Day 12 - Finally Deploying the Radio Antennas

Day 12 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day12

The wind continued through the night, and kept some people awake, so this morning was a late morning for most.  I was up around 9, which was sleeping in for me, but it was probably close to 10:30 or 11 by the time everybody was awake.    The winds were actually calm when I got up, so I was hopeful about being able to do the final mapping EVA.  Breakfast this morning consisted of pancakes, since it was a cooking day.  After breakfast, our first order of business was to get the ham radios working, finally.  Granted we've only got two days left after today, but better late than never, right?  Unfortunately, just as we were getting everything together to go up on the roof, the winds picked up again, so we had to go to plan B.  We were going to take the hatch off the roof and climb out to put up the antenna, but we were afraid that the wind would rip the hatch off and blow it away.  Instead, I held onto the hatch to make sure it didn't blow away while Dan carefully threaded the antenna through the gap and onto the roof.  After connecting the antenna, we finally got the hab base station radio working!  Next, Jillian and I hooked up the antenna to the radio repeater.  Normally it goes up on Skyline Rim, but at this late date, it would be pointless to head up there, so we just put it on the observatory hill.  By this time, the wind was up to full speed.  According to the local weather info, the winds were steady at 30 mph with gusts approaching 45 mph!  Out here, winds like this whip up a ton of dust and sand.  Carrying the repeater up the hill, we got pelted by the clouds of sand!  Not only did it make it hard to see, but it was downright painful!  We finally got the repeater set up, and quickly ran inside to get out of the flying sand.  I was definitely looking forward to being able to shower later!  And we decided that an EVA was probably out of the question.  I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the rover's software, hoping that I'll be able to get it outside and running tomorrow (assuming that the wind dies down enough to make walking around outside tolerable).  I'm still hoping, too, that we'll be out of sim tomorrow, which would make testing the rover easier (Note to mention, we'll be able to go to Stan's for burgers and shakes!).  Unfortunately, Dan's not so sure about ending sim tomorrow.  Maybe it's just some sort of April Fool's joke?  :-)  This afternoon, Dan and Jessica also took another quick EVA up to the wind turbine, just to check on it and make sure everything was secure and not blowing away.  Dinner consisted of leftovers, trying to make sure we're not throwing food out before the next crew shows up.  After dinner, everybody was rather tired, so there was no movie tonight.  We all just did our own thing until bed time.  Or at least that was the plan.  Dan, Jillian, and I were watching some videos when the wind suddenly picked up again.  It got so bad that the hatch of the top of the hab starting banging!  So Dan and Eric got up there, pulled the antenna in, and added a few more bungee cords to secure it.  As the winds got even worse, we started to get nervous about the radio repeater on the hill and the wind turbine.  Jillian, Eric, Dan, and I all bundled up, grabbed our sunglasses and flashlights and headed outside (Yes, sunglasses at nearly midnight!  That's how much dust there was!).  Jillian and I went up to check on the repeater while Dan and Eric checked on the ATV's and their covers.  Then Dan and I decided it was worth breaking sim to go up the engineering hill and check on the wind turbine's guy wires to make sure it wouldn't blow over.  Thankfully, everything was in order all around!  We made a few adjustments to the wind turbine, but it wasn't going anywhere. Also, the repeater hadn't moved.  It just goes to show that you can never have too much duct tape!  When we put it up, I used about an entire roll to secure the antenna and solar panel to the repeater case.  And it wasn't just any duct tape, it was Gorilla Tape!  Like the saying goes, "If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape; if it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40."  After we got back inside, Dan pulled up the data from the weather station outside the hab.  Turns out the sustained winds were around 35 mph, with gusts reaching 50 mph!  And here we thought we were in for a quiet, peaceful night...  Once we got back inside and everybody warmed back up, we were finally off to bed!

