David and Kim were the chefs of the day today and prepared a delicious breakfast of bagels, cereal, fruit, and jams. I hadn't noted this earlier, but Jody, with a little help from me, planned the menus for the whole two weeks of our rotation before we even arrived at the Hab (We are used to planning menus for multiple people over weeks at a time.). We all decided this would be simplest and would assure that we had good variety and proper supplies to prepare the food we wanted. That way we could buy our groceries in Salt Lake City and have all we needed once we reached the Hab.

The cook teams look at the day's meals and prepare what's listed. So far, it's worked great-we are trying new things and eating well. The only problem is that we are all probably gaining weight, having three actual sit-down meals a day.

Soon after breakfast, David and Jody got ready to head out into the desert on ATVs. One of the topics at this morning's planning meeting was the much-anticipated visit from the Discovery Channel Canada crew next Thursday. Of course, we want them to feel as if they have gotten a little taste of Mars when they come, so the plan was that the two would scout out a couple of places that we had heard were especially beautiful.

They decided not to go in sim, since they wanted to be free not to have to stick with a mission plan and to take off in any direction the desert led them. They checked in with the rest of us periodically via radio.

While they were gone, from about 10:00-3:00, Kim hosted visitors to the Hab through the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History's web cam and chat. Mars Discovery Day was the theme, and she was the perfect person to be in charge of the project. After handling the logistics from our end, and setting up and resetting up the links, she sat down to answer all the questions thrown at her from Michigan museum visitors. The queries kept her intermittently busy all day, ranging from "Is it cold on Mars?" to a question for Derek, "Do you miss Ireland?" She fielded questions from Brownie troops and Boy Scouts, from families and adults, from the merely curious to the enthusiastic.

Occasionally Tim or Derek stepped in to answer questions to give Kim a break. Meanwhile the museum-goers in Michigan, were looking in on us, either seeing our views out the window or seeing us in our living quarters where we do our planning, meeting, report writing, and meal preparing. Rumor has it, from an e-mail Jody received tonight from someone there at the museum, that the entire event was well attended by enthusiastic folks who went away fans of Mars.

After several hours, David and Jody came back from the dusty trails somewhat sunburned, and tired-but excited about the places they had gone, including Lith Canyon and Candor Chasma Canyon, which is mostly east and slightly north of the Hab. They sat down for a late lunch (chicken salad, tuna salad, and vegetable soup) and told us about their trip while we filled them in on the Museum visit. One of the highlights for them was seeing an antelope run out across the road.

After lunch and Kim's tour of duty ended, the three computer whizzes (Kim plus Derek and Tim), spent much of the rest of the day working with web cams and the equipment at the MUSK Mars Observatory. They have devoted a lot of time and planning to this project and were aided this afternoon by a visit from local go-to man Don Foutz, who conferred with them about the computer out there.

David, who was sunburned after this morning's excursion, announced that he needed a few moments of solitude to reflect on the day's outing. He went into his stateroom, cut off the lights, and we didn't hear from him again for an hour and a half. Whenever a group is together all the time, it's important to take what opportunities one can for a little solitude. David looked a lot happier when he woke up.

While David gathered his thoughts, and the others worked at the Observatory, I did on my own projects while Jody dealt with some of the materials he has collected over the past couple of days. About 4:30, we suited him up for a modified sim (he was wearing an EVA suit and carrying geology equipment, and I wore jeans and tee shirt and carried a camera). While he worked, I snapped pictures of him and the surrounding landscape.

It was another beautiful day, clear with a coolish breeze blowing in the late afternoon. The sun lit the rocks so that they glowed. Jody moved around with difficulty, because of the confines of the suit, but also because the sun shining in the helmet made it difficult to see. The glare in the helmet, he told me, was pretty bad. So he found it hard to use the Brunton compass he had brought to take strike and dip readings.

I, however, had the advantage and could see the whole desert, it seemed. I noticed the snow-capped mountain peaks in the distance and the cracked mud at my feet. I thought it was pretty, the way the cracks formed a pattern, so I took a picture with my digital camera. "Art!" I thought as I looked at the photo on my laptop tonight, with the gray curves and patterns highlighted so pleasantly. "Hmmm. A nice shot of desiccated clay," observed Jody as he looked over my shoulder. "Very nice."

Sometimes I'd rather not know the proper name for things.

Supper was a delicious spaghetti dinner prepared by David. As usual, the supper conversation was lively, and also as usual, we managed, without really intending to, to gross Derek out with our topics of conversation. It's amazing how easily a group can veer into the grotesque when left alone for a week on another planet.

Lunch topics included spitting llamas (David), while supper veered from stories about skunks living under houses (Jody) to roaches so big that they could push Roach Motels around a room (Kim). We don't mean to do this-it just happens. We generally can have Derek tickled and dismayed within a few minutes after sitting down, even if we begin with some innocent and innocuous topic of interest to everyone. Eventually someone says, "No more! Stop!" and we do-till the next mealtime rolls around.

After supper, David went out to turn off the generator to let it cool before refueling, but before he came back in, he called us on the radio to come out and look at stars. Some of us did, and we stood in the dirt craning our necks to see what constellations we could identify, and to try to count all the ones we could. Some of us on the crew have regular opportunities back home to see the night sky, uninhibited by polluted air or city lights, but others have never seen more than just a few stars at a time.

As we looked up, the night sky connected us not only with one another, standing there in the dark; but also with those others we've been with when we've contemplated the heavens throughout our lives; and with all those star-gazers who have ever looked up at the sky and wondered what's out there, who have contemplated how small and insignificant we are in the vastness of the universe.

After a while, some of us came on back in, but the Observatory crew headed back out to do some more work to get the telescope running. We who stayed inside writing reports kept an eye on their activities through the Observatory cam. At last, reports written and turned in, we inside crept outside one more time for a look at the rising moon and then turned in for the night, leaving the night sky and the telescope to Tim, Derek, and Kim.