There will be no support staff on Mars. No secretaries to take dictation, no plumbers to fix the drains or domestic staff to wash and clean. The crew will have to do everything - not just the glamorous exploring and experimenting, but domestic and office work too. Of course there will be support from Earth, but there is a limit to what can be done from so far away.

Today was our day for office work. We were confined to the hab by rain, wind and snow, so it seemed like as good a time as any to get it over with. Our rotation is drawing to a close, so that in addition to our regular reporting obligations, we have summary reports to write so that others can benefit from the results of our work, and documentation to help the next crew settle in and come to terms with all the complex and cantankerous systems that they will have not seen before, yet will have to become familiar with and depend on from almost the moment they arrive.

In addition, there are the complex arrangments for getting the new crew to the station, and the old crew out. Twelve people travelling to and from localities spread all around the county, and beyond.

It is not as glamorous and fun as the work we have been doing, but it is necessary in order to keep this project going, and the people that run it have to go through this every two weeks during the field season. I don't know how they manage it.

Soon we will be starting on the cleaning and reconditioning to ready the hab for its new occupants. And I am sure it will feel very strange to be handing over our home of the last two weeks to a new set of inhabitants.