Lipi Roy, Crew 288 Journalist
12.19.2023
Sol 09
Ever wonder what first astronauts actually ate during Space Missions? Our Commander, today, surprised us with tubed space food which was consumed by Russian Cosmonauts in the past. As we tried the ‘slops’ of French fries, chicken nuggets, and Texas burger, we realized it was far less delightful than even the canned food we have here…
The crew woke up to another beautiful Martian sunrise and enjoyed Cesare’s delicious crepes for breakfast. Ready for another geology EVA, Riley (XO), Hunter (Crew Geologist), Ryan (GHO), and I proceeded towards the Brahe Highway. As our Crew Geologist soaked in the geologically exquisite landscape (and wrote what looked like a love letter to rocks in his small notebook), I and Ryan helped Riley collect 3D GPR data in the 100ft x 100ft grid. Followed by what was sample collection, rock distraction, sample collection, rock distraction turned sample collection, we began our journey back.
Meanwhile, at the Science Dome, Jesus, our crew engineer, had been busy trying to anneal silicon for his research. He tried heating it at 2500C with moisture, in an oven. Hopefully, he doesn’t get any surprises from the ‘science’ oven as Ryan got from his.
It was wonderful to come back to a savory garlic and herb bread wonderfully prepared by our Commander! We then tried out the tubed space food, which then required Jilian’s coffee cake to get over. (But in all honesty, the chicken nugget slop wasn’t too bad. I can FEEL Jilian disagreeing).
For dinner, we had Riley’s and Hunter’s amazing tacos for Taco Tuesday! Rice and meat garnished with corn , onion, salsa, tomato, cheese, and fresh cilantro from the Greenhab – can you see a better end to the day?