Cerise, Crew 206 HSO.
Crew 206 – 03/11/2019
Sol 15
Author : Benjamin Auzou, Journalist
"Trial and Error"
We installed the LOAC back to its location, with the weather station,
and a strongest attach method. The EVA was a remake of the second EVA of
the mission : same team, same goal.
After an afternoon in the Hab, the VR experiment took me to wonderful
landscapes and mountains of China. That was a visual refresh for me !
Today, Aurélien also received his first astronomy results since a few
days thanks to the end of the wind episode : a nice picture of the Pleiads.
This mission confirms that in space, long preparation is needed, but
that it’s impossible to predict all the events. The road to space is
full of difficulties, of obstacles, of errors. And problems are always
easier to solve when they’re detected before leaving the Earth.
We faced issues with the Teleop experiment, which wasn’t lucky at all
this year : a lost (or stolen) eye tracker at the airport, connection
issues on the rover, a broken computer charger. The weather was hard
with our outside experiments (LOAC and Weather station).
We prepared ourselves during one year for this mission but reality is
very different from what we thought. We had to adapt everything in order
to continue the mission and get results for science. We repaired the
weather station to put it back in place, we make changes on protocols to
save the physic version of Teleop. And in the end, no experiment has
been canceled !
The first step on Mars will be the result of years of work of peoples :
researchers, engineers, scientists who dedicated their life to improve
science and technology and help humanity to reach another planet. These
persons are the one that faced fails and that tried the most to make
discoveries, while the rest of the world will only see the final result
and success. Errors are not the end, but more steps to find the truth.