MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

Journalist Report – January 20th

“Smells, snow and potato”
By Niamh Shaw
Crew Artist & Journalist Crew 173
We got a delivery of water on Sol 4 so we treated ourselves to our first shower in 6 days (not Roy, he’s the hardcore outdoorsy type of the crew). It was agreed that the guys shower last night while Michaela and I waited until this morning. Rick was the first one to jump in. Idriss then took his turn and of course being French (all French are born with panache, an innate sense of style and a certain ‘Je ne sais quoi’), beat p’oor Aussie Rick’ out of the park!  And so ‘Independence Day’, our movie choice for the night (Commanders selection), was upstaged intermittently by an intoxicating waft of sandalwood, fresh linen and some sort of pine freshness. Michaela and I enjoyed our showers very much, especially since we both have long tresses to maintain. I felt AMAZING after it too. You would imagine, being ladies, that we would make an even bigger impact fragrance-wise, post-shower. I just asked everyone if they had a similar olfactory overload to last night, if not greater. They didn’t. What? Aren’t the women supposed to be the experts in smelling sweetly? I dunno…. We should do a study at MDRS on this.. go figure..
It was a snowy day this morning with heavy fog. And so we had a long working breakfast planning the day, and preparing emails for our daily communication with Earth later in the evening. Caught some lovely pictures from the Hab as we waited for the day to settle down into the more usual red mud we are accustomed to.
It’s Irish night tonight which means I’m up cooking duty. And entertainment. I’m not nearly as prepared as Idriss or Roy. I spent the afternoon preparing potatoes (well, you couldn’t have an Irish meal without potatoes, could you?). I have my Irish flag, and some phrases to share, but no fancy French chocolate or Israeli ‘Bamba’. However, I do have one thing up my sleeve. A game of chance called ‘Pass the Pigs’. I wont say anymore, because my crew mates might read this before dinner and I’ll spoil the surprise. Wish me luck. Or as we say in Ireland ‘Go nEiri and bothar leat’.
Final word- don’t underestimate how nicely clean people smell (especially men, it seems)!
CREW 173
SIGNING OFF

Journalist’s Report – January 18th

Inspiration everywhere
By Niamh Shaw
Crew Artist & Journalist Crew 173
The day goes very fast here at MDRS.  I have this imagined schedule in my head at the top of the day, thinking that there will be ample time to get it all in, plus time to relax, chill out with the crew and rest  up after dinner. Yeah, that hasn’t happened!  And I’m sure its true for all MDRS crews.  You want to do so much to maximise your experience here, aware that the mission and this opportunity will be over before you know it. I want to do my own work, AND work with all the crew on each of their separate projects, plus capture the stunning landscape while on EVA. Today I followed Rick around, as he planted some new seeds in the GreenHAB but I also wanted to join Michaela and Roy on their geological EVA. Ahh! So much choice but so little time!! I’m falling in to bed at the end of the day, with my head full of new ideas on top of the schedule I had in place before getting here. We’re only a few days in to our mission and I know already that I’m not going to get everything covered.
But its the best feeling ever. A sign that I’m in the perfect creative headspace, inspired by everything and everyone around me. I’m going to be exhausted leaving here. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Lets do this!
Slán go foill
CREW 173
SIGNING OFF
by Niamh Shaw
Crew Artist & Journalist

Journalist Report – January 17th

This report was filed by Niamh Shaw 
We decided on Sol 0, that since we are an international crew, we should take turns hosting a culture night/meal every other night to represent the different nations in our crew, during our time at MDRS. And first up was Roy, our HSO and geologist, who is from a Kibbutz in Israel. We have to thank him for this great idea too,  and all the people from his home country, because they sent him suggestions of food he could prepare for us.
And so last night we had our first Culture night. Donning his national flag proudly in the communal area, Roy took us to Israel for the evening, preparing a delicious meal of mixed beans, potato, and garlic, followed by his national snack of Bamba which we dipped in peanut butter, nutella, honey or maple syrup (yum!). Next up was a cup of the velvety turkish coffee (which has quite a caffeine kick to it) and lastly we all played a card game ‘Memory Game Kibbutz’, a series of cards with handprinted scenes of different aspects of kibbutz living. Each card is duplicated and  turned down and the aim of the game is to find a matching pair. In addition to the fun of struggling to remember the location of a pair, Roy explained the relevance of the image to the his community.
It was a great night and a reminder again of how lucky we are to be here. In addition to simulating the Martian landscape, we also have the privilege of experiencing working with international teams, a key aspect of all human space exploration (and reaping the benefits of learning about new cultures on planet Earth).
I’m up next for Culture night at MDRS. I have an Irish meal in mind (sort of) and am preparing some Irish-themed activities for the evening. But the pressures on. Cos Roy aced it. Yikes!
Slån go foill
CREW 173
SIGNING OFF

