On Sunday March 16th the last crewmembers of Expedition One departed the Mars Desert Research Station. After one month of operations, and a full year of prior planning, the ExOne mission was accomplished. It was an astounding success. Now over the next year, data from ExOne will be analyzed, and papers will be written to reap the benefits of such an ambitious, intense mission.

At the Mars Society of Canada annual general meeting, on May 18th in Montreal, a full set of presentations on Expedition One will be offered to attendees. See http://marssociety.ca for details of the meeting.

During ExOne, we had:

• The first systematic science plan for MDRS or any of the Mars Society's analog research stations.
• The first long term Mars analog microbial ecology research program for MDRS.
• The first 30-day mission at MDRS.
• The first use of the Mars Society of Canada's Astronaut EVA Dataloggers.
• The first field test of the Mars Society of Australia's MarsSkin Analog Mechanical-Counter-Pressure Suits.
• The first field test of the ARES Mars Analog Rover built by students of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
• The first field test of the Everest Rover built by the University of Michigan Mars Rover Project team.
• The first week-long Mars analog rover mission.
• The first three-vehicle comparative Rover test
• The first comparative analog Suits test
• The first crew to successfully accomplish a year of advance planning
• The first airlock traffic jam on analog Mars
• The first crew to explore the areas of Salt Wash and Little Horse Mesa Canyon, exploring by rover far further than anyone at MDRS before.
• The first expedition dedicated to focused investigations on science operations, scouting strategies, exploration tools and technologies, work analysis, task analysis, and data-logging.
• The first joint mission funded by the Mars Societies of Canada and Australia, essentially renting the station for a month.
• The first use of field observers and video recordings to study EVA work processes.
• The first test of the Mars Society's MarsComm mission communications software
• The first geology, biology and mapping science backrooms for MDRS
• The first international crew to be assembled from Canada, Australia, the U.S., and France.
• The largest crew ever crammed into a tuna can built for 6.

In addition to these firsts, great research was accomplished in crew social-psychology and cognitive performance.

We had 26 crewmembers participating over the course of 4 weeks, with as many as 14 present at one time. Most had multiple roles over the course of their stay. There were:

• Rocky Persaud (Geologist / Phase 1 & 2 Commander / ExOne Principal Investigator) from Canada
• Shannon Rupert Robles (Chief Biologist / Phase 3 Commander) from the United States
• Jonathan Clarke (Chief Geologist / Phase 4 Hab Coordinator) from Australia
• Matt Bamsey (Executive Officer / Chief Engineer / Rover Pilot) from Canada
• Jean Legarde (Executive Officer) from Canada
• Stan Piechocinski (Rover Pilot / Communications Engineer / Phase 4 Hab Coordinator) from Canada
• James Waldie (Chief Engineer) from Australia
• Julie Edwards (Biologist) from the United States
• Steve Jordan (Public Relations Officer / Videographer / Engineer) from the United States
• Guy Murphy (Public Relations Officer / Videographer / Human Factors Officer) from Australia
• Vuong Nguyen (Biologist) from the United States
• Fathi Karouia (Biologist) from France
• Amaury Solignac (Human Factors Officer / Health & Safety Officer) from France
• Kathy Plachta (Human Factors Officer) from Canada
• Melissa Battler (Geologist) from Canada
• Jennifer Laing (Public Relations Officer / Videographer) from Australia
• Chad Rowland (Field Engineer / Rover Pilot) from the United States
• Nancy Wood (Biologist) from the United States
• Jim Oliver (Communications Engineer) from the United States
• Brian Orlotti (Communications Engineer) from Canada
• Jonathan Butler (Biologist) from the United States
• Jennifer Knowles (Rover Pilot / Field Assistant) from the United States.
• Graham Mann (Field Engineer) from Australia
• Steve Dawson (Psychologist / Human Factors Officer) from Australia.
• Nishi Rawat (Medical Officer) from Canada
• David Bushman (Chief Engineer) from the United States.

The crew would like to thank:

• The Neptec Design Group for their cash donation.
• Piontek Auto Center for their donation of painting services
• John Roesch for his contribution to the research program and his sponsorship.
• Frank Crossman and Craig Snapp for their work training the crew and on GIS support.
• John Barainca for his aid and support.
• Stacy Sklar and Veronica Ann Zabala for providing Geology support.
• Jan Osburg for his contribution to the Human Factors research.
• Judith Lapierre, for her unwavering support, advice, and contributions.
• Space: The Imagination Station, for their providing exposure of our mission to the Canadian public.
• Anna Paulson, William Green, and the Michigan Mars Rover team, for moving mountains to bring the Everest to MDRS.
• Navin Chari and the ARES rover design team for moving mountains to bring the Canadian rover to MDRS.
• Tony Muscatello, Paul Graham, Gus Frederick, and many others on Mission Support.
• Robert Zubrin, for willingness to let others try new things.
• The members of the Mars Society of Canada and the Mars Society of Australia, for supporting us in this ambitious endeavour. Without you none of this would have been possible.

And thanks to many, many others who made this expedition a success.

Future Expeditions are already in the conception stage. We, the ExOne veterans, are planning a long term research program for the next ten years to accomplish all the Mars analog research necessary before the first real human Mars mission. Expedition Two, Three, Four and Five may be (in no particular order): a Rover focused mission at MDRS; analog studies in Australia, before or after Mars-Oz is built; analog studies at EuroMars in Iceland, if partnership with the EuroMars team is negotiated; and operations at FMARS on Devon Island. The Aussies are eager to do ExTwo in Australia in 2004. Whichever comes next depends on many factors, including funding, planning and management of the expedition program. For each of these expeditions a Principal Investigator will be chosen to manage the research program. The goal is to prepare the way for a 500 day mission simulation -- which would likely be some time beyond Expedition Ten. Along the way, 90-day missions will be considered when necessary. But before those long duration missions, a lot of ExOne style Mars analog investigations must be done. More research on operations, field science, crew social-psychology and a host of other areas are needed. The core group of ExOne veterans will begin by forming an Expedition Research Council to examine the issues regarding a long term research program. The council will be expanded from invited researchers from the list of experienced crewmembers who have participated in at least one Mars analog mission. A volume of papers resulting from Expedition One is expected to be ready some time for publication next year.

Perhaps Expedition Twenty may be on Mars itself. With a long term coordinated program, and an expanding team of researchers and supporters, we will make it happen.