Journalist Report 14 May 2017

Prepared by Janet Biggs, Crew Co-Journalist

MDRS Sol 1

 

Let me introduce you to our crew.  We are a crew of five, our commander Cassie Klos (also artist in residence), Charlie Rogers, our Engineer and EVA engineer, Avishek Ghosh, our Green Hab Officer, Juan Garcia, artist in residence, co-journalist and Health and Safely officer, and me, Janet Biggs, artist in residence, co-journalist, and crew astronomer.  As you can see, we are heavy on the arts in our crew.  While being built to support scientific inquiry necessary for the human exploration of Mars, MDRS has always embraced the intersection of science and art … but with the emphasis on science.  This is their first experiment of a crew with the emphasis on art.  We will see how it goes!

Up until now, we have only been a crew of four.   Avishek’s flight from the UK was delayed and he had to spend the night in Denver.  He caught a bus and arrived in Grand Junction at 5am this morning.  Our commander took the shuttle pod (Hab car) to go pick him up.  The rest of us are having a lazy morning, getting used to our new home, talking Mars and tech, and making plans for once we go into sim!

After a few home repairs (realigning the front Hab door) and clean up (downstairs area of the Hab and kitchen), we learned that shuttle pod (again, Hab car) needed some oil, so the Commander and crewmember Avishek will be touching down shortly…

The shuttle pod has redocked and we are now a complete crew!  Charlie made our first meal of Martian Mac and Cheese!  After lunch Commander Cassie talked logistics, ideas, and expectations.  Our ideas run the gambit from playing a game of Martian hide and seek, building a runway to host possible visitors, to following each other around obsessively documenting every step.

But for now, we are busy preparing.  Tomorrow morning, we go into full sim and officially land on Mars!!!