Crew 216 Commander Report 01-DEC-2019
Sol: 7
Summary Title: Media visit
Author: Marc Levesque
Crew 216 became potential celebrities today when the Roker film crew spent the day filming for a science series that they hope to see aired next spring. Their filming of the MDRS facilities, crew interviews, and an EVA occupied us all day long.
The episode host, Justin, is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University who promotes STEM activities and studies, mostly to Gen Z students, but also to other groups. Mike gave an overview of the engineering aspects of our facilities, Michael provided a guided tour of the GreenHab and Observatory, and Andrew showed off the Science Dome.
Later Rich led an EVA that included Justin suited up as we do. Towards the end of the day, they did three individual interviews with Rich, Evgenia, and me, with each of us facing the camera and answering questions from Jacks, the director, who was standing with her back to us so as to not distract our looking at the camera. I felt a little awkward talking to the camera rather than a person, as I did the other day when Evgenia interviewed me but became comfortable after a while. Overall the film crew was very gracious, and we tried to provide them with the footage they wanted.
After they left, one crew member commented that their presence felt a bit intrusive to our sim, but I think all the crew realizes that the film should provide some great PR for the Mars Society and its MDRS and encourage more people to come here.