Sol 3 – Waiting for a Martian spring
“It was quiet in the deep morning of Mars, as quiet as a cool and black well, with stars shining in the
canal waters, […] the moons gone, the torches cold, the stone amphitheaters deserted.”
Chapter 3 of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Me and my fellow Martians awoke this morning, some of us not as well rested as they hoped, and
looked out the Hab window to find that the sky had not cleared, possibly impacting the EVA planned on
Sol 4 to install MegaAres and LOAC. After the daily health status check session and a forcibly shortened
workout session, we went to work: Corentin, Alexandre and I practiced building the Mega Ares antenna,
with a few mishaps and unexpected breakage. Meanwhile Alice made our first batch of bread (!) while
Quentin started mounting the environmental sensors.
The test session for the EchoFinder experiment, designed to aid astronauts in performing ultrasounds
using an AI and augmented reality, was a bit chaotic: The support arm used to maintain the tablet was
not usable, and one of the two QR cubes used to track the device was wrongly positioned. We will make
some adjustments before the first actual session takes place later this week.
After a very active morning, eating Alice’s freshly baked bread for lunch was the perfect fixer upper. A
few laughs and a good meal gave us the energy to continue plowing through the day. In the afternoon,
the Hab went somewhat quiet as everyone went their separate ways to complete their tasks, and took
turns completing cognitive tests and posture analyses. By 6pm, thanks to Alexandre, the MegaAres
antenna was ready for tomorrow’s important EVA!
In sum, a quiet Sol, in anticipation and preparation of the next.
Marie Delaroche
