Crew 29 returns to MDRS, ready for a working test of the wireless EVA data management system ("Mobile Agents") that we brought to life a year ago. Last April, Crew 16 showed another way of using MDRS-as a research station-a protected workplace for scientists and engineers to configure, deploy, and test sophisticated technologies and protocols in an extreme environment. This year, we've connected a database to the network in the hab ("ScienceOrganizer") and made it accessible to a remote science team (RST). The RST has been preparing for months, under the direction of Maarten Sierhuis and Shannon Rupert. They will receive data from the field as it is collected during the EVA, plus provide feedback on the crew's daily plans for the next day.

Only the EVAs in the 16th rotation were conducted in simulation mode (with only two people in suits, and a support crew of 18 or so off camera). This year we plan to run a closed simulation from the end of the EVA as well, closing the hab so we process samples and plan, under controlled conditions, while the remaining crew prepares dinner and writes reports. With NASA making human missions to the moon and Mars more likely, we want to squeeze out as much information as we can from our working and living in the hab.

The project name, Mobile Agents, refers to software running on moving computers; over 20 researchers are collaborating from three NASA centers and two universities. (See Maarten Sierhuis' Mobile Agents Architecture essay for details.)

The astronauts have about 40 different commands for affecting the GPS, biosensors, EVA plan, and science data (images, voice annotations, and samples) -all during the EVA. They can even print labels for sample bags from a printer on the ERA's equipment cart. In conventional terms, we're providing a voice-operated "work flow" system. The created data is routed, copied, and stored appropriately; plus the Mobile Agent system is keeping track of time and the astronauts' location and health, and providing warnings verbally to the astronauts, as well as on the loudspeaker in the hab, and via email to the RST.

We've been working on two EVA scenarios since last October. The first week will be a pedestrian EVA to "Pooh's Corner," in which the ERA will do "autonomous" reconnaissance and follow the astronauts the next day to locations planned with the RST (using photos returned by the ERA). The second week will be near "Lith Canyon," 5 km away, involving a mixture of tests with the ERA relaying, carrying samples, and video-tracking the crew.

Crew 29's Commander (CDR) "check in" reports will provide brief updates on the status of system deployment and testing. Fuller reports of EVAs will be written by Brent Garry and Abigail Semple, our geology-astronauts. Maarten Sierhuis, Mobile Agents Project Lead, will report on the interaction of the crew with the RST and other aspects of the Mobile Agents field test in an "EVA Communications Systems Report." Engineering status will be reported by Rick Alena; Greenhab by John Dowding. Abby is also the Health & Safety Officer.