Sol 1: Welcome to Mars!
Well, Crew 292 Mangalyatri have officially landed on Mars! Many of the Crew had a challenging journey here, while I waited for them after Crew 291’s departure back to Earth, but everyone got here safe and sound in the end. We had a big dinner to celebrate our landing and an even bigger sleep to feel refreshed before our training began this morning.
Sol 1 began with coffee, tea, and delicious banana pancakes – the perfect breakfast to fuel a big sol of training and our sim beginning.
We started our training at 0900 and kept training until about 1500 (though we did stop for a much-needed tea break and lunch break). We’ve all learned a lot of valuable skills about how to do our jobs around the Hab and how to drive, use EVA suits, and use radios. We were all feeling prepared to start sim but couldn’t resist taking lots of photos and videos and going for a big walk before we could no longer take walks without EVA suits and a strong scientific justification. Crew 292 greatly enjoyed going up to Hab Ridge and looking for fossilised oyster shells, before heading back to the Hab about 40 minutes before our sim began.
We finished off some last-minute chores like watering plants and checking our supplies before it ticked over to 1800 and we were officially living on Mars.
All that’s left to complete our first sol on Mars is a delicious and nutritious dinner, getting used to our schedule of report writing, communications, cooking, and working, and having a big sleep before beginning our EVAs tomorrow. All our Mangalyatris are feeling welcome and settled and are super excited to begin our rotation on Mars!
Until next sol,
Clare Fletcher (292 Mangalyatri journalist)