MDRS Day 13 – Brave New World

The next crew arrived very late the night before, and we all woke up before sunrise to start the handover procedures. One of the new crewmates, Frank (the incoming geologist), was with me at the Space Generation Congress, so it was nice to see a familiar face among the new crowd. Jen knew the new commander from NASA Ames, and I think the new crew is going to have a hard time sticking together.

The new commander is a vegetarian, and because all vegetarians are inconsiderate, she forced her dietary habits upon the rest of the crew to simulate what an actual Mars mission’s diet would be like, despite reports that say tilapia grows perfectly well in hydroponic water and the universal fact that beef jerky lasts long after you die. She tricked them into thinking that every crew was doing it, but when J.R. broke the news to them before they went shopping, he advised them to sneak as much meat as possible with them. Apparently one guy brought 6 pounds of meat. Way to go, team.

I had a breakfast of Special with hot sauce and microbrew beer from Utah. Once everyone was finished with breakfast, the crew handover procedures began. The new crew engineer seemed capable of handing his own against Casper and whatever else comes along his way, although I must say I did a fair job leaving him with as few of problems as possible. I went through the four-page handoff checklist (the engineer’s checklist is the only one that is longer than one page, even the commander’s handover checklist is only one).

I showed him and another crewmate all that they needed to know about the outside engineering area, the water systems, the GreenHab systems, the power systems, the daily engineer’s report, and tips on how to make everything a little easier. I felt very rushed because we only had about two hours to do everything we needed to do, whereas when I was one the other end of the data transfer line, I felt rushed and we had two days, so I really feel bad for handing it all off so fast. It’s a good thing Paul will be there to lend a hand and finish where I left off.

Around 9:45 we all met up in the dining area to meet with Chris, the PI for Spaceward Bound. He had taken a look at what our crew had accomplished with the curriculum and was very impressed with our work, especially the ATV training manual, which I wrote entirely. I’m hoping that credit will end up on a resume under a “Publications” heading. Paul thought it was pretty thorough as well, but I know it’s not perfect yet.

I also had to explain to everyone how to use the bathroom again since someone left a mellow yellow that could have frozen and cracked the $500 porcelain bowl we use as a commode in addition to stopping the grinder. Even NASA people laugh when someone talks about excretion methods, which means if NASA does stand-up comedy nights after work, I know I’ll knock them dead.

We had to leave at 11am (or at least we were ready to get out of there at 11am since no one had an early flight to catch), so we took some final pictures and said our final farewells to the new crew, Paul, and Chris. It was sad to go, but it was someone else’s turn to learn through the curriculum we wrote. It was also someone else’s turn to put up with Casper the Unfriendly Generator. However, we still had a five hour drive with the worst piece of equipment at the MDRS: V’ger.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but the Plymouth Voyager that was donated to the Mars Society to shuttle crewmembers from Salt Lake City to the MDRS is not only far past its prime, it is dangerous. There is a huge oil leak, a coolant leak, a radiator fluid leak, a broken hood so it’s hard to refill those liquids, and a battery that was so dead it literally had to be jumped every single time it was turned off. It is also pretty disgusting on the inside, and if someone like me says that you know it’s bad.

Since the hood latch is broken and I’m the engineer, I had to use a pair of pliers and some brute force to pop the hood open from the inside each time we stopped, whether it was for gas, food, or when we arrived and had to go to Wal-Mart. Yes, we made it back to Salt Lake City after a five-hour drive with no incidents besides jumping the battery every time.

Jen stayed at the hotel to meet Chris, who had our luggage so we wouldn’t have to attach the trailer to V’ger, while the rest of us when to get the battery changed. Not only were we almost killed at least 3 times because the new commander is the most absent-minded driver in the world, when the battery was put in, the mechanic broke the only method we knew of opening the hood. J.R. and I stood there right as he was about to take the car into the garage and told him there was a trick and that we should get the hood open.

Mechanic: Naw, that’s alright, we’ll get it.
J.R.: Fine by us
J.R. (to me): ‘Cause I’m sure tired of doing it.

Now the hood is stuck, the oil is low and leaking, and the battery does not have a case and is being supported in the car by a bungee cord. Once we got back to the hotel, all the crewmembers let out a huge sigh of relief that V’ger was NO LONGER our problem.

LaTasha’s flight left the next day, so the rest of us said goodbye and went to the airport to have dinner and say goodbye to each other before boarding our red-eye flights. When it was just Jen and I left, she said she would hook me up with as much information on how to get money to go to conferences like the Space Generation Congress, the Mars Society Conference, and whatever else that she gets paid to go to. She also told me she’d right walks-on-water letters of recommendation for me if I needed them.

After the only successful, non-delayed series of flights I’ve ever been on by myself, I made it to Orlando and then drove home safely. It’s been a lot two days, but I’m back in Fort Walton Beach for the holidays. It’ll be good to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while. To sum up the trip, here’s a short list of the things I lost and the thing I gained while in Utah:

LOST:
The left side of the left mouse button on my laptop
The power button on my camera
The soul on my right ski boot.
One of three long sleeved shirts that I own and possibly a glove because of oil stains.
The notion that anything called a “frontier” isn’t that hard to conquer.
My desire to touch generators and leftover peanut butter and jelly pies.
My toothpaste at SLC security (“Colgate for the Juggernaut, ain’t that a #%^$@.”)

GAINED:
Experience I’ll never be able to have duplicated in another environment far beyond what I can write about in an online journal.
Experience I can take anywhere involving water pumps, power systems, and vehicle repairs.
The knowledge that engineers truly are sexy people, especially when they can fix anything for anyone, and that I need to get a good set of tools and a house with a garage to toy with everything I can get my hands on to be even sexier.
Knowledge of rocks beyond what I learned in 8^th grade
References and sources for letters of recommendation from NASA employees with Ph.D.s
One sentence on my grad school resume.
Fun

Not too bad of a payout for having a friend tell me about the program back in April. The End.

“Dying swans, twisted wings, bring this savage back home...”

MDRS Day 12 - The Mercenary

Our final full day at the MDRS was a relatively easy one. We did our final EVAs, cleaned up the Hab, and made preparations for the next crew.

J.R. took the Voyager back to Salt Lake City to give it to the next crew. He was supposed to wake me up so I could check the battery leads to see why it wouldn’t start at all without a jump. At least he made it, and the other crew is on the way now.

After a quick breakfast Genoveva and I went on an ATV EVA to find the final cache site that the crew before us left to dig up and analyze. We suited up, but we had a problem starting the ATV with all the emergency equipment, so I took the ATV that had just gotten back from the repair shop with a huge crack in something that looked important. Luckily it handed find.

