Sol 5: Snow Worries
We had two EVAs planned for today (pending good weather), so when my alarm went off at 0700, I hurried out of bed to start preparing breakfast and getting ready. When I walked out of my room, I was sad to see a very grey sky, but that quickly turned to delight when I went over to the window and saw a blanket of snow covering everything in sight. I knew it would mean no EVAs, but a childlike glee took over and I spent the next half hour taking photos until others began to wake up. One by one the Mangalyatri crew started to get up, each to be told in turn “go look out the window” until all the crew members had woken up, seen the snow, and had their turn gasping “Wow, is that snow!?”, only for it to be followed by “so no EVAs?”.
The crew was definitely disappointed with not being able to go on our EVAs today (as confirmed by Mission Support an hour prior to our planned start time). Instead, we all turned our hands to whatever research we could conduct indoors. Our GreenHab still needed attending to, and our plants are coming along nicely, including a big harvest this afternoon! Mehnaz continued her research work in the GreenHab, as well as starting to work on calculations and data analysis with the help of Aditya.
Our Science Dome had a workout today, with Daniel beginning DNA extractions, Bharti getting lots of geology reading done, and Annalea continuing her art project and research. Thank goodness we have enough research to be going on with while we can’t go outside. The rest of our crew spent the day at our computers, planning and writing, as well as discussing geology, study targets, and how to go about our EVAs to ensure we meet all our goals in the limited time we have left here (and pending more bad weather).
On the non-work side of things, we made two loaves of bread, though only one of the chefs ended up covered in flour. We also spent much of the day peeking out the windows to watch the snow melt away from the east side of the hills through to the west side as the sun went overhead. The crew also spent a few minutes this evening laughing at snow puns, wishing that all reports could be funny.
Feeling glad that most reports don’t contain puns,
Clare Fletcher (292 Mangalyatri Journalist)