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.