We went north looking for the same western passage that J.R., Robbie, and I took to get the second cache, but after all the snow and erosion, and the fact that the trail wasn’t marked on any GPS we have, I couldn’t find it. I took Genoveva, who isn’t that great of an ATV rider as it is, around some dangerous areas looking for the tiny trail through the hills. After the third attempt to head west that ended in a dead end, we decided to head back at leave it for the next crew and their scouting EVAs.

We took the rest of the EVA to look at the ice lake again. A lot of it had melted away, but there were a lot of animal tracks (and cow dung) in the snow. We also found a cave that was previously unreachable. We headed back to the Hab and took a few final pictures in our suits. Although I’m not happy with the photography I must say my last picture is one of my best pictures ever (and is proudly displayed as the image above, and yes, I'm brandishing a nail gun and an axe while stepping over something in my way).

Once the other EVA team got back from their pedestrian EVA we had lunch, then started the cleanup process. I put up a set of shelves in the Turdinator, something the last crew failed to do, and then I cleaned up the bathroom and some areas out in Engineering. I thought about taking a nap, but I had enough things to do to keep me awake until the next crew showed up. The power went out once, and I had it restored in record time thanks to my many power-restoration exercises throughout this rotation.

Unfortunately, the next crew didn’t get out of Salt Lake City until 7 o’clock, so we ate dinner without them, and in a hurry. That was fine with me, because any crew that has an all-vegetarian diet deserves nothing cooked by me (and because we had to “accommodate” them, the spaghetti sauce was meatless). We also got the images and videos DVDs burned, so I’ll be able to show off the pictures that everyone took while they were here to anyone who cares (which probably won’t be too many people, but just ask me).

We’re not staying up until 1 in the morning to meet them either. I’ll give the next engineer a crash course rather than the nighttime basics and the morning-advanced knowledge like the last CE did for me. Until then, goodnight.

"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide
You've got to kill to stay alive
Show them no fear
Show them no pain"

MDRS Day 11 - Age of Innocence

Today was yet another snow day with more paperwork. Luckily we got to go on a pressurized rover EVA in the afternoon, so we all piled in the Voyager and went to Capital Reef state park to look at all the formations. There will be plenty of pictures from it later, but I forgot to bring my camera, so I'll have to wait until the DVDs are burned to see all of them.

Tonight was my night to cook dinner, and we had porkchops, green beans, asparagus, and baked beans. The porkchops looked more like breakfast ham in the end, but tonight was the first night that we did not have any leftovers, plus I got a lot of good feedback about my culinary skills. That made me happy because the rest of the day wasn't that great and I don't feel like writing about it. I'm also out of clean socks and underwear.

Keep checking the Daily Field Reports page for more on each day and a few selected pictures.

"So we only get one chance, can we take it?
And we only get one life, can't exchange it.
Can we hold on to what we have, dont replace it?
The age of innocence is fading like an old dream..."

MDRS Day 10 - Wildest Dreams

We got snowed in yet again. No EVAs were conducted, but everyone got a lot done for the Spaceward Bound curriculum. I finished my parts on the ATV training and the spacesuit wearing chapters, which comprises a good 25 pages of the 70 pages document (as it stands now, of course). Nothing broke down, so I didn’t have to fix anything.

We pretty much got up, ate breakfast, worked, ate lunch, watched three episodes of Da Ali G Show, did more work, ate dinner, and we’re going to watch another movie soon. I was actually able to take a nice little nap right before dinner. I also didn’t forget to take a shower last night so I don’t feel nasty (we rotate showers to conserve water, and on the guys’ days I’ve been running around too much and forgot)

I’m still amazed at all the things I’ve learned how to do and all the work we’re done. I never thought I’d be running the power systems and facilitating the use of a natural water purifying system that should be able to turn used water clean again with no added chemicals (“should” being the keyword, but right now I can’t get a filter box open to change the filter. It’s on the list of things to do tomorrow.).

It’s also hard to believe I’m even here, on a NASA sponsored vacation where I get to ride ATVs and wear spacesuits, while in return all I have to do is mark some waypoints, do a few reports, and of course fix everything that breaks. Even though everything breaks, I learn something new every single time, and I can take that knowledge back with me. It’s sad how engineering classes teach you nothing about the application of engineering principles, only the theory behind it all. I’m thankful for everything I can gain from the experience.

Tomorrow’s list of goals is pretty small, although I haven’t checked with the commander on what else I’m supposed to do, nor have I gotten word back from Mission Support when I asked what else there was for me to do around here. As of now, the list is:

-Get pictures of me on an ATV
-Get pictures of me holding a nail gun and an axe looking amazingly destructive.
-Nail the rest of the wall together
-Finish the Engineering part of the Spaceward Bound curriculum
-Replace a filter in GreenHab
-Install some shelves in the bathroom if Mission Support tells me where the rest of the pieces are

On a side note, the toilet is affectionately called The Turdinator because it actually has horsepower. There’s a motor at the bottom that shreds anything that gets put into it. Although I’m sure I could destroy it without a problem, I’ve been trying to be nice to it because if I (or anyone for that matter) broke it I would have to fix it.

Considering the laundry list of problems I started with, I think I’ve done well. I wouldn’t mind taking a long ride through Candor Chasm and through all the humongous canyons I’ve seen, but that’s probably not on the agenda. Oh well, I can dream. Despite being caged, it’s been a good day..

"And I just feel I can be anything
That all I might ever wish to be
And fantasize just what I want to be
Make my wildest dreams come true"

MDRS Day 9 - Fear of the Dark

The power went out at 8:11 this morning. The crew woke me up and I raced out to turn on the generator. However, today fate had the cards stacked against me and decided to take its revenge out on the generator’s starter. I was unable to restart the generator, so I restored power through the inverter so we could get a distress signal out.

The rest of the crew was going on a “pressurized rover EVA,” meaning they took the Voyager out to the Henry Mountains while Robbie and J.R. wore the suits. They left around 9 am. I decided to stay back because I had a lot to do around here with reports and fixing the obvious power problem. During the power-distress call, I got an email from Paul saying he would be here soon, immediately after he met the rest of the crew in Hanksville when they got gas.

I waited. I tinkered around with the wiring on the generator, set the tarps back over the underground conduit to heat it up after the tarps got blown around the day before… straightened the rocks on the path to the Engineering area… changed the filters in GreenHab… and got worried.

It was noon. No word from Paul, the generator still wasn’t starting, so I know it wasn’t a fuel gelling problem. It sounded like the starter was out, and I had no idea how to fix it. I started picking up trash around the outside of the Hab and the Engineering area. I tried restarting the power from the dying batteries again to send another distress call, but the internet wouldn’t come back up again this time. I was completely alone in the Utah desert with no power, no internet, and I couldn’t ride the ATVs around no matter how badly I wanted to. The Hab was a silent shell of a former life form, with only me wandering around it.