Journalist Report – January 16th

My first EVA
By Niamh Shaw
Crew Artist & Journalist Crew 173
The weather today was stunning, deep blue clouds contrasting the red earth of the Martian landscape that surrounds the Hab, our home for the next 2 weeks. And a perfect day for my first ever EVA- to the uninitiated, that means Extra Vehicular Activity, which loosely translates in to an outside expedition. We had received extensive training from both the previous crew on Saturday and Shannon, the MDRS Director.  So we all have the theory part downpat. But you can read about things, watch other people  doing things or be told things, or even learn things, but nothing compares to a real experience though, does it?
The restrictions of your movements while wearing that suit makes you appreciate how many months of training and preparation must go in to each EVA that they complete. I spent the morning preparing my camera equipment and testing various devices that I could attach to my person to capture the mission as best I could.  Trying to troubleshoot for any potential problems that might crop up during EVA. You take so much of your mobility for granted when you can wander aimlessly about nature, touching and photographing anything you want and for as long as you want.  So how can you prepare for something you have absolutely no frame of reference from which to lean on? And as you might have imagined, once I put my suit on, everything became difficult- simple camera things like being able to focus, or even choose a frame size for a photo. Clicking the shutter. Altering the aperture. All pretty much impossible with heavy gloves and a large glass visor between you and the eyepiece of your camera. Thankfully I brought a really good wide angle lens along with me, so once I selected my light settings, I was pretty set. But most of my shots were simply potluck. And thankfully with the beautiful light of the day, I struck gold on a few of them.
But photography aside, the experience was a special one for me. I joined Roy and Michaela on their geological field trip exploring, prospecting and sampling in the vicinity of our Hab. It’s kind of hard to explain what it felt like, except that, in my spacesuit I got a new found respect for astronauts who have completed EVA’s in space. As someone who genuinely wants to don a real spacesuit one day and become a participating member of a legitimate space mission, the EVA brought me once step closer to that reality.  And the understanding of how much you rely on your support team to help you in and out of the suit, but also remaining in constant contact with you, there for you should anything go awry while you’re outside the protection of the Hab.  And as our support crew were helping us with our suits, and we left the airlock to venture outside, I had a little moment. I know now what this feels like. I would be able to make a decent stab at an EVA on Mars if I had to.  And as long as I have an awesome team around me,  I could survive it. Thats nice. Thats good. Go Crew 173!
Oh and it’s my Dad’s birthday today, back home on Earth- Happy 78th Birthday Dad- hope you had a good one. We celebrated here on Mars with pancakes.
Slån go foill
CREW 173
SIGNING OFF

Sol Summary – January 16th

Richard Blake
After the trials of Sol 0, today was a breath of fresh air. Literally. Gone were the clouds and the rain, and in their stead, sunshine and a cool breeze. It was a day that warranted a breakfast treat of pancakes and laughter.
My own work had me spend the morning in the GreenHab, repotting prior crew’s plantings into soil, whilst the temperature quickly rose. At its peak, the GreenHab reached a sweltering 43◦C. As I worked, an exclamation broke the silence “In your face Neil Armstrong!”, quickly followed by a chorus of cheers. Engineering had had a breakthrough! They had finally cracked their printing woes, getting the Hab’s 3D printer to finally start working. Our engineer, Idriss, could then start the long process of printing bricks, which is still going as I write this.
The afternoon saw three members of the crew make the first EVA of the mission. Our commander; Michaela, geologist; Roy, and crew artist; Niamh, donned their EVA suits and boldly walked where only a few thousand have already walked before. However, it was not long before they returned, boasting a number of suit issues borne of an inexperienced first suiting up. They fit the picture of See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil to a T, with Roy unable to see out of his fogged up helmet, Niamh unable to hear as her mic had fallen out of her ear, and Michaela unable to communicate with the others since her radio was not set to VOX.
After Idriss and I smoothed out the kinks with their suits, the trio once again set out to sample a few locations close to the Hab, climbing some hills and getting a whole raft of great footage of the EVA.
This evening brings with it the promise of an Israeli culture night, with a feast courtesy of our crew member Roy. Should be a ripper.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Michaela and Roy on EVA.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Michaela and Roy on EVA 2.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Roy conducting geological field work 2.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Niamh with Michaela and Roy in the background at the old site of the Observatory.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Michaela and Roy with their geological hammers.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Geological field work by Roy.
HAB Airlock January 16th 2017 Michaela Roy and Niamh head out on EVA.
HAB Airlock Jan 16th 2017 Niamh Roy & Michaela preparing for first EVA.
HAB Airlock Jan 16th 2016 Michaela about to head out for EVA.
HAB Airlock January 16th 2017 Idriss assisting Roy preparing for EVA.
HAB Airlock January 16th 2017 Idriss waves off the EVA crew.
Outside HAB January 16th 2017 Michaela standing on top of the old site of the observatory.

