It took months of planning, organizing, exchanging a thousand emails between dozens of participants, potential crewmembers, Mars Society Mission Support, sponsors and a multitude of media interests, but we finally pinned down the dates for the first comparison study between an international team of all men and a team of all women. The idea was generated in the summer of 2004 at the International Space University's Summer Session by student enthusiasm after a series of lectures I had given. Approaching me, they asked if we could put together a new study to compare men and women using the Mars Society's Mars simulation desert research facility in Utah. Now months later, the idea was to become a reality.

Funny how life is either feast or famine. Along with the dates for the back-to-back missions, I get the news at Thanksgiving that my first born is expecting her first child. The due date for this blessed event? The same period as the missions: April 30. This will be my first grandchild. I am the oldest and first born of my siblings and cousins - my daughter is the oldest and first born of her generation of siblings and cousins. And this child will also be the first born of her generation in our family. A first of a first of a first. The planets must be aligning somewhere.

The Leonardo team, the men's team, gallantly switch dates with the Mona Lisa women's team to maximize my chances to be home for the birth. But the men's rotation comes and goes - I pack up and leave for ‘Mars'. Each day, I check via email: “How are you feeling? What did the doctor say today? Any pains yet?” We explore the terrain and geology of our Mars - tracking across landscapes that make it harder to believe you are on Earth than elsewhere. Sandstorms blast us, alternating with furious lightning and rain storms (something quite unexpected both here AND on Mars), winds howling about the habitat as we struggle with generator failures and feeding enough water to the Greenhab to keep the plants alive for recycling. And somewhere back in Georgia, USA, Earth - my granddaughter is stubbornly holding to her own schedule. The due date comes and goes, making her parents impatient and anxious to get the show on the road. The whole extended family hovers near phones and email. The Mona Lisa team similarly waits anxiously, collectively reading the email updates daily. The champagne is ready to be chilled - and still we all wait.

Then, in the midst of our Saturday rest day, I get a chat update - “Her labor has started!” The group whoops and cheers - you'd have thought we won the lottery. “We're on the way to the hospital - will contact you as soon as we have news!” And somewhere across the vast miles, my daughter and her husband speed onward to a momentous change in their lives. Meanwhile back on ‘Mars', the champagne in the fridge, we continue to wait, write reports, and check email frequently. I send out emails to the extended family - “She's coming! She's coming!” Electronic whoops and celebration stream back and forth. Even here, separated by time and distance from my family, we share the experience. I want my granddaughter to know that her birth was celebrated near and far. After all, it's not every day someone becomes a grandmother on Mars.

At 4:45 am EST on Sunday, May 08, 2005, in Columbus, Georgia, Mother's Day in the United States of America, Earth, Kylie Linnae O'Briant made her grand entrance into this world at 8 lbs, 4 oz. Her proud parents, Breeze and Billy O'Briant are in good spirits and doing well. Her Grandmother, Sheryl L Bishop, Ph.D. is celebrating her birth with the rest of the Mona Lisa Team somewhere on ‘Mars'. Perhaps Kylie will one day be able to say the same - for real.

As Astra.