EVA Journal – October 13th

“The girls’ EVA out”

Stepanova Anastasiya

Today’s extra vehicle activity we called “The girls’ night out”, even though it is a Utah morning and we are not going shopping or dancing. Annalea, Anushree and I started our preparation. The space back pack needed the adjustments to our height. It took some time, because we need to feel as comfortable as we can to operate long hours on the field. Finally, we were ready to go for our ATV training and hypolith scouting. First, girls have to recap their knowledge on the ATV’s, make sure there is enough fuel, it is not out of service and be able to drive it confident. 20 minutes later just when we finished the training Annalea’s space suit stops giving air. She had to go back to the station and we proceeded for the microbiology life scouting.

My first master’s degree is in Space Journalism, second Bachelor’s Degree I’m getting now is Robotics, therefore I’m quite far from biology. But the crew has two talented scientists – Anushree and Jon. Just imagine how good they are to cross train the crew, if even a “blonde journalist” could pick it up fast. Yes, have a good laugh!

Yesterday I passed my mini test at geological EVA. Dr. Jon Clarke was pointing at the rock formations and asking me to describe the structure and what it tells about its history. As he said, “you are top of the class”.

Today I passed my mini biological test. Anushree Srivastava explained what is the hypolith and how we can find it. Just few minutes after we got to the spot I found my first hypolith stone and since then luck was on my side.

A few hours after we got back to the station happy, tired and full of ideas. Next month promised to be interesting: we will collect the samples and analyze them in the laboratory. Therefore, I could share more to the readers the wonders of science world.