Journalist report sol 5
After a few days on Mars, people get comfortable, start to stare into the middle distance, and have interesting discussions over homemade Hab pizza. Today was productive and exploratory for the crew.
Wakeups are a bit more automatic now—this Crew Journalist rose and watched her phone clock turn from 6:59 to 7:00—and this morning flowed fairly seamlessly into our crew meeting, which had to do with lowering our water consumption along with planning EVAs and a few goal happenings for next week. Our Commander and Journalist left on the first EVA toward Green Mars View (which the Journalist realized she and the Engineer had not quite reached last time), where they took in the view at the canyon ridge for a meditative stretch before walking toward a nearby elevated area to look for the Monolith. A few things poked out of the distant rocks, but nothing definitive; on the drive back, the two stared at a column-like rock formation many miles away, waiting for the shifting light to reveal its identity, before deciding they had probably failed. Fortunately, this only makes things more interesting.
The wind picked up in the afternoon, so our Engineer and HSO went on a short, one-hour EVA to release the rocks the Engineer had 3D scan back into the wild, and to test the drone in windy conditions.
Of course, the food: from-scratch corn muffins with cheddar cheese and chives on top, and a couple pizzas using a variety of pantry and GreenHab ingredients (photos attached). The Journalist enjoyed listening to music from the Commander’s digitized ’60s tape collection while kneading the dough. Now that suiting up, report writing, and scaling the Hab’s steep stairs are familiar, we can spend our cognitive energy on other pursuits—our pre-report evening has ended with a varied discussion on bigger questions around Martian exploration.