Written by Haritina Mogosanu, Haritina@marssociety.org.nz, Crew 118 Commander
KiwiMars 2012 is getting adjusted to the desert in the second day of our presence at MDRS. The crew almost recovered from the jet lag/ confined environment/ and still in awe for the beauty and the magnificence of this place.
Today started with our first full briefing. We touched on the flight plan for the week and discussed the photo shoot scheduled for the afternoon. My First Officer offered to train everyone in handling the ATV's which proved to be a very welcomed break. The briefing covered all aspects of handling and riding the ATVs, safety issues, and hand signals and it was recorded on tape. Today we also started the nutritional study with the extraordinary performance of Don who prepared a chicken dish that was delightful.
The crew is in good morale and functions like a team which is great. We saw this in the incident from today where my Mission Specialist in Life Sciences, Annalea lost her equilibrium climbing the stairs outside the main entrance. The rails of the stairs that are made of wood have a slight shift when holding onto them and because she also had something else in her hand she felt over. Unable to contact DG by telephone (we used Skype phone) myself and my First Officer drove to Hanksville where DG was very kind and assisted us in contacting the medical services and we arranged for an X-ray in Bicknell. At the hab HSO and the rest of the crew contacted the flight surgeon who recommended also that she was taken for a medical check-up. The check-up revealed that she probably have some sprained ligaments and the doctor recommended careful movements and a walking stick 
until she will get better. Annalea's mission at MDRS will not be impeded by this as she is here to observe, accompany and understand the scientists' work for her art project.
I must say that I am very impressed and pleased in the same time with the reaction of the crew to this incident and wish Annalea a fast recovery.
Today was also the day where our Mission Support in New Zealand went live at http://www.kiwispace.org.nz/display/MDRSMS/Dashboard
We setup this Mission Support for the students and the public of New Zealand so that they can watch live our mission and interact with our crew. KiwiMars's main mission is to pilot a space outreach programme that will culminate in creating relevant and southern-hemisphere-adjusted school resources for Kiwi students that will hopefully inspire their curiosity. This was also the reason why the crew was assembled with communication specialists who each bring a new area of expertise to the project (journalism, science communication, distance learning, education).
The site is interactive and perhaps and experience that we could share with the Mars Society should MS find it of interest.
Probably the sim start tomorrow will be delayed by some good hours (that were taken from today's schedule) that will give us the chance to familiarize better with the environment, sort out the fine details of our programme and finalize the photo shoot.
Kia Kaha from Mars (MataWhero (red eye) in Maori)
Commander of the Trans Tasman Tribe
Haritina Mogosanu
Commander Crew 118 KiwiMars