We had some more snow last night and the dirt road into Analog Mars is quite treacherous with both mud and pooled water from melting snow. Don Foutz came in with a 4-wheel drive truck at 10:00 a.m. to extract William, Guido, Steven and Laurel to the Whispering Sands Motel where he will transfer them and their luggage to his van for the 240 mile trip to Salt Lake City. Ben and I are staying behind to crew the Hab, greet the incoming Crew 46, and bring them up to date on the state of the Hab and its support systems.

It was hard saying goodbye to my crew mates. Two weeks of an intense exercise in close quarters can be very bonding. We all plan to stay in touch and I will be emailing them a feedback debriefing questionnaire, as well as further post-mission reports as we find time to further digest all we have accomplished here.

This is Analog Mars, not Analog Luna, and it has been a challenge to simulate moonbase operations here given the geological setting. But we all think we have done quite well and have learned much that will be useful in the future.

Tomorrow afternoon, Don will come again to extract me and Ben. Ben will be staying at the Sands overnight. Don will drop me off at the Greyhound Bus Depot in Green River for my 3:30 pm connection to Salt Lake City.

It's quiet here now. But we are busy. There is one last report for me to file, the Commander's Mission Summary. Then some housecleaning and taking the last of the requested set of Exit Photos. That done, we will relax and await Crew 46's arrival.

The weather has caused yet another problem. We are low on water, and the road is impassible to the 6-ton water delivery truck. Don will concentrate on delivery of smaller amounts on a just-in-time basis until the Sun has had time to dry out the road.

After lunch, Ben and I reattached the Dome Rotation Motor in the Observatory. It works fine. The trouble is that it and the computer aren't talking to one another.

Crew 46 arrived a bit before 4:30 p.m. to our relief, as the road in was bad. They took it slow and easy. "It was interesting," commented Commander Veronica Zabala-Alberto.

As the new crew learns more and more about the systems here, I feel myself starting to unwind. Anticlimax, I guess it's called.

Signing off

Peter Kokh
Commander, MDRS Crew 45
Artemis Moonbase Sim 1