0124-CommanderReport

Crew Commander Daily Report

SOL 01

Crew 162

Crew Commander: Renee Garifi

We arrived at the Hab on Saturday afternoon after meeting the out-going

Crew 161, Team Skoltech, at the nearby market to pick up our provisioned

food boxes for the mission. Half of this team, including the mission

commander, welcomed and escorted us to the analog site. The remaining

half stayed at the Hab to prepare a creative lunch for all of us which

we enjoyed together over discussions of space research, graduate

studies, world travel and common interests. They are a great group of

people and we wished them a safe trip back to Moscow early this morning.

Our first day on Mars started with a team hike to the top of the hill

overlooking the Hab, GreenHab and Observatory. We took some incredible

photographs of the site against the backdrop of our first Martian

sunrise together. We took time to move into our estate rooms and get

unpacked while our Health & Safety Officer organized our food pantry.

After a mid-morning daily planning conference, we were off and running

with our assigned tasks and timetable for the day.

Being a small crew of three Martian musketeers, we worked together to

unpack research equipment and perform inventories of hardware and food

provisions. The Health & Safety Officer and I assisted our Crew Engineer

in refilling the static water tank from the trailer tank so our mission

resource starting levels were topped off. A fun and windy photo shoot

entertained our afternoon before we performed a symbolic airlock closing

ceremony to signal the start of our simulation.

Tonight we will be setting up our plant growth experiments, reviewing

our astronomy training guides, researching opportunities for

star-gazing, prepping for soil sample collections and watching the bonus

features of our team copy of The Martian DVD. Until tomorrow, Crew 162

Commander Garifi, signing off.