1113-CommandersReport

Commander Report

13 November 2015 – Sol 6

Ben Easter

*** BEGIN TRANSMISSION***

Mission Support,

Greetings from a well-hydrated Mars! While down to our last 20 gallons of water, Crew 156 received a shipment of water approximately midnight last night (some crew members were still awake because of a late and fun game or Cards Against Humanity). We were very excited to be able to continue sim, and had an excellent breakfast, followed by educational sessions on space toxicology and behavioral and psychiatric issues in long duration spaceflight.

Our EVA today was quite challenging in many aspects. We brought six team members, and had simulated injuries to team members, requiring the group to handle multiple patients at once. Our first patient became hypothermic while working on Mars. He improved mildly when they turned up the temperature in his suit and placed him in the Sun. During this time, another crew member experienced simulated chest pain, collapsed, and had a cardiac arrest. The remainder of the crew had to evacuate both patients to the Hab while continuing medical care. Once in the Hab, the hypothermic patient improved while the crew continued resuscitation of a cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, in our simulation, the patient did not survive, and the crew had a very interesting and challenging discussion on termination of resuscitation of another crew member.

Tonight, we will have our last dinner as a full crew, as some crew will be returning to Earth tomorrow. All would like to say thank you to the Mars Society for this wonderful opportunity, and thanks to everyone at Mission Support who has helped us get to this point.

One question for mission support. Do you have any information on our contact with our relief crew? I have not yet heard anything.

Respectfully submitted,

Ben Easter

Commander, MDRS Crew 156

*** END TRANSMISSION ***