FMARS Sponsors	Dispatch from FMARS Robert Zubrin - Thursday, July 25, 2002 Photo Gallery Crew playing guessing game. We thought last night might be our final one together in the hab, so we celebrated by doing something a bit different for our evening R&R. Instead of our usual 9 PM movie, we divided the crew into teams and faced off against each other in a party-type guessing game that Nell introduced to the crew. This turned out to be a whole lot more fun than watching a flick, which supports the suspicion that our modern forms of electronic entertainment may offer less to future explorers than the more engaging campfire games of older times. We had a meeting this morning to plan the pullout. With input from all crewmembers Nell had drawn up a list of about 30 tasks that need to be done, and we divided them amongst us. We also had a meeting to discuss means of improving the station and simulation operations more generally. The compilation of all the suggestions is being written up, and we should be able to transmit it to Mission Support for posting tomorrow. They're all good ideas, but some of them may be too costly to implement. Still, because they came from people here who have a fair idea of what is possible, I think we will be able to act on most of them. The station is a work in progress. This year's sim was better than last year's, and next year's will be better still. Our pullout plan is this; we will get a Twin Otter as soon as we can, and send out Frank, Emily, and the Russians with the broken ATV and one of the good ones. Then, on the next Twin Otter, we will send out Markus and Shannon with two more ATVs. Nell, K. Mark and I will then follow on the last Twin Otter with the remaining ATV and the trailer. The weather from the window. We had hoped to get one Otter out today. But crosswinds of up to 30 knots directly perpendicular to the runway made it impossible for planes to reach us through most of the day. Then, in the late afternoon, our winds began to drop, so I started giving First Air in Resolute hourly weather updates by Iridium phone. The Met 1 weather station, which started this expedition in the role of an extra is now the star of the show, and the center of everyone's attention. Unfortunately, while the weather here moderated, fog rolled in to Resolute, so in the end we were unsuccessful in getting an aircraft. Hopefully, we will get everyone flown out tomorrow, but if necessary we have through 4 PM Saturday to reach Resolute to catch to plane to Yellowknife. But if our lack of success with the Otter was disappointing, we still got a lot done. More than half the boxes on Nell's checklist are now checked off. We have completed our inventories of food, fuel, and other hardware. Shannon and Emily's science gear is now packed. The spacesuits have all been cleaned and packed away. In addition, Frank and Nell are close to finishing their magnum opus summary geology report. We'll probably be able to transmit it tomorrow, along with another biology report from Shannon. K. Mark has created two independent systems for transmitting weather data after we are gone. The simpler one will be the system designed by Gary Snyder, which will transmit only temperature data and battery voltage to PCSat. This system is powered by a truck battery with a solar recharger. If the solar recharger keeps the battery charged until mid October, the stored charge should be big enough to make it through the winter. As I write this, K. Mark announced that this system is now operating, and transmitted autonomously after being interrogated by the orbiting PCSat ham satellite. The other system uses the wind turbine, which is now generating hundreds of watts. The windmill should be more than sufficient to keep charged a bank of batteries to power the Met 1 station, its data recorder, and the HF transmission system designed by Mars Society ham Kevin Shoemaker. This system is now blazing away too, sending out signals in the 30-meter band once every hour. So we can now measure, record, and transmit the actions of the weather goddess, Meteora, as she carries on in her wonderful way here on Devon Island. But she's still the boss. Will she let us out? Perhaps she will, perhaps she won't. She's proving to be a major tease.
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