It was two and I had a lunch of peanuts and a stale bread half jelly sandwich, since I couldn’t cook anything (unless I cooked it on the gas stove, but that would take effort). I literally ran out of things to do that did not require power, so I played Solitaire. Yes, I resorted to Solitaire with a regular deck of cards, because my computer’s battery was low and I uninstalled Solitaire because it was wasting too much time and I already hold the world record of 18037 points and 40 seconds.

Around 3, Paul showed up followed by the rest of the crew five minutes later, and I didn’t have time to explain what we were about to do. Paul said that the generator has been frying starters and that there was nothing I could do to avoid this and no way I would have know how to replace the starter, so it wasn’t my fault (even though it was on my watch, which is still why I felt guilty for not doing my job). We checked the solenoid and found out it was ok, and it was in fact the starter that was completely fried. Luckily there was a spare starter four feet from the generator, so we replaced it and cranked it on.

Once that was done we suited up for an EVA to build a wall on the pavilion that the generator is under. We had the nail gun working for us and we put it together pretty fast. The suits definitely hampered my ability to operate the skill saw’s safety switch, and whenever I tried to lift something big and heavy I ended up smacking my facemask on it, but it was definitely worth being alone in the Hab all day to bust some nails into the 2”x4”s I had cut before. My measurements weren’t bad either, so we didn’t have to redo everything.

We put the wall in place just as it started getting too dark to see what we were doing, especially with foggy helmets. Jen took some good videos, one of which was when Paul tried to take off his glasses and smacked his visor with his glove, then had to eat the glasses off his face from beneath the helmet. I really don’t think I can overstate how awesome it was to use the nail gun though, especially in sim. If you’ve ever played Quake III you know what I mean. Tomorrow I’ll finish the job with far more nails than necessary. I want to get a picture of me holding the nail gun and an axe with a skull and crossbones ninja mask on while hoisting my left leg.

I guess I’ll have to save what happened next for after the trip is over… but on another note, we were mentioned in a Desert News article.

Now we’re all up in the Hab and finishing our reports. It’s been a boring, fun, slow, exciting, desperate, and fulfilling day.

"I am a man who walks alone
And when I'm walking a dark road
At night or strolling through the park
When the light begins to change
I sometimes feel a little strange
A little anxious when its dark"

MDRS Day 8 - Gates of Tomorrow

Today we got snowed in. All of our EVAs were cancelled, so we stayed inside to write up the Spaceward Bound curriculum and do reports. I started building a wall, fixed the hood popper on the Voyager, wrote 20 pages of the ATV training manual with lots of cool pictures I took, and plugged in the car jumper, which takes a LOT longer to charge than I anticipated. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be done. That’s about all I’ve done so far today, and I’m sure everyone else’s day was much less interesting than mine, except for Genoveva, because she has pictures of her favorite Korean actor on her computer and was showing them to LaTasha.

There are only three full days left here for us. However, those three days will be hectic. I have to finish the ATV curriculum, the engineering manual, and the spacesuit donning instruction manual. I’m also not giving up any EVA time, since that’s what I came here to do primarily. Tomorrow J.R. and I are heading off to get some slides and come up with some reports about sites that we have visited, since no one in the 52 crews before us have documented what is at each site aside from the waypoint location, which serves no purpose other than to clog our GPSs.

Tomorrow is another day. I’ll definitely be having more fun then if I can work everything out right.

"Suffering evil when you pay the price of fame
There isn't a god to save you if you don't save yourself
You can't blame a madman if you go insane
Give me the strength so I carry on
Trapped in the web - but I cut the threads
Show you the gates of tomorrow"

MDRS Day 7 - Ghost of the Navigator

The BBC film crew arrived today to film us doing what we always do. Because of it, we didn’t get a lot done in terms of science, but the one EVA that I planned on going on was successful, and it’s been an easy day otherwise, so I really can’t complain.

I woke up hot and sweaty because the crew thought because it would freeze overnight, they needed to turn up the heat. If you have a regulator that regulates heat, it does not need to be turned higher to fight the cold; that’s why it’s called a regulator. The camera crew came inside after getting some exterior shots of the place, and our day really started.

The crew consisted of two women who we had met the day before and two men that seemed to do all the work (cameraman and microphone holder). On a side note, the younger woman was trying to flirt with me, so much that LaTasha noticed, which put me in a weird spot because I have to stay professional, not because I was working but because of whom I was representing. It’s a funny place to be in.

LaTasha and I were scheduled to go on an EVA to find an entrance to the bottom of the Candor Chasm, a place that Jen had gone to on Crew 1, but since we did not have any GPS data from the location of the entrance, we had to find it. Jen said that the place was the biggest geological structure around, but I doubted it could have been bigger than the place J.R. and I found the day before.

The camera crew interviewed Jen while LaTasha and I suited up in the background. Even though I’ve been around camera crews and Radio-Television majors, it always makes me laugh on the inside when I have to do something over again, like put on the suit, so the camera guy can get another shot.

Once the suit donning shenanigans were over, LaTasha and I spent our five minutes in the airlock. During that time, the camera guy walked in as well, and we had to repeat all our commands at least three times for three different shots. We also had to walk out of the airlock twice, once while he was in our faces and once while he was on top of the hill in front of the Hab.

The cool part was that he wanted to get shots of LaTasha and I driving ATVs over the side of the road rather than on the road. I got to do some maneuvering that was a lot more fun than going in a straight line. It’s amazing how similar ATVs are to waverunners, minus the whole spinning out on the water thing, and of course the entire water thing.

Once he got the shots, we headed off. I was navigating and only had a foggy idea of where we needed to go. The marked trail on the map was just south of a prominent landmark, so we headed there. However, because of the 100 year flood that occurred in October, that trail was nowhere to be found. With no map and a dying GPS, I went offroading over bumpy terrain in search of where the contour lines merged. I hoped I was heading northeast at this point.

Something about navigating through the unknown territory made me feel great. I’m sure LaTasha didn’t like it, but I just kept going. The ride sure was rough, and the chances of me going in the right direction were small since there was no trail and I thought I was heading east instead of northeast.

I don’t know how long we went, but it didn’t take too long to see a place where we could see no further. I took the high ground to get a better view, and finally we arrived at the chasm. Not only did I go the right direction, we landed smack on the tip of the chasm, exactly where we wanted to go. GPS is for suckers. From what I can gather from the map, it’s a tributary of the Muddy Creek, the same tiny, tiny stream that carved out the canyon I saw with J.R. yesterday. However, I was right; the previous canyon was far bigger, but the important goal had been found. On the east side there was a gentle slope down into the chasm. It was too small for an ATV to get by on, but nonetheless a person could walk down towards a cliff wall and gather a sample of perfectly layered earth for analysis.

