2022-2023 Field Season (#22)

Journalist Report – Earth-Date 25May2018 / Sol 5

Author: Dana Levin

This concludes the mission of crew 195. We have suffered many a crisis and the crew has weathered them bravely. We’ve been down but not out, beaten but not broken, Spurned but never scorned, cloudy but not stormy, free but not clear, and many other things. In the end, this crew has handled the rigors of our cruel mistress mars well and looks forward to our return to earth having been enriched by the experience and our lives changed permanently and forever.

24.MAY.18

Today the crew awoke to the typical breakfast and morning briefings of the day. A PR crew joined us from a neighboring habitat to film some promotional material for mission control. The crew successfully set out on their EVA and the film crew recorded aspects of habitat life and EVA operations. Unfortunately disaster befell the crew of MDRS 195 yet again. The EVA had to be aborted after an emergency call was received. The crew expertly managed the crisis and recovered all crew members and vehicles before true disaster fell. We were fortunate to have the assistance of our PR crew to help manage the disaster. But all crew remain alive so we are looking forward to tomorrow’s mission, and we remain optimistic that perhaps tomorrow our crew will escape unscathed….

MDRS Crew 195
23 May, 2018

Hump day. The crew continue to evolve as a group. Personality traits surface, morals are tested and maybe even questioned. Debates are heated. It is deliberate of course. We ponder the type of people that may make up the future Mars populations. Would any of us make the cut? Would any of you want to?

The previous few updates have likely not made much sense. I am not suffering from space madness. Big Brother is a brutal censor. Enough said.

The day is hot and clear. The EVAs, as fun and varied as they are, feel like a tease. We whiz by so much photogenic landscape. It’s too much to take in at once. The experience seems a little too fleeting.

One handed ATV driving for a selfie is clearly a no-no and there is the overriding need to return to Hab for repress before our “consumables” run out. Like that annoyingly essential thing called oxygen.

We were given a unique perspective on Mars weather today. Sometimes having limited control over your situation is liberating. Other times it unmasks some cracks. The radio etiquette has shifted from attempted professionalism to requests for urgent ice water enemas on arrival back at Hab. Yep, we’re taking our Sims seriously.