Sol Summary – July 20th

Written by Jon Clarke

Sol 1 (or 81)
Today we started the simulation part of the Arctic phase of the Mars 160 mission. This is an especially appropriate day to start as July 20th in Space Day in the US.  It commemorates the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969 and the Viking 1 landing on Mars in 1976.  It’s more informal than Yuri’s night in April but a great pair of occasions to celebrate all the same.

The weather is very still and mild, and, for the first time since we have been here, it is cloudy. The crew did its first EVA, Anushree and Paul carrying out a pedestrian EVA features below the rim of Haughton crater near the hab,  Anushree examining features of biological interest and Paul checking the installations set out yesterday.  Alex rode shotgun.  Photos from the EVA feature below. We also raised the Mars Society flag, red, green, and blue, to celebrate Space Day.

The rest of us worked on engineering matters in the hab and wrote up reports, and collected operation and human factors data.  We also helped the EVA team for their excursion, and provided comms support while they were outside.

Tonight Yusuke is preparing his famous spam sushi, familiar from the first part of the Mars 160 mission.  We have settled back into the routine with familiar crewmates who are now well established friends building on memories and patterns build while at MDRS in Utah on the first phase of the mission.