27-12-2013
Ian Etter
Last night the crew was up a little later than usual. It was a cold and clear evening. We broke up into two units and went out three at a time as Commander Nick focused the telescope on different celestial objects. We viewed Andromeda, Sirius, the Horse Head Nebula, Jupiter and four of its moons.
This morning we still gathered at 08:00 for a brief yoga session and had a breakfast of powdered eggs and bacon. Nick and Charles headed out to the Greenhab at 09:00 to make adjustments to the heating and ventilation system before heading out on the third EVA of the mission at 11:00. The four man crew consisted of Commander Nick, Hiroyuki, Charles and Michael. The crew was in the airlock at 11:00 exactly and headed out to mount the ATVs at 11:03. At 11:18 Nick came back to the airlock, one of the ATVs was would not start. The rest of the EVA crew left at 11:35 on what was scheduled to be a four hour mission. Communications held fairly and the crew returned at 14:26 with several large bags of soil and rock samples.
While the EVA crew was out the Hab crew worked relaxed and caught up on basic paperwork. Tonight we having fresh bread, sauted vegetables, quinoa and salmon cakes. The crew is going to gather at the end of the day and talk about our projects with one another.