Journalist Report Nov 8
Journalist: Sandy Dance
Crew 214 Sol 12 Journalist Report
by Sandy Dance
We’ve done the EVAs, we’ve done the science, its all over now bar the shouting! Well, actually the cleaning! Yes, we spent the morning vacuuming, mopping, inventoring, and general tidying up! Otherwise its all pretty quiet today.
Last night we had great success! Using the bread maker to make pizza dough, we then used the brand new pizza pan to create a remarkably genuine pizza using the dehydrated tomato, capsicum and cheese, and spam, salmon, and herbs. Probably one of our best evening meals so far!
It has been really interesting exploring how to do field science under the restrictions of wearing space suits, communicating by radio and commuting to the field by electric rover. The other important aspect is how to live in a small group under very constraining circumstances, eating a quite restricted diet of long life foods, and remaining functional. Albeit our 2 or 4 weeks is quite short compared with the 2 or 3 years of an actual mission. In summary I think what we are doing here can genuinly contribute to understanding what will be required on Mars itself!
Its been a great two weeks, we’ve learnt a lot. I’ll never look up and see Mars the same again!