Day 11 - Windy Weather

Day 11 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day11

Today was a day full of plans. Unfortunately, Mother Nature contradicted most of them. Jillian’s antennas had arrived, so we were going to put the antenna on the roof of the hab, do an EVA to put the repeater up on radio ridge with its antenna and pole, and then do another mapping and radio range test EVA. The winds, however, have been consistently blowing at about 20 to 25 mph, with gusts up to about 40 mph! That prohibited us from getting on the roof of the hab to put the antenna out, so there was no point in putting the repeater up, either! And with no change in the radios, we knew we’d have no radio coverage, so there was no point to an EVA, either. So the morning was spent studying, instead, at least by Jillian and I. Dan did a quick EVA up to check on the wind turbine and make sure everything was still in order. We stuck the radio repeater just outside just for some testing so that we were accomplishing something with the antennas, at least. The wind also wreaked havoc with our internet connection. The internet out here is a satellite connection, and it’s very limited bandwidth. With such high winds, the satellite dish kept blowing around, so our internet was intermittent, which was extremely annoying! After lunch, I decided it was time to work on the robotic rover that I brought and get it up and running. In case you were wondering, the rover’s name is Leoplurodon, or Leo for short (And yes, I’m aware that’s not how it’s supposed to be spelled! That’s on purpose!). The one that I brought is the third iteration, with the fourth one being built back in Atlanta right now. I spent some time on my computer updating the rover’s software, because last year’s software was less than optimal due to some last minute fixes we had to do at the competition. Once I got the cleaned up software working, I loaded it onto the rover’s computer and started the thing up. To my delight, it worked as expected, perfectly, the first time! The point of bringing the rover out here was to get software working on it that could pick up a loss of radio contact, so my plan for tomorrow is to get the software finished up and maybe even get testing started. I definitely want to get the testing going on Thursday, at least. Today was yet another non-cooking day, so it was more instant food that I’m really getting tired of! I’ll be happy when we’re done with sim and can go into Hanksville and get some real food (Now that DG fixed our truck!). I’m really looking forward to Stan’s burgers and shakes (They’re some of the thickest milkshakes you’ll ever have!). Hopefully we’ll be ending sim on Thursday. Anyway, after we ate and everybody submitted their requisite reports, it was movie time. We finished the final episode of Firefly yesterday, since there were only 14 episodes made before the show was canceled by FOX! No idea why, because it’s a great show. There was enough of a fan following, though, that the director of the show took some of his remaining story ideas and made a movie that followed up on the show, named Serenity, after the spaceship in Firefly. So we watched Serenity. Great movie! I just wish it wasn’t so windy, because the wind was louder than the movie at times! After the movie was done, and everybody was tired, we all headed off to bed.

Day 10 - Warm Weather

Day 10 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day10

Today turned out to be a relatively slow day, which I'm sure everybody appreciated, especially after doing four EVA's yesterday.  At least I did.  We got up this morning, and everybody had their own breakfast.  Some people had scrambled eggs made from the powdered egg whites that we have.  I avoided trying it, something just didn't seem right about it!  Jillian and I were going to do another mapping and radio range EVA, but we decided to put it off because I had a few other things I wanted to get done.  I spent the bulk of the day studying my AI textbook for quals, and I'm almost completely through AI!  It's a shame there's two other subjects I also need to know!  I'm not actually worried, though, as I feel fairly comfortable in all three at this point.  Jillian also spent the day doing homework and studying for a history exam, and Dan spent the morning doing some work for his wind turbine.  Jessica was in a baking mood, and so decided to make some cookies, too!  Today was actually a nice day outside, as it hit 70 for the first time since we got here and was nice a sunny, so in the afternoon, we all decided to sit outside in the "pressurized tunnels" and do our respective reading or studying.  Jillian, of course, was happy because she could finally get a sun tan.  After we came inside, Dan headed up to the wind turbine to do some tests to check out its ability to charge a battery and to keep the battery charged under a load.  Overall, he was sitting up on the hill for about an hour and a half.  Dinner yesterday, since it was a non-cooking day, was instant soup, Creamy Wild Rice to be specific.  We watched the final three episodes of Firefly (There were only ever 14 episodes made.  It aired back in 2002, and was canceled after less than a season!  I'm not sure why it was canceled, seem like a pretty good show to me!), then, after some late night internet surfing (the bandwidth restrictions are lifted between midnight and 5 am), it was off to bed.

