Date and time: 4 May 2012
Written by: Mike Bodnar, Crew 118, First Officer
Any and every exploratory endeavour should be recorded in some way. Mariners of old would often carve scenes into whalebone or similar materials (scrimshaw); botanists such as Joseph Banks made detailed sketches and paintings, while later photography enabled the capturing of scenes in an instant, along with wide duplication for sharing.
KiwiMars 2012 Mission 118 is no exception and the whole adventure has been documented in various ways since Day One. Video, sketches, photographs, blogs, even the Hab's webcams... they have all played a role in capturing our stay at the Mars Desert Research Station.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon in 1969 their every move was captured by television cameras, and in still photographs. People around the world listened to their radios and, through extensive coverage, could eavesdrop on almost every communication between Cap-com and the astronauts.
So here we are at the end of our sojourn, our last full day, and each of us took this chance to capture the mission one last time in some way.
Ali, whose replacement 360-degree panorama camera mount arrived just in time struggled in the blustery conditions to get some final panoramas of the Hab landscapes.
Don and Annalea were up at dawn to walk up the nearby hills and watch the sunrise. Later in the day Annalea was commissioned by Haritina to sketch six space suited figures, each image of which would then be assigned to a crew member for placement on the door of our rooms, in keeping with the MDRS tradition. Looking at the previous laminated patches, photos and names, it seems KiwiMars 2012 will be the first crew to feature original artwork as a memento of our stay.
Bruce completed his final Hab communications with Mission Control at Carter Observatory, as well as finishing blogging his daily summaries.
Haritina took the opportunity to go with Ali and myself for a photographic EVA, with a main aim being to get good images of space suited figures for use in any promotion of possible future KiwiMars missions.
Me? Well, I had a small list of "things still to shoot" on video, most of which I have now done, though there is likely to be a few items still on the list tomorrow after the mission is over. I look at it as a wish list rather than a shooting script, so I am happy with what I have got, and very pleased with my 'cast' who have politely put up with my poking a video camera in their faces for the past two weeks.
So, like other exploratory endeavours, KiwiMars 2012 has been recorded, in minute detail. There will be videos, the will be an art exhibition, there will be numerous articles, public talks, presentations and interviews. In time there will be educational resources too.
And there will almost certainly be another KiwiMars mission to the Mars DesertResearch Station.
ENDS.