Today was a day of logistical preparations for upcoming higher fidelity EVA simulations. I spent part of the day at the HMP Base Camp with the newly arrived team from Hamilton-Sundstrand Space Systems International Inc., an aerospace firm currently under contract at NASA to develop and support life support systems for EVA on the Shuttle and ISS programs. Engineers Michael Boucher and Sean Murray form the team representing Hamilton-Sundstrand and the research group led there by Ed Hogdson and Ella Kisilis.

Monday we went on Phase 5’s first EVA. The target site was “Site 10”, a location selected last week by the Science Operations team gathered at NASA Ames Research Center. They picked an interesting location, a banana-shaped pond the length of a football field with some intriguing little gullies on the side valley walls. The Sci Ops team ranked “Site 10” among the highest priority ones they had. It seemed interesting not only for geology but also for biology. We would have to sample water from the small lake.

For the fifth day in a row we are engulfed in thick fog. The fog lifted briefly this afternoon allowing 15 field participants to depart from Haughton, including Lucas Allakariallak, John Blitch, Brent Bos, Charles Frankel, AC Hitch, Greg Klerkx, Larry Lemke, Arnis Mangolds, Peter Smith, Carol Stoker, and my brother Marco. The planes that pulled them out arrived at Haughton full of supplies. But when it came time to fly in new participants, the weather closed in again and they were unable to come. We are now completely fogged in, with visibilities down to 50 meters at times.

The day was devoted to executing a simulated EVA with a science agenda proposed by the Science Operations team at NASA Ames Research Center and with overall mission support from the Mission Support team in Denver. We went to “Site 6, an area presenting a beautiful network of small valleys visited the previous day by the Titan robot in teleoperated mode. The main goal of the EVA was to determine the origin of the small valleys.

We had a packed great day! The day started with a small planning meeting and a big Sunday brunch. Larry revealed to us his excellent culinary skills and is now our de facto chef. Two SpaceRef.com webcams were also installed inside the FMARS Hab this morning (with help from “Portable Trish”, Steve’s sidekick who came up from the HMP Base Camp ; her name comes from her handheld transceiver call sign).

We accomplished a lot this summer. In our first Mars mission simulation we demonstrated in dramatic fashion the overwhelming value of human explorers on Mars. To me, this whole project has been an incredible experience. People have been talking about establishing a simulated human Mars exploration base for at least 20 years; we finally made it happen.

The Phase 4 crew entered the FMARS Hab this afternoon at 1 pm local time. The crew is composed of Dr Carol Stoker of NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Larry Lemke of NASA Ames, Dr Peter Smith of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, Dr Steve Braham of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, LtCol John Blitch of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and myself (Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute, based at NASA Ames). Phase 4 will run from July 28 through August 1st, 2001.

The weather is getting worse. The forecast for today was rain, sleet, and fog, with snow possible tomorrow. Most of my crew needs to be on the 737 that will leave Resolute for Yellowknife Saturday afternoon – the next flight out is Wednesday. So all plans for a telerobot deployment EVA to the cliff across Devo Rock canyon were cancelled. Instead our program was to do our work today in the station with most of our bags packed, holding ourselves in readiness for rapid pullout to Resolute on the next Twin Otter flight, as it might prove impossible to get one on Saturday.

The Mars Society is looking for active members to volunteer 2-3 hours a week and who have experience in maintaining web sites. Skills desired

I looked out the porthole window this morning and saw white fog, and nothing but white fog, as far as the eye could see, which was not far. We were socked in. This forced a change of plan. We had intended to perform an EVA to deploy telerobots into the canyon 7 km to the north that Charles, Cathrine, and I had scouted yesterday.