Sol Journal for October 12th

The Cross Training Results

This report was filed by Anastasiya Stepanova- Crew Journalist

Another beautiful day outside and, of course, in the space suits. Crew geologist, artist and me went to scout the Martian roads for samples, inspiration and data for the articles. I love to ride on ATV in the space suit, no dust on your face, warm and safe. But to climb even a little hill gets tricky and feels like you have never done it before.

For Annalea it was a first EVA so far. We were all worried and excited about how she would feel physically and mentally. Our crew artist amazed us, she was the first to find hypoliths. Basically, these are microbial colonies growing beneath the stones. It is important to be cross trained by our scientists, therefore the crew members with not related skills are also able to find the hypolith samples. Annalea’s discovery proved today that anyone can be cross trained and assist the crew biologist and geologist. The outcome of scientific operations of this mission will greatly increase. (magnify), if we also implement such an approach to our second part at the Arctic station. By looking at proposed Mars missions in the space history we often see that future Mars astronauts would need to have several professions and be able to easily learn new skills in order for the efficient operational work on Mars. What we are doing at Mars Desert Research Station is an important experience, which will help us understand better ways of preparing the Martian astronauts.