1130-CommandersReport

Commander Report

SOL 1 - Logdate: 0011302015

"...somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known..."

Finally Crew 158 landed safely on the Red Planet to begin our first evening on Mars and the crew is filled with anticipation as the next two weeks will be an extraordinary experience as we embark on this incredible journey together. We all understand the challenges and the obstacles that will confront us and to test our character and resolve. No doubt, we will all be changed (hopefully for the better) as individuals and learn to live as a close-knit team and to build memories to cherish for many lifetimes.

Writing the Commander's log is. I feel, an important part of the whole experience not only for documentation but for observers and viewers to have a glimpse into the lives of how analog astronauts or future Martian settlers live their lives on Mars. Writing is also about preserving timeless memories to share with others - past, present and future. Writing is MAGIC ...as Carl Sagan once said....

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

Carl Sagan

I look forward to spending the next two weeks with Crew 158 and to fill our time here on Mars with..."something incredible"...

...with love, kindness, compassion, understanding and caring....all the traits to become a true Human Being ...a vision of a true Martian.

Ad Astra...until the next SOL....goodnight Earth from Mars!