Day 9 - Lots of EVA's

Day 9 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day9

Today was a busy day! As usual, Jillian and I were both up be the rest of the crew. We had breakfast, and by the time everybody else woke up (it was around 10:30 by the time Chris got up!), Jillian and I were ready for the next mapping and radio range test EVA. Today we decided to test out the hab base station without the antenna (No, they still haven’t arrived!), which ultimately meant that we had absolutely no radio coverage away from the hab! Jillian and I rode due north of the hab to a small canyon called Lith Canyon that’s just south of Box Canyon that we visited early last week. This was one of the few places that I had yet to visit around here after last year, so it was exciting. It’s was a fun ATV ride, especially because near the end of the trail to the canyon is a small, but steep hill! It was probably about 15 feet high, but it was at least a 30 to 45 degree slope! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to stop and get a picture, though I’ve got plenty of pictures of the canyon itself. After leaving there, we headed south, back past the hab, almost to the actual paved road that leads to Hanksville. All in all, we were gone about an hour and a half! That leaves only a small handful of trails that are left to map! Now if only the antennas show up, then we could really test the radio range! After we got back, we had lunch, and then Dan, Jessica, and Eric suited up for another trip up to the wind turbine. Dan fixed the electronics yesterday, so they took the control box back up and reconnected it to the turbine and started things up again. Now it’s working pretty much as it’s supposed to! The next step is just to monitor it and see how much power it generates. According to Mission Support, we’re apparently supposed to take a break halfway through our two week rotation, but it just doesn’t make much sense, if you’re simulating a Mars mission, to randomly break sim for an afternoon in the middle. So rather than break sim, we took a recreational EVA! Dan, Eric, Chris, and Jessica suited up and hopped on the ATV’s to go see if they could find those dinosaur bones we were looking for when we first got here. Apparently we were looking on the wrong spot last time. Jillian and I stayed behind, since we’d gotten to ride the ATV’s quite a bit, to give people who hadn’t gotten around as much a chance. I took advantage of the quiet time (The hab was so quiet with nobody around!) to get some more studying done. I’m still behind my schedule, but not as much as I was! The four of them wandered around for almost two hours, but still didn’t find any dinosaur bones, though they did stumble upon some cattle! After they got back, Dan suited up for one more trip up to the wind turbine to check on it, then it was dinner time. Dinner today, being a non-cooking day, consisted of reconstituted chicken primavera, which surprisingly wasn’t half bad, and instant mashed potatoes. After dinner, the typical submitting of reports and collection of pictures took place, then after some more episodes of Firefly, it was off to bed!

Day 8 - Two more EVAs, Stargazing

Day 8 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day8

I was up bright and early this morning, refreshed after finally getting a solid night's sleep. Breakfast consisted of cinnamin buscuits made by Jessica (today was a cooking day), and the entertainment was provided by Jillian using a lighter to try and melt a security ink tag off her backpack. She swears they just forgot to remove it when she bought it at the store! Shortly after breakfast, Dan, Eric, and Jessica suited up to hike up the engineering hill to the wind turbine again. This time, they were taking it down so they could disconnect the electronics and bring them back inside, and Dan would be able to see what he can do to fix it. They weren't out too long. After they got back, Jillian, Chris, and I suited up for another mapping EVA riding around on the ATV rovers. We decided to give this EVA a dual purpose and also test the range of our ham radios. Since we still don't have the antennas we need for the base station, we were testing just the range of using the handhelds. Unfortunately, Chris's radio didn't want to cooperate, and we were left without enough radios, so he volunteered to stay behind. Hopefully we'll get it fixed (and by we I mean Jillian, our resident radio master) and he can go next time. Jillian and I had a fun EVA, although my suit backpack didn't fit right, and it was downright painful to go over bumps some time. But we discovered life on Mars! A small chipmunk ran right along side me at one point! We got back to the hab about two hours after we left, and basically discovered that the radios don't reach the hab if you can't see it! That meant that most of the time we were gone, we had not radio link back to the hab! While we were gone, Jessica attempted to make a sort of ground beef using the infamous imitation beef bits. She was fairly successful, as well as can be done. They had apparently had "hamburgers" using it, but I made mac n cheese for lunch and added some in. We worked on various tasks through the afternoon.  I was feeling somewhat tired, so in an effort to avoid getting any sort of sinus cold, I took a short nap, and soon it was dinner time. We had decided a few days ago that we wanted to do breakfast for dinner on the next cooking day, so Jillian made pancakes. They were really good, and weren't nearly as thick as the last time! After dinner, it was perfectly clear outside, so we all went out into the "pressurized tunnels" that lead up to the observatory hill for some stargazing.  We could see Mars and Saturn, and of course the well known constellations like Orion and the Big Dipper.  However, to my disappointment, the moon was nearly full, so you really couldn't see too many stars (at least compared to last year out here when we had a nearly new moon!). I still got some good pictures, and a few nice shots of the moon, but it was too bright to try to do star trails. After everybody got bored and went inside, and I got tired of standing outside by myself, we watched another episode of Firefly (It's a pretty good sci-fi show that was on TV back in 2002. I had never seen it before, but I like it!), then it was off to bed.

