The Mars Desert Research Station is far more than a place to run scientific tests and engineering proofs of concept. It also sets up for its crewmembers many of the kinds of everyday problems that might be encountered by astronauts living on Mars.

Crew 49's goals at the MDRS don't require that we stay "in sim" - we don't have to follow the same rules that would be critical on Mars. For example, we keep the habitat doors open during the daytime, and walk freely about in our shorts and t-shirts to take care of maintenance tasks or to explore the Utah desert at sunrise. Despite that, our habitat living space, the arrangement and function of the living space, and our dependence on a host of interacting "life support" systems is suggestive, at least, of a Mars habitat. So even though we can walk outside without the protection of a pressure suit and we can drive to Hanksville in 10 minutes in an emergency, we don't have cell phone or telephone contact with the world, we live isolated from the rest of civilization in a harsh desert environment, we work together on technical problems related to habitat operations all day every day, and for the most part, we diagnose and fix problems with our equipment with the help of e-mails from our "mission controllers".

Today was a perfect example of how life at the MDRS gives you a little taste of the Mars astronaut experience, and yet is unmistakably (unavoidably?) Earthlike. This morning, as I ate my cereal (real milk!), I expected to be spending the day working on automating the MDRS power system management as I had the last several days. Of course, we'd been having problems with the GreenHab, our combined greenhouse and water processing facility. Our local support engineer from Hanksville, Don, came by to check up on us as he does occasionally (not exactly like Mars!), and Vandi and I reviewed our various equipment issues with him ("these water meter readings don't make any sense. We don't know whether the grey water pump is malfunctioning or the meter is faulty, etc, etc"). After guiding us through some tests of the equipment, Don suggested that we upgrade our potable water pump and eventually replace one of the GreenHab pumps. I volunteered to do the job. Well, there went my work day on automating the Hab! But on Mars, problems don't schedule themselves nicely into your day - they arise and demand attention right now. So treating Don's visit as a recommendation from a team of flight controllers and engineering support in Houston, I got to work.

Of course we couldn't drive to a hardware store to pick up a bunch of new equipment; we had to use what we had in the Hab (well, we *could* probably have driven to a hardware store, but that would have spoiled the fun!). Don located a spare pump in the Hab engineering lab, and I found a bunch of spare tubing, pipe clamps, silicone sealer, tools, etc to do pump changeout. As a crewmember with the title "Computer Scientist", I don't often fiddle with mechanical equipment like pumps. Nevertheless, I spent the morning dismantling the old pump and fitting the new pump. Halfway through the job, another "emergency" occurred.

Earlier in the day, during Don's visit, we turned off our diesel generator (think nuclear generator on Mars) to run some tests and do some maintenance. After Don's departure, our Hab batteries began dropping charge far more quickly than expected. I dropped my potable water tubing, grabbed Maarten our Engineering Officer and Bill our Commander. We headed for the generator to see if we could restart the generator before the batteries discharged completely. After our first failed tries to start it up again, we thought through the problem and by charging the generator starter motor batteries (with our rental car) and applying some starter fluid, we got it started again. We kept people's computers working, and most importantly, saved our chicken stew dinner, which was slow-cooking all day long (will NASA stock Crock-Pots on the first Mars expedition??).

For the remainder of the day, I finished my pump installation and then, after a late lunch, I finally got to writing procedures for automated Hab power management. Finally, a sitdown dinner with friends, and perhaps a movie. All in a day, and it was a blast!

This experience really makes me think about the incredible ambition of an extended expedition to Mars. Though the MDRS simulates a few of those upcoming challenges, it is far more forgiving than Mars will be. Despite the gaps in realism, the MDRS provides a truly a fantastic environment for motivating the technologies that will meet the challenges of a Mars journey. I, for one, am glad for my time here, and will certainly benefit from my stay.