'The First' is the unofficial name given to the four crew members of the Ares I manned mission to Mars of 2023. They touched down on Mars on the 29th of September 2023, inside a 7 km crater near Noctis Labyrinthus [97.70416°W, 15.63777°S]. Their spaceship was named the Ares I and their lander was named the Ares I Lander. The mission also included a rover, named the Ares I Explorer. The crater was selected prior to the launch. It had an opening on one side: a guided meteor impact in 2021 had caused a collapse of part of the crater rim. Currently the crater is tented, forming the surface district of Areopolis. Prior to the manned mission, after the crater was selected, an areostationary satellite was positioned exactly above the landing site and two unmanned cargoships brought necessary equipment to the landing site.

In 2020 David Anderson became president of the USA. Him being a renowned Mars Society member and a space enthusiast accelerated the space program. During his administration the Ares I mission took place, although the mission itself had already started back in 2015. The Ares I mission was an international mission, led by the NASA, but with substantial contributions from the Russian, European and Japanese space agencies. The first human on Mars was the American John Howard and while he took his first steps on another planet he said his famous words "Jesus, it's cold out here!". These words weren't the words he was expected to say, he was just overwhelmed by the fact that he walked on the surface of Mars, Howard would later explain. The three other members were the Russian Vlad Chekov, the European (French) Aurelien Du Guesclin and the Japanese Suzuki Takahashi.

The crew stayed almost a full Earth year on Mars. They harvested their own food in a small inflatable greenhouse and two of them could make trips to nearby interesting locations using the rover. They performed geochemical and geological research, searching for life or past water and volcanic activity. One specific experiment was a 3D seismic survey, which revealed the subsurface geological structure until a depth of 4 km. Subsurface sounding by satellites in the previous decades had revealed a possible subsurface aquifer full of frozen water, directly underneath the landing location. The seismic survey performed by the crew didn't reveal water underneath, which later cleared the ground to build the Areopolis subsurface districts.

The areostationary satellite, which was positioned exactly above the landing site, had a variety of camera's, of different resolutions. This way the Control Centre on Earth could monitor the areonauts. The areostationary satellite was also used during areological fieldwork. During the Ares I mission the Standard Areological Fieldwork and Mapping Protocol (referred to as 'the Protocol') was devised. During succeeding missions the Protocol was refined.

After a year the crew flew back to the Ares I mothership, orbiting Mars, using the rocket part of the Ares I Lander. Back in orbit one important part of the mission was initiated: the retrieval of some of the old remote sensing satellites, such as the Mars Global Surveyor which stopped responding back in 2006. The Ares I mothership subsequently brought the crew back to Earth.