February 21, 2018
SOL 3 – Crew 189 : (Virtual) bomb alert
Journalist report,
As usual, Louis was the last one to come out of his room in the morning. Yet that did not stop him from rushing directly to the sport session wearing his greater flashy pink shirt that would have been absolutely perfect associated with Gabriel’s yellow legging; however we unfortunately did not have the opportunity to see such color explosion. After having once more aggravated our aches, we could at last taste our homemade pancakes, with a bit of that American fat concentrate that is called peanut butter.
With this appreciate caloric intake, we were ready for today’s EVA! Benoît, Laurent, Louis and I were the ones to leave the station on 9.30am, equipped with the fixed LOAC. Our first task looked easy at first: throw the dirty water away. However, the night must have been quite cold, as the water had almost totally frozen! But some kicks in the bucket later, we were finally able to extract the ice. We then rode a rover and ATVs to the dedicated place of the LOAC, where we could finally be able to set it up. However, while he connected the power supply, Louis caused a short circuit by touching two cables, and paid a very special tribute to Johnny Hallyday by lighting the fire into the LOAC. The team was more shaken than injured however, as the fire extinguished almost immediately. The LOAC’s power supply was yet still partially broken and we had to bring it back to the station to be fixed once more.
After having gone back and forth, we went on to the second part of the EVA: exploration. Equipped with our best ISAE-Supaero banner, we rode to a yet unexplored area. Even though we could take beautiful pictures of the landscape, cactus and fossilized animal defecations did not make up the best environment for our mission, and given the fog that started to expand on Louis and Laurent helmets, we decided to go back to the Hab.
After lunch, Louis gave us the first water consumption data: according to his calculations, each member of the crew is drinking approximately 3.2 liter a day, which is finally not so surprising when dehydrated food constitute most of our alimentation. The crew was a bit tired in the early afternoon, and most of us went to take a nap, even though some did not seem to assume that : Gabriel just wanted to “take a small break”, yet he was snoring 5 minutes after that. Later in the afternoon, it was time for him to launch his human factor experiment: making us play “Keep talking and nobody explodes”, a famous game in which one player has to defuse a bomb while the two others have the instructions to do it, he recorded us in order to analyse our reactions in a stressful situation. Benoit and I had the heavy burden to be the first ones to defuse, yet with the help of our teammates we succeeded in solving most of the cases. Stung by his failure of the previous day, Louis poured his heart and soul into making new bread, which he welcomed with sweet words (“oh, here is my baby”): this one looked this time far more palatable!
Alexandre Martin, Crew 189 Journalist
