Day 9
New Year's Eve, eh. We got up this morning to watch the international space station pass almost directly overhead. It was magnitude -2, which is about as bright as Venus in the morning sky (which we saw as well, because the sun was about to rise). It was pretty cool, a much better view than from my uni department's rooftop. Much less pollution on Mars, eh? (Ack, I think I'm turning Canadian!)
Zena and Derek went on an EVA today, but ended up getting lost. Again. They made it back safely, but couldn't manage to find the place they were trying to get to. They're going to try again tomorrow. I'm running out of interesting things to make with what foodstuffs we have left. Mostly it's just beans, rice, and tuna. There's not much one can do with those. Derek gave us the idea for dinner last night, which was an interesting porridge type thing of salmon and rice. I added some spices but it still tasted like salmon. Meh, fish.
The crew is really enjoying each other's company. I think we all got lucky with this crew, we seem to click very well together. An interesting example is Zena and David. Zena absolutely adores horrific puns. David had a before-now latent tendancy towards atrocious puns. Together, they make a fantastic team of not-so-witty repatoire. Derek is very amused with the 'that's what she said' game, and I'm honestly shocked that he had never heard of it before. The whole crew is enjoying that one.
While Derek and Zena were rolling around on the ATVs, I fixed up the engineering door a little bit. The two corners are still letting air in, so I have to get to those possibly tomorrow if I can drag myself out of my bunk. I dug more holes/trench things today as well. I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow. It's all good though, I got to use a pick-ax.
Jeff's got his head under the toilet yet again, and David's got on the poop suit to clean out the toilet before they reinstall it tomorrow (I think). I'm the only one up in the living quarters right now. I have to think about how I'm going to do dinner with what we have. And how to make it taste good. I'm thinking something like garlic butter pasta. Rule of thumb for next mission: If you think you have enough food; you don't.
We're planning to watch at least three episodes of Firefly tonight to try and catch-up. If we're going to finish by the end of our mission we have to get a move-on. We're all really tired from the work we're doing. It's pretty taxing. Shower night is tonight, which is great. I cannot see the blue of my jeans anymore, mostly because today I was squirming around in the clay under the HAB trying to dig trenches, but they were pretty bad before the digging. Time for a new pair methinks.
night monkey out
End day 9
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8 comments:
Happy New Year!
Despite years of Stargate, I have no idea what EVA and AVT are. Actually, I so typed TVA first, which is VAT in French...I'm assuming they mean 'mission' and 'vehicle' of some form though?
Also, what's the 'that's what she said' game? x
And I still managed to type ATV wrong *headdesk*
An EVA is an Extra-Vehicular Activity, which means anything that takes place outside the HABitat and it usually involves the use of a space-suit. An ATV is an ALL Terrain Vehicle, basically a four-wheeler that is suitable for the hills and roads in the desert.
Zack, do you remember the link of the article where you found the information that the earth's temperature dropped significantly over the course of days? I forget the exact numbers, but something like 18 deg in 20 days? Or am I imagining things?
I'm not sure what you're referring to, is this a disaster scenario or something else?
Sudden temperature drops can be contributed to volcano eruptions and large impacts, but I don't think anything happens naturally that will drop the temperature worldwide so quickly.
I THINK what you're referring to is our discussion of what major climate changes precede an ice age. Glaciers pushing south into the north Atlantic could potentially disrupt the gulf stream, which would cause severe climate changes in Europe.
Either that, or you're referring to one of Earth's previous ice ages, caused by the major disruption of ocean currents (at the time) that flowed between north and south america. When the continents connected through tectonic shifting, the currents were completely cut off, which caused massive climate change and threw Earth into one of it's ice ages.
I can't remember if it was you or Andrew who came up with an interesting figure where the earth's temperature shifted almost 18deg in a very short amount of time. Maybe it was Andrew...
It sounds like something I'd ramble about, but I don't know what of the many random "crazy climate change" discussions of ours you're referring to, lol.
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