Weather: clear; low 3.3c (37.9F), high 21.7c (71F), burning sun

Crew Physical Status: healthy, buzzing and moving about like bees; glad we're done

Brief Narrative of Today’s Results: Started the day with a planning meeting for the south area beyond Pooh's Corner. Decided to let the astronauts work with less prompting; asked them to inform us of alerts they were receiving; plus decided to instrument them with wireless mikes (direct to video) so they wouldn't have to use the radios. Started EVA after 1730h and completing in two hours. Stunning light and warm (65F, 18.3c) at 2030h. Celebrated the two weeks of ups and downs with a pizza party and beer outside. Awards were given to Rob Hirsh for helping the ERA team, Ron van Hoof (the “Woodstock” award, given by Abby and Brent), and to the commander (to encourage him to get the funding to continue our activity here at MDRS).

The Schedule: briefing 0915h, 2000h final ceremony with awards.

EVA: Astronauts worked about an hour in a visually exciting area below the “jumble mountain” to the east, an area they had never seen, except fuzzy aerial shots. Infrastructure included a tropos relay about 700 meters out, Boudreaux (took a panorama, otherwise joy-sticked), and person on ATV simulating a robot (linked to agent system).

Report Transmission Schedule: CDR Journal; EVA reports.

Maintenance: Generator became erratic about 1230h & inverter switched to batteries, shut it down, checked oil, tightened battery cable and put it on internal tank. Worked well thereafter, implicating the autofeed again (this is the second failure).

Inventory: We have given updates to the next crew.

Plans for Tomorrow: Pack and clean up, preparing for handover briefing mid to late afternoon.

Miscellaneous: Arriving at an ending with your hopes and self-respect intact can be the sweetest reward.

Support Requested: Diesel tank autofeed to generator needs to be troubleshooted (e.g., how to verify line is clear & pump is working).

Bill Clancey
Commander, MDRS Crew 38