Commander's Report

February 21, 2008

Randall Shelaga



Day 4 of Boot Camp started with us waking up to a wet day. Overnight it rained heavily followed by a dust storm. It quickly became apparent that we could not conduct our EVAs safely and it was decided that we would conduct Station maintenance and Laboratory activities.

Cass ("Fam") took advantage of this downtime to conduct some one on one topographic map and compass training with the goal of ensuring all crewmembers were comfortable with these important field tools.

Thereafter, things developed quickly today, as Zahra Khan ("Princess"), the Surface Explorations Systems (SES) Engineer found out that she had to be in Amsterdam next Monday for an interview with the ESA. Zahra packed quickly and prepared for a Pressurized EVA (P/EVA) with Cass ("Fam") and Guy ("Kim") to Green River to get a bus to Salt Lake City and on to Amsterdam. The crew all wishes her the best of luck.

Chris ("Lox") took the opportunity to scour the Station for the required materials to assemble a dual generator fuel feed system, allowing both Primary Generators to be directly connected to the Diesel Tank. The necessary fittings, valves and adapters have been found and the work is near completion. Tonight, we will continue using the back-up Generator, with the new fuel system scheduled for commissioning tomorrow.

We have adequate power to maintain the Station, and even to power the bread maker. Tonight we will dine on freeze dried lasagna and fresh bread, followed by a presentation by Aravind ("Googly") and just maybe, we will be able to watch at least one episode of "Firefly".

Oh for those of you wondering who actually was guilty of pushing "Kim" over the 1-meter escarpment yesterday, the evidence shows that he simply lost his footing. Both Private Ham and our Executive Officer have been cleared.

Until tomorrow!

Ut Mars per erudio!
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