I woke this morning at 0700 to mirror crew 25's refilling of the generator. At this time, I also took the opportunity to soak up the absolute silence that permeates the landscape, only during those times that the generator is refilled. After taking a few photos the rest of the crew awoke, underwent their morning routines and by 0845 we were ready to receive a rundown of the hab by Daniel and Dennis (the remainders of crew 25).

We were provided with an overview of the space suits, GreenHab, generators, toilet and shower facilities and four wheel motorcycles (ATVs). It seemed like a lot to take in (and it was) but we were re-assured by Daniel and Dennis that we would get into the swing of things in no time.

By around 1000 it was time for them to leave and after the opportunity to have a few photos with them and of our entire crew 26 in front of the main entrance to the Hab, they were off. We were now alone....

First priority was to give everyone a bit of personal time to themselves to reflect and to do those, firstly to reflect, but secondly to undertake tasks they wanted to do. Susmita and Heather took to the kitchen to clean out the cupboards, refrigerator and assign food groups to various shelves. This was not something that was assigned but an activity they took upon themselves eagerly. Heather also announced that she would cook for the entire crew for the entire mission (certainly no-one argued much to take that responsibility off of her). I went back to my room to try and put all that we had seen during the morning session into perspective and write a strategic brief for the crew, breaking down the hab into it's core areas and highlighting issues from each of these areas that would need addressing over the coming days. Other areas I looked to cover were the crew assignments, roles and responsibilities, working times, individual projects, social activities within the hab, the 2 week schedule and finally a feedback session from the crew.

After a great lunch from Heather of soup and sandwiches I allowed everyone to continue on with their various tasks as I wanted them to first feel comfortable with their own personal crew quarters (get that stowed away) and then onto the hab systems, allowing them to explore these in their own time and to start to own the positions. We had been having major difficulty connecting the laptops to the network for some reason so I spent the majority of the afternoon troubleshooting this issue. Heather, our HSO tried looking at crew evacuation techniques as well as taking an inventory check of the medicine cabinet, while Susmita and Edwin focussed on the generators and getting themselves familiar with that. Jamon cleaned up the space suits and cleaned the faceplates thoroughly as they were a little dirty, as well as setting up his own ISS plant growth experiment. Finally, Richard, the XO, who also had responsibility for GreenHab, spent time in the GreenHab sorting out how it functioned.

We received a shock when during our mid-day generator refilling session we thought we had only half a canister of fuel remaining for the generator. However, we were to be reassured when we received a visit from our local mission support, Don Foutz who pointed out to us where the rest of the fuel was (something we had overlooked when asking a million questions of Dennis and Daniel as they were driving off).

By mid afternoon, Heather and Jamon had taken the truck to Hanksville to get the rest of our fresh fruits and vegetables (owing to our 2300 arrival on Saturday night we were unable to obtain these beforehand), but came back empty handed as the local store was shut for the day. They will return first thing tomorrow morning.

Edwin, Richard and myself took from 1500 until 1800 to familiarise ourselves with the ATVs and their handling and took the opportunity to ride around the immediate vicinity of the hab.

After dinner, we all sat down to discuss those events that had transpired throughout the day and to look towards the events of tomorrow. We relaxed by watching a little of a DVD -- Red Planet before turning in (relatively late) between 2330 and 0030.

Our reports were a little late today but obviously, we'll be hoping to rectify that in our next reporting cycle now that we're more familiar with things.