Journalist Report
January 18, 2022
Felipe Torres, Crew Scientist
We have successfully landed on Mars!
Landing was safe, though a little rough. The crew is excited and some are a little nervous; our Commander had a few tears of joy from having arrived to the red planet. We are all proud of each other and of our mission support team on Earth for helping us get here safe.
It’s amazing the resemblance it has with our planet Earth. Some things look familiar, it even feels like home! We are all eager to start populating this planet.
Most things are still new for us, so today we started our training led by Atila; we started getting familiarized with the different systems on our Hab, RAM, Green Hab, and Science Dome. It’s a shame our Crew Astronomist couldn’t come with us we won’t be able to use our Observatories, fortunately, we’ll still be able to get telescopic images remotely from the Earth.
Time for a break! We had our first lunch together as Martians. Never thought that our crew had such talented cooks; definitely cooking won’t be an issue during our Mission.
We all helped each other jump inside our Spacesuits. We had done it before on Earth, but doing it here in Mars is actually way different. The feeling of being far from home starts kicking in. Spacesuits are on, we turn on and make sure all the systems are operating nominally.
Now the moment to explore has arrived. Let’s go outside! Said Atila. Our first exploration of Mars soil has been thrilling. We traveled a few miles in our Rovers (Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity) just enough distance to be safe and sound during our first EVA; we reached the Route 1104, also known as Galileo Road and then headed back to our Hab as the sun was falling down and the temperature was getting lower.
To end the day, we all studied the Mars map and discussed different zones of interest, which according to our Mission plan will be the best places to explore on our next EVA’s.
Good night.