Joseph Dituri
16 April 18
TITLE: There was a mouse about the house.
Last night the crew decided to play Coupe. This card game had us rolling for several hours. “Duke Money” was yelled myriad times and we fondly recalled our other team mates.
When we went to sleep one person noted a mouse going under the frig. XO set out a trap and we had a visitor by morning. We named him Paul Watney for our missing crew member and the Martian.
The morning EVA was a walking expedition to test exertion and fogging. We also hiked the ridge behind the HAB and made it to almost the next ridge…death march by Andreea.
Upon return we had a super brunch and the crew who stayed field day-ed the upper portion of the HAB …slowley we are moving every piece of furnature and cleaning behind or under it so that this place will be super clean at the end.
Afternoon EVA was curtailed….we changed it to a short EVA mission to drop off mouse Watney far enough away that he could not walk back. I did an Operational Risk Mitigation matrix and decided it was safe to proceed. We put two people in one Rover and proceeded. The wind kicked up a bit but it was safe and we got rid of the mouse. RTB coupled with some minor engineering tasks to ensure the cargo on Mars Society trailer would not fly free from increased wind.
Uneventful dinner and rest of the day …planning on resting a bit. We made peanut butter cookies. Yum.
IMPRESSED: I was impressed with Victoria ( Blue 04) who persevered on a death march up hill BOTH WAYS and got the best shit of the trip so far….what a photographer.
LEARNED: I leanred that the map at our disposal is more or less a “guide”….if it says “space suit road” that translates to unrecognizable path that goes up the hill…;*)
POA&M: Tomorrow keep cleaning the water tank and finish HAB skirt removal process. EVAs to look north and finish up south exploration.
~Dituri sends