Sol Summary – January 15th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Greetings from Crew 173! We are a crew of five (for now, our 6th crewmate, Arnau Pons Lorente, a Spanish Aeronautical Engineer will be with us soon, but not for now)- our Commander Michaela Musilova from Slovakia, Executive Officer Idriss Sisaid from France, HSO Roy Naor from Israel, GreenHab Officer Rick Blake from Australia, and then my good self, Niamh (pronounced ‘Neeve’ by the way- its Gaelic, and a girl’s name) Shaw your Irish Crew journalist.

We arrived yesterday afternoon to a lovely warm welcome from Crew 172 and their commander Ilaria. After our group photo outside the Hab, Ilaria and her crew gave us an extensive training session (Crew Engineer, Troy was especially awesome with his 3hrs of ‘Hab Top Tips’, thank you Troy!). Patrick cooked up a lovely meal of curried rice and vegetables and we shared with them a toast of sparkling apple juice in their ceremonial bowls in honour of the completion of their mission. We all bedded down for the night and while it was pretty snug, we had a reasonably good nights sleep on the communal area floor (well, for those of us on the inflatable beds that didn’t deflate anyway!).

At 7.30am on Sol 0, we waved goodbye to Crew 172 and we began our time on Mars in earnest. The last thing Ilaria said to us was that our toilet had become blocked overnight. Little did we know in that moment the impact those words would have on our first day here.

It rained quite heavily overnight, so the terrain outside is very muddy and we were confined to indoor duties for the day. After unpacking food supplies and selecting our state room, we had our first breakfast of oatmeal, Cheerios, and dried apple, washed down with an assortment of tea, coffee and for some, nutritious servings of Tang. We worked on our cooking and cleaning schedule for the mission, which includes Pancake breakfast duties (for special days including my Dad’s birthday tomorrow, Roys mothers birthday on the 24th and Australia Day on the 26th) and preparing special meals of our countries on alternate evenings (we’re calling these Culture dinners).

And we began to tackle our first major objective of the mission- getting the toilet unblocked.

I made a somewhat successful lunch (a hearty serving of gumbo and brown rice) and afterwards Shannon arrived to take us through additional training. She informed us that due to the inclement weather, we will have our ATV and Rover training Tuesday, if all goes well. And then we talked a lot about the plumbing problems and the various permutations and combinations of flushing and plunging and other alternatives.

Roy and Idriss ventured outside and pumped the remaining water in to the main water reservoir, emptying both tanks on the trailer. As I write this, they are recounting enthusiastically their adventures in learning how to use the pump (without electrocuting themselves) and acclimatising to the cold and wet muddy weather. It was a big moment for them, for they claim that their relationship was found in that moment working together on this new daily task.

Our plumbing problems continued throughout the day and Roy (who has worked as a plumber in his native Israel) assessed the septic tank with Shannon and concluded that the issue with the toilet is attributable to a full septic tank rather than an ‘at source’ problem. And so we ceased our incessant flushing and plunging. We agreed for the foreseeable future, to poop in plastic bags and disposing of the biohazards material in a dedicated refuse sack (to be burnt at a later date when the rain stops and the plumbing problem has been resolved). We discussed other methodologies. It was an extensive discussion but believe that we have found the optimum solution, given the circumstances.

