Europa

June 23, 2048

It is hard enough to use the equipment required for this mission when they were training us how to handle it. Doing it underwater is infinitely more challenging.

In order to simulate what it will be like to be on the space station we wear the space suit as a team of divers lowers us in the water and guides us to allow us to better experience what zero gravity is like. The suits we used during the exercise were not the ones we would be using once we were actually in space. Instead, they were specially designed to make me naturally buoyant, while also sharing similar proportions to the ones we would be using.

None of the things we were practicing under water translated directly to what we would be doing during the actual mission. Since our mission would be focused on doing field work on the surface and below the surface of Europa. Therefore, we would not be expending any resources for a spacewalk. In the scenario where a spacewalk took place on our mission it would mean that something had catastrophically gone wrong. If it was me participating on that walk and not one of the engineers, we were surely doomed.

Still, the experience was invaluable. While there would be gravity on Europa, that gravity would be only a thirteenth of what we experience on Earth. It would almost feel like we were weightless, especially when we were out of our space suits in camp.

The hardest part of working in the zero-gravity simulated environment, aside from working in the bulky suit that makes it difficult to see and maneuver, is remembering to keep an eye on the items you are not holding. Anything you are not actively holding or that is not fastened to you or the environment around you will move. It can be extremely frustrating, and you can feel really dumb when the tool you were using has floated out of reach, but after reminding myself a few times I think I've gotten the hang of it. It turns out magnets are extremely useful in space.

We will be doing a lot more training in the buoyancy lab for the next two weeks. That is good because I need to be able to work faster in these zero gravity conditions. I am also going to need to work with some advanced and delicate microscopes to analyze samples.

Commander Hunt got on my back by the end of the exercise about not communicating well enough. He has not laid off me since the first day he ripped into me. I'm considering speaking to him about it but I do not want to make it worse.