Mars is empty. I’m walking here now, the surface cracks with every step I take. Looking around, it’s all red, the redness I found so thrilling all those years when viewing the images and videos. It’s my first time out, and you’re reading my spoken diary. Welcome.
My colleagues are walking around, just as amazed as I am. I can see it, the way their suits move. The gravity, the chill, the small horizon, all heard before, but not experienced. We landed a couple of minutes ago. The settlement is nearby, I can see the buildings. Ah, my colleagues are moving in one direction again, no brownian motion of amazement. I will follow them, it’s a bit scary to be here, only a thin suit is protecting me from the deadly environment around.
John started talking in the telecom “hi guys, wow, this is amazing, lets start walking towards the gate”.
He is the leader of the group. Self appointed. I don’t mind, he’s a nice guy and I have more important things to do than thinking in terms of social behavior. Mm, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Laura de Korte. I’m from the Netherlands and my profession is Areology, the study of the geology of Mars. I’m here on a grant, I will stay on Mars for 1 Martian year, which is 687 Earth days. Today, March the second 2021, is my birthday, I’m 32 now.
I’m walking here with four other people. You already met John. John Strutter, the Project Manager of the planetary mapping exercise I will start in a couple of days. The other people are all Areologists, Mary, Henk and Charles. Henk is also from the Netherlands, we had good conversions during the trip from Earth to Mars. I will introduce the rest later on.
Still walking towards the settlement. The red around is mind blowing. Small rocks around, very sharp. Frozen dunes, small craters and no vegetation. There are places on Earth which look the same, but they do not feel the same. That has to do with the suit I guess. We’re going to Mars a small part of Mars, Iani Chaos. It will be a lot of climbing and robotics, because the relief is extreme. I love that, I looked for hours at images from this area and just the idea of actually going there, wow.
The airlock is in sight. I’ll go in there and meet everyone. I’ll turn of my speech recognition now. Maybe later I’ll put on some vidglasses. So for now, everyone at home listening, viewing or reading, until soon! Bye bye.
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