Busy day with filming EVAs. The morning involved an EVA with Nancy Wood and Stan Piechocinski, who took samples of water from a small pool while wearing the MarsSkin suits. Stan also had a datalogger attached to the front of his suit, which he used to input information about the location. They travelled to the site in the Ares Rover, which is a lot of fun. I followed in one of the chase vehicles with Steve Jordan. We both filmed the EVA and had a lot of fun watching Stan and Nancy struggle to retrieve their water bottle when the rope attached to it came loose on top of the water. A lasso weighted with stones was rigged up by Stan, and a couple of tries later, we had our water sample. Problem solving on Mars will be important, when Mission Support is not instantaneous due to the time delay, and materials may be limited.

Back for lunch - a cold day with some wind so a warm meal was much appreciated. Food on Mars will be vital for morale and staying healthy. As the lone vegetarian, I am eating well - probably better than at home - and I have tried to argue to some of the crew (but with little success so far) that people like me will be easier to feed on a Mars mission!!

Just time to charge up the video camera, and then start packing for the overnight Rover trip. I swapped with Guy so that I could film it - am thrilled to be part of the first crew to test out Ares in the field.

Jonathan and Fathi rode in the Ares, while Chad and I followed in the 'chase vehicle.' We filmed the Rover going through some bumpy terrain, to show the engineers, and drove as far as Factory Butte, a nearby outcrop, so Jonathan could take some photos and look at the geology. We then travelled to Coal-Mine Wash for scouting.

Finished about 6.00 pm as it started to close in - will be a cold night I think. We prepared dinner - some cold MREs (military-prepared meals) and an apple for dessert. Spent a pleasant few hours talking about our backgrounds, why we came here, and our involvement with space-related activities - good for team bonding. I filmed the meal preparation and our perceptions of the Rover. Stepped outside to star-gaze, but too cloudy to see anything unfortunately.

The crew on the overnight rover EVA split between sleeping in the Ares Rover and the ‘chase' vehicle for the purposes of testing the habitability of the Rover for a typical crew of two.

Early to bed to the strains of the Bach Mass in B Minor on a CD in the 'chase vehicle' - Jonathan was impressed at the choice of music, which he described as 'very civilised!!'