We have an amazing crew. The amount of work that we accomplished today was huge, but it seemed like everyone was having fun while doing it, and they can't wait to start the "real" part of our simulated Mars mission. Here is the short version of the day's events - the details are in the other reports.

• We got up early, around 0700h, to get a "secondary 'storage' area" outside cleaned up and consolidated with the main engineering storage area next to the generators.
• Actually, yours truly and his valiant XO were already up at 0600h to refill the generator, which had run out of fuel at about that time. This prompted us to institute a more regular refueling schedule: midnight, noon, and 6 a.m. and p.m. from now on, with the oil change at 1800h.
• After the morning clean-up exercise, we gathered for a well-earned breakfast and planned the rest of the day.
• Around 0915h, we welcomed Katie Knight, a reporter from London's Daily Mail, and her photographer. Sitting around the wardroom table, we briefed them on the Mars Society, the hab, and our mission and our backgrounds.
• While that was going on on the upper level, our valiant engineers fixed the ATVs, started reparing the broken PLSS backpacks, and took care of the initial items on the long hab improvement punchlist (see yesterday's ENG report).
• Rebecca, even more valiantly, braved the malodorous GreenHab and learned all she could about its design and operation from visiting GreenHab team member David Blersch.
• After lunch (Sandwiches! Yum!), we gathered outside for out-of-sim ATV training. Since three of our crew had never used an ATV before, we were particularly glad to find our "unpressurized rovers" loaded with features that make it easy for newbies: automatic transmission, switch-controlled four-wheel drive, front differential control, etc. Doug briefed us on basic operations, and everyone took an ATV for a tour around Cougar Hill south of the hab.
• Next on the agenda was familiarization with the EVA suits. Katie, ever the intrepid reporter, volunteered to be the first to put one on so the crewmembers could watch. As soon as she was suited up, she and her photographer went outside - where the sun had just started to come through the clouds - and started taking pictures. The combination of scenery, suits and sunshine was perfect (see today's pictures).
• Three other crewmembers soon had put on their own suits (thanks to Paul Graham's expert advice on speed-donning a suit) and followed Katie outside for their first-ever EVA. They posed for some shots with her and eventually ended up climbing Radio Ridge. Quite an accomplishment for a first time in a suit.
• After EVA01's return, Kyle and Jan also suited up and went for the first motorized EVA, again around Cougar Hill and up, over, along and down some minor outlying "bumps". See EVA report for details.
• The rest of the evening was spent writing reports and cooking/eating dinner. As soon as the reports are done today, we will take the traditional final out-of-sim walk around the hab and then close the airlocks for our planned twelve days of sim.

Working with this crew has been a privilege and a pleasure so far, and I don't expect it to change as we transition to full sim. I am also glad about the excellent support that we are receiving both from our own Mission Support Center in Atlanta and from Mars Society Mission Support in Denver. Special thanks go to our local Martians Don, Paul, Lee and David, who have gone all the way in fixing/explaining/providing things that needed to be fixed/explained/provided before we could go into sim.

I am looking forward to an exciting twelve days on simulated Mars.

Signing off for today,

Jan Osburg
Commander, MDRS Crew 37