Sol Journal for October 9th

Sunday

This report was filed by Anastasiya Stepanova- Crew Journalist

Awake, sun has risen already, but no sound of people. How strange is that! Usually the crew members start to wake up from 6.30. Oh, on Earth it is Sunday and here we have our first day off. What it is like to have Sunday on Mars? Well we can get up later than usually, have a relaxed breakfast without discussion of the EVA plan.

The day off doesn’t mean we twiddle around. From 09.30 until 11.00 we had a geology lecture from Dr. Jon Clarke. I will write in my next sol journal in detail about the geology lessons learned. Jon has this rare mix of intelligence that can be transmitted to others in an easy and entertaining way. He knows the geology of not only the Earth but also Mars.  Drawings are one of the best ways to convey information to the audience and so did Jon. Salt lakes, soil layers, levels of evaporate deposits and dried Martian basins. The imagination takes you away. How many discoveries humans will make if they had a chance to work on Mars. Walking miles in search of microorganism that probably have left from the rich past of the red planet. Calculate the speed of flows by looking at the dried riverbeds. We have decided that each crew member will give a speech about their passion, skills. Therefore we never stop learning from each other on the different levels. On our next days off we will have a lecture from crew biologist Anushree Srivastava.

After lunch we had an hour of yoga class and some push ups and pull ups. Then everyone took their leisure time. Alexandre was drawing a spaceship, Jon reading a detective story, Anushree was writing science notes, Yusuke was analyzing maps and did tracking, Annalea and me was writing, reading and again writing.

For the dinner, thanks to Yusuke, we will have a special meal – Japanese freeze dried food which was made for the Antarctic station and tested by Japanese astronauts on International Space Station. And to finish this relaxed day we plan to watch the movie “Galaxy Quest”. Have a nice Sunday Earth!