is very much an Earth activity. If one doesn’t look out the windows too often, the HAB feels like a very fancy space base out of some child’s imagination. But it’s real! Charlie fixes the Air (bless him) in the suits. Over lunch he drops some more knowledge about drones, rocket ships, and combustion on other worlds.
It’s when you take a peak outside the circle windows at the intense landscape and the distant imposing mountains that makes the homeyness of the HAB even more welcome and bizarre. It’s like we are at sea. Especially with the strong wind gusts, it feels like the ocean.
Olly Burn landed today with the help of Cassie. Olly is a British photographer come to pursue a personal project with us here at Mars. Olly’s ship left London, Earth a couple of days ago and was visible in our atmosphere around mid day.
We introduced ourselves to Olly and got to know about his work. Olly showed us his Hasselblad camera with a 50-year old lens identical to the ones used on the Moon!
Later this evening, Olly, Avishek, Cassie and I suited up. We went in the airlock. It was very much a moment resembling crews packed in the Apollo ships. A cool diffuse light poured through the front window of the airlock. The walkie-talkie’s beeping and the muffled voice of our comrade Charlie made the experience more real and more serious. The airlock door heaves open with the wind and we step into a bright wash of light and a windy world.
Covering the terrain was similar to exploring the bottom of the sea. The land is like rubber at parts. The squishy fragmented sand is unlike anything I’ve encountered in nature in New York or Miami back on Earth. Strange egg-like rocks, immovable, jut out of the red land.
The sky was overcast and menacing. The wind picked up on the hills. Climbing the final hill in front of the HAB became intense when just like in the beginning of the Martian movie, the wind started picking up dramatically. It would topple you off your feet. The top of the hill became a wind tunnel. Cassie signals for us to return to the base.
Charlie and Janet have chili with re-hydrated beef and impressive biscuits. Olly joins us for dinner.