Today started off with an EVA led by Cassie teaching field geology methodology to Liz and Anna. The other half of the crew (Adrienne, Seth, and Brogan) will do a field geology training EVA in the next few days, and field biology EVAs will start tomorrow with Adrienne. Lab training continued in the evening with lessons in lab geology and biology from Cassie and Adrienne. We learned how to identify rock samples taken from sampling EVAs in the geology lesson using handlenses, microscopes, rock hammers, and HCl. By the time we were done, we could all identify the common rock/mineral samples from the EVA sites sampled on this mission. The biology lesson entailed swabbing areas of the Hab and streaking the samples on Petri plates to see what microbes are living in the EVA suits, on door handles and hand rails, and other locations in the Hab. We'll see how grossed out the crew is tomorrow when the plates are taken out of the incubator and examined!

We also had time today to work on our individual projects, planning sampling and training EVAs for this week and going through the data collected so far in this mission. We've had a lot of success scientifically so far and are hoping to keep that streak alive! The engineers (Anna, Seth, and Brogan) were back at it again today helping to fix up the Hab and ATVs to make our Martian home just that much better. Anna was busy today in the GreenHab planting seeds that will become the salad supply for future missions, which I'm sure they will appreciate as much as we have.

All in all, it was a good day on simulated Mars! The sun was shining through the Hab windows while we worked, making it just that much more enjoyable. Dinner is almost ready and smells fabulous (Anna is making some amazing chicken and potato dishes) so I'll sign off. Hope you are having a pleasant evening on Earth!