(PS - I was sorely disappointed by the fact that I didn't realize my camera was on ISO 3200 most of the day! So I apologize that some of my pictures are so grainy!)

Day 7 - Assembling the Rover, Wind Turbine EVA

Day 7 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day7

We're a few days into sim, now, and everybody's pretty much gotten settled into a routine. We got up this morning between 8 and 9, just like usual, and it tends to be in the same order every day! Jillian and I are usually up first, followed by Dan and Eric, then Jessica, and usually Chris is the last one up. Then we all grab a mug of hot chocolate to warm up, get out our computers, and check our email, and of course Facebook, then it's breakfast time. After breakfast, we start putting together our plan for the day. In my case, it meant more studying until about noon, as I didn't have a specific EVA planned. When I got tired of studying, I headed downstairs to unpack the competition rover and assemble it. There was a missing, but I was able to make replacements from the spare materials laying around the hab, so it wasn't a big deal. While I was doing that, Dan was busy gather the supplies he needed to finish building the turbine. Jessica, Eric, and he suited up for an EVA and headed up to the engineering hill to work on it. Unfortunately, one of the components already up there had failed, so that needed to be fixed before they could finish. They had to come back inside, then, to finish it another day. In addition to that, our antennas for our radios still haven't arrived, and the solar panel powering the radio repeater got knocked over by the wind and cracked... I guess that's one of the important things to learn while out here: how to deal with things that go wrong! After everyone was done with their projects for the day, we sat down for dinner, which consisted of more rehydrated meals, since today was a non-cooking day. After dinner, we opted for a few games of cards (again betting with paper clips!), and an episode or two of Firefly, and finally off to bed.

Day 6 - Solar Panel EVA, DG Fixes Everything

Day 6 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day6

Today had a lot less in the way of plans than the past few days, so we took our time this morning. Since it was a cooking day, we used some bread that Jessica made two days ago, and I made french toast for breakfast. It was interesting, that's for sure. We can't use eggs, so I had to make do with powdered egg whites. It took most of the loaf, but I finally got the process perfected and figured out how to make actual normal tasting and looking french toast after about an hour (it took a really long time to cook each slice!). I spent most of the day studying, since I'm taking qualifying exams shortly after I get back to tech, but other people had some things to do. Jillian assembled the radio repeater that we use to extend our ham radio coverage. She and Chris did an EVA to bring the solar panel that we need to keep its batteries charged in from outside. We've temporarily set up the repeater on the hill next to the observatory (within the "pressurized tunnels") as a test run to see if it'll have enough power. We still haven't gotten the antennas, so we can't set it up yet. Hopefully they'll come soon. Also, we got a few visit from DG, proprieter of Hollow Mountain, Hanksville Sheriff, and all around Martian repair guy. He does a lot of work to keep the equipment around here up and running, and he's the one that delivered our packages yesterday. Today's first visit was to repair the one ATV that's been out of commision since we got here, so we now have four functional rovers! Also, the heater for the lower level of the hab has been broken for a while, so he reparied that. It's great to have both heaters working! It's not nearly as cold in the hab now! :-) The second time he visited, he brought us a new tank of water. The third, and final, visit was about 8:30 tonight, to fix the broken SUV! So in one day, he fixed the heater, the ATV, and the SUV! Everything is good here on Mars! After a dinner consisting of an attempt to recreate Philly Cheesesteaks using imitation "Beefish Bits," we watched a few episodes of Firefly, then headed to bed.

