EVA: The last in-sim EVA of this rotation led us to a nearby scenic canyon. Apart from testing live APRS tracking on the internet, we also re-surveyed some waypoints established by previous crews that did not have elevation data. But the most important objective of this pedestrian EVA was to validate the EVA route that our auxiliary mission support team at Marietta High School in Marietta, GA, had prepared for us. The route worked out great - kudos to the MHS team for a job well done!

Crew Physical Status: still tired but happy

Brief Narrative of Today's Results: We woke up today to the sound of the generator still running - it only used up half a tank of diesel over night. Thanks again to whoever decided to get a "real" generator this time. After breakfast, half of the crew got ready for the EVA, while the other half continued IVA work - both classwork (spring break is over, after all) and hab improvement. Tonight we will be busy with drafting the mission summary report in addition to our regular daily reports. We plan to go out of sim around midnight tonight, after 264 hours on simulated Mars.

Plans for Tomorrow: clean up the hab, brief the incoming crew, submit mission summary report, and take care of remaining engineering/upgrade support activities

Report Transmission Schedule: for the last time tonight

Maintenance: The generator is doing great, and the engineering team has restarted their upgrade/refit activities. The power might be out for an hour or two tonight while Paul is hooking up the new electrical system, so report transmission might be delayed.

Inventory: enough to last us through the remainder of the mission

Miscellaneous: During lunch today the crew started complaining about the toilet flush water smell until I started describing (see Crew 5 reports) how it was in the days of the Biolet :-)

Support Requested: n/a

More to follow.

Jan Osburg
Commander, MDRS Crew 37