Sol 1 – Entry, Descent, and Landing
Crew 210 arrived at the Mars Desert Research Station mid-afternoon today. Consisting of biologists and outreach specialists from across North America, crew 210 will spend the next week conducting a biodiversity survey and ecological inventory of the MDRS area outside of sim. Our team includes:
· Dr. Shannon Rupert, director of the Mars Desert Research station, and desert ecologist.
· David Murray, crew 210 co-lead, MDRS GreenHab director, and desert ecologist.
· Paul Sokoloff, crew 2010 co-lead and botanist at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
· Samantha McBeth, polar biologist, expedition guide, and outreach coordinator.
· Mike Irvine, co-founder of Live It and outreach coordinator.
We spent this afternoon addressing logistical needs around the station, including some repairs of the hab tunnels, two water runs into Hanksville, and repairs to ATVs. We will likely need to run additional errands on Monday, so tomorrow we will begin our sampling program by surveying the vegetation and sampling around Salt Creek, on the Factory Butte road.
This spring has been very lush around MDRS and the “Martian” hills are green with peppergrass and evening primrose, so we are eager to begin our science program in the hopes of finding new plant records for MDRS, and to contribute to long-term ecological monitoring at the station.
You can follow our "Martian" adventures on Twitter (@LiveItearth, @Lady_McBeth_, @paul_sokoloff, @pillowdavid17), and by following #MDRS210 and #MarsBio
Until tomorrow,
Paul S, on behalf of crew 210