Day: February 6, 2026

Report title: Journalist Report
Crew #: 326
Position: Crew Journalist
Report prepared by: Daria Bardus
Date: 08-01-2026
Sol: 10
Journalist Report Title: Flapjacks
After a competitive game of Uno and Feculence Cranium we went to bed. Vindhya and I slept in to try and recover some before the EVA tomorrow. I am feeling much better but sadly Vindhya still needs some time to recover. Keegan, Ben, and Idris went up to Skyline Ridge to collect Idris’s sensors before the bad weather rolled in. Once they got back, we played another round of Terraforming Mars where Keegan and Armand came in first. However, Ben and I did come in second and we would have won if our gambling had paid off.
After the game we began cleaning up to prepare for our departure on Sol 13. From there a few of us read and relaxed while Keegan, Armand, and Ben played Wingspan. Once I had finished my book, I began dinner. For dinner we had a lot, and I mean a lot, of pancakes and some mashed potatoes.
For the rest of the comms window, we are all getting some work done to prepare for exiting sim and working on our reports. Later we plan on going to the observatory to look at the stars and we will probably play some more games before heading to bed.

Report title: Journalist Report
Crew #: 328
Position: Crew Journalist, Comms Officer, & Astronomer
Report prepared by: Tom Bickmore
Date: 27-01-2026
Sol: 2

Journalist Report Title: Steady Progress

Steady progress here at the Mars Desert Research Station as we build momentum in sim on Sol 2.

We started the day enjoying the bread from last night’s test run—it came out nicely and made for a good addition to breakfast.

Overnight, we had made a few more adjustments to the Hab temperature controls for better sleep, and the whole crew noticed the difference this morning.

GreenHab Officer Rebeca Gonçalves gave an interview to Globo, a Brazilian media outlet, talking about the mission and our GreenHab activities.

We headed out on another training EVA, this time for Crew Scientist Jahnavi Dangeti and Engineer/Safety Officer Aaron Tenner to complete their required practice. I went along to document Jahnavi’s soil collection work for her research.

After a lunch debrief, we did a second EVA: Commander Mariló Torres and I assisted Rebeca in gathering regolith samples from the spots she’d scouted—locations identified as the closest local matches to Martian soil properties while still workable for planting.

We brought back a solid amount of good material for our GreenHab experiments. I also captured some specific footage during the EVA to share with Globo for Rebeca’s piece.

Along the way, we spotted an interesting mix of rocks in the red dirt: blues, greens, pinks, yellows, and plenty of jagged quartz-like chunks with transitions to other types—nice variety to photograph and study.

Projects are picking up speed. The space-flown tomato seeds are now planted in the lab-simulated Martian regolith and today’s regolith we collected will be used for a micro-greens experiment. One hydroponics test now has water flowing, and Aaron has been making on-the-spot modifications to his separate hydroponics setup to better fit local supplies and GreenHab systems.

Outreach is building too: more schools and individuals are signing up for our upcoming Live From Mars event, where kids around the world will talk with us through a simulated interplanetary comms delay (about 10 minutes each way), co-hosted by my students on Earth. It’s encouraging to see the interest grow day by day.

Daily routines are smoothing out, reports are getting easier, and the team is working amazingly well together.

More on Sol 3.