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Day 6 - Friday 13 July
16 July 2001
Third day in the Martian Habitat. It was a quiet and relaxing, nothing you can do against the arctic weather as it was sleeting and raining all day long so we had to stay inside.
We had hopes of carrying out a short Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) to the weather station on the airstrip, to replace some electronic components but in view of the amount of rain falling and the increased level of the river, that idea was postponed until better weather. So we cleared up a little bit in the Habitat.
Today two people were allowed to take a shower. As Steve and Charles have been the longest in the Habitat, they were the lucky ones. One of the human-factor experiments is to assess the overall water consumption of a human crew so we were asked to spare the water and to use only what is deemed essential. So showers for the rest of the crew will be tomorrow and on the following days, and then they will be Navy-style showers - water on, get wet, water off, soap up, water on, rinse off, water off.
We have managed to get used to this style of life: the constant daylight, the occasional washes, the lack of fresh food, the confinement and living together. Luckily, we are getting along well and there is no inter-personal conflict among the crew members.
| | EVA suit room | |
I spent the morning checking the results of the geophysics experiment we did yesterday and sending the data to the co-investigators. They look interesting although we did not find water under the Haughton crater. The afternoon was spent reading or finishing reports. Robert Zubrin wanted to play Martian chess, a combination of normal chess, card games and dice throwing. We have still not tried it but he slaughtered me at normal chess.
In this morning’s briefing, our Commander Zubrin decided that in view of the good performance of the crew over these last three days we would be rewarded by watching a DVD tonight. The crew's choice fell on "Vertical limit". So despite the elements, moral is still high and we are looking forward to another EVA tomorrow.
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