Commander's Report

February 16, 2010

Nancy Vermeulen



Commanders report CREW90 Tuesday February, 16th 2010 Nancy Vermeulen


Crew physical status: Good, despite three of us had bloody noses and
eye irritation.

There is a lot of dust in the Hab, which is not healthy. The small
aspirator is really too old and not functional anymore to clean the Hab
upstairs. The big one works fine, we use it downstairs. I recommend to
buy a new small aspirator only for use at the second floor.

All Hab systems working fine, despite the replaced hand pump of the
toilet. Until the new pump arrives, we will pump the toilet
electrically.

EVA suits: Backpack 4 doesn’t work optimally. Nicky told me a new
battery is on its way. Backpack 1: Somebody took it without
disconnecting the cable…no further comments!
Nicky will repair it tomorrow.

ATV Opportunity has a flat tire. We need replacement of the tire by DG,
self-fixing doesn’t help anymore.

The whole day, we were followed by the Belgian television team “VTM,
Telefacts”.
It went absolutely fine, as if their presence activated everybody into optimal performance.
The team spirit was very good today, I was happy to see the Crew helping
each other spontaneously.
VTM was filming everybody on his/her activity, we lunched together and
this evening we tried going to bed at 7 PM! What a luxury!

Two EVA’s today:
EVA 13: 11:30-12:30: Nancy: Installing a telescope in EVA suit and
checking the measurements of aerosols (RMI)
EVA 14: 15:00-17:30: Nancy, Nicky, Arjan, Pierre-Emmanuel and Margaux:
on quad to White Canyon to do another VRP test ride + taking pictures
with VTM.

Today is cooking day and I notice Margaux and Nora are becoming more
and more creative in making variations with the food we have here,
which makes us all very happy.

We are tired, but had an excellent day.

One step further to Mars!


Nancy Vermeulen
Commander MDRS90