Power finally returned at 13:00, merely an hour after our most optimistic estimates. Cheers went up and almost immediately talk turned to when, exactly, we should immerse ourselves in full Mars simulation. Gregorio Drayer wanted to do it straight away, but given all the required systems maintenance that needed to be accomplished now that power was restored, he suggested 16:00 might be a better time-and 16:00 it was! Having no engineering skills, and having exhausted the day before any useful knowledge I possessed regarding GPS navigation, I volunteered to go into town to go food shopping.

I bought approximately $60 worth of food and as I loaded it into the trunk of my car, I noticed the time: 3:53 PM. When I arrived back at the Hab, the air lock door was sealed shut and a piece of copier paper was taped to the door, announcing that Crew 28 was now in full simulation. The crew made me stand in the air lock, clutching their groceries, for what felt like the required twenty minutes but was probably more like five. They had a good laugh about it, although I found nothing funny about the fact the beer was getting warm. The crew is in much better spirits now that everyone feels a sense of mission.

We had a fantastic dinner and made many toasts to the mission, to the health of the generator, and to each other. After dinner we hauled out the topographic maps and planned our first simulated EVA. There was some good debate about when EVA's should take place, how many should be accomplished in a single day, and what our goals should be. I suggested that each EVA should contribute in some way, however small, to comparing the landscape here to the most recent images coming back from NASA's rover, Opportunity. Commander Frederick agreed, and said he would print out the latest imagery, which we would take into the field on every EVA. With this larger goal in mind, I'm more anxious now to participate in an EVA than I was before. It seems like something unique to Crew 28's rotation, to have this opportunity to assess the landscape here according to real, and momentous, scientific discovery occurring hundreds of millions of miles away on Mars.