Along another area there was a relatively steep slope that an ATV could possibly get down. I would have tried it had LaTasha not been with me, but we decided to just mark the two points and get out of there. On the way back we found an easier route through a dry riverbed that fed the chasm, but it was covered in mountain lion footprints that looked pretty fresh. We decided to high-tail it out of there. Once on the main road, I let LaTasha lead while I tore up the plains on both sides of the road. I’m glad she couldn’t see me going all over the place, because I might have gotten in trouble.

The power went out minutes after we got back. We could not have timed the return of the CE any more perfectly so he could swoop in and restore power for the camera crew. (Also, I’m the Chief Engineer, not the Crew Engineer. My mistake). We had lunch with the camera crew and prepared for another EVA. Jen and Robbie would ride with the crew while LaTasha and I would drive by on the ATVs. We did several shots that should turn out beautiful but seemed so staged I wonder how it will look in the end. The whole process made me seriously reconsider every documentary involving people ever.

Crew: Get a sample of those rocks.
Jen: Sure!
Ben: (quietly to Robbie) Since when do we get random samples of stuff we already know the composition of? It’s dirt.
Robbie: (helmet up, out of sim) Bahh, whatever.

By the time they were done with the shots, I was freezing from not moving around enough and had a full bladder from doing nothing but drink water while sitting down. Once we signed our lives away, we went about the rest of the night as planned; dinner of Jambalaya, report writing, and enough of a break to watch Red Planet starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. Spare yourself the two hours; 2001 was a bad year for Mars movies.

Tomorrow I’ll be writing an ATV training manual and building some walls. No planned EVAs, but then again both of today’s EVAs weren’t planned until the day of, so we shall see.

"Take my heart and set it free, carried forward by the waves
Nowhere left to run, navigator's son,
Chasing rainbows all my days

Where I go I do not know, I only know the place I've been
Dreams they come and go, ever shall be so,
Nothing's real until you feel"

MDRS Day 6 - The Prisoner

Today was an odd day. Bad things happened to the crew, but I had a pretty good day. It makes me feel a little weird; having a good day while everyone else has a bad one brings me down. Maybe it’s just my good utilitarian nature.

We awoke early only to wait for the BBC crew that came to scout out what they wanted to shoot for tomorrow. They got lost on the way in, but at least they saw how Martian this place looks. The two British ladies were given an overview of what we’re doing here, and then J.R. and I suited up for our geology scouting EVA while they watched us don the suits. They also followed us out for a little while to see how they could get video of us speeding by them on the ATVs.

They left us and we started heading far north and a little east. We tried to get to some really tall cliffs off in the distance, but the terrain was just too rough and we couldn’t get very far towards the west where the cliffs were. We kept going until the road ended where we ran across the biggest canyon I have ever seen. This place was AMAZING. What’s even more amazing is the fact that such a tiny flow of water carved it out of the terrain. When we got back, I looked at the map to see what river it was. It wasn’t even a river; it was labeled “Muddy Creek.” For such a huge canyon, I’d give it a little more credit if I was naming things.

We got many pictures of the geology (which will be uploaded to the All Photos page, the link is on the right) and I went to some places where J.R. could show the scale of the place. I look like a little white dot next to these drops. Our goals were to find layering in the rocks and evidence for erosion. The canyon definitely had layering, so half of our mission was complete. We explored the top of the canyon a little more and then headed out to find a way down into the creek.

However, despite going far along the canyon, we could not find a place to safely enter the area on ATVs or even get too much further down without hitting mounds of rocks and very dangerous terrain. We decided to just look around for cool stuff. We found a weird looking hill, and at the top of that we spotted some cows that we felt like tipping. We drove near them, but they were tagged, so we drove off.

On the way back we stopped at the ice lake that Robbie and I discovered two days before so J.R. could get a look at it. We also found our evidence for erosion on the other side of one of the dikes of the lake (it looks somewhat manmade) and marked it on GPS.

The whole time we were riding across the terrain I felt pretty good. It was very refreshing going off on an extended EVA and seeing the landscape change so drastically. We started out on Mars, went through a plain, ended up at a huge canyon, saw some cows, and rode across desert. I just forgot about everything, the hunger and bladder pains, the time, and all the cares in the world while we were out there.

Unfortunately, J.R.’s helmet was fogging up pretty badly, so he took it off so he could see better (our priorities at MDRS are 1) safety, 2) simulation, 3) research, 4) public relations, and 5) comfort. This was jeopardizing #1) and strapped it to the back of his ATV. It bounced off and the back shattered into pieces. We’re still awaiting word from Mission Support on whether or not we should try to fix it.

Once we got back, there wasn’t much for me to do. I started working on the shed that Paul wanted me to start building in the engineering area, and I built a cover for one of the tanks in the GreenHab to block sunlight so algae doesn’t grow there. I also adjusted a hose so it doesn’t suck water out of our water supply and back into the underground tank it comes from. Nothing broke down today. Nothing went wrong. It felt way too easy.

Robbie cooked pizza and cake for dinner, and then we all finished our reports early to send off to Mission Support so we could relax on a Friday evening. We were going to watch a movie, but since no one could decide on what to watch, we all played poker with the meager pack of chips that was left by someone before us. Now everyone is asleep and it’s time for me to join them in a good night’s rest.

"I'm not a number, I'm a free man
Live my life where I want to
You'd better scratch me from your black book
Cause' I'll run rings around you"

MDRS Day 5 - Rainmaker

I fixed or at least found the root cause of several problems at the Hab today, so in terms of Crew Engineer duties I did well. I also got to do an EVA, something I wasn't expecting because of all the tasks I had to finish today, but because I finished in time, I allowed myself some exploration time.

LaTasha cooked up a nice soul food breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and toast, which was GREATLY appreciated because I don't want to have to resort to powdered milk any time soon, and because it was just as good as the lasagna she cooked last night. After breakfast J.R. and Genoveva went on an EVA, Robbie and LaTasha finished preparing some Hobo sensors, and I started with the engineering fixups.

I started by finishing the insulation job on the batteries beneath the Hab. I imagine it would have been funny for anyone else watching me squirm around underneath the Hab with the 14 inches or so of clearance down there, but I managed to get the job done. Let’s hope mission support likes it.

Next I replaced the impeller in the water pump attached to the ground tank outside with the impeller on the pump we were using (an impeller is like a propeller, only I have no idea what the difference is). The pump was still not working, so Paul checked the fuse box. Sure enough, the wires weren’t even connected. We connected them, went back out to see if that did the trick, and sure enough it did.

