The Letter of the Day is P

P stands for power, which we now have again at the Hab after yesterday's chaos with the generators. The Don lived up to his remarkable reputation, showing up late last night ready to fix SamG, the current generator. After some superb handiwork, we were able to give our two vehicles some much needed rest after powering the Hab through the hot afternoon sun. It has been nice to spend today not worrying about unplugging our laptops, and unplugging the refrigerator just to keep the lights on.

P stands for photographers. It also stands for plentiful. More precisely, P stands for paparazzi. Today has been a media frenzy here at MDRS. Joanna Walters has joined our rotation for the day to write her piece "My 24 Hours on Mars" for the London Daily Express. The team of Brian and Joaquin has been busily photographing our crew since last night for Travel & Leisure Magazine, and George was snapping away all day for the European Photography Agency. Our crew managed to fit in an early morning EVA with the photographers keeping up to grab every shot they could.

P stands for the Penn State rover, which made its debut today. For me personally this was exciting to watch, but probably not for the same reason Amy will likely talk about in her report. For the Penn State students in this crew, this is a great technical achievement. For me, there was a bit of excitement as I watched them operate the rover. This was a project that started what seems to be a lifetime ago when I was an undergrad at Penn State starting up a Mars Society chapter. Now that I am two years removed from the chapter I co-founded, it is exciting to see the project continuing, and to hear the enthusiasm in the younger members as they discuss the various systems that they plan on implementing next year. At the time I was most excited about the technical accomplishments I achieved working on the rover. Now that I look back I think perhaps the greatest part of the project is that it is something that has been handed down year to year, giving an ever-increasing number of undergraduate students an opportunity to learn so much. I guess P also stands for pride.

Kevin Sloan
Commander, MDRS Crew 50