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The guys from the previous crew left us waiving. We are home alone on Mars. |
We started with a review of everything we had on the station, from paper and toner for the printer to the ridiculously good food (that we only had to rehydrate). You can find everything at MDRS, everything that makes life easy for the crew. Even movies. It is customary that everyone brings a movie or a book and leaves it here. I am the Executive Officer of the crew which means second in command, and I like it. The job comes with the room, myself and the commander have one wall to the exterior so we can vigil every movement of the crew (or of the wind). My colleagues went to bed earlier than me. We are on different times.
We decide to start the simulation on Tuesday, which will give us time to get acquainted with what we must do here and do it in safetysafely. Safety of the crew comes above everything at MDRS.
Life in a Martian habitat is nothing like our daily 9-5. First thing after waking up, the crew's engineer has to make makes the morning round, check checks the engines, the power generator, heat and water, pumps and the greenhouse where the gray water is being recycled. We are only using Oasis soap which is a bio - soap that breaks down into non-harmful compounds. Although at first we were skeptic about it, it's one of the best soaps I have ever used. 
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I love engineering, I would have loved to do it for real, in a space station. After Since our real engineer could not make it, we assigned the difficult task to myself and Dragos Bratasanu, who also is the journalist of the mission. This way we can deal with this and also have time to fulfill our daily tasks. Having to do perform another person's job had a great impact on all of us but we are adapting. At the end of the day, this is about adaptation and teamwork.
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