Editing Commander Marcus Hale (section)

==== Emergency dust season response ====

On Day 31 of the surface stay, a regional dust storm system not forecast by pre-mission atmospheric models swept across Amazonis Planitia, reducing solar panel output by sixty-three percent over eighteen hours. Hale enacted emergency power protocols — later formalised as the first iteration of what became the [[Martian Dust Season Protocols]] — rationing electrical output and consolidating crew to the primary habitat. The crew endured four days of reduced operations before conditions improved. No casualties resulted. Post-mission analysis credited Hale's calm and systematic application of contingency procedures with preventing an abort scenario that would have required Vidal to execute an emergency ascent under suboptimal conditions.