Idriss and Roy worked on setting up the 3d printer, but discovered that the filament spools didn’t work. They then tried to heat up the extruder to force the filament to go out, but the filament remains clogged in the printer. They are currently working on solution.

We are still figuring out how to optimise our limited toilet options. Trial and error is the general consensus.

Rick monitored hourly temperatures of the GreenHab, outside, the lower floor of the Hab and the grow tent in the greenHab. He also took an inventory of our spices. He’s also on dinner duty, he’s baking bread. Its looking very promising and may inherit the title ‘The Breadmaker’ if successful. Michaela re-planted her spinach seeds in the bespoke apparatus she has brought, designed by her students in Slovakia.

Our first CAPCOM is imminent and we are looking forward to an evening of settling in to our new home for the next 2 weeks on Mars as our plumbing problems continues.

Crew 173 signing off.
END TRANSMISSION

Journalist Report – January 13th

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Today is our last day in Simulation. Tomorrow we will wake up in Southern Utah, and NOT on Mars. What a weird and surreal feeling…Just as our crew has hit our stride of living and working on Mars – we are leaving in less than 48 hours.

Our last day of SIM was one of the busiest since we arrived 13 sols ago. We woke up at the normal time of 7:30am and immediately got to work after breakfast. I am not going to miss dehydrated milk and cereal with weak coffee every day, but this morning we were treated to a delicacy on Mars that we have been saving the entire length of our mission – BACON & Eggs!!!  Troy happily fried the strips and prepared the eggs. The HAB  was overwhelmed by the delicious aroma of a quintessential American breakfast. Eating just two pieces immediately put most of the crew (Anushree is vegetarian, so she got extra oats and honey to compensate. She was content and had her usual smile.) into a tranced state as they savored each bite. Our operations plan for the rest of the morning consisted of finishing crew projects/reports, taking photos and videos for outreach, and another round of virtual reality for all the crewmembers.

The morning flew by and before we knew it lunch was being served. Anushree treated us to a delicious Indian dish of naan bread with vegetables mixed with Thai curry paste. This was quite possibly the best and also most “traditional” meal of our analog mission. The crew went to our space nap happy and full. This would be our last space nap, as tomorrow morning the sleep study will be concluded. The whole crew, myself included, hasn’t napped this regularly since Kindergarten. We all wish this was part of our daily schedule when we return back to Earth. I doubt the corporate ladder will agree, but that is a discussion for another day.

After our nap, the crew prepared for our last EVA. We were scheduled to do a short walk around of the close by Martian hills. As Pierrick, Ilaria, Anushree, and I donned our space suits we got the call from on-site Mission Support that our EVA would need to be cut short to only include our regular engineering check due to muddy conditions and impending weather. The crew wasn’t exactly ecstatic about this news as this was our last possible EVA, but in the end we followed mission support’s commands. A quick check of all the HAB life support systems along with a short walk around the MDRS campus was concluded in under an hour. Each crew member drank in the views and experience, as the next time we step out of the airlock will be without our oxygenator packs and bubble helmets. The realization of soon being out of SIM had started to sink in.

Once back inside the airlock with re-pressurization complete, the real work of the day started up again. The crew cleaned the entire HAB from top to bottom and sideways. A place, especially a confined place such as the HAB, can become quite dirty with 7 adults living in it non-stop for almost two full weeks. We knew we only had to do it this final time, so everyone bit the bullet and we were done in under two hours. With the freshly cleaned HAB, the crew settled in for dinner. Our last bag of tortilla chips, any kind of chips for that matter, and melted Velveeta cheese was our appetizer. (It is the simple pleasures on Mars that usually give the most reward.) Our last dinner as a singular crew was beans and mashed potatoes topped with corn. We ran out of actual dinner options many sols ago (other than lunch today which was saved as more of a “going away” meal), and we have been scrounging whatever we could find (typically topped with chips, cheese, hot sauce, and salt to make up for lack of variety). Again, the word – adaptation – just never ceases to be true here on Mars.

Our crew is a resilient one that has weathered many storms inside and outside of the HAB, personal or group, stressful situations and times of joyous laughter, but we are all stronger from this unique experience. One that we will all cherish for years to come. We hope you have enjoyed following our story. We have certainly enjoyed living through it – TOGETHER! Crew 172 signing off for good.

