To celebrate reaching the halfway point of our mission, and to recover
from a late night intense discussion, Crew 66 slept in today. Initially
we'd planned to wake up an hour later than normal, at 9 am, but we were
apparently more tired than we realized. Some of us were early risers,
but most rolled out of bed at a sunny 11 am.

This was followed by debate: do we enjoy another freeze-dried
breakfast, or just dive right in to lunch? Today was dominated by talk
of food. Most of us miss vegetables, even those who normally opt not to
eat them. Its incredible how the hours can be filled up planning and
baking with the available ingredients on the Hab shelf. Cheryl is once
again the hero of the crew, creating now-gobbled-up treats like
cinnamon bread and buns. Perry and Anna also attempted to resurrect
microwave popcorn, but after 4 bags, still couldn't manage to find the
correct ratio of microwave power and time. Needless to say, though the
mission is going absolutely beautifully, we are all missing tastes of
home.

Today was kept low key, as we've been working hard the past week and it
was apparent the crew was fatigued. John and Kerry went on a 3 hour
EVA to collect more geology data and enjoy the incredible views of
southern Utah. John learned to be careful how much water he consumed
before heading out on an EVA with Kerry... drinking 750 mLs of water
can pose quite a challenge within a spacesuit for a few hours! The
rest of us hung around the Hab. Perry busied himself with engineering
projects like getting the hot water heater to work and fixing the
webcams. Others spent time catching up on our "Earth" work like
studying for upcoming exams, writing papers, and analyzing data.

Our lecture series is one of the most interesting parts of the day.
Last night, Arthur's presentation on micrologistics and space travel
kept us up discussing until the wee hours of the morning about about
plans to travel to the Moon and Mars. Tonight Kerry is teaching us all
about the geology of Earth and the other planets. We are sure to learn
a lot!