View source for Crew 179 - Journalism Report

[[Category: Journalism Reports]]

Journalist Report – April 24th
Our crew successfully transferred control of the Habitat from MDRS 178 and began preparations for our stay. Day one consisted primarily of equipment check out in in situ training with our Rovers, space suits, navigation, and surveying gear. The rookies have adapted admirably under the guidance of our veteran instructors.
After a resupply from the advance landers preparations for our first EVA began. It began innocuously enough, with our crew in high spirits heading out to examine some targets previously identified by martian rovers and satellite imagery as high interest. We set off to seek our research fortunes in the Martian landscape with all crew members in high spirits and no inkling of the trouble that lay ahead…
While surveying for signs of ancient life in the desert landscape one crew member suffered an accident requiring us to abort the EVA and return to base. Fortunately, the skilled hands of crew 179 put the MD in MDRS and managed to keep the situation form getting out of hand. Our crew member was successfully evacuated from the martian plane and returned to the habitat without further incident. We have many more EVAs planned for our stay here and the crew is confident today’s emergency will be our last…
Prepared by Dana Levin, Crew Journalist

Journalist Report – April 26th
Prepared by: Dana Levin, Crew Journalist
Date: 26Apr2017
MDRS Sol Day 3 update:

Sol Day 3 began for us with confirmation that our water supply would be replenished by an autonomous pick up truck. This was very welcome news for both our parched lips and our noses. We celebrated with discussions of Sex and Gender issues in Spaceflight, Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Occular Syndrome, and Radiation Injuries in Spaceflight. We then prepared for our third “EVA to Tim’s Peake”

Zone: 12S Easting: 518300 Northing: 4249300

of this mission with our briefing and suiting up. The Group deployed themselves smoothly with excellent teamwork and enthusiastically set out to accomplish out goal. The team then split up into two groups to make the tasks easier. The coordination between these two groups and the Habitat was unparalleled and the mission was a resounding success. However, once again disaster struck. This was our third incident, the crew is beginning to suspect a pattern….
In any case our breathable air was stretched to the limit for our return but the expert leadership and cool heads of MDRS 179 prevailed and Our crew was successfully evacuated back to the Hab. A full assessment was conducted and stabilizing care was provided. All crew somehow remain well despite significant health challenges in these past few days. Crew morale is significantly boosted by messages from those back on Earth we are able to receive during our comm passes, particularly Philadelphia mission support and to our Capcoms for the astronomy updates.
Following the EVA The crew ate lunch together, discussed the learning points of the day’s EVA and then settled in to discuss medical contingencies and spatial disorientation. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s tasks but we are feeling wary of what it may bring given how our past several days have gone…


Journalist Report – April 27th
Prepared by: Dana Levin, Crew Journalist
   Date: 27Apr2017
   MDRS Sol  Day 3 update:
Once again we had a day of crisis. There is certainly no chance that these were planned ahead of time though, we must just simply be a horribly unlucky crew. After breakfast several crew members remained sore after Sarah “Connors” nightly physical condition beating. For this reason we elected to split the expedition into two teams. One would stay in the hab to conduct some just in time training on Star City operations and Sleep physiology while the other would perform a survey of a nearby area with poor satellite imagery. However the habitat teams day of rest was not to be…

An alert from Mission Control threw the team into action. A hasty rescue was planned and the science objectives had to be abandoned to deal with the emergency. While the day was long, the team performed admirably and managed to recover all field equipment, prevent horrific injuries and ultimately finish the science objectives including recovering a rare Martian dessert from the desert to complete tonights dinner. The post EVA debrief and clean up was also a long day, but in the end the day was endorsed with such phrases as “I had moments of sheer terror” and “I feel like I won the golden ticket” along with “I am securing VDs package” and even included a disco dance on the Martian surface to ensure a fellow crewmember’s health. We even found a secret message written in stones behind the habitat in an area which we shall dub Lemur Point. We are thrilled to have had another shipment of water last night which will certainly be enough to see us through our mission. However, we discovered that sanitation ops without a functional water heater in 50F weather is far less pleasant than one might expect. It might even rival living with nine uncleaned people in a sealed habitat for a week in terms of pleasantness. 

We are now settling down to eat dinner as a crew, and prepare for our discussion of intercultural issues in spaceflight and plan our intra-crew video competition. Looking forward to tomorrow’s experiences and what new disasters the sunrise may bring…

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