Journalist's Report

April 11, 2008

Guerric de Crombrugghe



Great evening yesterday! First time since for a long time that I used a
telescope. And not any telescope: a big one, in a dome, completely
automated - even the dome moves alone-, full of webcams and photometers
to take so many pictures as we want, and that with a computer, without
moving of Hab! Regrettably, after tens of crews without respect for
this beautiful equipment, the system is not operational anymore.
Nevermind! Nothing prevents us from playing it manually, as in the good
old days. And it is then that I realized that my personnal memory
contains only a few objects : the nebula of Orion, Hercule's
starcluster, a vague triple star in the Great Bear, and it is it! It
will be necessary to content itself with it.
Let us feel reassured, the evening is not lost: it is the first time
that I saw the Holy nebula of Orion so sharply, magnificent! And it was
also very funny to shout very loudly in the desert, without even an
echo to abuse us.

The day begins with a late alarm clock: today we break sim, back on
Earth.
I'm supposed to stay in the Hab this morning, while Jan, Elnaz and
Céline drive to the canyon. Noon, I am not still dressed, too much
occupied with sending useless e-mails to settle a dark story of a
Russian lesson. A few minutes later, Elnaz announces us that she will
not make the first expedition. One second later, I was on my ATV, ready
to go!
Long expedition to go to the canyon. I admit to feeling less safe without
the EVA suits. A good pair of fight shoes, a beautiful helmet, and we
are ready to face snakes, accidents, sand and storm. Now I am quite
bare, at the mercy of all the dangers. Fortunately I had a
child-size helmet.
On the way back, while I filmed driving (for the clip of Riders on
the Sand), three elk bugle females cross my road. " Fortunate that he
filmed ", are you saying, " we can finally see these famous animals
about which everybody speaks ". Haha! No way! Because God knows why I
began filming the sky and shouting " Okapis! Okapis! ", what is stupid
double because that frightened antelopes, and because the okapis have
probably never left the African continent.

I spent the rest of the day working in the lab, it is really cheerful.
Halophiles? For the moment, God only knows, but he will not soon be any
more the only one.

See you guys!