There were still some kinks in the hose leading to the water tank inside the hab, so I ended up fixing those too. Finally, we don’t have to pump water from the outside anymore! It’s an automatic fill, so when we run low the pump kicks on and fills the inside tank. I also threw some insulation on the ground over the conduit so the pipes don’t freeze again (hopefully…).

We had leftover lasagna for lunch, which was still pretty tasty. However, because of the solar storm that’s going on right now, we had to spend half an hour in the safest place in the Hab: the EVA room. Sure, we could have written up some Spaceward Bound curriculum or a report of some sort, but no. Robbie and I decided to teach the rest of the crew how to play Texas Hold-Em. It really made the time fly.

Robbie and LaTasha went on an EVA to all the places Robbie and I went yesterday so they could plant the Hobo sensors and some slides, then Jen, J.R. and I took a pedestrian EVA around the Hab to gather geology samples. We hiked up the hills right behind the hab and found a huge field of shell fossils. Seeing them all makes you reconsider how truthful the Biblical flood was, because they were everywhere, untouched, and in good condition, although I have no idea how long it takes for nature to take its toll on a shell. I got plenty of good pictures from the EVA that I will upload sometime tonight. They will be in my Yahoo photos account.

After the EVA, I checked out why ATV3 had an oil leak. It turned out there was a huge crack in the manifold, something that I cannot fix while I’m here. We’ll just be stuck with two ATVs for now. The sump also overflowed, so it looks like I’m going to have to swim through some disgusting water to fix the pump. At least once I do, GreenHab will be fully operational, and they only things I’ll have to do (hopefully!) is change the filters in a couple days.

J.R. cooked steaks for dinner, plus we had more leftover lasagna (LaTasha cooked two pans and we only ate one last night). Now all of my reports are done and I’m wondering what I’ll do with the rest of the night. I’ll probably whip up on some newbies in Hold-Em. Until tomorrow, farewell.

"When I was wandering in the desert and was searching for the truth ,
I heard a choir of angels calling out my name.
I had the feeling that my life would never be the same again.
I turned my face towards the barren sun."

MDRS Day 4 - New Frontier

Despite all the problems I've been having running the hab, today was a good day. I didn't get a whole lot done, but not a whole lot went wrong, so I feel it's been well.

I was supposed to go on a long distance EVA with J.R., but last night Jen changed to plans to make it a geology EVA without notifying me. Since she's a geologist, it makes sense to have two of them on a geology EVA. I wasn't aware of the change until after they got back, so all I did this morning was answer questions left over from yesterday's webcast and eat brunch.

I started working on the battery insulation beneath the hab, but realized the last CE never showed me what to use, and I couldn't find any styrofoam like what was already down there. (The reason the batteries need to be insulated is because when it's cold the inverter thinks the voltage is lower, so it turns the generator on and puts more voltage into them, which can be bad). I found some tonight so I'll finish the job tomorrow. I also solved the GreenHab trickle pump problem, and now GreenHab is working fine. The water that goes through our toilet looks cleaner than what we put into it, which was definitely not the case before yesterday when Paul and I changed those filters.

I was about to work on fixing a water pump (which, I really need to fix, because we're running low on water) when Robbie asked me to go on an EVA for him. Since I'd rather don the spacesuit and ride ATVs than disconnect a broken pump to replace a part I don't even have yet, I was game. Here's the EVA report:

"At 1:30 Robert Citron and Ben Corbin went out on a scouting EVA to find Murphy's Canyon and take pictures of the area to compare the landscape to photos taken by Crew 1 to calculated an erosion rate. They were also asked to find ice patches for possible places to analyze the potential for life in certain places.

Following GPS to a waypoint, they rode ATVs out to within 1 km of the waypoint before they were forced to travel on foot because of unsafe driving terrain. Once there, many pictures were taken to gather as much data to compare to previous photos taken at the same site. However, it was unsure of whether or not this was indeed the same place. The rock formations were compared to the pictures and confirmed that this was indeed to location. Robert took some pictures from many different areas within the canyon while Ben stood near the walls of the canyon for a sense of scale.

On the way out, two waypoints were marked where traces of ice were found so biologists could go back later and plant slides. Once back to the ATVs, they headed back towards the hab.

Since they had ample time left on the EVA, they made a few detours to look for more patches of ice. At the top of a large hill not too far from the hab, a frozen lake was discovered. This lake could be leftover from the 100 year flood, but the ice seemed thick enough for someone to stand on it (however, no one did because that would not be smart). The location was marked, pictures were taken, and Ben and Robert headed back to the hab."

That two kilometer round trip walk was a pain, but finding that huge ice lake was worth everything. Thank God I didn't try jumping the hill that led up to the lake on the ATV because I would have been done. It was weird, the lake was in a basin on a plateau, so no one had seen it before and it's not on the map. We also climbed a hill and got some good pictures, so hopefully one will end up in the daily report for today. Overall, it was a really fun EVA and I'm hoping for more cool discoveries on later trips as well as learning more about the geology of the area.

After the EVA I installed the trickle filter and we grooved to Michael Jackson in the kitchen while LaTasha was cooking some delicious lasagna. I ate way too much, but it was one of those meals that was worth eating too much for. We were going on the first nighttime EVA to see the Geminid meteor shower, so I had to finish up my engineering report pretty fast. I've gotten practice with it, so it's really not that hard anymore, but mission support keeps wanting more information on some things.

We got suited up again and traveled out by the ridge that the observatory is built onto to get a better look at the sky. Although we weren't out too long, the Geminid shower was pretty decent. There were some pretty big meteors, and they were moving pretty slow for some reason that I don't know but some magazine article had an explanation for. The air vents in the packs only circulate outside air, so my cheeks froze off. Since we were lying on the ground while watching the shower, my rear froze off as well.

I'd also like to take this time to mention that I am glad I am learning the Art of Beard from legendary beard user Chuck Norris. Without the Art of Beard, my chin would have been very cold riding on the ATV this whole time, but it has been nice and cozy within the confines of the plastic bubble.

I just got an email saying my engineering report is awesome, so on that note I will take a sponge bath so I don't smell like GreenHab sewage.

"Never ending, forever searching,
Chasing dreams, the dreams of our heart,
Always seeking, always asking.
Questions right from the start."

MDRS Day 3 - Déjà Vu

A few hours ago, I had written "Today was a pretty easy day compared to the last two days here at the Hab. There were no power failures, no emergencies, and nothing went wrong that was my fault at the CE." Well, the last couple of hours have hated the CE.