END TRANSMISSION

Sol Summary – January 12th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Our Crew Engineer, Troy Cole wrote today’s Sol Summary. Here is his take of our crew activities from an Engineer’s point of view:

Hello from Mars! We are in the home stretch of our mission here, and I honestly feel odd about our eventual deviation from our Martian daily routine. Today we awoke for our brief breakfast and overview of the day’s activities. The weather took a turn for the worse , so we delayed our planned EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity) until the afternoon giving each crew member time to go about their personal tasks and projects beforehand.
My tasks today as Crew Engineer mostly involved tidying up my little domain, the Engineering Bay, in preparation for handoff to the next crew’s engineer. After a couple hours of task/project work, it was time for lunch which I happened to be assigned cooking duty. I treated my (meat-eating) crewmates to the first taste of bacon we’ve had since our mission began – which they greatly enjoyed. After our space nap, our French colleagues accompanied by our crew journalist, ventured forth onto the Martian surface to continue testing their geo-location recorder. The excursion proved successful and the crew settled in for dinner, report filing, and some well-deserved R&R.
From an engineering perspective this mission has been most enlightening and really helped broaden my perspective on how engineers in the future will work extra-terrestrially. For example, little innocuous irritations can have outsized and grave consequences on places “off planet.” One such irritation is when you are out on a warm sunny day and once you enter an air conditioned room your glasses tend to fog up. Now this is no big deal, you merely remove them from your face, wipe them off, and go about your business. However, if instead of glasses it was your EVA helmet fogging up while walking around on severely rocky conditions with no way to wipe it off, then that minor annoyance becomes a major one really quickly. This particular irritant has been a constant during our mission and we all have had to learn ways to mitigate it as best we can and when that is not enough adjusting our operating procedures to maximize crew safety.
Another feature of working in a remote location is the lack of access to information. On Mars we have a severely limited internet access, with only 500 MBs of total data available to a crew of seven. That means I can’t quickly Google search for the operating manual to a random AC power supply in the tool chest to verify if the voltage is compatible with charging batteries for a science experiment. All you have is your own knowledge and experience to work with, so you must be comfortable with the “trial and error” approach to making repairs with anything available on hand and the inherent risks that some with that. The vast majority of repairs I’ve had to make during this mission were things I have never fixed before but knowing that mine and my crews continued survival depended on me doing a good job steeled my nerves against self-doubt and focused on working the problem. While tending to things in the Hab, I’ll regularly steal a glance at the Order of the Engineer ring I wear everyday and recall what it symbolizes, “Do your best work possible, for the lives of the public depend on it.”
These past two weeks have pushed my engineering skills to their limits and I’m glad to know that I have the capacity to handle most any problem that comes my way and keep people alive. Crew 172 signing off.

END TRANSMISSION

Journalist Report – January 11th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

Greetings Earthlings! Guest writer Pierrick Loyers wrote today’s Sol Summary. Let’s see what he has to say about Crew 172’s activities…

We woke up this morning at 07:30 am in great shape for the most of us. Martian crepes were added to the breakfast menu this morning. Honestly, Martian crepes made with powder eggs and powder milk are not as good as Terrestrial crepes but no time to complain! The EVA this morning started 30 minutes earlier than normal in order to clean the ATVs and Deimos (Rover) of mud.

After everything was checked and batteries for the scientific equipment fully charged, Gwendal, Ilaria, Nick, Patrick, and I opened the main hatch at 09:30 am sharp. After 40 minutes of cleaning our vehicles, Patrick (who accepted to help us for this task) returned back to his work within the HAB while the rest of the EVA team heading to the South. We parked near “Zubrin’s Head” (A rock face named after Robert Zubrin – the founder of The Mars Society), in front of a stunning Martian landscape.

We decided to start hiking one of the hills, avoiding to take rocky paths which could be dangerous in our suits. The trail was quick but “physically challenging.” We reached the top of our objective, out of breath, but so satisfying because of the rewarding view of this infinite and chaotic desert. Beyond this poetic hike with epic scenery, Gwendal and I still had a scientific objective. The objective of the 3D cartography system that we have designed is to follow and record the profile of the field encountered while the astronaut is walking through it. After going back down the hill, we investigated the area which seemed to be appropriate for a geophysical analysis with the GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and then returned to the HAB for lunch.