Day 5 - First EVA, Radios arrive

Day 5 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day5

So today was our first full day of sim, and that meant our first EVA! It was also a non-cooking day, so breakfast consisted of oatmeal or pop tarts! This morning was actually pretty quiet, with not much going on, so we decided that our first EVA would be after lunch. Over the past few days, we've done quite a lot of driving around, and we found that in a number of places, the existing maps, which at this point are four to five years old, don't actually match up with the terrain and the trails. Mostly, this is because of water washing parts of the trail away and new routes being found to compensate. After contacting Mission Support, I decided that one of my projects for this mission would be to update the existing maps to match the current state of the trails. Basically, I'll need to take my GPS, hop on a rover (ATV), and drive around for a while! Since our radios weren't here yet, and nobody else had any good plans for the day, we decided that todays EVA would be my first mapping trip! After lunch, we went downstairs to get suited up and realized that there were boxes in the airlock! Our radios and the rover had arrived, finally!! Jillian was thrilled, or course, as the radios are her babies. Unfortunately, the antennas didn't show up with them... I was happy that the rover arrived, too, because I can get started on assembling it and testing it. (In case you missed it, I'm on a competition team for the Mars Society's University Rover Competition. We need to design a teleoperated rover to compete in various tasks. The competition just happens to take place at MDRS, so this mission is the perfect opportunity to test some of our ideas!) So while Jillian started getting the radios out and set up, Chris, Eric, and I suited up to head outside. MDRS actually got new EVA suits since last year, so we took a quick EVA to get accustomed to the new suits. After walking around for a few minutes, and climbing the engineering hill, we came back in and got the rover keys and radios (not our ham radios, unfortunately, as they weren't charged and set up yet). We went back out and hopped on the rovers and took off for two hours of driving around. We covered about 15 miles in 2 hours, and managed to map probably about a quarter of the trails in the area, as well as found a few trails that are on the map that don't seem to exist any more! After we got back, I was happy because I got to shower (To conserve water, only two people can shower a day, so each person gets to shower every three days. I conveniently made sure that I was able to shower after going on my EVA!). For dinner, we had rehydrated pasta with alfredo sauce. Trust me, it sounds much better than it was! It wasn't too bad, but it was kinda bland and could have used some spices! Rather than a movie, tonight, we've decided on a friendly game of poker, using paper clips as chips! Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the antennas so we can get our radios set up, then we can have a real communications method, as the little walkie talkies they have here don't work particularly well!

Day 4 - Start of Sim

Day 4 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day4

Today was a day that we're allowed to cook for the food study, so Jillian started the day off by making pancakes! They were pretty good, but she underestimated the amount batter she had left for the last one. Therefore, Chris got a pancake that was probably about 2 inches thick! After breakfast, we spent some time getting everything in order around the hab. After lunch we would be starting sim, so acting as if we were really on Mars. Once we started sim, we wouldn't be able to go outside without an EVA suit on (except for certain designated "pressurize" tunnels, which are essentially paths on the ground lined with rocks!). So after we had lunch, we went outside for one last time. It was really windy, and the wind had blown away one of the ATV covers, so while we were outside we went to retrieve it. We climbed to the top of the engineering hill so we could see where it had blown to. Jillian and Chris wanted to take an ATV to get it, but it wasn't that far away, so Eric and I decided to see if we could beat them there. We did, but trust me when I say that running half the length of a football field at almost 5,000 feet elevation is a bad idea when you're not used to it! After we retrieved the cover, we spent some time hanging out outside, enjoying the outdoors for one last time for the next week and a half. We came back through the main air lock, and had a ceremonial mock "pressurization" to kick off the start of sim. We spent the rest of the afternoon going over how to put on the EVA suits. We also discovered that there's a mouse in the hab, which we spent some time trying to catch. We didn't catch him in any traps, but we haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon, so he's either hiding or ran away. Some of the crew have affectionately named him Snap! Later, Jessica made pizza dough in our bread maker, and we all had home made pizzas for dinner. I made my crust a little too thick, and it rose a lot in the oven, which resulted in something more akin to pizza in a bread bowl than a normal pizza! Tonight's movie of choice was Elf, then we all went to bed.

Day 3 - Wind Turbine, Box Canyon

Day 3 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day3

Since our radios still had yet to come, we didn't have much in the way of plans for today. So since we had some time, we played MDRS Clue! A previous crew had apparently had a bit of down time and put the game together. It's actually really impressive and really thorough! After lunch, we took Dan's wind turbine up to the engineering hill to assemble it. The wind tubrine is an ongoing project that Dan's been working on for the past two years now. He first put it up when he was here with crew 69, and then we put it up last year on crew 79. Each year it gets a little more advanced, with the hope that eventually the Mars Society might be able to integrate it into the hab's electrical system. Once we got the turbine up, we still had some time left till sunset, so we decided to go for a ride on the ATV's. We headed up the main road (Lowell Highway) to where it ends at a large canyon called Box Canyon. Box Canyon opens into a wider river canyon carved out by Muddy Creek. It's an impressive sight, and we've got a ton of pictures of people just looking out into the canyon contemplatively. It's one of those places that you could just sit there in the peace and quiet for hours! We headed back from there just before sunset. Today was our last full day out of sim, which means tomorrow we start pretending to be on Mars for real!

