Journalist's Report

February 15, 2008

Kerry Cupit



When you do too much in one day you sure notice it the next. Last
night our crew set out a plan for an afternoon EVA and some close-out
activities in order to give us some time to recuperate, yet it's
amazing what we still managed to do.

Our morning was comfortable with John working on our crew video and
other members busying themselves with administrative tasks relating to
their science projects or personal research. However, in what is
arguably the biggest mission triumph so far, Perry fixed the hot water
tank! Visitors to our webcam are alerted to this by a big sign we put
up, and crew members are eagerly lining up for hot showers in stark
contrast to before.

Since the majority of our training and science objectives were
complete, John, Perry and Kerry were not in-sim today when they visited
Lith Canyon and Candor Chasma to gather a few extra samples for a
halophile project that will continue into the next crew, crew 67. It
was a fruitful expedition leading John to find a cave, Kerry to find
some rocks, and Perry to get some great photos. Back at the hab Arthur
was busy reprogramming 100 radio tags manually, and we're sure he was
secretly jealous.

Tonight during report writing we zipped outside just in time to see the
International Space Station and the Space Shuttle fly overhead, docked,
in a bright ball of light. Apparently the station was aligned in just
the right way to reflect light from its solar panels to this area of
Utah. It had a slight orange tinge to it, and it made a perfect end to
a great day.

Special libations are on the dinner menu tonight, as we are slowly
starting to celebrate the beginning of the end of a successful mission.
With Anna gone and missed and Cheryl leaving tomorrow, things are
definitely starting to feel like they're winding down. But the crew is
happy, we've achieved everything we've set out to do, and we still have
another good 36 hours of contributions left to make at MDRS.

Keep watching the skiis! Err, I mean skies.