The lunch of today, prepared by Patrick, was composed of scrambled eggs (protein!), several vegetables (healthy!) and the inevitable dehydrated cheddar cheese – which has become an addiction for many of the crew members. After a good meal and the physical activities of this morning, our daily space nap (with the sleep mask on obviously) was necessary and we slept well.

Half an hour after the space nap began the crew woke up feeling refreshed. Troy, Nick, Gwendal, and I prepared for the crew’s second EVA of the day. We decided to head back to the area of this morning for GPR investigations and continuing altimetry measurements of it. During this EVA, we split into two group: Gwendal and I were doing soil probing with the GPR,  while Nick and Troy (bravely) accepted to climb another hill. (This ridge being higher than the one of this morning and having to lug the 3D cartography system all the way up there was not for the feint of heart.)

50 minutes later, the mission had to be aborted because of the weather conditions. As everyone knows, electronics and rain are not really good friends and we preferred not to try to prove the opposite. Troy and Nick went back down their hill, slowly but safely. It was not an easy hike apparently but as Troy said: “It was an honor for me to help to expand the sum total of the scientific knowledge of Humanity.”

We came back to the HAB where our biologist, Anushree , prepared Masala tea – Spicy but so so good! Physically tired from the day, crew members easily melted into the couches to read space books  with some good tunes in the background. We are on a Moby, Artic Monkeys, and Coldplay kick the past few days. Tonight, Patrick is making dinner (again!). Our chef is going to cook mashed potatoes with crumble sausages, and I know it will be delicious. Crew 172 signing off.

END TRANSMISSION

Sol Summary – January 10th

BEGIN TRANSMISSION

It looks like we are on Mars again! The snow that kept us around the MDRS campus for the last four days finally melted. Instead of a winter wonderland, the landscape is now reddish/brown for as far as the eye can see. (Except for the top of Olympus Mons aka Mt. Hunter in UT which is perpetually snowed in)

Today we woke up as a crew and had our normal breakfast of cereal (as well as: dehydrated fruit – Apples, Strawberries, and Blueberries mixed in powdered milk mix) and oatmeal. Along with coffee and Tang to wash it all down. Due to the weather over the last few days we scheduled our EVA in the afternoon, so the crew worked on projects, read, and fixed things around the HAB.

The Frenchmen’s research unit has had many electronic failures due to the cold, harsh environment, so we all got to play “Macgyver” in trying to fix the issues with the limited resources available here on Mars. Their HUD micro-controller blew, but was brought back to life after some soldering and TLC – good thing they brought extras for this exact reason. The batteries that power the unit have been losing their charge quicker than expected due to the cold, so some bubble wrap and aluminum foil were used to insulate. And finally, their battery charger stopped working due to the harsh climate, and it had to be replaced. Great lessons in always being ready to adapt in a foreign environment and using whatever you have you around to get the job done. The Frenchies finally prevailed!

After lunch and our daily space nap, Gwendal led Pierrick and Patrick to test their improvements in the muddy landscape using Deimos (Rover) and one of the ATVs. Success! Their equipment worked great, and communicated all the necessary data back to the HAB without issue. Hopefully tomorrow the terrain will have dried enough for them to take their full scientific suite including GPR(Ground Penetrating Radar), terminal, and controller. They have been itching to get out there and utilize their equipment, as we now only have three days left for scheduled EVAs (Wed, Thurs, Fri). I think we may do a chant to the weather gods tonight to increase their chances.

After the EVA was completed, the crew filled out our daily reports and scheduled tomorrow’s day. Hard to believe that tomorrow it will be ten sols since arriving on Mars. As the absolutely cliché saying goes – Time flies when you are having fun…Maybe too much fun? Never. We are killing it as a crew, and could for sure stay here for a little while longer if we needed/wanted to.

Dinner and CAPCOM are coming up and Pierrick is trying to translate his electronic Macgyvering skills into the kitchen by cooking a French specialty – CREPES! Let’s just say the crew is pumped to try. Now just what to put into these crepes: Nutella? Definitely. Honey? Absolutely. Peanut Butter? Yes, Yes, Yes. Or for me: all of the above! I can almost taste the fluffiness. I hope you can too back on Earth. Crew 172 signing off.

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