"Hey, chick, what's with the stick?"

The EVA team was in the airlock when these words came over comms. The "stick" was Stacy's Jacob's Staff, a red and white striped piece of equipment used for measuring stratigraphic units (see tomorrow's Geology Report) that does indeed look a lot like a big colorful wooden stick. With time to kill in the airlock, Stacy explained its use while Debra and I took photos of the EVA team through the small porthole in the airlock door. It was a scene I am quite familiar with; only the faces have changed.

We had only planned one EVA for today, but Veronica wanted to explore a concretion site literally just outside our back door and Kelly needed something from the observatory, so we decided on back-to-back EVAs. Lindsay, Kelly and Stacy went out first and once they were back, Veronica and Kelly took off again.

Both EVAs were successful: Stacy located the geologic feature she was seeking and Veronica found a treasure trove of concretions, including a unique concretion find that caused much excitement among the geologists.

This crew established a sim routine almost effortlessly. It's been a real pleasure for me, and bittersweet, since circumstances have resulted in our sim only being three days long. I can see that we could have easily done a full rotation of high fidelity sim and accomplished our goals.

The crew, who with the exception of Stacy and I are first time crewmembers, are oblivious to the fact that they are doing this all so well. They take their competencies for granted, and what they don't get right the first time, they simply do right the second time. All of us have been enjoying being in sim and find things are much more relaxed now that they are more structured.

I think you can get a sense of a crew from the first meeting. When Debra arrived, I had just finished filling and trench and hadn't gotten around to vacuuming the upper deck. She was vacuuming within minutes of her arrival.

Her acceptance and curiosity of everything about Hab life and us has allowed all of us to reflect on why we are here in a personal sense. Most often we reflect on the goals of the project as a whole, and not what it is about us that makes us want to be here. Kelly, after a car breakdown and a very long drive without sleep, bounded up the stairs when she arrived and introduced herself with a cheerfulness that belied her weariness. She approaches everything that way. You should have seen her the first time she was in a suit! Her enthusiasm was infectious and she meets everything head on. Lindsay was quiet and reserved at first, and seemed determined to find a place in the crew. She has done so, filling in when there is a need, and working on charac! terizing a set of soil sample with a diligence that gives me complete confidence in her work.

Veronica is smart and serious and a little bit crazy all at the same time. She is confident and competent and very fun to be around. Amber impresses me with the strength she shows. She has been sick the entire rotation but still fully participates in everything we do . I don't think I could be that strong. And we are really all here because of Stacy's vision of how we should do Mars analog science.

We all know she is the real commander of the mission. She only asked me to be in charge so she wouldn't have to write these reports every night! Still, it's a small price to pay for the privilege of being here at MDRS and being part of this terrific crew.