1231-JournalistsReport

Crew 160 Journalist Report Sol 5

December 31, 2015

Cassandra Vella

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne!”

We all woke up to a beautiful, sparkly surprise when the sun came out to reveal a sprinkling of snow powdered over the land around us. With minimal Disney’s Frozen singing attempts, a few of our crew members begged to go check out the snow up close in the tunnels, but we agreed to wait until after breakfast to make any decisions. Hiroki worked throughout the day on his GreenHab zipper, which he completed like a boss. Marc spent the day running around doing maintenance on the ATVs and mini rover to keep himself busy.

Lycourgos and I whipped up some pancakes and mixed bean hash for breakfast this morning and got everything prepared for the day with some epic classical music. After some crew bonding and tunnel snow men attempts, we sat down for a lunch of spicy pasta. After the sun set, for dinner the crew let me keep a home tradition of Italian lentil soup for good luck and fortune throughout the New Year, along with some Ramen for our vegan commander and mac and cheese for everyone else.

The weather today was a nice, bright and sunny day that we could see from inside the Hab. What a nice way to end Earth year 2015. Once the sun went down, we all worked on our research and shared stories of some memories from 2015 on Earth and how we hope 2016 will turn out once we return.

We here on Mars wish everyone on Earth a safe, happy, and healthy New Year’s Eve!