MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 5 2017

MDRS Sol 7 update

The morning started with lambada. Part of the Latin-American culture is dancing so the crew members began moving their bodies when Commander Corrales played the old Brazilian song “Chorando Se Foi” with her laptop.

After breakfast we had a long conversation about the future of space exploration in latinamerican countries. We would like to promote and eventually create the Agencia Espacial Latinoamericana – AEL (Latin-American Space Agency). However we have to overcome a lot of political and economic difficulties.

Later we had a short EVA to place petri dishes in the nearby hill, and the heat was so intense that it suffocated one of the crew members so bad he almost fainted. That’s why we decide it to cancel the programmed EVA. We instead talked a lot about the history of our countries and culture. It is always very enlightening to share a good conversation with very intelligent people.

Finally the mission journalist went outside again with the Crew Engineer in order to briefly test his rover and take pictures for his journal article.

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 4 2017

MDRS Sol 6 update

Part of The Mars Society Mission is to communicate and promote the exploration on Mars. That’s why we welcomed the producer of the documentary Hijos de las Estrellas (Son of Stars), who came to film a chapter with us.

We have spent almost the whole day filming, taking pictures and “performing” for the documentary, which is about the space exploration in Latinoamerica. Most of the attention was directed to the Commander and the EVA Officer, thou. The rest of us were simple extras.

Just kidding, it was fun. We had the chance to talk about our projects and the things that we’re more passionate about. We had a very good time and we even invited them lunch. We are looking forward to seeing the documentary on TV, YouTube or Netflix. 

Crew 180 Mission Journalist 3rd May 2017

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 2 2017

MDRS Sol 4 update

The sol started very early in the morning. We established a strict schedule of having breakfast, lunch and dinner together so we can get to know each other deeply; so far it’s working perfectly: tosol, we shared thoughts about the current situation in our countries and how corruption harms our economies.

Also each of all us started working in our researches. For example Greenhab Engineer Reyes went to the greenhab and started growing his “uchuvas” (Physalis peruviana); Commander Corrales started recognizing her lab and Crew Engineer Caballero also worked with his rover. By the way, he mentioned a funny anecdote of how security at airports mistakenly took his little robot as a dangerous device.

Later we had an EVA to scout close by places, get used to the suits and vehicles, and take pictures. What we didn’t know is that Health Officer Valencia had a surprise test for us. He made us think he was feeling unwell and we had to evacuate him right away. We were worried for him and we were relieved when we found out it was all set up. Now we are back at the hab having a conversation about our day.

Prepared by Victor Roman, Crew Journalist

Date May 1st 2017

MDRS Sol 3 update

Busy sol, the simulation officially started. During the morning, after breakfast, Shannon came and gave us the final information about the life here, many anecdotes that will help us to understand more closely how life might be in the MDRS.

After that, Commander Corrales, EVA officer Piña and Greenhab engineer Reyes took the first EVA. The rest of the crew helped them to put the suits and helmets on. It looked heavy and difficult to carry on the whole time… later on we realized that it was indeed heavy and hard when we had to go out and the welcome school children that visited us.

Hosting children was fun. They asked a lot of questions about our work and the simulation. We enjoyed answering them. Later we had lunch and talked about our lives: what we expect about this experience, why we are doing this and personal anecdotes. The stories and motivations are inspiring, we all agree that we are working toward a goal greater than ourselves: taking humans to Mars.