Over My Head

Nobody likes to feel useless or inexpert. I have a long way to go before I am neither … an insight I have most certainly gained from my experience at MDRS. Some of my crew mates have proven to be prodigious engineers and multidisciplinary whizzes. I’ve always advocated having a wide range of skills. I can hold my own in a genetics laboratory or on the athletic field, and I’ve accrued a respectable level of ability in music and poetry. When it comes to “real life skills,” though, I’m pretty far behind, considering I want to be an astronaut.

Engineering, for example, is something I’ve never gotten into, and something I really ought to get into. Computers, basic construction, engines, and the likes are still foreign territory to me. My list of useful things to do before I graduate college also includes getting a ham (amateur) radio license and a private pilot’s license. It probably wouldn’t hurt for me to learn some more geology, physics, astronomy ….

I’ve enjoyed getting a feel for how the hab runs, and I’m glad I abandoned my trivial biology endeavors here to follow around some of the engineers. I’d never so much as touched a generator before this adventure, or even checked the oil of any engine, for that matter. Last night I spent some time with the toilet (which is still not quite fixed), and today I had some close encounters with the grey water system. “Grey water” is basically the stuff that goes down the kitchen drain, which is then pumped into the GreenHab (our greenhouse) and then cycled through a number of filters before being used to flush the toilet (if the poor little thing ever gets the chance to flush again). Pretty cool, actually.

Long story short, I’ll be coming back to school revamped and ready to dump more information than ever into my tiny little skull.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. After scrambling to finish up a couple projects, we might take a field trip out into the wilderness. Crew 64 should be arriving sometime after 5pm, and we’ll get until noon-ish the next day to train them and say goodbye to our pod-home in the desert. I’m not ready to part with this place, or with these people.

I probably won’t be updating this blog tomorrow, for the sake of enjoying the last hours with my crew. Stay tuned for the final chapter of my trip to Mars, and a heap of photos. (See you soon, Mom and Dad … let’s hope my plane takes off this time!)