February 29th, 2020

Sol 13 – Crew 222: A taste of home

We woke up very early this morning to see the sunrise. At 6am, we were all outside climbing on the Ridge wall in the pale light of our flashlights. The view from above was stunning: the sun rose over the small hills in the distance, illuminating the mesa and the snowy mountains minutes after minutes. Finally, the sun rays shone through the atmosphere… What a way to end our stay here.

At 1pm, we met with Crew 223 at the Rock Shop. It was so crazy seeing new faces after two weeks in isolation! Especially since we know them from back home, it feels like they brought a taste of home with them. We cooked lunch and shared our experience here with the new crew. We’ve been preparing this mission for more than a year, so being here together is long awaited! We were really excited to tell them all about our mission and transmit our newly acquired experience. We had so much to share.

Before the sun was setting, we all got together outside to take the crew change photos. We are leaving early tomorrow morning, so we needed to finish all our transmission of knowledge before we went out to eat. Once that was all done, we headed out to have our first meal and their last meal outside the station: the iconic “last burger” in Hanksville.

It has been a pleasure writing everyday about our life in the station. It’s been an incredible experience for all of us, and we would love to spend the next two weeks here again (granted we can take a shower before…). I hope I could transmit my passion for this mission through these reports, and I hope they made you aspire to being a marsonaut, like it inspired me!

Author: Marie Bochard, Crew Journalist