Work, Work, Work

I'm getting used to the martian oatmeal in the morning. I had to stop putting de-hydrated milk into the oatmeal because it was giving me stomach aches. I haven't had a steak in close to a week! The food here isn't bad, and I'm not complaining, it's the fact that all of our meat either comes from a can or is imitation. My cholesterol levels are lowering because of the lack of red meat, and I don't approve of that.

Enough about the food for right now. The crew accomplished a lot again today. The hab was cleaned from head to toe, or is it stem to stern, starboard to port. I don’t know, but you get the point. We swept, vacuumed, mopped, and scrubbed the hab. It was well worth it. With all the EVA's over the last few days this place is crawling with martian dust; we don't need to be breathing any of that in. Some of the geological sites within a few kilometers of the hab contain radioactive rocks, plus this dust consist of silicone sand, which can be very damaging to your lungs. So mom I had to clean for my health, don't think I'll clean this much when I'm home. Love ya ma.

After the downstairs was okay to walk around in we started planning our assembly of the radio telescope. This is a very exciting process, we are assembling the scope in sim, which makes the process longer and more tedious, but also more gratifying upon completion. After the initial planning stage we suited up and headed out. The two dipoles need to be at a height of twenty feet in the air, this makes the process complex because the masts are made out of pvc. We were able to get one of the two remaining masts constructed and raised. We have some more work to do, but the outlook is good and we hope to have the scope operational by the weekend if we have the correct coax cable, which we cant find at this point.

The EVA went well and a few of the other crew members went out to search for geological samples in the hopes of finding micro fossils. The geological research has been fun to do but with little meaningful results. Until today that is. When Commander Steve returned from his EVA he diligently went to start analyzing his samples. This was a great moment because Commander Steve found a micro fossil. He found an ostracod. It’s a small crustacean that is from the upper Jurassic era. This is about 120 million years old. The latin lover boy also found an extremophile on one of the samples that he returned with.

There wasn't too much exploring today, but we did get a lot of meaningful research done today. It was work, work, work, all day long, but it was worth it. I made blueberry muffins for desert. One of which I am eating right now, and has given me enough energy to continue typing. Damn that muffin is good, just like momma's apple pie (except my mom never actually made apple pie). Dinner was great, Daring Dave whipped up some couscous. I've never had that before, but it was very good. Tomorrow seems like another good day, someone is smiling on us. I believe we're the first crew this season to keep the hab running this long. No showers really puts a damper on my style, but hey, I have a lot of old spice deodorant that should hold me over. Nobody on "Lost " ever bathes, shaves, or goes to the bathroom, so I think we're still sitting pretty here on Mars.

Over and Out,
Astro Paul