Time is running short. So many projects to complete. So few supplies to
make it happen. Forget the space suits; this is the essence of sim.
It's like staring at your computer, knowing what you want it to do,
knowing that it is easy, and having no earthly idea how to get it done.
In our case, we have the knowledge, but lack the experience required to
accomplish it without having an Ace Hardware next door. Oh Ace, how we
love thee.

We are also becoming acutely aware of an insanely frustrating fact.
Among our ranks, we have a PhD student, three grad students, a senior
undergrad in Biomedical Engineering, and the world's poster child for
youth HAM radio. Yet all our combined education cannot get that black
box of a Greenhab to work automatically. It seems so easy, so simple. I
know for a fact that an apprentice electrician and a plumber could have
this thing working by sunset. But the twenty-five some-odd years of
post-secondary education dwelling within the HAB cannot. Lesson of the
day: education cannot replace experience. It's all about having the
right equipment and the right person working on it.

On a lighter note, I have a conundrum for you – a puzzle if you will.
Riddle me this, riddle me that, this next event took so long I should
have taken a nap. What is the only thing slower than a teenage girl
getting ready in the morning? Three GA Tech female engineers putting on
their space suits for an EVA. Normally this process takes about 20
minutes. Today, almost an hour and a half. Now in their defense, these
suits aren’t exactly made for small female body types and, therefore,
had to be adjusted. But seriously people, an hour and a half goes
straight past absurd and right on to insanity. And the chaos didn’t end
there. Oh no. What comes after getting ready? ATVs. Three
females…driving… in the desert. Without roads. Need I say more?

Luckily, our brave explorers made it back safely with some help from
Andrea, Dan, and a whole GPS constellation. And they did indeed
accomplish their mission of Mars Exploration to Box Canyon. They
effectively tested the range of our communication system and real time
navigation assistance. Congratulations ladies. We live to see another
Martian day and another beautiful night on the Red Planet.

Crew 69 out!