Juggling the archives, here's our very first shot of our very first EVA, a few days ago when we were still jetlagged and travel tired!



Hugh donned his spacesuit to help out the refit team by taking out the garbage "in sim". More to come...

Labels: Mission to Mars

So as a blogger I'm supposed to write something neat and witty about commanding my first ATV EVA (six short letters compressing the oxymoronic phrase "all-terrain vehicle extra-vehicular activity"):



Of course, being "commander" basically meant that my job was to keep everyone on the right road so we could hit all the fun spots before we ran out of air:



And now the wit and wisdom of the post-digerati blogosphere should be inserted here. But unfortunately work on a Mars station, shorthanded and overloaded with post-refit cleanup tasks which in turn generate reams of paperwork, has left me --- has left us all --- so tired that I can't even think straight:



We're having to jury-rig components to keep the station's power working since the replacement generator hasn't arrived yet ...



... and don't ask about the war with the Mighty Martian Mouse.

But, on the bright side, I have a beautiful dreamer sending me the staff of life (pound cake) by Earth-Mars express.



So yall have a good night and I'm going to catch some z's.
-Anthony

Because of my trip out to the Mars Desert Research Station, my blog will be a bit fractured as I unload stories from both MDRS and prior, whenever I can get online to clear the backlog. Please be patient. Leaving the comforts of civilization was a challenge...



but it certainly has its privileges:



and since some of you have asked about cryptic emails from me I'll update you all shortly with details on the entire analogue Martian lexicon: cougar country, flashlight duty, rocket fuel, the mighty martian mouse, blowing mud, ATV EVAs, and of course, the Martian motto: Whatever It Takes!



Ad ares!

MOVE!



Let me hold the door for you...



But don't move there...



Or there either...



You'll find something.

I have touched down in Salt Lake City, our stand-in for the Orbiting Mars Way Station that will receive future visitors to the Red Planet. Still don't know if we'll have email, but things are getting closer and closer. Our crew is forming up:

http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs04/crew35/

And we're getting ready to hop in our Mars Orbit-To-Surface transport vehicle (the big old MDRS van) and send our first crew out to the station! More news as it happens.

Ad Ares!

Labels: Mission to Mars

Just so you all know... because I'm late, and because I can't guarantee that I will be able to post while I'm out at the MDRS, I'm going to put up a dual update this week... and also return to posting my own art, now that my arm has healed!

Up today: Clarke and Cleopatra

This one is a dual page spread --- sorry it may be a bit difficult to view, but I've not yet figured out how to take this large format comic (which splashed across two pages) and make it still legible when shrunk.


Up tonight: Amber and Xiao

Back to your normal format.

-Anthony

Well, it's official: the crew is set and I'm on my way to Mars tomorrow morning! You can check us out starting the 21st of February at: MDRS Daily Field Reports or MDRS Home!

Ad Ares!

Labels: Mission to Mars

Try the Regex Coach --- this looks like a way cool way to figure out the comic-book cusswords that Perl, Awk and their friends use for regular expression matching (finding strings in longer strings).

I particularly like the tool's ability to translate what a regular expression means into human-readable language:



Check it out!
-the Centaur

Labels: Development

Good news, everyone. I'm going to Mars!

Or, more accurately, the Mars Desert Research Station sponsored by the Mars Society.

I will be the Crew and Computer Engineer for Crew 35, which will serve from February 19th to March 6th. More news in a bit as soon as the final crew complement has stabilized ...

Ad ares!
-the Centaur