I woke up later than everyone else at 9:15, although I went to bed later than everyone else, so I deserved it. The NASA AMES people were here to facilitate the Quest Challenge webcast. Despite the fact that we finally came online on our side at 9:59, one minute before it started, it went very well. The webcast can be found here, so please feel free to watch if you are interested in the designs that students across the world have, but I don't recommend watching it if you want to see me because they only flash my picture up as I introduce myself and answer a few questions.

We wrapped up the webcast and started out-of-sim ATV training, something that should have been done a day sooner, but oh well. Paul taught us the maintenance, storage, start-up, and proper positions and weight management while riding, all of which are not surprisingly very similar to wave-runners. Everything is practically the same (except for the tires of course), even how to jump start it and curse when it doesn't work.

The ATV course wasn't what I expected, but it was enough to get the hang of steep inclines and declines. The guys tore up the place while the girls tended to be scared of the machines, but I'm afraid that's also typical with waverunners. Boys with toys.

We came back after training and had lunch. Then it was time for in-sim ATV training. We donned the bulky suits and went out to the parking area. However, we had to check the oil, tires, and gas again. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to unscrew tire caps and dipsticks with gloves on, and pouring oil down a hole that's already too small is very frustrating. It took about three times as long to prep the ATVs as it would out-of-sim, but once we were done, riding them in-sim was so much better. I banged my head a few times on the inside of my helmet while doing the only jump we're authorized to do, but it was a blast.

I split from my EVA group while they went to go look at rocks so I could get started on dinner since it was my turn to cook. We had Chinese bee pepper and veggies with rice. Judging by how little everyone ate, I think it was a failure. I managed to screw up rice. I need to work on those cooking skills while I'm home for the break because Pizza Rolls every other night isn't cutting it in college.

After dinner I started working on my engineering report (all daily reports and updates can be found here), and luckily I got done pretty early. Paul came by again to show us how to use the telescope, and since we have authorization to take a nighttime EVA to watch the Geminid meteor shower (something that has NOT been done before at MDRS, so I'm excited!) we might be using the scope more than I thought. One idea for an astronomy project was to track near Earth objects (NEOs) since the other option, searching for supernovas, is a very fruitless project because supernovae are so rare.

Then my night took the turn that has me here now, just past midnight while the rest of the crew has been asleep for a while now. LaTasha and Genoveva reported that half of the GreenHab had lost power, so I asked Paul to help me solve the problem. It turned out that the system didn't lose power, but there were multiple failures, and after solving one, more and more popped up.

The recirculation pump was not operating because the filter that should have been replaced by the last crew (the outgoing biologist even told me I had to replace the filter, I don't know why she couldn't have done it) was stuffed and overpressurized, which shut off the pump. We replaced the filter and discovered that a pipe fitting came off, so I had to fix that. Another filter was also clogged, so we replaced that. Then we found out that the water that was at one point drinkable was nastier than swamp water and that a layer of algae that does something that I don't understand wasn't doing so well. This got Paul pretty steamed, so we emptied that water, flushed out the system, put clean water and bleach into it, and retightened the filter after it sprayed us. At least, I think that's most of what we did on that part.

We also tried several different connections with several different pumps on the trickle pumps, which have been giving me trouble since I got here. After four separate tries, we gave up since they're all pretty substandard. Paul was just going over how the entire system in GreenHab works when the power went out.

I learned that I can add another item to the list of reasons why I'm glad Siemen's Westinghouse never got back with me about that internship. I think power systems are way too complicated and too many things can go wrong so easily. This is reason number two. Reason number one is obvious; if a guy is smart enough to run power systems, he should be smart enough to legally change his last name from something completely laughable, especially when there's a huge office next to a college campus.

We found out that the inverter inside the Hab was failing to communicate with the generator outside. After a few minutes of checking things with the voltmeter, Paul magically pulled a wire out, cut part of it off, stripped it with his pocketknife, and put it back. Magically, the generator cranked up from the signal from the inverter. He may talk a bit too much, but he sure as heck knows how to fix just about anything in this place. Anything, even if he does say he's just making it up as he goes along. Seriously, that was amazing... there's no other way to put it.

We walked back to the GreenHab to see all the lights on. We came in and found a trickle pump that actually worked and put that sucker right in the tank, and sure enough it worked. Paul gave me a strict order to not work on anything else until late tomorrow morning, and I don't have a problem with that at all.

I'm sure I missed one of the problems we fixed, but that's enough for now. All these situations are starting to feel familiar, so at least I'm closer to understanding how it all works. Paul said I'll know everything right before I leave, so I'll only be useful next time I come here (but he didn't mean I'm worthless). Tomorrow I'm going on a morning long-distance EVA with JR on the ATVs, so I need rest. Goodnight world.

"When you've been particular places,
That you know you've never been before,
Can you be sure?
'Cause you know this has happened before."

MDRS Day 2 - The Nomad

To describe this day in one word, I would chose: eventful.

I woke up around 8:15 and went outside to check the power generator. I was supposed to turn it off, but it had turned itself off. This was not a good sign. Who knows how long the generator had been off because we were all asleep when it did, and you can't hear it from inside the hab (of course, you can barely hear it from outside the hab, thanks to a giant pile of mountain right next to the generator).

The power went out for the first time around 9. I ran outside to turn the generator on again, but it wouldn't start. I knew it was because the diesel fuel had gelled overnight, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I went in and tinkered with the controls on the inverter and the power magically came back on. However, I knew it wouldn't be on much longer. Sure enough, about half an hour later it went out again. I played with the inverter again to get it to start, but not only was the Low Battery Voltage signal going off, the Generator Failed to Start signal was also displayed. This would be a long day.

Two people from NASA were visiting for a rehearsal for a live webcast for the NASA Quest challenge, a program for elementary and middle schoolers to design space habitats on the moon. Earlier this year we did some critiqueing on their projects, and now they are getting the results. However, because we had no power we couldn't connect the webcams, so we just used the satellite phone to talk about the projects while the broadcast headquarters flashed a picture of us on the screen. It's kind of a waste of time on our part because we're not doing anything mission related, but at least it's outreach.

After lunch we suited up for EVAs for the first time. J.R., Genoveva, and LaTasha took the ATVs to find a soil sample left underground by Crew 51 while Robbie and I went to go look for some waypoints to find from the GPS waypoint database.

Here's the simulated EVA procedure: We start out by putting on a thick suit, much like a jump suit only thicker and dirtier that zips up in the back. Then we put on huge boots that feel like weight has been added on for no reason. Gators go on top of the legs to cover the tops of the boots. We put on a backpack that contains an air circulator and added weight for simulation and has hoses that connect to the helmet, which goes on next. Once the backpack is connected to the helmet so the wearer has fresh air circulating through the helmet, big ski gloves are put on that seriously restrict digital dexterity (which is why there will be so few pictures from EVAs, it's really hard to operate a camera's tiny buttons, let alone a GPS system).

