We started the day with sweet sorrow. As in, "Parting is such..."

This morning we bid farewell and God Speed to Crew 60. This was an all-engineering crew from Georgia Tech and they repaired and enhanced a number of hardware items and systems at the Hab. As I told them, I doubt there is anybody on Earth (or on Mars) that is more appreciative of their accomplishments than our crew, since we are the first to experience the fruits of their labor. We're extremely grateful and wish them a safe and swift arrival home.

Yesterday we got to know the Hab. Today, we spent more time getting to know one another. We've done a lot of things together today; general cleaning, an afternoon hike, an overview of the 2-week mission, ATV training in the desert twilight. It's rewarding to see them starting to click.

Tonight we met Paolo de Leon of the University of North Dakota. He, Anna, and Fabio have brought a NDX-1 Mars SpaceSuit prototype that we will help him demonstrate during the coming week. Dinner with them was lively and I anticipate a very successful and enjoyable series of tests. We plan to have a number of guests during this rotation, from academia and the media; we look forward to each and have prepared by stocking extra provisions.

This is a mission sponsored by NASA's Spaceward Bound Program. (For an overview of the program, visit . Briefly, the focus of Spaceward Bound is to train the next generation of space explorers by having students and teachers participate in the exploration of scientifically interesting but remote and extreme environments on Earth as analogs for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. As such, I see the main product of this mission is to have this crew receive a safe, enjoyable, meaningful, and inspirational experience; what they learn as they struggle to do the work is more important than the actual work that gets performed. We will endeavor to keep this philosophy in mind as we adjust to changes in weather and circumstance that all rotations face at MDRS.

The main focus for tomorrow: training, and the first of three planned detailed inspections of our EVA suits.

Chip Shepherd
Commander, MDRS Crew 61