0122-JournalistReport

SOL 13

Journalist Report

Crew Journalist Adeniyi Adebayo

Today is the last day of our SIM. We have had a truly amazing experience filled with lots of learning, discussions and productive research. Our crew got up early for our usual morning debrief and planning session. Engineering checks followed, after which we started Hab clean-up. Our crew engineers worked on fixing a broken helmet and two non-functional HEV suits. Crew commander and I worked on the chemical analyses of the final soil samples and all concluded their research reports.

As our rotation comes to an end, we have been extremely fortunate to enjoy good team rapport and successful research projects. We had minimal obstructions and anomalies with our work. However, working on Mars has been challenging. We have had to manage multiple difficulties from engineering problems with HEV suits to ATV problems during EVAs to interpersonal communication.

As we look forward to welcoming the new crew, we feel very grateful for the opportunity to work on the MDRS. It has been a fascinating journey with cosmic consequences for all of us.

SOL 13 pics