February 25th, 2020

Sol 9 – Crew 222: More exploration !

This morning, Valentin, Nicolas, Benjamin and I went on EVA to Reservoir Dam up North and Cowboy Corner. After the rain on Saturday night, we wanted to see if there was any damage done to the terrain. We took the rovers Curiosity and Spirit up the path, after re-installing the LOAC experiment close to the Hab. We stopped near the reservoir and discovered that there was barely any water left. This reservoir was man-made to help animals nearby find water, as we deducted from the regularity of the hill. But it hadn’t rained enough to fill it up at all, so we decided to explore the other side of the road. We went down into a small canyon, a tiny replica of the Grand Canyon we visited before coming here. There was a small lake there, with water redder than the sand around it! We found traces of life: there were some antelope footprints on the ground that had dried up after the rain, and leftovers of a cow’s passage (as a reminder, the main road here is call Cow Dung Road… for a reason). My camera’s battery died on me during the EVA, but thankfully we had brought a GoPro to film the landscape, so we got beautiful videos of the exploration.

It felt great being able to leave the Hab again to go exploring. These past few days, we have all been stuck inside because of the mud, only leaving the Hab to change MegaARES’ battery. Tomorrow, it’s Eishi, Nina and Bleuenn’s turn to head out!

For lunch, we had our most anticipated meal: the only pasta we have for the whole mission. We always try to satisfy everyone’s culinary taste, and pasta with pesto was one of the easiest meals we cooked. It brought a taste of home! Now, back to baking bread.

Bleuenn and Benjamin planted new seeds in the GreenHab, and harvested another batch of tiny carrots! The menu keeps improving day after day.

Author: Marie Bochard, Crew Journalist