Day: April 18, 2022

[ Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ ] Journalist Report
Crew 245 Journalist report 18 April 2022
Sol: 08
Name of person filling the report: Dr Benjamin Pothier

Days are becoming more and more packed here at the MDRS station. All the members of crew 245 want to conduct as many experiences and projects as they can while we are still living on Martian ground. From testing a helmet prototype to 3D printing in the RAM, and from 3D scanning rock formations around the station to making a 3D digital copy of the lower deck. It’s been a very busy day and we aren’t done yet as I have to participate with Luca in a neuroscience experiment involving a portable EEG headset before going to bed. We just had an amazing dinner with a main meal prepared by Nadia (Martian shepherd’s pie) and Luca is vacuum cleaning the upper deck as I type my report. These are chunks of our lives on Mars, like meteorites flashing in the sky, burning bright. A strange mix of the raw, the harsh, the mundane and the transcendent. As Heraclitus would say "Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ" or "Nature loves to conceal herself", I do agree though yesterday’s night we managed to catch a bit of her : a night lapse of the station surrounded by the great Bear, the "Ursa Major" constellation. So yes, Nature loves to conceal herself, even on Mars, but like the Ursa Major we face events and remain constant.

—
Benjamin Pothier

The Explorers Club (NYC) International Fellow Member
PhD Researcher, CAIIA (Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Integrative Arts)
Planetary Collegium, Plymouth University.
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/benjamin-pothier