Hello CapCom,
Here is today’s commander report:
Crew 189 Commander Report 07Mar2018
Sol 17
Today’s program was a bit dense, so that we woke up around 7:00 a.m. even if the EVA was planned for the afternoon. We started by a bit of bomb defusing, then went on with emergency procedures training, lead by Laurent, the crew’s HSO. This time, we learned how to deal with a victim from inside the Hab or brought back from the outside. This was surely useful and not only for Mars! We learned how to reanimate, control a pulse, install a splint, etc… The goal was then to put all of it into practice in the afternoon…
After more bomb defusing and a good meal was the time to go out in EVA. We had four main objectives: check the instrument’s batteries and bring back the LOAC if needed, deploy the solar panel dust cleaner, test GPS guidance, and shoot footages for the rotation video. I went back to my former role of crew journalist, shooting photos and videos and clearly enjoyed it. The two first objectives went fine, but Benoit’s GPS chip stopped working another time, preventing him from finding any direction. He is the one struggling the most with his experiment, and it clearly affects his mood. Let’s hope it is only due to the cloudy weather, so that he will be able to run more tests during the last days of the mission.
After a few video shots for Alexandre, came the time for the EVA fifth objective: emergency training in situ. Laurent simulated a leg wound followed by a hemorrhage. We had to designate immediately Victoria as the new leader and take actions quickly to bring him back to the Hab, where Jérémy and Gabriel would take care of him. We helped him walk back to the rover, where we loaded him in the trunk (we surely didn’t drive him this way, but took all the related decisions, and acted as if). He then simulated heart attack and lost consciousness. We then pretended to hurry on the way back to bring him in the Hab as soon as possible. Jérémy and Gabriel were then in charge of saving him, using the previously learned knowledge.
This experiment is clearly one of my favorite: it teaches us crisis management, while giving us bases in medical help. The debriefing we had just after was also very productive: we exchanged on simulation realism, actions that should or shouldn’t have been taken on Mars, depending on the type of spacesuit (traditional rigid ones or futurist skinny ones). Laurent told us what he noticed during all the action and was able to correct us, but it seems that we mostly did well! The mood now changes a bit: crewmembers are more tired, seeing the end of the mission approaching, looking after the end of sim constraints while wanting to do as much as possible before its end. This is surely leading to new interesting sols…
Louis Mangin,
Crew 189 Commander