Journalist's Report

March 26, 2008

Sean Blackman



Keep on truckin’; keep on workin’; keep on buildin’. Wake up. Coffee.
Joke joke joke, inappropriate joke. Repeat. Eat, laugh, Tulika snorts.
Twice. Put space suit on. Do work. Take space suit off. Get disgusting
in the Greenhab. Beg for a shower. Joke joke joke, inappropriate joke.
Repeat. Eat, laugh, Tulika snorts. Twice. Help with engineering just
to walk in pressurized tunnels. Put space suit on. ATV. Explore.
Conquer. Pray for fresh air. Fix equipment that breaks during EVA. Take
space suit off. Save generator from exploding. Protect Greenhab from
overflowing. Joke joke joke, inappropriate joke. Repeat. Eat while
writing reports, laugh, Tulika snorts. Thrice. Check email. Save
generator from exploding. Pray for fresh air. Observatory for
stargazing. Awe. Wonder…. Repeat. For the last time. Repeat.

And it’s over. This is the routine. This is what we have loved. And
only one more day of it. We will officially exit sim Thursday night –
tomorrow night. It has gone so quickly. We feel as though we have just
begun to know this pace, and yet now it is ending. If only we had more
time. More time to build, to construct, to improve. If only….

But we don’t have more time. And in three days we hand our joyful labor
to Crew 70. Back to reality, to theory, and away from the practical
lessons of today. Back to the old patterns. If only….

I think for most people, the thought of spending two weeks in a
cylindrical cage with few comforts, limited access to the world, and no
box spring along with six strangers sounds, well, foolish. But not for
us. Instead, we long for it. We wish we could but make time stop for
one more week. Indeed, Crew 69 has become more than just MDRS. We have
become companions, friends, comrades. We eat, joke, and laugh in the
midst of toil and discomfort. And then Tulika snorts. Twice.

Crew 69 out!