So... after waiting in the airlock for five minutes, Robbie and I started hiking out. Man, it was so cool just walking around, even though we had enough trouble finding the comm buttons on our helmets (we'll get better at it) and we probably looked really funny. The novelty probably would have worn off very fast though. However, because Jen and Robbie both forgot to make sure Robbie had a water pack, we decided to head back after about two minutes. During the walk back, I lost my water mouthpiece somewhere and couldn't find it. Five minutes of recompression and we were back inside.

By this point, the other crew was heading back from their journey on the ATVs and two of them were ready to call it quits because they were inexperienced on the ATVs. Robbie and I headed out after Jen fitted him with water and I found my mouthpiece stuck in my suit. Five minutes of decompression later, we were outside with J.R. ready to look for soil samples.

We found the first one not far from where J.R. and I rode to the day before, on the other side of the canyon that I had taken a few pictures of before. After a nice Captain Morgan pose, we headed off to another waypoint 10km away the way the bird flies (meaning it was way further with all the switchbacks and turns along the hills and dry riverbeds).

Riding out was the best part of the day. Just looking around through my tinted ski goggles gave everything such a breathtaking and alien feel to riding. Wearing the suits and traveling across a landscape I've never experienced before just added to the experience in a way nothing else could. The desert canyons and cliffs looked absolutely amazing compared to the inside of the Engineering Building II. We were too far away from the base to establish a signal to the hab with the line-of-sight radios, so it really felt like we were on a real expedition across the Red planet, with only our own wits and equipment to get us to the next dirt sample.

I honestly have no idea what we're going to do with the dirt sample because it's not my job, but I definitely want to learn more about the geology aspects of the area. I'm not the scientist, so I'm curious about what research everyone is doing, but I'm sure the others are wondering what I do to keep the power running. On second thought, no they don't.

However, coming back from the second waypoint was hell. By that point I had drained my waterpack and my back teeth were not just floating anymore. Every little bump made my bladder strike with pain, and the backpack belt made it worse. By the time we traveled the 5.02km direct line back to the hab (which was actually way more, there's no straight line to anything), I was ready to explode... except we had to wait another five minutes inside the airlock. I thought those would be the worst five minutes of my life ever, but it wasn't so bad.

On a bathroom related note, I do not foresee any trouble in the future on my part with the operation and upkeep of the one toilet they have at the hab. I did my worst to it, and even though it was not pretty, the toilet did the job.

Before dinner Paul and I installed a dishwasher so we don't have to wash dishes by hand anymore. Genoveva cooked rice, beans, and corn beef, which was delicious, especially with the Louisiana Hot Sauce. After dinner we broke up and finished did our reports and repairs to the equipment. I tried to fix the broken trickle pump in the GreenHab (the one we tried to fix yesterday), but the new pump has a different connection and I need a nipple hose connector to do it. Basically, here's my to-do list while I'm here (or at least what I hope the crew helps with while we're here, but it's all my job as the CE):

-Reorganize wireless network into the backup battery supplier
-Reset the mousetraps and clean the loft area (none caught since my first night)
-Finish insulating the 24V batteries beneath the hab
-Reorganize the engineering bench area
-Put up shelves in the bathroom (a.k.a. The Turdinator)
-Build a shield for the rock saw
-Lengthen the Hab fire exit ladder
-Fix the webcams (which might be impossible considering one goes off every time the power does)
-Fix the ATV choke switch
-Clean up the outside engineering area (it's a wreck)
-Insulate the water pipes
-Fix the trickle pump

I'll get to all this eventually, but for now I need to go take a sponge bath because I was a moron and decided to check the oil level while the generator was running. So much for staying somewhat clean. Now I really need to get some new long sleeve shirts when I go home for Christmas, because I'm down to two useable ones.

"Like a mirage riding on the desert sand
Like a vision floating with the desert winds
Know the secret of the ancient desert lands
Your are the keeper of the mystery in your hands"

MDRS Day 1 - Different World

I awoke this morning to two very beautiful sights. The first was the sunrise from the loft exit at the very top of the hab. We hadn't seen the outside of the hab because it was way too dark the night before, and seeing the whole landscape for the first time with the sunrise was breathtaking. I've never seen anything like the formations around this area before in my life, not even in pictures. (Speaking of pictures, I'm working on it. We have one guy in charge of all the pictures everyone takes, so it all goes through him. I'll figure out the deal soon.)

The second beautiful sight was the mouse trap that was right next to my face while I was sleeping that had a dead mouse trapped in it. It's beautiful because I didn't wake up from the snap, even though it was RIGHT next to me. I was happy, and obviously beaten.

We finished the transfer of responsibilities and had a pow wow with 52 about the main goal of the Spaceward Bound program. The Mars Society, in conjunction with NASA, wants to make the MDRS a school for astronaut training, not like space camps for children but more for researchers and mission planners. Since we are the second crew of Spaceward Bound, we're writing our own curricula, which is pretty cool. However, because I'm the Crew Engineer (CE), what I'll be writing is more like a series of how-to manuals while the rest of the crew writes about how to do the science and field work.

We finished handover responsibilities after that. Christianna, the outgoing CE, explained as much as she could get in before 52 had to leave at 11:00. The support engineer Paul had me rewire part of the only power generator we have, Casper. A screw had busted its head off and I had to use pliers to unscrew the thread and reconnect the lines.

PRELUDE TO AN "I CALLED IT": Paul told me to leave the generator off, then at 9 o'clock turn the Inverter to "Off," then go turn the generator on. In the morning I would turn the generator off, then turn the inverter to "Auto." (The generator powers the 24V batteries; it does not directly power our systems.) We've been having a problem with the diesel fuel for the generator gelling up from the cold temperatures, so he wanted to do this to run the generator at night. I said "Wouldn't this run the batteries out sooner than that?" He said "Nope."

After Paul took 52 back to SLC, we met with Chris McKay, the Principle Investigator for MDRS. He is pushing us to create the curriculum for Spaceward Bound. We came up with future ideas for lessons with rovers and the observatory, and we discussed how each of us can contribute to the overall plan.

Once we finished lunch, Robbie and I climbed up one of the hills to get a better view of the surrounding area. I thought the morning view was good. This was spectacular. The whole landscape is an eerie reddish-beige color that really contributes to the Martian feel of the place. The other Mars analog habitats don't have that (Arctic, Australia, and Iceland analogs also exist and our supported by the Mars Society).

ATV training was next. We had some trouble starting two of them, and one of those has a broken choke lever, but once everyone had gotten a nice ride, JR and I rode out on the entrance road and tore through the terrain we didn't get to see last night. Sometime afterwards, I think my hands and ears decided to come back to life.

