Lipi Roy, Crew 288 Journalist
12.18.2023
Sol 08
In a quest to simulate life on Mars, analog astronauts face the absence of fresh food, adding another layer of challenge to the isolation simulation. But guess what? crew 288 knows how to turn lemons into lemonade! Using just shelf stable food and microgreens from the Greenhab, we (Riley) managed just perfect burgers tonight!
The crew woke up to a beautiful crimson sunrise and enjoyed a filling oatmeal breakfast by Ryan. I can’t speak for desserts, but oatmeal breakfasts are totally his thing!
Filled to the brim, Hunter (Geo), Jesus (Eng), Ryan (GHO) and Jilian (HSO) went on their first ‘unsupervised’ EVA, since the command deck was not involved. Did the command deck make a good choice trusting Hunter as the EVA lead? Well, the crew enjoyed beautiful landscapes of Candor Chasma, collected interesting rock samples, and made it well in time (almost too well). So, I guess it would be a yes? But I’ll let Cesare and Riley answer that one.
Back at the Hab, Riley (with Cesare’s help) prepared cute little buns for upcoming burgers. But since they were supposed to be for dinner, you can guess the biggest challenge that the hungry, just-returned EVA crew faced! But they did get to enjoy Cesare’s ramen, and hot showers, so hopefully that made up for the previous torture…
In the evening, thanks to Ryan (and me of course, because I helped Ryan), a fresh harvest of kale, lettuce, arugula, and red cabbage was used in the scrumptious burger/salad dinner, a courtesy of our XO, Riley. It’s a multi-talented crew out here!
Let’s just call it a day because I want to enjoy the strawberry shortcake that Cesare and Ryan have prepared. I’m skeptical, (cus’ Ryan and sugar remember?) but I’m too addicted to sweets now to leave it.