I could not resist -- today I indulged myself again and joined my last EVA team at MDRS. The team's primary goal was to make it all the way to Factory Butte, one of the defining features of the local MDRS landscape. It is located a little over 10 km northwest of the Habitat and beckons every crew who visits. It is so enticing that it ended up causing a moral dilemma in me today.

We knew that getting there within the simulation constraints was going to be challenging. So after leaving the airlock and gassing up the ATV's we headed straight out for it, leaving routine maintenance activities for when we returned. To get there by ATV we mapped out a round-about track to approach it from the northeast. It makes the trip longer than 10 km but the route is passable rather easily by ATV.

Unfortunately I made a mistake as the commander in considering the skill set of the EVA team when assigning the participants and it became apparent early on that we probably were not going to make it to the primary target. ATV riding can be difficult and even dangerous when people feel uncomfortable on them.

I grew up in the Midwest where almost everyone I knew had some assortment of motorcycles, snowmobiles or 3-wheelers at their disposal. I was raised riding and later driving such vehicles purely for fun. It had never occurred to me that driving ATV's requires a learning curve. I was over 20 years along on mine when I traveled to FMARS and met other scientists who were riding such equipment for the first time. It can be a stressful experience and the difficulty should not be underestimated. I did. And it almost caused a serious injury on an EVA I was leading.

Fortunately the incident only resulted in a bad bruise, but it could have just as easily been a broken leg. I felt awful. Unwittingly I had set the pace too hard and headed into terrain much too difficult for a beginner rider. Overachievers will usually not tell you when they are getting in over their heads. I promised myself I would never again underestimate the time it takes for a person to become competent on an ATV.

So today, as we slipped further and further behind schedule, the classic battle played out in my spacesuit helmet between right and wrong. On the one side was the little devil in red pajamas telling me I had set a goal and that I needed to achieve it. On the other side was an angel dressed in white saying, "There are simulation rules you need to follow and did you forget what you learned last time?" This internal conversation continued as the predetermined deadline for reaching Factory Butte came and went. And we were still not there.

Finally we drove up a canyon wall on some switchbacks and made it to a point where we could see Factory Butte right in front of us. It looked like it would be a nice easy ride right up to the beautiful structure. We were just over 3 km away. I looked down at the elapsed time on my watch. The simulation "walk back" safety rule required that we turn around then and there. And so we did.

We took a nice easy pace back along our path and stopped at a few points of interest. And as planned we marked some waypoints at positions that looked promising for Mark's drilling experiments tomorrow. When we arrived back at the Habitat, Mark and Dave conducted a water contamination experiment while I deployed another dust sampling container at the top of Repeater Hill. It was another successful EVA, no matter what that little guy with the pitchfork says.

In the end, I think the EVA turned out exactly as it should have -- it just did not turn out according to my plan. Logic ultimately triumphed over pride, although the dark side may have won a small battle after all.

Factory Butte has become my white whale and if there is time, I will be sending another team later in the week to bring me back a rock from its base. This time the team's skills will be more carefully considered to optimize the chance of success. Having used my one allotted EVA spot this week, I will be anxiously waiting in the Hab to hear about their successful adventure. I just hope it will be the red pajama fellow's day off.