Editing Commander Marcus Hale (section)

==== Descent and first bootprints ====

The Ares Landfall Mission departed Earth orbit on 3 April 2031 CE aboard the transit vessel ''Perseverance Dawn'', commanded in transit by [[Captain Renzo Delgado]]. After a seven-month crossing, the crew entered Martian orbit on 9 November 2031 and spent eleven days in orbital survey before the landing sequence commenced. Hale descended to the surface of Amazonis Planitia aboard the landing module ''Kiambere'' on 21 November 2031 CE at 14:22 Coordinated Mars Time.

His first words upon stepping onto the Martian surface, transmitted via the [[Deimos Relay Array]] to an estimated three billion listeners on Earth and cis-lunar stations, were recorded as:

<blockquote>
"The ground holds. We are here, and the ground holds."
</blockquote>

Some archivists have noted that the transmission experienced a 2.4-second delay and partial compression artefacting; whether the phrasing was exactly as delivered or slightly reconstructed in the official transcript has been a minor subject of historiographical debate. Hale himself declined to clarify the matter in later interviews, stating that the meaning, at least, was accurate.