308-CommandersReport

Commander Report

03/08/2013

Melissa Battler

Our last full day on Mars was/is a bit exciting. We woke up to clouds, and spent the morning

capturing final footage and pictures for outreach videos and websites/blogs, and starting to clean

up the hab for our hand-over with Crew 126. Then, in the afternoon Volker, Hans and I went on one

final EVA to collect data for Hans' Crowdsourcing experiment. In short, Hans has an online game in

which players are invited to look at high resolution images of Mars' surface and identify features

of interest. For our MDRS rotation, he provided high resolution images of the area surrounding MDRS

and asked players to look for the specific features us geologists are interested in. We visited

these sites to confirm what the players had identified from orbital imagery, to get a better idea of

the circumstances under which crowdsourcing can help scientists. While on EVA we watched the rain

approaching on the horizon, but we misjudged a little bit, and by the time we were ~500 m from MDRS

the sky opened up and we got mildly drenched. It was exhilarating, but we were glad we didn't have

far to run! The rain stopped for awhile, but by the time we were eating dinner it picked up again,

as did the winds, to the point where rain started to enter the hab, and it continues to do so as I

write this. There are a few leaks, but we're monitoring the situation. The rain should turn to snow

later this evening, so hopefully we won't have to worry about leaks over night! In any case, we've

had a very successful mission, with hardly any challenges, so tonight we don't mind a little bit of

adventure. We've loved our time here at MDRS, and we're thrilled to announce that all of our science

goals were achieved. We look forward to collaborating with each other and our external partners over

the next several months to make sure that our data is published in peer-reviewed journals, so the

rest of the scientific community may benefit from our findings.

Finally, it's been an honour to serve on Crew 125. I've learned so much from each crew member about

their field of expertise and their culture, and it's been a pleasure getting to know each one of

them. Crew 125, thank you for a great rotation at MDRS! I look forward to years of collaborations

and friendship! Thanks also to mission director Bernard Foing of the International Lunar Exploration

Working Group (ILEWG), to our sponsors at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NASA Ames, George Washington

University, NASA Astrobiology Program, ESTEC SBIC, Norsk Romsenter, German Aerospace Center (DLR),

BlackShore, The Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) at Western University of Canada,

the Canadian Lunar Research Network (CLRN), the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at

Western University of Canada, ESRI Hungary Kft., Eotvos Lorand University, Urvilag, Japan Mars

Society, and to The Mars Society, Mission Support, and our dedicated CapComs for making this mission

a success!

_______________________

CommanderCheckIn Report

03/08/2013

Melissa Battler

Crew Physical Health:

All are well.

EVA Depart Time: 13:15

EVA Return Time: 14:45