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.