Day 2 - Exploration

Day 2 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day2

Today was our first full day at the hab. We're not yet in sim, which means we're not pretending to be on Mars yet, so we can still go outside without suits and wander around and explore. We usually use Ham radios to communicate, and everyone on the crew has a Ham radio license. Unfortunately, the Postal Service has yet to deliver our radios, so we're stuck temporarily. Also, we use a radio repeater to increase coverage, and it goes on top of a high cliff called Skyline Rim a few miles away. Since our truck is out of commision (yesterday's pictures showed the truck with no rear wheels!), we have no way of getting up there even if the radios were here! So we decided to explore other location options for the repeater. This morning we walked along an ATV trail that goes up to Radio Ridge (the small hill directly behind the hab). Last year this trail was washed out and impassable, so we wanted to see if it was fixed in case we wanted to put the repeater there instead. After we walked along it, we circled around and came down off Radio Ridge behind the hab. Later, after lunch, Jillian, Jessica, and I decided to go for a ride on the ATV's. We headed north along the main road for a while, and we came to a sharp dip in the road that looked like it might be kinda soft on one side. I chose to stay to the right because the turf looked harder. Unforunately, I picked wrong and the back wheels sunk into about two feet of mud! Jillian came running after to try to help me pull it out, and stepped right into them mud, sinking halfway up to her knees! After we got it unstuck, we turned around and took a different trail that took us out to the cliff face to the east (through a gorge named Valles Marineris, after the massive canyon on Mars, no pictures of it right now, though, sorry!). There were some amazing views there! Then we headed back to the hab for dinner. We started a food study today that the Mars Society runs out here to study the effects of eating just shelf stable foods. It'll be an interesting test! Every other day, we're allowed to cook using nothing but dehydrated and shelf stable foods, which isn't too bad, as you can add seasoning and spices and cook other things in to make it taste good. The other days we need to eat only things that don't need cooking or can be made by just mixing with boiling water... No spices or anything are allowed, just salt! For a picky eater like me, it's really a pain! After we ate dinner, and everybody submitted they're required reports, we watched the movie Coraline. I'd never seen it, and let me just say that it was really a bizarre movie! After that (or during that as was the case for Jillian), we all went to bed.

Day 1 - Drive to Hanksville, Move In, ATV Training

Day 1 Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day1

We got up early this morning and picked up the car so we could head out to the Mars Desert Research Station, located in the Utah desert just outside the tiny town of Hanksville. It was a roughly 3 hour drive, and we arrive just after noon. The previous crew, Crew 92, showed us the state of things and explained everything. Then they handed off the hab to us, Crew 93. We then spent the afternoon getting situated and exploring the area. For Jessica, Chris, and Eric, this was a totally new experience, so they did a little exploring of their own, getting to know the hab and its surroundings. They climbed up to Radio Ridge west of the hab to get a better view. After wards, we did ATV training to make sure everybody knew how to ride the ATV's. We'd hear rumors that there were dinosaur bones laying around in the desert somewhere, and the previous commander gave us some pointers as to where, so we went looking. Ultimately, we came up short, but got to explore more of the area east of the hab! We were all exhausted, so we went to bed early once we got everything settled.

Day 0 - Arriving in Grand Junction

Day 0 pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjg222/MDRS2010Day0

The start of our trip out to MDRS. I flew Delta through Salt Lake City into Grand Junction, while everybody flew on American through Dallas. Five of us got into Grand Junction around noon, while Dan showed up later around 7 pm. Jillian and I ventured into downtown Grand Junction for some very good Bison burgers for lunch! Later, we all had dinner at Applebees across the street. After hanging out for a little bit at the hotel, we all went to bed so we could get up early in the morning to head out to the hab.

So apparently I type too much!

I just realized that Picasa limits the album descriptions for each album of pictures to 1000 characters. I've been using the album descriptions as a kind of summary of what we've done each day to go along with the pictures, so people have an idea of what's what and why I have the pictures I do. This means that Picasa's just been cutting my text off about halfway each day. So I've decided to follow Jillian's lead and make it a blog instead. (See Jillian's blog here: http://mdrsjillian.blogspot.com) I'll be linking each album to the corresponding blog post and vice versa, so that the right description goes with the right pictures. Enjoy!