Date and time: 22 April 2012
Written by: Mike Bodnar, Crew 118, First Officer
This has been an eventful day for the crew of KiwiMars 2012. It was scheduled as our final training day before we go into sim tomorrow, and started well enough with a crisp dawn and some not-so-early rising by some of the crew still tired from their long journeys to 'Mars'.
In the morning we reviewed the flight plan and fine-tuned some details, while also whiteboarding some extra ideas for the mission's schedule.
The other main event of the morning was the ATVS training. Executive Officer Mike Bodnar had previously ha training in ATVS operation and had worked for a summer season guiding for an ATVS outdoor adventure company, so he instructed the crew in the safe operation of the machines.
Once the instruction period was completed, those who had had little or no experience on quad bikes took the opportunity to practice around the Hab environment, and successfully honed their new-found skills.
After lunch though, mission specialist Annalea Beattie fell down the short flight of steps immediately outside the EVA airlock and twisted her ankle, which immediately swelled up. She was also in some shock, so we treated both the injury and her shock and decided that the ankle should be looked at professionally in case it was broken.
The commander and first officer, having unsuccessfully tried to phone the contacts on the medical help list due to poor phone coverage, drove the five miles into Hanksville where our MDRS contact at the service station gave us the number of a clinic in a town 55 miles distant, but the closest with x-ray facilities. Having arranged for Annalea to be seen by a health professional she was gently lifted not the Hab's vehicle and accompanied by the commander and flight engineer (Annalea's partner Don) and taken to the clinic.
While they were away the three of us remaining undertook to do Don's flight engineer reporting and compile our own report. In the meantime we experienced difficulties (ongoing) sending images to Mars mission control or MDRS Mission Support, or having Skype session with mission control at Carter Observatory in Mission Control. The bandwidth issue is what seems to be constraining our communications and we are looking into it.
Just before 9pm Annalea and her minders returned from the clinic with the good news that her injury is nothing worse than a bad sprain, though this will curtail some of her mission activities and will likely preclude her from any expeditions. It is frustrating for her especially, but she is taking it well and is now looking forward to spending more time capturing the essence of Mission 118 in art form.
ENDS.