It was on this date one year ago that I received an email from Artemis Westenberg of the Mars Society, inviting me to join crew 88 at the Mars Desert Research Station. On that day I was terrifically excited, of course, but I had no idea just how much my trip to "Mars" would change my life in the following year.
The two weeks I spent in Utah were ( Read more... )

Now that I'm back on Earth I have the bandwidth to post videos and higher-resolution photographs. Here's the first: a two-minute tour of the habitat and the view from the observatory.

Click to view

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Woke up in the hotel in Grand Junction, and even though I'm no longer in an isolated station in the middle of the desert I felt very alone. I miss my crewmates. Had another hot shower to the point of wrinkled fingers. Aah.
Didn't have a great breakfast. My waffle stuck in the waffle maker ( Read more... )

The day dawned clear and cold, with most of the snow melted and the ground mostly frozen rather than muddy. By noon it was about half dry, squidgy in a few places but no impediment to travel at all.
Spent the morning packing, taking a last few pictures and videos ( Read more... )

Here's what I submitted to my commander for his End-of-Mission Summary Report to the Mars Society.
MDRS-88 Mission Summary
David Levine
Background information: David is an award-winning science ( Read more... )

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Spent a big chunk of last night with Paul, sitting around a bucket ( Read more... )

Internet stayed up long enough for us to get our important stuff done with time left over, so you get a few photos of today after all.


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Sorry folks, our Internet may just be up for a short time. Paul brushed the snow off the dish, so we're up, but when Diego did it it lasted only about 20 minutes. We have other things to do with our bandwidth right now.

Not a lot happened today that was photo-worthy anyway...