Lessons Learned:
1. It is possible to drill plastic with drill bits meant for wood
2. Even wimps like me can learn to drive an ATV
3. Being in sim is fun!

Everyone woke up around early this morning happy and rested. Now that we have the right oil for our generator it made it through the night without stopping at 6AM. Everything went so well that Doug slept through his generator duties until 7:30 

Today was our first day in sim, meaning that we are fully acting as if we are on Mars. We aren't supposed to leave the Hab without a space suit, it takes 5 minutes to go through decompression before we walk out the door, and we aren't allowed to chat online with anyone outside of MDRS support. It has been an interesting experience so far, and we can't wait to do long EVAs in our suits.

Our morning went along as usual, with general indoor fixing-the-Hab type activities. Jan was hard at work organizing the first aid supplies, Doug worked on installing new engineering parts, John inventoried the LiftPort robot supplies, and Rebecca, Kyle, and I attempted to fix suit pack 4.

Fixing the suit pack was no small task. Kyle and I have worked on it for two days now. Starting yesterday we had a nearly demolished pack (from an ATV accident most likely) with functioning parts, but a bad containment box. Basically we stripped the old box of its parts and started a new box from scratch. This seems like a simple task, but it has many complexities… including actually finding what we need in the Engineering supply area and drilling large holes in plastic with limited tools. We figured out a way to use drill bits meant for wood on the uneven plastic surface. The rest of the afternoon Kyle worked relentlessly on soldering and unsoldering wires until he determined the switch was also broken.

After lunch, John and Doug went out on a soil sample EVA. Later that afternoon Jan took John and Doug on an ATV training course around the Hab. Once John and Doug returned, Rebecca and I went out to learn the ropes.

Riding the ATV in a space suit is totally different than riding without one. Your vision is limited, and your center of gravity is displaced. We had lots of fun trying to drive up and down the sandy slopes. If you don't drive fast enough up the slope the ATV can't make it to the top, and you lurch backward. This is scary for a control freak like me - but I've slowly gotten the hang of it, and as far as I can tell, Rebecca is already a pro - Kyle didn't go on an ATV EVA today because he already went on the training course yesterday. Now that we are all trained in sim we can start doing long distance EVAs.

We came back to the Hab and started preparing dinner. We discussed our upcoming plans and finished off the last of the lettuce (suggestion for the next crew: eat your lettuce early, it goes back quickly). The rest of tonight will be spent organizing our pictures and cleaning the suit water packs.

Surprisingly, today went on without any huge surprises (read: catastrophes). I guess the closest thing that we had to a crisis happened during lunch. Just as we were sitting down to eat we realized that the water pump was turned on, and the switch on the second floor was currently detached (as part of Doug's water pump project). We started to hear an overflowing noise and Doug flew down the ladder to stop the water. Jan went to see if the attic had been flooded, but there was only a small puddle that needed to be cleaned up.

All in all, today was a great day. We're really starting to work together well as a team, and everyone seems really happy. Maybe it's because we're not thinking about all the homework we need to get done before we get back - Oh well, here on Mars we have other things to worry about - like making sure the power stays on and the water tanks are properly maintained. This experience is like nothing else, and I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.