Lessons Learned:
1. Wear gloves when putting gas and oil in the generator
2. It feels weird walking outside out-of-sim after being here a week!
3. Buzz is now a happy mascot

Today was my day to be out-of-sim. I woke up a little early so I could trudge outside to take care of the generator, refill the ATVs, and check the GreenHab. For those of you that don't know me, I'm usually not the gas-up-the-loud-machine type of person… but it wasn't so bad, and actually it was satisfying to know that what I did powered the Hab for the rest of the morning. We've heard rumors of getting a new generator on Monday that will not require as many refill visits. This news made Crew 37 quite happy :-)

Breakfast after my generator run was yummy; John made some wheat pancakes. Today was established as our "Relaxed Day in the Hab." But, being the type A engineers that we are, we couldn't help snooping around to find things to tinker with and fix. Kyle decided he wanted to get the weather station working again. Within minutes, and even before 10AM, Kyle and John had successfully gotten the software and station to work. Readings were coming from the all the sensor stations and updating like crazy. Kyle then went to work on setting up more radio equipment.

Doug, our awesome handy man, fixed more of the doors that weren't latching properly and repaired the poor shop vacuum. Rebecca read through the data logger manual and with Kyle's help was able to get it running by mid-afternoon. I wandered around the Hab doing my logistics duties, and made an inventory list of the available food and supplies for the next crew.

Lunches are getting more and more creative. Since we are out of lunchmeat, on a cheese restriction, and we've had a lot of peanut butter lately, we decided to make eggs for the guys. Rebecca and I had applesauce with toast because neither of us really cares for eggs. My suggestion for the next crew would be to bring more lunchtime food.

After lunch we brainstormed possible options for our balloon tether system in the event our thick rope weighs too much and creates drag issues (yay for an aerospace engineering team!). Doug brought fishing line rated for 80 pounds, so we set out to test it, but we had problems finding the appropriate fishing line knots. Everyone started getting really sleepy, so one by one we drifted off to our rooms and took a nap.

I woke up around 4:30PM to go refill the generator and change the oil. Rebecca volunteered to come help me. Once that was done we went to visit the GreenHab. After sending multiple EVAs out to the GreenHab to straighten out the Tank 5/TST problems, I am proud to say that the water system is now fully operational. The plant growth could stand to be improved… but there is only so much we can do about that right now.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the robot/balloon ribbon together. The ribbon is made out of dry wall tape. We had a great time setting it up, and walking back and forth in the Hab until all 150 feet were stuck together in four layers. The ribbon was then rigged to a hook at the floor of the attic to test out our newly modified bot.

Buzz (our mascot stuffed animal) was attached to the bot, and we started testing. At first we had problems with the stopping mechanism. Once the bot reached the top it kept trying to climb. The bot continued smashing into the board, first going back down, and then climbing back up again in a rhythmic pattern (it was almost a little obscene ;)).

We were able to fix the problem by shifting weight around and removing the GPS. We took a video of the functioning bot (with incorrect payload weight) and of the "happy" bot (with correct payload and "The Cantina" from Star Wars playing in the background - the timing was perfect!). Both videos are available for viewing at our http://www.gtmars.com site.

The gears in our engineering brains started turning to solve the ‘ramming' problem. We tried moving the magnets, adding washers near the spring, and putting a ruler in the tape at the top to make it more rigid. Although the modifications might have helped somewhat, we still have some work to do tomorrow to get it running smoothly with our required payload.

Dinner was garlic bread and pasta with tomato and garlic sauce. We had a lively conversation about our bot experiences for the day. As dinner was wrapping up, Jan informed us that during his time at the MDRS with Crew 5 there was an incident with a scorpion. In my room. I decided to peek under my bunk with the flashlight. Luckily there were no scorpions. I found nothing but a load of dust bunnies and an empty cardboard box (although we were all hoping that it was going to hold the missing Celestron board for the telescope).

While everyone was sitting around writing reports, the local Hanksville Easter Bunny paid a visit and left us some goodies. We got a copy of "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin, three bananas, three boxes of blue peeps, chocolate eggs, and a carrot shaped bag of Reese's pieces. Crew 37 is very thankful to the wonderful Easter Bunny.

It was strange having a day without any EVAs, but in turn we were able to get lots of things accomplished. Tomorrow we're going to finish getting ready for our balloon/bot deployment and find the elevation data for some previously established waypoints. Tonight will probably end up being another movie night (yay!). I'll be back to write more tomorrow, as long as I don't find any deadly scorpions under my pillow :-)