Josh and I stayed in the Hab this afternoon. He was cap-comm (we use walkie-talkies with the EVA crew) and I backed him up and did some housekeeping and note-taking too. We watched images from the rover camera—which was super-exciting. We both drove the little dude. The rover worked wonderfully till its main battery ran out, though the separate camera battery kept going. That high-tech complement to human presence on Mars contrasted to Jorge’s bike/handcart invention. He actually did ride the bike, and he, Peter and Humberto, reconfigured it into a wheelbarrow-like handcart, hauling a bag of sand meant to simulate an injured astronaut (or, you know, a lot of rocks). Both projects are important. The former can be used to do science near a human base without having to send astronauts out in suits, a process we have found even with our minimal equipment to be time-consuming and energy-draining. So a shout-out to Chris Follette, a grad student in space studies at the University of North Dakota. The rover—MACHO (Mars Complement Humanity Rover)—ran like a beauty. It really was cool seeing the images come across. Josh exclaimed several times during the test run. I did too.
And Jorge’s bike/cart worked just as well, proving that rugged low-tech has a place in surface exploration too. Testing a Martian handcart in the state where Mormons arrived by handcart? Priceless.
The whole EVA crew came back very happy with how the work went. The only negative was Humberto getting a bit of a swollen ankle (he is still healing from an injury from a few weeks ago). He’s resting up, and dinner is underway. Okay, I still need to do some flower identification and give y’all a little more background on the geology of Marstah (Mars + Utah). Till later.
-Christopher Cokinos
Journalist and Writer-in-Residence
And Jorge’s bike/cart worked just as well, proving that rugged low-tech has a place in surface exploration too. Testing a Martian handcart in the state where Mormons arrived by handcart? Priceless.
The whole EVA crew came back very happy with how the work went. The only negative was Humberto getting a bit of a swollen ankle (he is still healing from an injury from a few weeks ago). He’s resting up, and dinner is underway. Okay, I still need to do some flower identification and give y’all a little more background on the geology of Marstah (Mars + Utah). Till later.
-Christopher Cokinos
Journalist and Writer-in-Residence