Today everyone is in rather great mood as we have accomplished quite a bit. Stress level was quite high, as we wanted to make use of the still reasonable weather, which seems to degrade by the hour, therefore the activities were undertaken with great pace and effort (BTW: it just started raining)

Successful Search and Rescue dress rehearsal, which took place in the north-easterly vicinity of waypoint WPT 011 of Crew 47 within a small canyon. After successful testing, the media representatives made a lot of photo and movie shots.

The second big activity of today was the construction of the AustroMars aerobot.The webcam (type: "Black Widow") was integrated and tested successfully, unfortunately we could not test fly the aerobot because of very strong winds.

Both the PsychoMars and MedMars experiment were initiated to have a base line sample.

Most of the day was devoted to the Search and Rescue dress rehearsal, which took place in the north-easterly vicinity of waypoint WPT 011 of Crew 47 within a small canyon. A Search and Resuce dress rehearsal was conducted there, whereby simulated patients were lifted from the canyon ground. To save on time, the Mountain Rescue Equipment (MRE) was installed prior to the EVA. However, the EVA crew tested various ways of using the MRE with the space suits, focussing on lifting a patient and a rescuer from the canyon ground (altitude 13m). The results were OK, despite the soft consistency of the soil, which made it difficult to fix the MRE. After successful testing, the media representatives made a lot of photo and movie shots.

The second big activity of today was the construction of the AustroMars aerobot.The webcam (type: "Black Widow") was integrated and tested successfully, unfortunately we could not test fly the aerobot because of very strong winds. We will try that tomorrow if the weather allows for it. Currently it's raining, which of course compresses our preparation activities even further- still the crew's mood is fine, despite the ever building up stress factor.

The evening saw the initiation of both PsychoMars and MedMars experiment. Weight, body fat and body water content were measured of each of the flight crew members to establish a baseline, which will be used as a reference in the simulation afterwards to track any changes.

Foreseen Activites for Tomorrow: Additional AustroMars Aerobot testflights; MedMars Monitoring construction; Start-up of AustroMars Rover; first "real" SAR-EVA (Mountain Rescue Equipment to be set up in space suits as well)

Good evening to all of you - best wishes.

Norbert Frischauf
Commander, MDRS Crew 48 "AustroMars"