Tacos were for dinner, and I had a good four plates of taco salad (I get lazy after the first two tacos and just start piling taco guts on my plate). We had dinner with the people that will be running the NASA Quest Challenge webcast on Tuesday who were here to set up the satellite uplink.

After dinner we met to discuss further crew responsibilities. At 7:30 or so I started gathering data for my engineering report, which has to be submitted nightly by 9pm. At 8pm, we had our first power outage while I was checking the fuel in the ATVs with JR. The Inverter was going nuts, so after pushing some buttons the power came back on. However, at about 8:15 it conked out again. The Inverter reported low battery voltage. "HMM, LOW BATTERY VOLTAGE?!" I called it! I went and turned on the generator and all was well. I finished my Engineering report and now I'm going to start writing ops manuals. Goodnight everyone.

"Tell me what you can hear
And then tell me what you see
Everybody has a different way to view the world."

MDRS Day 0 - Prelude

After a long day in airports and a nice rib dinner at Chili's with the 4 out of 6 crew members that had arrived by dinner, the next day seemed like it should have been easier.

To learn more about the crew, read our biographies. Everyone seems pretty nice, although not particularly outgoing. Apparently, from what Jen (the commander of our crew) was saying, they got a lot more applications for the MRDS Spaceward Bound program than they anticipated, so they had a pretty decent pool of people to select from. This actually surprised me, since I alread doubted I would get accepted when I did, but to find out I beat out a lot of other people makes me wonder who was on drugs when they selected me.

Before we left for the habitat, we had to buy two weeks of groceries for 6 people on a budget of $400. It was somewhat dissapointing that no one had learned from Boy Scouts that you always plan your meals ahead of time and come up with a shopping list rather than chucking everything you think you'll need into a cart and hoping for the best. Granted, I had seen my fair share of full shopping carts, but I could not have predicted how awesomely close we were to our limit. At checkout time, we had two and a quarter carts full, and the total was $381.62. Jen and I yelled out a nice "yes" because it was such great timing.

We went back to the hotel to wait for the Plymouth Voyager, aka the spacecraft that would take us to Mars analog. A crewmember from Crew 52 (we are Crew 53) brought the van back from the habitat so we could pack it. However, this was no luxury ride. We spent at least 20 minutes trying to pop the hood open to fill the oil and antifreeze. Turns out it take two engineers to pop a broken hood, one to hold in the little connector thingy and another to apply torque to the handle.

After a rather uneventful 5 hours of driving past the most amazing and unusual rock formations I've ever seen (think DragonBallZ, middle of nowhere fight scenes. It reminded me of that), we arrived in Hanksville, Utah. For an idea of how small Hanksville, is, we walked into a gas station that had t-shirts that said "Where the Hell is Hanksville?" At least they can take a joke. We stopped at to meet Paul, the leader of the Remote Engineering team, at a hotel that had several copies of the Book of Mormon in several languages. Yep, we're in Utah...

After a brief stop in another gas station carved out of a blasted moutainside, we finally entered the gates to the Hab. It was hard enough driving to the hab as it was even after someone blasted away crumbled sections of rock with dynamite, but we made it to Mars around 8:15.

Crew 52 was still living there and cooked us dinner. It was pasta and some peanut sauce that reminded me of Pad Thai. Right after that we went into responsibilities handover mode. It seemed that 52 had more than their fair share of power failures and things that the Crew Engineer had to fix, so if I'm lucky I won't have to fix that much this rotation since I'm Crew 53's Crew Engineer. The outgoing CE gave me rundowns of the power inverter, the GreenHab power systems and water filters, the main generator Casper (named orginally because it was painted white and very silent like a ghost. Now it's loud and you can't hear yourself talk around it), the giant pile of spare junk we have to work with in case anything breaks down, and a basic rundown of the Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA) area where the space suits are located.

There are several webcams around the hab (that I'll have to fix) that show what we're up to when we're not out on an EVA. You can also check out the daily reports from the last crew (and ours as soon as we write them).

Once most of the handovers were complete, J.R., Robbie, and I passed out in the loft since Crew 52 hadn't left yet. It was comforting knowing there were mouse traps right next to my face, especially since 52 had enough rodent problems. Jen bought a ton of mousetraps and LaTasha hates mice and rats.

I really think this will be fun. It will definitely be a lot of work, but I will learn a LOT and be able to bring a lot back with me. That's all for now. Corbin Out.

The Journeyman

As one journey ends, another must begin. Usually, between journeys you have at least a few days to get yourself back together. Not me. Yesterday was the last day of finals for the Fall 2006 school year as well as the (near) completion of the Flamespeed Project I’ve been working on since the beginning of summer. Less than 12 hours later I was in an airport on my way to Salt Lake City to participate as a member of Crew 53 of the Mars Desert Research Station.

This semester can best be summarized as a series of unending tasks. As one project was completed, another was assigned. As one block of my schedule ended, another began. As one club activity ended, another had a meeting. As one physics tutee in SARC finally understood something powerful, another wanted private tutoring over the weekend. As on trip to Spain ended, several trips to the UCF medical center ensued. The term “rat race” barely begins the description of what it was like, and as one famous song in the 80’s puts it, I pushed it to the limit.

As of now, I do not know what my grades are. My classes (Feedback Control, Solar System Astronomy, CAD/CAM, and Engineering Measurements) were all pretty challenging, and I put more effort in this semester than I have ever before. Even though I only had four classes for a total of 11 credit hours, I did more work this term than I did taking 24 credit hours on semester at OW. Three labs didn’t help, and writing twenty, 7+ page lab reports (one of which was 52 pages plus an appendix, which was turned in yesterday) makes me not want to take another class with the letter L on the end of the course number ever again.

The only class I actually enjoyed being in was the Astronomy class, and even though the professor didn’t have the most captivating presentations of voice, the material was so diverse and his experiences were so quirky that the random-yet-useful stories in addition to planetary science made the class far different from any class I’d taken.

However, my new journey awaits me. For the next two weeks I will be in the Utah desert simulating a real Mars habitat. I’ve been looking forward to this all semester and I feel truly blessed to have been accepted. Even though it’s not Philmont, it will be a nice (and cold!) two weeks away from the madness that has been Orlando, as well as a great chance to experience a field I really have an itch to go into but doesn’t technically exist yet.

For now, I’m waiting in Memphis for my flight to Salt Lake City, wearing my flight suit, Disturbed bandana, and a brown leather jacket (because looking awesome is almost as important as being awesome).

" In your life you may choose desolation
And the shadows you build with your hands
If you turn to the light, that is burning in the night
Then this Journeyman's day has begun "